ABSTRACT
Ever since the parliamentary committees on 'the smoke nuisance' of 1843 and 1845 the annual London fogs had led to forecasts of greater dangers to come. The promoters of World's Pleasaece company congratulate themselves, and the peoples of every continent, on the salvation of a fragment of the Old World from the jaws of Civilisation. Italy was given over entirely to nature; and the whole Italian nation became brigands. This country was much frequented by young people in search of adventure. The publishers met the rising demand for these tales of terror in the 1890s with a variety of catastrophes. Anarchists, secret societies, and demented scientists worked for the destruction of the United Kingdom by constructing super weapons, by poisoning the water supply, or by spreading plague germs. Suddenly the Cheviots were tipped with fire, and two million faces grew pale.
