The Wasp — 1879 — page 345: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

The main image is the magazine's masthead/logo featuring an anthropomorphic wasp within an ornate shield, labeled "THE ILLUSTRATED WASP." This appears on the cover of the publication. The textual content describes the formation of a new political party—the "Democratic-Republican-Workingmen-Non-Partisan-Constitutional-Lathi-milenum-one" party in California. The satire mocks this party's unwieldy name and overly idealistic platform statements about free speech, honest nominees, and land reform. The text suggests the party is making grandiose, impractical promises typical of third-party movements. The Wasp presents this as ridiculous political posturing, using heavy sarcasm to critique what it views as naive or hypocritical reform efforts.