The emigrant aid journal of Minnesota. [volume] (Nininger City, Minn. Terr. [i.e. Minn.]) 1856-1858, 1858-01-13
History Of

History Of Tobacco. 5a
Ages before the discovery of America the savages il
some parts of this continent had learned to seek sen
suous qualification in chewing and smoking tobacco ant
the evidence of the employment Of this narcotic, fur
nished by the specimens of pipe-making found anon
the Mongol tribes, points to a period long anterior t
that era. On his arrival at Cuba, Columbus beheld fol
the first time the strange phenomenon of a man drawing
tobacco smoke into his mouth through a burning cigar
Hernandez de Toledo soon after introduced the plant
into Spain and Portugal. John Nico, after whom The
plant has been named, sent the seeds to France about
the year 1860. Sir Francis Drake, on returning t.
England With the Virginia colonists, in 1885, intro
duced there the use of the article and about the year
1889 the Cardinal Santa Croce conveyed { the weed
from France to Italy. From these points it spread rap.
idly over almost the whole of the inhabited portions Of
the globe.
The plant is now cultivated and used throughout the
whole extent Of the United States, Canada, New Bruins
wick. Mexico, the Western Coast, the Spanish Main,
Cuba, St. Domingo, Trinidad, Turkey, Persia, India,
China, Australia, the Philippine Islands, Japan, Egypt,
Algeria, the Canary Island, and the Cape of Good Hope.
Its use was first opposed, then tolerated, next en-
braced, and finally ~eulogized. DR.. Paris remarks -
{ 1t has been successfully opposed and commended by
physicians; condemned and e~ulogized by priests and
kings and prescribed and protected by governments
King James the First Of England, and his successor
Charles, prohibited its use under severe penalties, James
wrote a book, the { Counterblaste to Tobacco in which
he declared that smoking is a custom s lOathsome to the
eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous
to the lungs, and, in the black, sinking fumes thereof,
nearest resembling the horrible stygian smoke Of the pit
that is b%ottomless.'
QUAINT old Burton expressed himself in the fol.
lowing strain more truthful than elegant perhaps-in
relation to the common use Of Tobacco, which he termed
its common abuse 1t is a plague, a mischief, a violent
purger of goods, lands, and health hellish, devilish,
damned Tobacco, the ruin and overthrow of body and
-I n.-- M til I'LL Ill ..
use. In 1893, Shah Abbas interdicted its use in Persia
by penal statutes. In 1924 Urban VIII. exeommuni.
Gated all snuff-takers who defled St. Peters Church by
taking a pinch within its walls. In 1853, a severe
was decreed against all who smoked To.
bacco in the canton of Aspenzel. In Russia, about
the same time, the penalty of death was proclaimed
against the offence of Tobacco chewing, while those who
smoked were condemned to have their noses cut of. In
1890 Pope Innocent XII. renewed the bull Of Pope
Urban but in 1924, Benedict XIV, having become a
snuff taker himself, repealed the edict. In CONSTANT.
nople about the same time, 1890, every Turk caught IN
the indecent act of smoking was conducted in ridicule
the streets, seated on an ass, his face directed
toward the animals tail, and a pipe trans6xed through
his nose.
In ONE countries, men, women, and even children,
addicted to smoking. In Campeachy, we are told,
it is common for children, two and three years of age,
to smoke cigars. kotzebue tells us that in the Sand.
wich Islands children often smoke before they learn to
walk and that adults frequently fall down senseless
from excessive indulgence in this habit. In India, all
classes and both sexes smoke. In Hindostan, boys of
fourteen and fifteen use tobacco excessively. In the
Empire, both males and females smoke inces- |
sanity; even nursing infants have the lighted pipe put !
in their mouths occasionally by their smoking mothers.
In China, young girls wear, as an indispensable appen-
iage to their daily dress, . silken pocket to carry apipe
and tobacco. In South America, both sexes use tobacco.
10 Lima, women are daily seen putting cigars in the
streets and in Paraguay the fair sex befoul their
every day by chewing. ao e r
The Germans smoke a large portion of their time.
The French and Spanish smoke to great excess. The
English consume immense quantities Of tobacco, and
the lead in ~snufing: And, lastly, in the United
States more tobacco is raised and consumed in proportion
to the population than in any other country. Most of
The foreign population of this country are ~inveterate
smokers; and a large and increasing proportion Of the
natives, particularly great boys and small young men
IRE addicted to the general folly. To the credit Of our
air sex, it may be asserted that they do not indulge in
my of its filthy forms. A practice prevails in the
south, however, among a certain class, of securing the
with snuff to some extent it is INDUCED in at the
North also. This is only a guise Of the same vicious
labit. 1t nE ~ fr-at