Smyrna times., 1859-12-08
The Tobacco Question.
INTERESTING STATISTICS OF TIE USE AND ABUSE
OF THE WEED.

OF THE WEED.
The Carlisle, (England) Examiner, reports
at great length lecture which the Dean of
Carlisle delivered, the subject being tobacco
its induance, physical, moral and religious
The large hall of the Athen@um was crowded
The Dean, in the course of his lecture, fur
nished the following curious statistics: In 1856
thIrty-three pounds oftobacco were consumed
here at an expense of eight millions of money !;
five millions two hundred and twenty thousand
pounds went IN duty to government, to say
nothing o.: vast quantities Smuggled into the
country. There is a steady increase upon this
consumption, far exceeding the contemporaries
GUS increase of population.
In 1921 the average was lilo OF. per head
per annum in 1851 it had risen to 1886, and
In 1888 to - o., at least ut the rate of one
fourth increase in ten years. We hear of 30
600 hogsheads of tobacco in the bonding houses
in London a one time. There are IL city bro
kers IN London expressly devoted to tobacco
sales so manufacturers, 1869 tobacco shops in
London, 81 clay pipe makers, 1880 workmen
engaged in the different branches of the busi-
ness aud no less than 252, ,04S tobacco shops in
the United Kingdom. And if we turn to the
Continent the consumption and expenditure as
sumo proportions perfectly gigantic.
In France much more is consumed in proper
ton to the population than in England. The
Emperor clears l0O,00O,0 900 francs annually by
the government monopoly. Al st. Omer H.
600 tons of clay are used IN making 45000,000
of tobacco pipes. In the city of Hamburg 49,
900 segars are consumed daily, although the
population is not much over 10000; 10000
persons, many of them women and children, are
| al
segars are supplied annually; printing press
is entirely occupied in printing labels for the
boxes of segars, &C.; and the business repro
sents G4,OOU,0OO. In Denmark the annual con-
sumption reaches the enormous average of 70
ounces per head of the whole population and
in Belgium even more-to 70 ounces, or lbs
and 3-5ths of pound per head
In America the average is vastly higher. 1t
is calculated that the entire world Of smokers,
snuters and chewers consume , 2,000,000 of tons
of tobacco annually, or 4 100000, 900 of pounds
welght-as much III tonnage as the corn con-
sumed by l0,OO0,0O0 OF Englishmen, and ac-
lually at a cost sufficient to pay for all the
bread corn eaten in Great Britain. Five mil
lions and half of acres are occupied in its
growth, chiefly cultivated by slave labor, the
product Of which, at two pence per pound, would
yield E3T 100000 sterling. The time would
fail to tell of the vast amount of smoking in
Turkey and Persia-in India all classes and
both sexes indulge in this practice the Siamese
both chew and smoke-ln Burmah all ages
/ practise it-chldren of three years old and of
both sexes-China equally contributes 10 the
general mania-and the advocates of the habit
boast that about one e.fourth of the human race
are their clients, or that there certainly one
hundred millions of smokers.
A. -. Al.
| Is not this wanton waste of money upon an
idle custom, admitted by its warmest advocates
! to be only luxury, seldom beneficial always
dangerous? This financial view Of the ques-
tion ought to arrest our attention. Every
working man who consumes only one ounce of
shag, returns or birds eye," per week,
or the very moderate quantity of four pounds
per annum, pays out of the fruit of his labors
12s. Sd. to the government in the shape Of a
tax on his luxury. Let the working man look
to this. The amount of money they annually
expended in beer, spirits and tobacco, would
place them all in easy and comforta BILE circuLl-
stances, and in a very few years obtain for
them the franchise of electors much more
quickly than friend Bright get it for them.-
daughter and applause.)
My friends, believe me, that if you would
break your tobacco pipes, and never again drink
a drop of toxicating drinks, you would rise
in the world with rapdty you little dream
of 1, for one, would cheerfully vote for man
hood suffrage if all men were sober and well
informed. (Applause.) The learned doctor
dwelt at great length upon the moral and phys
cal evils of tobacco, and after strong ly appealing
to his hearers, and especially to the ladies, tC
aid in its suppression, he concluded by express
ing his belief that unless something stayed the
tobacco plague in America, that nation never
could be great. 1t was stuntiDg their growth
and they felt it.