The Wasp — 1880 — page 119: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon depicts railroad monopoly power as a destructive mechanical monster. The large locomotive or industrial machine dominates the composition, crushing small human figures beneath it. The caption references "Horror in Tulare—A Railroad Monsters on the Rampage," suggesting this critiques railroad companies' exploitation in California's Tulare County. The tiny figures scattered below—appearing to include workers and families—represent ordinary citizens victimized by unchecked corporate power. The grotesque mechanical imagery transforms the railroad into an inhuman, unstoppable force consuming everything in its path. This reflects late 19th/early 20th-century American anxiety about railroad monopolies and their economic domination of rural agricultural regions, particularly in California where rail companies wielded enormous political and economic power over farmers and workers.