Genre:

Introduction, Spoof; Extract, Reportage, Spoof; Letter, Reportage, Spoof; Poetry, Spoof

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

T Hood

Subjects:

Microscopy, Politics, Medical Treatment, Engineers, Industrial Chemistry

    The various news reports and letters recount the supposed political disturbances at Stoke Pogis. A letter signed 'H. J. P.' reports: 'fear magnifies every thing; and, like Carpenter's celebrated Solar Microscope, produces the most terrific Bugbears out of next to nothing, till you almost expect that mite will overcome right' (5–6). A song mistaken for an incendiary song includes the lines: 'Burn all Steers's Opodeldoc, / Just for being good for burns' (34) and 'Burn all bores and boring topics; / Burn Brunel—aye, in his hole!' (35). The line 'Burn all swindlers! Burn Asphaltum!' is accompanied by an illustration captioned 'The Devil to Pay, and no Pitch Hot' (facing 34), which depicts a number of angry investors mobbing the shrugging and anxious-looking men coming out of a building labelled 'Assphaltum Company'.