The Smokers

Image

Background Notes

This cartoon satirizes a scene on a busy city street. Males of all ages, races, and nationalities smoke various pipes, cigars, and cigarettes. A white woman at the center holds her hand over her nose and complains, "Oh! the monsters, I'm half blinded and suffocated!" An African-American woman on the right also holds her hand over her nose and says, "What a nasty practice, it's enough to make a dog sick." Street vendors carry boots, vegetables, and even portrait busts of eminent men smoking.

A man at far right, dressed in a striped vest and tall hat, says, "Since I've been in France, I find its all the fashion to smoke, so this here burnin' glass I got made out of the Old Gineral's glory spectacles, but I think a loco foco would do the job a tarnal sight quicker and more sartain sure."

Transcription of Primary Source

Black man facing right: I say Josh, wot you smoke dem long nines for, why don't you smoke Half Spanish like a gen'leman.

Josh: ‘Cause I've called in my Shin Plasters, and suspended Specie Payments!!

White woman holding nose: Oh! the monsters, I'm half blinded and suffocated._

Portly white man: "I follow in the footsteps of my illustrious predecessor," the greatest_ and best,_ and smoke a pipe._

Black woman holding nose: What a nasty practice, it's enough to make a dog sick._

Man on right: Since I've been in France, I find its all the fashion to smoke, so this here burnin' glass I got made out of the Old Gineral's glory spectacles, but I think a loco foco would do the job a tarnal sight quicker and more sartain sure._

 

Underneath image:
"Tobacco is a stinking weed
It was the Devil sow'd the seed,
It drains the purse & fouls the clothes,
And makes a chimney of the nose."

Curator Notes

Type: Political Cartoon

Exact Title: The Smokers
Periodical:
Volume:
Page(s):

Year: 1837
Probable Date:

Description: 1 print (balck and white, and color)

Author/Creator:

Publisher: H.R. Robinson
Place of Publication: New York

Dimensions: 35 x 45.3 cm

Materials:

Condition:

Catalog Number: American Antiquarian Society Polit. Cart. S666 copy 1