The Wasp — 1880 — page 232: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes the Democratic Party during the 1880 election period. The central figure appears to be a dead or dying woman labeled "ELAINE" (likely referencing Tennyson's "Lady of Shalott"), being ferried across water in a boat—a classical allusion to Charon's mythological journey with the dead. The caption quotes Tennyson: "The dead, steered by the dumb, went upward with the flood," suggesting the Democrats are being led by incompetent leadership toward defeat or irrelevance. The boat contains scattered objects (possibly representing failed policies or political baggage), while a cloaked figure (possibly Death or a grim political force) observes. The satire mocks Democratic prospects as essentially dead or doomed heading into the 1880 election.