Litchfield enquirer., 1860-04-26
For the Litchfeld Enquirer. COUNSELS TO YOUNG MEN. No. XIII.
TOBACCO.

If there were none but old and inveterat, smokers and chewers to exhort, l should de spair of persuading them to leave it off But there are great many young men who are falling into the habit, and it is not ye SO fixed but that they can easily break off if they will, and multitudes of boys, also who have not yet begun to smoke, but arc daily and hourly exposed to the temptation by the example of fathers and other men whom they have been taught to look up te and respect.
 I turn, therefore, not without hope, to the young men and the boys. If, my young friends, can persuade you totally to ab stain from the use of the narcotic poison, in the shape of segars and quid, l shall feel more than rewarded hundred times ovel for what little time it costs me. As the old smokers are passing off from the stage, and a good many of them faster than they would, were they to let it alone, if we can persuade you not to touch, nor taste, nor handle, the overcharged atmosphere will soon clear up and give us the unsaturated breath of heav- en on the sidewalks. Whenever I meet a boy in his teens with segar in his mouth, 1 feel as if he ought to be sent home to his mother to be soundly spanked every time he puts the filthy thing to his lips.
 In addressing myself to you, my young friends, feel sure you will hear me patient ly, as an old man, who has had a good deal to do with young men and boys, and who wishes you we'll with all his heart If any of you have the curiosity to inquire what his habits have been, in the tobacco poisons, l am happy to inform you that he never smoked segar nor chewed quid in his life, though sometimes sorcly tempted ana he very much doubts whether if he had gone into it, as some of his young companions did, he would have been alive now to write you this sermon.
 Will you give mo your attention, then, while just glance at some reasons why l hope that if you have begun to indulge. you will leave off immediately and forever and and if you have not yet fallen into the snare, you will thank God, and "touch not, taste not, handle not" Never never nev- CT ]!
 My first reason is, that the use of tobac- co in any form, will never do you any good And why should you eat it or smoke it ? l know some tell us it is good for @ acatery stomach, and though they admit there is no nourishment in it, they smoke or chew, or both, on that account. Yes, @ watery stom- ach And how came it aoatery, but by this very indulgence which draws off the health full juices of the body, and excites unnatu- ral cxpectoration This will never do. It is first creating cold, watery stomach by the use of tobacco and then resorting to it as cure, which only makes the matter worse.
 But hear some one say, (not one of you, as chartably hope, but some old slave to the habit, (" l smoke to promote digestion. When, as sometimes happens, l omit it, my dinner lies hard upon my stomach, and l have no other way to relieve it." But how came your stomach to rebel against the ii- gestion of nutritive food ? Ask the doctors, and if they are honest, nine out of ten of them will tell you that in nine cases out of ten, tobacco has done it by slowly weaken ing the digestive organs. Why, then, should you use the narcotic abomination which ev- cry stomach loathes till the appetite, in spite of it's resistance at first, is drugged in- to submission and perversion
 My second reason, why you should use no tobacco is, that it is Q costly indulgence which you cannot afford. Very few smokers have any idea how much their scgars cost them year. They keep no account of it, If they did, the footing up at the end of every twelve months would astonish them. 1t is the most deceptive of all indulgeLcies, save its kindred cravings in the grog shops.
 Just look at it suppose your segars were to cost you but one cent day, it would amount to $3.65 at the end of the year. Two cents, of course, would be double that sum. How few spend less, and how many go up to six or ten cents per day, and l know not how much higher. Put it at five cents even, and you have eighteen dollars Q year and more Now l say, my young friends, you can't eford it, nor any thing like it. You want the money to purchase valuable books for private library, and for other useful purposes. Some of you are good at figures, and pray you to ascertain what your segars cost you a year, and then calculate what it amounts to at compound interest in twenty years Many an old smo- ker has paid out money enough in thirty years for tobacco to buy small farm, if he had saved and put it out at interest. If you could afford to throw away the money, is it right 2 Itis all wanted where it would do great deal of good
 My third dissuasive against the use of to- bacco is, that the money is great deal worse than thrown away. The ablest phy' sicians will tell you, without dissenting voice, that tobacco is slow, narcotic poi son, and of course that you cannot use il without deranging the digestive organs, in viting painful chronic diseases into the sys tenn, and exposing the'hapless victims of the habit not to live out half their days. There may be exceptions. Here and there an iror
 constitution may bear up against the enemy even to old age, but it does not admit of g
 .sasohaoie doubt that in great many cases
 l'fe IS shortened by smoking and chewing
 especially by smoking. This may be youl
 case, if you yield to the indulgence. There
 fore " touch not, taste not, handle not"
 My fourth reason why you should totall,
 abstain is, that smoking produces a thirsi
 tor strong drink. The stimulus of the SC
 gar may satisfy for while, but as it gradu
 ally wears ont, the appetite will crave alec
 holic beverages, it may be the weaker kind
 at first, but ere long to be laid aside for tn
 stronger. till the victim is hopelessly boun , to drunkard's grave. Could we have al , the statistics, it would be easy to spec
 fy scores of cases where men have falle
 victims to intemperance just in this way l C Tonch mt tocfo not hondlo not V