Marshall County Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1855-1859, 1859-01-06

The Tobacco Question.


you published an editorial article
some weeks ago, on the Iise OF
tobacco. 1 had not the pleasure OF
reading il, but presume that it was
written in style emphatically sui
generiS In yourlast number how.
ever, / read an extra extrs.ordina-
ry article headed, can Apology
in which You intimate what is very
probable, that your former phillip
pic was not acceptable to many OF
Your readers, and thereupont you
proceed in the garb of an apology
to reiterate Your former declar-
atlons. You say that the fumes OF
burning tobacco make You nervous,
and is disgusting to your sensibil-
tiles. To me however, and to many
others who do not use the weed in
any shape or form, the aroma OF
a fine cigar is delicious and invig-
Grating. There are many men
who do not like the smell of musk.
| don't myself, IN an overdose
vet when accident or necessity
throws me into the company of a
dashin5 exquisite or flashing dam
sci, scented to such an extent that
the air adjacent is alive with muir
Ky odors, | do not order them out
OF my sight, for perhaps they may
not feel disposed to go, but remem-
boring that | am but one of many
living a world inhabited by meu
of every type and shade and habit,
i philosophically grin and bear
it." You think the practice a ''fil-
thy one" / think myself that there
are phenomena connected with the
practice which have that phase
and are liable to that objection
;but SO multiform and various are
the habits and taste and modes of
living and acting in this polyge-
nous world of ours. that it is diff
cult TO determine the standard of
nicely. "What is one mans poi.
son, is another mans meat" When
i take clabber for dinner as my
desert, Irelish it none the less be-
cause my neighbor across the table
looks on with sickening sensations
at his stomach, and wonders at my
perverted" taste. The smell of a
pawpaw to me, is as sickening per-
haps as the "pious fumes" of a CT
gar are to you; yet if yon choose,
peradventure, to chew the thing in
my presence, Though the most dis
gusting sight to me imaginable, Gin
a smah way, | would not feel at
liberty TO call you a dirty dog,
though | live in a land of ''free
speech" and moreover knew you to
be a nonresident; for / am not so
vain or unwise as to set up my i'm
perfect Judgment and taste as the
standard of my fellows. You will
often, Bro. Goodwin, when trav-
ling on steamboat and elsewhere,
see enough to complain about and
find fault with, especially if you
expect your own taste to be the
standard, and your own idols to be
worshipped, and all others to be
trampled under foot. But permit
me humbly to suggest that if, in
stead of indulging in this spirit of
fault-fnding, you would think more
of the wondrous condescension and
mercy of God to fallen humanity,
instead of travelling on a steamboat
or railroad car, with your insulted
nose turned to the zenith with dis
gust, and your sickened stomach
rolling like the surges of the ocean
billow, at the peccadilloes of your
fellows upon the standard of taste,
which you in the pride of your
heart havese up-you mighttrav-
Ell the very hardest and most un-
even roads, with considerable COM
fort and pleasure, come to the end
of your jou rney in peace. | say.
again these things are all matter
of ta-ste, which in It's various ram
ifcations through the different
grades of society is subject of
wonder to the philosphic . mind
Hence, you, Bro. Goodwin, are at
liberty to indulge in as much stat
t8oquenoe as You please upon the
tpfactice of smoking or chewing, or
splitting, etc., etc. But when you,
leave all this, and broadly assert
that the practice of using Tobacco is
sinfnl; aye, as sinfulas the use of
x-l,egoxy 7 -lV<x,, xrh o@hor 70