A WARNING.
[The Anti-Tobacco Society has "little doubt that, if a subscription were raised to adequately support a test case, a decision would be given, which would demonstrate public smoking to be an illegal, unjust, ungentlemanly, and, therefore, unchristian habit.">[
To all and sundry warning, whom Tobacco holds in thrall,
And a word of glad good-tidings to non-smokers one and all!
You have heard of our Society—its greatness all allow—
Our intentions in the plainest terms permit me to avow.
When we've brought (and won) our teat case—we shall win it, who can doubt?—
All those who hate tobacco-smoke once more may venture out;
And the sun will shine far brighter—this at least, I think, is clear—
In a sweet and unpolluted and unsmoky atmosphere.
Along the streets the citizens in comfort then will fare,
"All delicately marching through the clear pellucid air,"
The patron of the music hall once more will freely breathe,
And the crowd, bereft of baccy, soon will almost cease to "seethe."
No more the luckless passenger will cough, and gasp, and choke,
As he swallows on the 'bus-top a pernicious blend of smoke,
No more we'll watch the cricket at the Oval through a haze
That cigars and cigarettes and pipes innumerable raise.
No more unwitting find ourselves, and miserably cower,
In a third-class smoking carriage, with no stop for quite an hour,
And no more from smarting eyes the tear we now shall have to wipe,
Excited by the navvy's small but parlous pungent pipe.
No more "Old Friend" or "Negrohead" 'twill be our lot to sniff,
We shall walk abroad unfearful of the "penny morning whiff,"
Never more—oh, joy to think it!—shall be stricken from afar
By the penetrating odour of the "Saturday cigar"!
The Golden Age will then be here, no evil shall be rife,
E'en the smoker will be forced to live a just and Christian life.
One warning more. Let all beware the wretched obvious joke,
Nor dare to hint our great crusade is like to end—in smoke.