Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-11-25
A Short Chapter on Tobacco.

A Short Chapter on Tobacco.
The history of toblcco forms curious item
in the annals Of our race. Next to intoxicating
liquor, there is no substance which has gained
such an ascondency over human taste and appe-
tte as tobacco.
There is no nation on the face of the globe,
civilized or savage, where it has not found it's
way. Europe, Asia, Africa and America are
all familiar with it. There is no condition of
society in which it is not favored guest.-
You find it in the palace and the poor-house-
in the stately mansion and the humble cottage
in the workshop and the bilmrd-room The
lonely exile s'lAc1s his wary hours with it
the joyous freeman exults in its influence
Philosophy muses. under its powcr-poetry is
inspired, and hardy labor cheered by tobacco.
Wherever mln is found its influence is felt and
Acknowledged. The citizen Willis his perfumed
cigar-thc poar man smokes his soty pipe-the
sailor chews his delicious qud-the mttron re-
j,ces in her pinchof snuff On the mountain
top and in the lonely valley-on the land and
on the broad expanse of ocean--in the dark
mines of Pennsylvania and in the glittering
halls of PAris-1n the rugged hills of Swltzcr-
land and the gold barring valleys Of California
amid the SHOWS of the North and the burning
suns Of the Tropics-in battle and in peace--in
storm and in calm-in wealth an in poverty
in health and in sicknoss-the king and tie
sabject-the master and the slave-youth, man
hood, and old age--all, all bow to the magic
power of tobacco.
What it still-f,rthpr -s@sss4s ~ relation To
this plant is, that it gained this universal as-
tendency notwithstanding the most powerful
opposition. By the wise it was rcprobated, by
the powerful it WAS denounced Even popes
and monarchs did not consider it beneath their
dignity to engage in the general crusade w,ged
against it. To give you some idea of the indig-
nation excited against this article, will quote
the language of some of those who wrote
against 1t. Old Burton in his =" Anatomy Of
Melancholy" book of which the celetxated
moralist, DR.. johnson, says, it was the only
book that ever took him out of bed sooner than
he wished to rise gives the following anathema
against tobacco Tobacco, divine, rare, super
excellent tobacco, which goes far beyond all
other panaceas, potable gold and philosopher S
stones, sovereign remedy to all diseases. A
good vomit, confess, a virtuous herb, if it DO
well qualified, opportuncly taken, and medic.
ially used but as it is commonly used by men
which take it as tnkers do ale, It's a plague, Il
mischief, violent purger of goods, lands
health-hellish, devilish and damned tobacco
the ruin and overthrow of body and soul. An
other writer, joshua Sylvester, wrote poem
on tobbcco, which he d,dicAted to Villiers, Duk'
of Buckingham. This book was entitlct
Tobacco battered, and the pipes shattered
(about their ears who idly idoliza 80 bas9 an(
barbarous weed !; or at least overlove 50 loath
some vanity, by a voley of hot shot from
Mount Hecon. In this work the autho
questions whether the devil had done more harm
in latter ages by mans of iro and smoke
through the invention of guns OF tobacco pipes
and he conjoctures " that Satan introduced tn
fashion as preparatory course of smoking 10
those who wero to b. lnltrlculated in his owl
college.
) King James I, of England wrote forma
treatse against it cntitlod atAssl-sssHtsR Blast t
Tobacco, in which he says the use Of it is
custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to tn
nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to tn
lungs and in the black sinking fume thereof
nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smok
Of the pit that s bottomlcss lie states ais
that if nc should invite the devil to dine wit
hm, he would among other things give him
pipe of tobacco, as particularly agreeable to him
to hep DIGESTION"