The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-10-22

to do.n
Nature certainly has done her best to deter
us from the use Of the dreamy weed; and, as hap.
pened long ago, men cannot resist the TEN pta-
ton of forbidden fruit. And when l say men,
/ include with them women. Ladies might
possibly be influenced blythe same spirit contra
diction when they first thrust powdered tobacco
up their pretty noses According TO the doggrel
| song put into the mouth OF snuh-taklng lady,
somebody said they should not; consequently
they would:-
ga pinch of snuff
That horrid stuff
Take No indeed, can't.
Vas my idea,
Until my husband said You ShaRg
"You shan'tp TO mel
Fiddle-dee-dee!
OF course take it on the sly.
You know dear san,
For 'shant or SHALL
What husbands say is-all my eye!
This spirited parsonage deserved, in return, to
be addressed in the highhown language in
winch Bazac mot the modern novellst) re-
quested pinch of a lady who tlourished in the
days of Louis XIV Madame he said, per
NIT my digital extremities to insinuate them
selves into your tobacchlc concavlty, 10 obtain
from it the subtle powder which disslpates and
confounds the aquatic humors of my inundated
and swampy b1ain.p
Who, again, would ever have supposed before
hand that the faxes on so detestaoe an article
would ever produce an important item in the
states revenueY let such we know to be the
case in more than one European country.
Fancy, some three hundred years ago, when
Jean Nlcot, kings advocate and ambassador
extraordinary, first sent tobacco to France from
Portugal, as present to that amiable queen,
Catherine de Medicis-only fancy bold inan-
cler requesting an audience of the Cardinal de
Lorraine, and addressing him to the folio wing
pu.rtREGrt:Mi p.tREnn:oinnonr .,o +,
a somewhat pitiable condition, | Am come to
propose tax which will bring you in couple
OF hundred millions of francs, cheerfully paid
voluntary contributions to the State revenue.
There will betaxpayers in every family through
out tne land, and you viii never have to seize
,State your project" the Cardinal might
coldly reply.
'Monseigneur, it is simply this. The Gov
ernment has only to reserve 10 itself the exclu-
sve privilege ofselling certain herb, which is to
be reduced TO a powder sufficiently fine for
people TO stuff it up their noses. The plant
may also be left in the leaf, to be chewed, or to
be burnt for the purpose of inhaling its smoke"
Your plant, then, affords a delightful per-
fume, sweeter than amber, musk, or roses?"
m by no means, the .speGulator would. reply.
'Tts smell Is unpleasant rather than not.n
II understand. 1t is panacea, specific en-
dowed with marvellous healing virtues-per-
haps snatching men out of the jaws of death"
''Not at all, quite the contrary The habit of
shifting in the powdered herb weakens the
memory and destroys the smell. 1t causes giddi-
ness. There are instances OF its bringing on
blindness and even apoplexy. Chewed, it renders
the breath offensive and puts the stomach out
OF order. lnhaling the smoke Is q different
affair. First attempts bring on pains in the
chest nausea swimming in the head, collie, and
cold perspiraton; but in the course of time and
by perseyering, you gradually get accustomed
to IT."
"How many people do you believe you will
find to be fools and idiots ENOUGH to punish
themselves for your taX-gathering purposes by
smoking this plant or stufing their nostrils
with 2"
"There win one day be- Monseigneur, more
than twenty millions in France alone. | don't
mention the millions in England, Germany, and
elsewhere, because they, Monseigneur, pay as
no taxes"
of doors in huff, or got him put into lunatic
| asylum, his contemporaries would have given
| him small blame for ii. And yet, as events have
| proved, he would have made great mistake IN
| rejecting that counsel.
This last bit of badinage is the whimsical
| view which Alphonse Karr takes of the tobacco
| tax question; but he eXaggerates, perhaps, the
! dangers of the weed when employed with 'ordi-
| nary precaution. Another of his countrymen,
| Eugene Pelletan, rivals our King James
| | in the violence of his counterblast
| against tobacco, ascIibing to it a considerable
share in causing what he considers the deca
dence of France. Be it noted that he holds uI
for wine, lauding 1t as the genuine national
alcohol. Dram,dripkipg is his terror and aver
| sion, while beer finds little favor in his eyes
Wine for him, is bis health and sanity; eau de
| vie and absinthe madness and ruin. The flame
| of brandy burhs up the blood, and the race o
Frenchnen is dwindling away in consequence
| The standard height for soldiers is obliged to b(
| reduced. Thanks to absinthe, thanks to the dis
| til@ers of beetroot-and the CONSUMPTION of alco
mol augments every year-in another century
| perhaps in less, the world will really behold
Frenchmen consumptive, puny, rickety, unable
| to handle either spade or gun, like the French
men OF old English caricatures. Now alcoho
calls in the aid of tobacco, by the very nature
of things, out of simple symmetry. One over
eXcites the brain, the other benumbs and stu
pefes It,
According to Pelletan, the very introduction
| OF tobacco could not happen IN an ordinary
| way. The circumstances accompanying 1t were
necessarily startling and fantastic, like the com
pounding charm or the completing an incan
tation. In the sixteenth century the monsoon
| waited to Manila vessel manned by apes of
| singular species. Dressed up like men, they
initiated human shape so well as to cause al
| illusion Tor the first few moments. But they atC
| fre-sticks, and rejected the smoke through
| nasal protuberance OF portentoUs length.
| These curious animals were Spapiards, whC
had just learnt in America the art OF smoking
and brought it piping hot to the coast OF Asia
| The inhabitants of the Indian Archipelago
accustomed to the small noses OF the Malayal
race, could not behold without secret hoTro
the comucopious aquiine of the Castilian type
| The long noses got the upper hand of the shor
noses, thanks to the help OF the arquebuse. Tht
! | conquerors tanned the conquered race, reducing
| them to slavery. Do you know how? BY stupe
a | lying and besotting them with cigars.
! | france offered long resistance to the inya
s orat,,;t ~ topacco. The regent distributed
8 sIa'ulttously' TO excite taste for il and Great
& 9,n,a M brnnh %ant; The tobacco tax, at tina
y ulnS OlOusn' IN lew hundred thonsand francs
at the very outside. II now nroS,'co & - h
. dred millions. "009 WV nul
But, at least, in the eighteenth oo,.,..
+ bacco was taken in powder by the noSe ~ n =,
y there was something sympathetic in that asshtn ~
: | of taking il. The snuff box passed froIA hand
y | hand; hpgers were thrust into it, in turn NJ