The Wasp — 1879 — page 401: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page from *The Wasp* contains no political cartoon. Instead, it presents "Phases of History Not Generally Given in Detail," a satirical short story by Mr. Salmi Morse. The narrative appears to mock Victorian sentimentality and moral pretense by depicting an elderly man and his young daughter encountering a destitute family. The story uses dark irony to critique the gap between expressed charitable sentiment and actual human behavior—the father preaches morality while considering abandoning the desperate family. The text satirizes bourgeois hypocrisy, particularly how the wealthy rationalize indifference to poverty through philosophical justifications. The piece targets the self-deluding rationalizations people employ to avoid moral responsibility and genuine compassion.