The Wasp — 1880 — page 98: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes a beggar persistently hounding a woman for money across three sequential panels. In each frame, the beggar adopts a more pathetic posture while the woman attempts to escape, ultimately fleeing in distress. The satire targets aggressive panhandling as morally worse than outright theft—the beggar's relentless emotional manipulation and shameless importuming causes greater harm than simple robbery would. The woman's escalating distress illustrates how such harassment depletes victims more thoroughly than a straightforward crime. The cartoon criticizes street begging practices common in 19th-century urban America, suggesting that professional beggars exploited public sympathy through theatrical appeals rather than seeking genuine work.