The Wasp — 1879 — page 228: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon depicts two men discussing someone named "Dinnis" (likely Dennis Kearney, the Irish-American labor leader). The figure in the cart appears to be a supervisor or boss directing work, while the working man on the ground holds a ladder. The dialogue mocks Kearney as being useless—a "workin' man" in name only who "don't do nothing." This satirizes the Workingmen's Party and its leadership during California's 1870s labor unrest. The Wasp, a conservative publication, ridicules Kearney's political activism and rhetoric as hypocritical or ineffectual, suggesting he talks about workers' causes without genuine labor contributions. The cartoon reflects anti-labor sentiment and class anxieties of the era.