The Wasp — 1879 — page 251: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page presents a Victorian-era cautionary narrative about gambling and financial vice. The central illustration depicts a demonic figure ("The Devil") emerging from Pandora's box—a classical reference to unleashed evils. The sequential scenes show the devil's corrupting influence on respectable citizens: seducing them with card games and gambling, leading to financial ruin, and family dissolution. The text warns that gambling "sends them up just like a rocket, / To draw the dollars from your pocket." The narrative concludes with "Old Nick" (slang for the Devil) laughing as victims are destroyed. This appears to be a moral-reform piece typical of 19th-century American publications, targeting gambling as a social plague that destroys homes and character—a common theme in period satire literature.