Punch,  31 (1856), 243.

The Anti-Peace and Comfort Quacks

Anon

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Health, Disease, Narcotics, Crime


    Noting the use by 'a certain minority of English fools' of the prefix 'anti-' to denounce 'Almost every good thing that Englishmen in general enjoy', discusses 'a confederacy of simpletons'—the British Anti-Tobacco Society. Criticises the society for publishing works promoting legislation against juvenile smoking, legislation that Punch thinks is a severe way of dealing with the problem. Punch is more sympathetic to the technique of 'persuasion' which the journal thinks is embodied in a work entitled 'Smoke Not: a Prize Essay'. Condemns some promoters of 'anti-' causes for being 'bigoted', 'illiberal', and possessing other undesirable characteristics, and thinks that the success of 'Anti-Fermented Liquor' and 'Anti-Animal-Food fanatics' would 'reduce us to vegetables and slops'.



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