Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1858-05-20
For the Gazette
TOBACCO CHEWING.

TOBACCO CHEWING.
For some time past the cause of temperance
has engaged considerable attention in various
parts of the country, and there being many
who seem to regard total abstinence from the
use of intoxicating liquors as constituting
temperance, we beg leave to offer few hints
On that subject TO confine the import of the
term temperance to mean alone abstinence
from the use of intoxicating liquors is gram.
matical improperly, since reputable usage de.
fines the word as meaning the moderate in
diligence of the appetites or passions;' - hence
it signifies more than simply abstinence from
the use Of intoxicating liquors.
Tried by this definition, there are number
Of filthy habits into which many have fallen
which are at once destructive to health and
happiness, one of the most striking of which
is lie habit of chewing tobacco. Why be-
ing possessed Of sound reason should Deg:::::
" a practice at once so unreasonable and dis,
gushing" is an inexplicable mystery to US.
Boys at the age of fourteen or fifteen yeara,
and sometimes even before they arri' at that
age will practice this health destroying habit
as well as men Of all classes We know that
in descantingon the subject of tobacco chewing
we are treading upon delicate ground, as n,e1l
of acknowledged respectablity and high stand
ing in society are addicted to this habit but
perhaps ninety nine out Of every hundred Of
these feel that it is great evil and one from
which they would gladly be freed.
The census Of 1850 informs US that the pop
ulaton Of the United States in that year
amounted to 3,l9l $40 inhabitants, and it
also gives the number of pounds of tobacco
raised that year at 1919, 1872, ,6j5, being more
than eight and half pounds for every man,
woman, and child in the United States, or
more than fifty pounds fer every family of six
members in our country. Of course Brother
Jonathan don't eat all this tobacco himself,
for he would declare this to be ''cean beat"
but he kIseolcs heow to dew He cke,cs as
much as he J)ledSes and the remainder he sends
across the Giving deep" to his uncle johnny
Bull, er to somebody else. But no matter
where he sends his tobacco-it is tobacco
still.
1t destroys health, and thus brings misery
upon him who thus pampers his deprayed APP
petite. and moreover if he Is poor in the goods
of this world he will be under the necessity
of occasionally tightening his purse in order
to furnish himself with tobacco, with which
to destroy his health, Just as if he could find
10 other method for doing so.
But there are tobacco chewerS who boldly
assert that they scare something" about their
health, and yet they will persist in the use Of
tobacco, even if you tell them it will under
mine their health. But why should they re-
gard health any longer? Why fear sickness
any longer? Look at the state of the science
Of medicine at the present day-take up a
newspaper-read the advertisements about
DR.. Snakeroot's All.healing Ointment" the
Balm Of Immortality" or The Resurrection
Pills. Here we will leave those tobacco
chewers who say they care something" for
their health. They may depend for a resto-
ration of it on few external applications Of
DR.. Snakeroot's All-healing Ointment"
There are other things however, besides
health, connected with tobacco chewing, which
those who are addicted to that habit would do
well to ponder over carefully. Let every to-
bacco chewer ask himself seriously, " How
often have | rendered myself disgusting to
others by my continual chewing and sptting?"
Let him ponder well in relation to the inlu
ence which his example may have exerted
over many. How many boys and young men
commence this habit for no other reason than
simply from seeing their seniors addicted to it
they have got the idea that it looks big, and
wishing to become men as seon as possible
they commence this vulgar habit under the
false impression that it looks manfnl. Now,
If no tobacco chewers were in existence such
characters would not be likely to begin this
disgusting habit at all, hence the influence of
the tobacco cheWer 5 example. but he does
more than this Why is it that thousands of
acres Of land which might yield some useful
productions are annually planted with tobacco?
1t is to satisfy the hankerings of the tobacco
chewer's depraved appetite.
1t seems to us that the intelligent tobacco
chewer who persists in this habit, must do so
under the belief, lst. That he is undermining
his health. I'd. That he is rendering himself
disgusting to others by this vulgar habit.
Sd. That he is spending his money for an ar
ticle that will probably silently bring him to
a premature grave. 4th. That by his exam
pie he is instrumental in inducing others to
use obacco also, and thus to incur the same
evils themselves and in turn instigate them
in Others IF this is not paying for the
whistle" we do not understand DR.. Franklin.
We have endeavored briefly to allude to
fe,c Of the evils of tobacco chewing, but lest
some deluded tobacco chewer should blame
us with rartialty, if we close without saying
something on the other side of this question"
we would simply say that if we can find
another side to it we may have something to
say on it hereafter. JONATHAN.
Lewistown, May, 1853
rsA The mail robber Tuckerman has been