Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1860-06-29
SNUFF DIPPING.

AS comparatively few in this section
have personal knowledge Of the babit of
''snuff dipping" as known and practiced
in the South, the journal Of Commerce
condescends to enlighten us. 1t tells US,
however, that curiosity to learn can only
be gratifed by revelations nauseating to
persons of refined sensibilities and mas
much as it is practiced exclusively by fe-
males-ladies often-courtesy to the sex
might forbid an exposure of their failings.
were it not that good might possibly grow
out of it:
"Sufice it to say, that no other of the
many forms in which tobacco is used is
half so disgusting as snuff dipping no ap-
petite so unnatural, and no taste so repug-
nant TO that native refinement which graces
female character. Yet it is true that the
practice prevails to a greater or less extent
among all classes of females throughout
the State Of North Carolina, and in por-
tions of Virginia, Alabama, and in several
other Southern States,-in the parlor, on
the public conveyances, on the promenade,
at social gatherings, and in daily domes-
tic duties On all occasions the indispens-
able box and mop, or bottle and swab, are
present, and constantly active, drawn from
the pocket for private use or passed to pres
ent company by way of etiquette. The
habit is most common among the uneduca-
ted or poorer classes, yet the moistened
mop is often dipped into the snuff by white
and jewelled fingers, and thence, dripping
with the filthy mixture, passed to dainty
mouths, and vigorously applied to the gums
and lips, until, all daubed and stained,
they wovld repel with instructive disgust
the approach of lips that before would have
thought them loveable. And frequently
one mop sufices for many different mouths
This mop or swab is sometimes simple
brush, but usually pine stick softened at
one end; and it is fact no less true than
what else is herein stated that the negress-
es drive profitable business by the manu-
facture of these articles which they fit for
use by chewing the ends of the sticks into
proper consistency, and selling them to
customers.
There are genteel tobacco chewers-that
is, as neat as filthy practice will permit /;
not using the weed slovenly, splitting at
random and driveling at the lips, but by a
careful disposition of the quid, almost dis
guising its presence and their habit. So
also there are ladies who dip snuff gen.
teelly-who by practice have acquired a
dexterity in their manipulation of the
swab, which renders the operation least of.
fensive to the eye. But expectoration is
absolutely necessary in both cases, and this
is the most disgusting feature in dipping.
Spit they must, and frequently; and thus.
alternately splitting and dipping, the vic
tins of loathsome habit spend their
agreeable pastime!
Some may be reluctant to believe that a
practice SO senseless and disgusting has
grown to be in any measure common in a
refined community, but the fact is true
We are glad that it does not prevail to any
very great extent out of the State of North
Carolina. The quantity of Scotch snuff
used in that State is appalling. We are
informed by subscriber in North Carolina
that one of the largest tobacco houses il
I1"AeihoiC Suip hOIo VI elae dit W eue
port of Newbern than to all the South be.
sides. The same person incloses slip re-
| Gently published in this paper, noticing ths
| death of a woman in Arkansas, caused by
swallowing the juice of tobacco while snuf
dipping. and remarks from his own obser
vation, that the amount of suffering caused
by the practice is very great. Whether
the use of tobacco in this form be NOR,
pernicious than chewing, we have no mean
of ascertaing. Both are doubtless product
i've of injurious results TO body and mind
That females naturally so averse to it
use in any shape, should acquire such al
appetite for it, it is as surprising as it is la
mentable. Those gentlemen who oftel
wondered why their wives should be so dis
gusted with their use of of tobacco, woul,
better appreciate their feelings of repue
nance after witnessing its use by tbs oppo
| site eex al the South -