Puck — July 18, 1877 — page 2: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis: "The Temperance Hero" Cartoon This page's main cartoon satirizes the hypocrisy of temperance advocates. The text explains that while "Puck doesn't know how much Coffee Cotter preaches," the character himself is an "outrageous humbug and monomaniac" who drinks heavily. The satire targets selective moralism: Cotter crusades against alcohol while being a secret drinker—a common Victorian-era criticism of temperance campaigners. The cartoon suggests such reformers were self-righteous frauds whose preaching contradicted their private behavior. The page also includes war dispatches and celebrity portraits, but the temperance piece is the primary satirical content, mocking the gap between public virtue-signaling and private vice among reform-minded figures of the period.