CHAPTER III.
T O B A C C O .
85
Tobacco poisons the happiness of domestic life. It has not only prevented some marriages, but in many cases destroyed the happiness of the marriage relation.
There is nothing in creation that is so loathed by those who do not use it, as is Tobacco in its various preparations. And still those who suffer from its fumes are often, from various reasons, heard to say that it is not disagreeable. Many young ladies have seemed to be indifferent as to gentlemen smoking in their presence, when it was not only disgusting to them, but their whole physical frame suffered from its poisonous effects. It was not only a dread of offending those whose esteem they desired, but an undefined sort of a hesitancy, at commencing the discussion of a subject that they were not able to bring any arguments against , save their won disgust and bad physical effects, which they divined would be 86 called "only a notion," and they be censured with a desire to dictate.
Many a lady has married a "mild Tobacco user," who was not herself aware of the depth of her disgust for the week, until she found the restraints of society thrown off by her husband, and Tobacco used freely by him.
Some young ladies, while receiving the addresses of their affianced, dare to argue the case, and almost invariable are assured, that they "will use no more Tobacco after marriage."
But sad it is for poor human nature, that has contracted this habit, for the husband finds how next to impossible it is, to dispense with what he has become habituated to, and censures the wife with a want of love for him, if she is unwilling he should promote his happiness by simply smoking! If it is disagreeable to her he will not smoke in her presence. The young trusting wife, who believed when she had forsaken all for him, and he had promised not to "smoke any more," that he would keep his word, especially when it was only to leave off smoking , began to realize that he thought more of his Tobacco than his wife, more of his Tobacco than his promise; and she began to regret having married. She could not 87 meet him with a smile, for when there are no smiles in the heart, there can be none in the face.
The husband thinks he has got a very selfish wife, and besides, she does not smile as she used to, and he has been deceived in her genial soul.
The wife's eyes are often dim with tears, as she says half aloud --O! I wonder if the men are all so selfish, that they will smoke , when they know how sickening it is to their wives? His breath is so bad, and his clothes are all full of the odor, and even in the washtub, and in the ironing room, one cannot pass the doors without catching something of the odor! O, if he only would not smoke, or if I only could endure it! But my heart is broken --he, yes, he promised so faithfully that he "would not smoke any more! " and now, when I am married to him, and must stay, I am to be tormented all the rest of my life with Tobacco! O dear, dear, what would I give if I were only single again, and at my own home, where I would be out of all traces of Tobacco?
Years pass away, and one child after another is added to the family, with such susceptibilities, that the poor mother has but little sleep or rest. Every little noise awakens and frightens 88 them, and their little hearts will throb with fear at slight causes.
One who could see no other species of intemperance with that of intoxicating drinks, and see no necessity for a total abstinence from anything else, would wonder how it happened that a little child should be so nervous. While one fully understanding the terrible effects of Tobacco upon the system is led to wonder how it can be possible , that intelligent men can see the results of Tobacco-using, on wife and children, and never trace such effect to the true cause.
One person cannot sleep with another who uses Tobacco, or even in the same room, without feeling the effects of the poison. There is a lassitude, a general debility, a want of energy, an irritability, a defective memory; all of which are the results of the poisonous Tobacco, with which the air of the room is filled, being constantly exhaled from the lungs, and also thrown off by insensible perspiration. I am aware that some will attempt to reason that it is only the carbon that produces these effects, and will bring in the sophistry of two or three physicians (who are slaves to the pipe) to prove that the poisonous Tobacco is "brain food, and does not injure any one when used properly in a moderate manner." Such false teachings however are 89 not believed by even the most ignorant and vile, for they have too much reason not to see the baneful effects, but are too great slaves to break their weedy chains, just as are the men referred to, who try to defend their own vile habits.
The most scientific people in this country and abroad, deprecate the use of Tobacco on the ground of its injurious effects.
It is really painful to see a physician's mind so clouded with smoke, that he will not only attempt to justify its use, but also to prescribe the same as a remedy. Such a one ought to be sent to a lunatic asylum, for the purpose of having the smoke extracted from his brain, to make room for more knowledge of materia-medica.
Happy marriages have been made wretched by the ignorance or the bigotry of a physician, who gravely made a prescription of Tobacco, to be smoked or chewed a certain number of times per day. It is just as much a crime, for a medical adviser to recommend Tobacco, as it is for a clergyman to recommend larceny. If there is a difference in the degree of the crime, the clergyman's sin is the lesser.
The sufferings of the wife of a Tobacco-user, are often greater, and certainly more constant, 90 and agonizing, than are those of the thief. In the case of the one, the good name is injured, but there are noble souls who sympathize with her, and feel that she is not to blame for her husband's evil deeds, while with the other a thousand wrongs to soul and body that cannot be told must be silently endured!
The use of Tobacco generates thirst, and if the father does not resort to the cup, he drinks large quantities of other stimulating fluids, thus weakening digestion. If the digestion is weakened, the whole nervous system is weakened, for it is by the food being properly digested and assimilated, that the nerves are nourished. Not only this, but the poison reaches every tissue in the body, producing under some circumstances the greatest excitability of the system, and under others a stolid indifference.
The children suffer from weak digestion, and morbid tastes. The brain suffers and the memory is impaired. The little minds are far from being what they would have been, had not the father's "mouth been a nicotine distillery."
Tobacco cannot be used in any form, without producing evil effects, mentally or physically, sooner or later, upon the user, the wife and the children. America would do well to copy one of the cantons of Switzerland, where 91 an edict has been issued, forbidding any youth under eighteen to smoke, for, with the inborn depraved tastes of the boys of to-day, and the bad examples before them, it is a terrible fact, that boys but six or seven years of age, from the position of bootblack up, are seen in our streets smoking. They are to be the future husbands of the loved and cherished little angel daughters that you treat so tenderly What of their marriage? Fathers, will you blink your eyes, continue to smoke or chew yourselves, and give all your influence in favor of what has destroyed the happiness of your own marriage relation?
It is gratifying to know that there are those who look upon this subject in some of its true lights, and it is to be hoped that some effectual measures may be instituted, to prevent the extending of such a terrible evil. It was noticed in the public press, that, as long since as 1860, the French Minister of Public Instruction published a circular, addressed to the directors of colleges and schools in France, forbidding the use of Tobacco in any form, by the students, on the ground that its use checked the physical and intellectual development. The Chamberlain of London found that many petty crimes 92 were committed by boys in consequence of their using Tobacco.
Does Tobacco have nothing to do with the marriage relation, when the poor mother's heart is saddened with the thought that her boy is being ruined from using what may prevent, not only his mental and physical growth, but also make him a criminal? We quote the following from "a torn scrap of a leaf."
"Tobacco has utterly spoiled and ruined thousands of boys. It tends to the softening and weakening of the bones, and it greatly injures the brain, the spinal marrow, and the whole nervous fluid. A boy who smokes early and frequently, or in any uses large quantities of Tobacco, is never known to make a man of much energy, and generally lacks muscular and physical, as well as mental power. We would particularly warn boys, who want to be anything in the world, to shun Tobacco as a most baneful poison." "The laws of health are infallible; the relation between transgression and the penalty is invariable, and the infliction of the latter is certain to follow upon the former. There is nothing about which young persons are more beguiled and deluded, than the belief that they can transgress natural laws, and jump the penalty. Punishment for a violation of natural law is just as certain as that the sun itself shines, and one cannot violate a law of his being, or any part of it, that there is not a registered in him a penalty."
Tobacco often produces, not only paralysis, but insanity. We will introduce but one case 93 of the former, and one of the latter, although it would be an easy matter to show that much of the insane immorality, and much of the paralysis that is becoming so frequent, and destroying the peace of the marriage relation, is due to Tobacco.
While in Paris, the author was called to see a case of paralysis, of a number of years standing, where both of the legs were affected to such a degree that the gentleman had not been in the street for several years. He was an inveterate Tobacco-smoker, as his wife informed her. The other case is as follows:
"Some twelve months ago a young man who was then employed in the Nashville and Decatur Railroad car shops, a steady, industrious mechanic, formed the acquaintance of a lady about fifteen years of age, who resided a few miles from the city. An attachment speedily sprang up between the two, which resulted in an engagement.
"Their first troubles arose from the objections urged by the parents of the young lady. The old folks preferred another man. In anticipation of his marriage however, the suitor had saved from his wages a considerable amount of money. He could now give the object of his affection a comfortable home, and saw no reason for waiting.
"He asked that the wedding might take place at an early day, but his fiancee wished to defer the nuptials for two months, as at the expiration of that time she would be sixteen. This, with renewed opposition from 94 the parents, seems to have weighed heavily opon his mind. He was an inveterate chewer of Tobacco, and had often consumed nearly half a pound per day. This habit had long been at work undermining his nervous system, and his sorrows made him all the more persistent in masticating the weed. His quid was his constant companion. The more he thought of his crossed love, the harder he chewed. There was no limit to his unnatural indulgence. Every sight was suggestive of a fresh mouthful.
"The rest is soon told. About two weeks since, he began to exhibit unmistakable signs of lunacy, and is now in a Lunatic Asylum. His mental condition is directly attributed by the physicians to the excessive use of tobacco, aggravated by the effects of disappointed love on a weakened intellect."
But aside from the bad effects of Tobacco on temper and mind and body, the family is often deprived of actual necessaries, because of its expense. It is not enough to send the poisonous smoke into lungs of families, containing, as it does, prussic acid, but the very atmosphere is impregnated to such an extent, that it is almost intolerable. It is consumed to an alarmingly fearful extent. The following is an estimate in one city alone.
"WASTED IN SMOKE.--It is estimated that 20,000 cigars are daily sold on Broadway, New York, of which on twentieth cost 30 cents, two twentieths 25 cents, one fifth 20 cents, two fifths 15 cents, and one fourth 10 cents; making $3,300 a day , or $1,204,500 a year for 95 cigars on that single street. It is also estimated that 75,000,000 cigars are consumed in the city, at a cost of $9,650,000. This, with the amount annually expended for pipes and tobacco, makes an aggregate of $10,500,000, yearly consumed in smoke in this city."
If all this $10,500,000 was expended in providing homes and food for the worthy poor, and unfortunately degraded women of New York, thousands of agonies would be relieved, and millions more prevented. Think for a moment of the smoke inhaled from the burning of 75,000,000 of cigars, to say nothing about the pipes, and then wonder at the great number of cases of throat and lung diseases, which all intelligent members of the Medical Profession know are aggravated, and often produced by Tobacco smoke.
Think how next to impossible it is to remain in a single house twenty-four hours, without being compelled to inhale the poisonous odor, for the atmosphere is so filled with the same that you cannot find even a breath of the pure element (so essential to health) only occasionally, when "the wind is so high" that men can not smoke in the streets, and you are so fortunate as to be in a house, where your near neighbors do not send the poison through the crevices. Talk of a wife being amiable, when the poisonous smoke stings every nerve as sensible 96 as though pins and needles were her torturers! As well might you talk of her being amiable under the one infliction, as under the other, if she is of a sensitive organization. If you have a complaint to make against such effects, you must remember that the author did not originate the law of effects.
That the same cause produced nettles and ivy, that produced Tobacco, no one will doubt, but that mankind ought to smoke or chew them, and believe they were intended for such purposes, simply because they grow , no sensible person would listen to for a moment; and yet we hear Tobacco-users undertake to defend its use, on the ground that "God made Tobacco for some purpose, and that purpose was just what it is so extensively used for." As well might we undertake to say that God make hemp to grow, for the purpose of hanging his creatures! Civilization has found that such a use of hemp is a perversion of God's laws, and the time will come when it will be as clearly seen that the present use of Tobacco is just as much a perversion of His laws.
In the grand march of the human intellect, the true use for which Tobacco was intended will be discovered in the chemical or 97 manufacturing arts. Until that time it ought to be classed with nettles and ivy.
In 1865 the total amount of internal revenue from Tobacco and its manufacture was $11,387,799. If the labor in producing and manufacturing and in gathering the revenue, had been expended in raising food, or taking the wealth from the mines of our country of "inexhaustible resources," who could find language to picture the happiness that would have resulted in the marriage relation of many thousands? There ought to be no reason why every family in America should be without a neat little home of their own; and if it were not for the vices that are indulged in, no one would ever exclaim,
"No foot of land do I possess,
No cottage in this wilderness,"
Where I can sing
"Home, sweet home."