The Wasp — 1880 — page 264: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon depicts what appears to be a ritualistic worship scene centered on filth and corruption. Well-dressed men in top hats bow before an altar displaying a skull (symbolizing death) and a dead goat perched above. The figures appear to be San Francisco's political or business elite performing a ceremony that treats corruption and decay as objects of worship. The title "Apotheosis of Filth" suggests the cartoon critiques how San Francisco's leadership embraces or venerates corruption rather than combating it. The formal dress and ritualistic poses mock these figures for treating filth—literal and metaphorical—as sacred, presumably commenting on municipal mismanagement, graft, or moral degradation in the city during this period.