Read the excerpt below and answer the question.

If any of you refined and Christian readers object to the society into which this scene introduces them, let us beg them to begin and conquer their prejudices in the catching business, we beg to remind them, is rising to the dignity of a lawful and patriotic profession. If all the broad land between the Mississippi and the Pacific becomes one great market for bodies and should, and human property retains the locomotive tendencies of this nineteenth century, the trader and catcher may yet be among our aristocracy. (p.61)

What word best describes the tone of the passage above?
joyful
outraged
ironic
comedic