The Wasp — 1879 — page 233: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains the opening of a serialized story rather than a political cartoon. The narrative follows two working-class girls, Bertie and Hilarie, navigating Victorian London streets at dusk. The story appears to satirize or dramatize the lives of poor urban workers—"toilers and spinsters"—facing precarious circumstances. References to fog, narrow streets, "dreadful mist-shops," and concerns about "respectable" behavior suggest social commentary on working-class living conditions and the moral anxieties surrounding unmarried women in cities. The text emphasizes their resourcefulness despite poverty, hinting at the magazine's likely critique of class inequality and urban hardship in this period, though the specific satirical targets remain unclear from this excerpt alone.