Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-01-06
From the Philadelphia North American.
TORA('f,G


! We find IN of the recent London periodi
Gals anotce OF paper read at a late meeting of
the Statistical Society, by j. Crawford, ESQ, on
| the History and Consumption of TobaccoD
| which suggests some natural reflections on the
extraordinary progress which the .'yile weed has
made. and IS yet making. in the affections of
mankind. indeed the whole history of the plant
affords an Instructive commentary that peculi.
arity of our nature which implies an Unborn year.
ming, in the poorest aud !owlest of the race,
tor something beyond the mere necessnries of
lille. When we remember how readily this
yearnIng becomes passion, and that its objsc.s
are supertluities all ola or less uoxious
character we may well ask ourselves how much
| or how little we yet understand of the mysteries
OF our physico moral organization, and perliaps
question how far philanthropy heaps obstacles in
its own path by contending with evils, the main
springs and true causes OF which have not been
sufficiently explored.
The whole subject is interesting that Wa
| are not surprised Mr. Crawford hns almost
forgotten the economic in the philoso-
phical-the statistical branch although that
is not neglected, seeming scarcely to have
engaged his attention strongly as the histori-
cal. We think it rather remarkable, however,
that he avows the ignorance which is SO common
among writers on the subj ect of the origin Of the
word tobacco, which philoogists still guess to
be identified in way or other with the
island 1obago, or the Mexicun province Iobasco.
1t isla good genuine Indian word of the Island
OF Haytl, meaning cagar-nothng more nor
nothing iess-as any will see who will take
the trouble to refer to the old Spanish historians
Of the sixteenth century. When Columbus first
landed on tho coast of Hayti, he found the hap
py islanders mon and women, wherever he went
provided with " rebmnds" aud ''herbs to smoke
after their CUSTOMS" and Las Casas particularly
describes these herbs saying .'they are dry, and
liked in leaf, also dry after the manner of those
paper tubes which the boys in Spain use at
Whitsuntide; having lighted one end, they draw
the smoke by sucking the other" aud he adds,
"these tubes they cn by the name of tabdcos !"
Charlevoix records the same fact, with further
information that they called the plant itself, not
| tdbaco, but cohiba. The Spaniards adopted the
cigar giving its name to the weed; which was
destined in some degree, to revenge the slavery
imposed on the poor Arrowawks of the isles by
oy subJectlng the conquerors and through them
SO large portion of Europe, to its own domin-
ion. The readiness with which men acuai-
red the habit of smoking and the invincibe
hold 1t took on them, appears in the same early
pages OF Las Casas. the contemporary of Column
bus and the first explorers, who says "he knew
many Spaniards in the island of Espanola addc-
ted to the use of the tabacos, who on being re-
proached with it n bad habit, replied that they
could not bring themselves to give it up.
Lns Casas Ibid not sec what relish or benefit
mon could find in the practice; aud in this he
was Initiated by the various soveregns of Eu-
rope, who were nearly all as much astonished as
he was; but far more indignant when their sub
jects began to puff. Kings, who were Indignant,
and have sufficient power, are apt to express che
feeling pretty strongly 1t is we'll known that
King james |. was .scandalized at the progress
of tobacco in England, that he wrote and pub
lished a book against 1.-THE famous "Connter-
baste:" in which he declared smoking "a GUS
tome loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose,
harmful to the brane, dangerous to the ui gs.
and in the black, sinking fume there f neecest
resembling the horrible Stieian smoake of the
pit that is bottomlesse.' Other princes were
still moro emphatic-as the Grand Duke of Mos
COW, (the predecessor of the emperors OF Rus
sia,) and the Shah of Persia--one of whom or
dered tho noses of smokers to be cut off, the
other their heads The cultivation of tobncco
was punished in some countries with the confs-
cation OF estates,s and Urban VIII. imposed the
penalty OF recommendation all who used it
inseilurchea. Against all these impedimeats to-
bacco made its way VIGOROUSLY. Tyranny was
conquered bya tyranny; and the kings, final
y yielding, admitted the Legitimacy OF apow-
eS greater than their own, aud were glad. as they
are still glad, to a vast increase of their re-
venues to Z recognition of the right of Cohiba to
share the allegiance of their loving people
Gold usually goes in Smoke, but here gold comes
with smoke. Her Majesty Queen Victoria
pockets three shillings sterling for every
pound of the domestic weed which eyhales
through her subjects nnsrils
GUGARs--l00 hhds strictly prime Porto Rico
~ % do fair do