While active within the socialist movement and making his essential contributions to Romanian humor, Toni joined Ion Luca Caragiale, his close friend, in editing the satirical magazine Moftul Român.

[10] The Romanian socialist clubs, which first held congress during that year, were still undecided about which school of thought should inspire their agenda: Marxism, Lassallism, Anarchism and Nihilism each had adherents in Romania.

[11] The proponents of a non-violent and liberal Marxism, as theorized political refugee Dobrogeanu-Gherea, eventually won the day, and the socialist clubs began constructing programs for a collectivist economy.

[21] In June 1891, "Bacalbașa Anton" was also announced as one of the leading contributors to the literary magazine Ecoul Sĕptĕmânii ("The Weekly Echo"), alongside a gathering of journalists and social activists: Traian Demetrescu, Saniel Grossman, Gheorghe "din Moldova" Kernbach, Dumitru Teleor, Maica Smara, Berman Goldner-Giordano etc.

[9] According to journalist I. Felea, Toni, who "resembled Ferdinand Lassalle in looks and speech", was a favorite of the Bucharest workers, and made an impression on them by touching the issue of penniless senior citizens.

[8] By 1893, Kirițescu notes, the task of representing "Marxist orthodoxy" had fallen on a new arrival, Ioan Nădejde; the "occult leader" Dobrogeanu-Gherea, already "an invalid", was rarely visiting the club, and was losing support among the rank and file.

[27] According to historian Paul D. Popescu, the editorial opinion was divisible into three factions: Gherea was the evolutionary socialist, Radovici the liberal democrat; Toni, who made a lasting impression among the readers, represented the far left, prophesying the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Cultural historian Z. Ornea thus notes that, while Dobrogeanu-Gherea kept silent, his young pupils launched "a veritable anti-Junimist campaign"; among those he lists in this category are Bacalbașa, Demetrescu, S. Nădejde and Garabet Ibrăileanu, along with Dimitrie Anghel, Emil Fagure, Raicu Ionescu-Rion, Henric Sanielevici, Constantin Stere and Avram Steuerman-Rodion.

[28] At Democrația Socială, Toni wrote in favor of a workers' art, inspired by the sheer realities of industrial life, and published, in addition to his own short prose, fragments from various socially minded authors—Mór Jókai, Guy de Maupassant, Mircea Rosetti, Ivan Turgenev, Émile Zola etc.

[42] Toni Bacalbașa was not delegated by Bucharest to represent the Sotir circle at the original PSDMR Congress, and Moftul Român published a piece attacking Nădejde for having organized that meeting behind closed doors.

It is certain that such transitions from one stance to the other have disgusted the cultured public, giving birth to a deep resentment for this sheet that, once taken over by Anton Bacalbașa, did not embrace scientific socialism, [...] but proceeded to insult with brutality all those things that are notable in industry, commerce, finance".

[4] When Caragiale lost his position as a civil servant and fell back on money earned with his restaurant, Toni attempted to stir an anti-government reaction among the general public.

According to Kirițescu, Toni's debate with Doctor Alceu Urechia, an anti-didacticist, degenerated into "a suburbanite airing of dirty laundry";[58] while Cosco writes that their quarrel was "a waste of humor".

[48] When Gherea was challenged from the left by a pseudonymous author, I. Saint Pierre, Bacalbașa and his journal reacted with vehemence, debating over this issue with Steuerman-Rodion, a more moderate socialist chronicler.

[48] Toni's socialist disciples prolonged the scandal, publishing an offshoot of Moftul, entirely dedicated to satirizing the anti-PSDMR coalition, and titled Putregaiul Român ("The Romanian Rot").

It reached out to the Radicals and liberal democrats at Românul and Evenimentul newspapers, and then to independent agrarian activists (Vasile Kogălniceanu, Constantin Dobrescu-Argeș), but, a few months later, broke down into competing factions.

[62] On 24 January, Toni published in Adevărul a fairy-tale-like lampoon directed at the Romanian King Carol I of Romania and at his designated successor Ferdinand, caricatured as the "avaricious" emperor and the repulsive Urechilă ("Floppy Ears").

Although he condemned Scorțescu's editorial policy, Toni advised Stere to withdraw his demand for satisfaction, or else "all the crooks and vermin will only have to learn how to duel and that's how the press will be banned from taking a stand.

"[67] In his column of 1 October, when he discussed the Conservatives' decision to expel all "trouble-making" students, he admitted that the complications of the affair surpassed his power of understanding: "I could not say [who is right] anymore, there's a sort of black confusion in my mind".

His articles touched a sensitive subject: the Law on Mining, passed by the Junimist Prime Minister Petre P. Carp, which did away with the PNL's protectionism and greatly increased foreign investment in the Romanian economy.

[48] All three Bacalbașas, together with Fleva and the Lumea Nouă socialists (represented by A. Ionescu), also protested when PNL Prime Minister Dimitrie Sturdza expelled Aromanian refugees for having questioned his Balkans policy.

In its first series, the periodical hosted a lampoon piece by the young leftist writer Gala Galaction[77] and Toni's own satirical portrait of Caragiale as a political opportunist, gravitating between the Junimists and George Panu's Radicals.

[4] He also accepted an offer from Transylvania's Vatra magazine (co-edited by Caragiale) to set up its satirical supplement Hazul ("Fun"), but the venture failed to interest the public and was abandoned.

[81] A Conservative cabinet was called to power, with Fleva as the Agriculture Minister, and Bacalbașa ran in the general election of 1899, earning an Ilfov County seat in the Assembly of Deputies.

[88] It is generally held that Toni's anti-hero is in large part inspired by a standard of French literature, in particular by Charles Leroy's Col. Ramollot and Henry Monnier's Joseph Prudhomme.

[89] This interpretation is nuanced by researcher Constantin Ciopraga, who argues: "As a former army volunteer, the future journalist Bacalbașa did not need the French model proposed by Charles Leroy in Le Colonel Ramollot; he was directly familiarized with the Prussian spirit of yesteryear.

"[4] He provides his men with incomprehensible advice on how to march, instructs them how to make a polite retreat if the enemy catches them without a weapon, and, while on maneuvers on the Prut River, orders them to combat the epizootic with a verbal inspection of the cattle.

In addition to hitting the young soldiers (with their bare knuckles, with sword belts, or with sticks), they force some to run around for hours with a "bitch" (the regimental Maxim gun) on their back,[92] or to hold aim while staring directly into the sun.

[104] At around that time, George Ranetti also tried to revive Moș Teacă magazine, and continued to write humorous pieces in the manner introduced by Caragiale and Toni (a subject-matter that Călinescu has named Moftology).

In the 1950s, his anti-monarchic work was central to the Romanian curriculum, alongside selected pieces by other hand-picked republicans-socialists (N. D. Cocea, Traian Demetrescu, Dumitru Theodor Neculuță, Alexandru Toma).