The Portland daily press., 1865-05-22
Monday Morning, May 22, 1865.
Are Your Boys Learning to Smoke 2
By THE REV. :. T. CRANE, D. D.

l incline to be somewhat mildly call ed 81
naticap this morning. Tobacco, Iconfess, is
my tavorite aversion. In making a little at
tack upon the enemy, permit me to initiate
the strategy of our military commanders and
throw out a skirmi6h line of objections. The
use of tobacco is offensive to Others Many
people dislike the smoke; and yet the smoker
poisons the air around him, and carries an iii
odor into every place where he goes. His
very garments testify against him; nor can he
silence their accusing voice, unless he revives
the Levltlcai dispensatiOn, and is cOntented
alter each Indulgence to "wash his clothes
and be Hnclean until the even."
The horrors of chewing, as usually practis-
eo, are too great to make description either
Dsedful or agreeable. Why can we not have
cars on our city railroads, and elsewhere, set
apart for ehewers OF tobacco? We are daily
informed, or at least we used to be informed
Of the places where 'colored people" were
''aliowedp Why not give us a hint II the
place where the splitting of tobacco juice is TO
be tolerated? We sometimes sit within saliva
shot OF men, whose puddles and disgorged
masses OF tobacco are nauseous in the eyes lot
everybody but themselves. Why not appro-
pirate car to their use, as in the case of the
African? es9sa
The expense, too, in these days Of taxes
and high prices, may not be altogether uns
worthy of attention. If a smoker uses only
four cigars day and pays only ten cents each
for them, he probably will boast OF economy
as one Of his chief virtues. Yetgif any, one
will consult with Jay Cookies advertisement,
he will find that one thousand dollars invested
In United States bonds, will inst suffice to
meet the expense of this fumigation. Conse
quently young man who has inherited or
accumulated $4,000, and who smokes at the
rate specified, must consider his tobacco La
Dinties equal to his assets, and deem himself
hnaD cially lust where he would be were he to
lose all his money and escape from his evil
habit. he who reforms, does that which is
equivalent to an addition of two Thousand
dollars to his capital. The man who has the
habit, without any capital at ALL ought to con
slider his daily earnings mortgaged in the sum
named, for an instalment Of the interest Of
Which his appetite duns him every day. Per-
haps the reader will reply carelessly, "Oh,
well, can afford it," Can any follower OF
Christ "aford" to use the Lords money thus
But my main objection to the use OF tobac-
co is, that it is powerful drug, which lays
body and soul under its spell. Few of the
smokers themselves dream of the strength OF
the SPELL Tobacco is classed among the sedai
ti7es, and its primary effect is to lessen ner-
vous excitablity and the force of circulation
1t takes right hold of the heart and there
makes itself felt. Let a man sit down quietly
to smoke, and in very few minutes his pulse
VIII ouOW boC power Oi buo OfdBs tut su6dSt I
beating with less force but greater frequency
A clerical friend, who good-naturedly suffered
me to feel his wrist from time to time, as he
sat putting his cigar after dinner, was startled
when / told him that while his heart was beat
ing with far less force than before, his pulse
had risen from IA to 88 in the space of fifteen
minutes. am happy to be able to add that
the convictions then implanted have resulted
in his entire reform. Another clerical friends
rose piore than 20 in half an hour, under the
in1uence of a clay pipe charged with smoking
tobacco. These things know to be facts
and it seems to me that, to users Of this drug
they are appalling facts. 5s aH
On Christmas day, 1887, John Wesley sat
iown to write some advices and rules fol
Ihose who sought his council concerning the
way Of life, and under the general warning
Carefully abstain from doing evil = he advises
them to keep from spirituous liquors, snuff
and tobacco. For more than half century
the book Of discipline repeated the warning
against tobacco, and then it was expunged.-
Would that all who love the name of Wesley
could be brought to see what he saw. a centu
ry ago.-[ Sunday School Times. aa