The Wasp — 1879 — page 721: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains a humorous narrative essay with accompanying illustrations about the author's experiences with pet rats, particularly one named Tommy. The text describes Tommy's remarkable intelligence and apparent emotional attachment—behaviors the author interprets as displaying "affection, uncharacterized love, and in short, immeasurable traits of virtue and self sacrifice." The accompanying sketches illustrate Tommy's abilities: carrying food, playing with string, and performing tricks. The satirical point appears to be the author's anthropomorphization of the rat, attributing human moral and spiritual qualities to an animal typically despised. By applying religious and philosophical language to describe a rat's behavior, the piece gently mocks Victorian sentimentality and the human tendency to project virtue onto creatures society otherwise dismisses.