Every currant hides a demon

Lowell Daily Citizen, February 10, 1879. A reminder that The Onion is nothing new under the sun, this mock temperance lecture (which is really pretty funny in a Twain-derivative fashion) is firmly grounded in reality: Temperance people and prohibitionists were squarely in the anti-mince camp, primarily though not exclusively owing to its alcoholic content. And as we’ve seen, they weren’t exactly wrong in regarding mince as a loophole in the enforcement of interdiction.