The Wasp — 1880 — page 18: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page features a collection of caricature sketches demonstrating exaggerated facial features—animals morphing into human faces and vice versa. The sketches include an elephant, various primates, and humans with grotesquely distorted features. The accompanying text discusses several incidents: a haunted house experience, a barn fire insurance claim dispute, and a case of vegetable theft. The satire appears to target human behavior—greed, dishonesty, and fear—by visually equating people with animals. This was a common Victorian satirical technique suggesting that certain behaviors revealed one's base animal nature. The "Parkinson" signature indicates the cartoonist's identity. The page represents typical satirical magazine content: mixing social commentary with crude but pointed visual humor about contemporary moral failings.