The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1868-02-20


is trying to discuss some important
topic so that thousand men can hear
and understand him, yet whereiDto ten
or twenty smokers have introduced
themselves, along-nine projecting hori-
zOntally from beneath the nose of each,
a fire at one end and a fool at the 9th
er, mark howl the puff, putting gradually
transforms the atmosphere (none TOO
pure at best into that of some foul and
pestilential cavern, choking the inter-
ance Of the speaker, and distracting
(by annoyance) the attention ofthe hear
ers, until the argument is arrested or
its effect utterly destroyed" If these
men, he adds, are not blackguards, who
are blackguardsi He mitigstes the Sc
verify Of his conclusion, however, by
telling an anecd5 e: "Brethren," said
ParSon Strong, of Hartford, preaching
a Connecticut election sermon. in high
party times, some fifty years ago, sit
has been charged that / 1have said every
Democrat is horse-thief / never did.
What did say was only that every
horse-thief is Democrat, and that /
can prove" Mr.. Greeley challenges
the universe to produce a genuine
blackguard who is not lover of the
weed in some of its forms, and prom
ises to reward the finder with the gift
of two white blackbirds.
Mr.. Greeley exaggerates. Some of
the best gentlemen alive smoke, and
some of the dirtiest blackguards do not;
but most intelligent smokers are con-
Scious that the practice, besides being
in itself unclean, dulls the smokers
sense Of cleanliness, and, what is still
worse, dulls his sense of what is due to
others, and especially to what is due to
the presence of ladies'.
The cost of tobacco ought perhaps to
be considered before we conclude
whether or not it pays to smoke; since
every man who smokes not only pays
his share of the whole expense of the
weed to mankind, but he also supports
and justifies mankind in incurring that
expense. The statistics of tobacco are
tremendous, even to the point ofbeing
incredible. 1t is gravely asserted, in
Messrs Ripley and DanaS excellent
and most trustworthy Cyclopedia, that
the consumption of cigars in Cuba
the mere conSumption-amounts to ten
cigars per day for every man, woman,
and child on the island. Besides this,
Cuba exports two billions of cigars a
year, which vary in price from twenty
cents each (n gold) to two cents. In
the manufacture of Manila cheroots,- =
small item in the trade, the labor of
seven thousand men and twelve hun
dred women is absorbed Holland,
where much of the tobacco used in
smoky Germany is manufactured, en-
plOys, it is said, one million pale people
in the business In Bremen there are
four thousand pallid or yellow cigar
makers. In the United States the weed
exhausts four hundred thousand acres
of excellent land, and employs forty
thousand sickly and cadaverous cigar
makers. In England, where there is q
duty upon tobacco of seventy-fve cents
pound, and on cigars of nearly four
dollarsa pound, the government derives
about six million pounds sterling from
tobacco. The French government gets
from its monopoly of the tobacco trade
nearly two hundred million francs per
annum, and Austria over eighty mil
lion francs. 1t is computed that the
world is now producing one thousand
million pounds of tobacco every year,
at total cost of five hundred millions
of dollars. To this must be added the
cost of pipes, and = long catalogue
of smoking conveniences and accessor-
les. In the London Exhibition there
were four amber mouth-pieces valued
at two hundred and fifty guineas each.
A plain, small. serviceable meerschaum
pipe now costs in New Y York seven dol
lars, and the prices rise from that sum
to thousand dellars; but where is the
young man who does not possess one?
We have in New York two perhapa
more) extensive manufactures Of these
pipes; and very interesting it is to look
in at the windows and inspect the nov
elites in this branch of artl In Vienna
men earn their living (and their dying
too) by smoking meerschaums for the
purpose ofstarting the process of "col-
oring" Happily, the high price of la
Dor has hitherto prevented the lntroduc-
ton ofthis industry into America.
An inhabitant Of the United States
who smokes a pipe only, and good to-
bacco in that pipe, can now get his
smoking for twenty-five dollars year.
One who smokes good cigars freely
(say ten a day at twenty cents each)
must expend between seven and eight
hundred dollars a year. Almost every
one whose eye may chance to fall upon
these lines will be able to mention at
least one man whose smoking costs
him several hundred dollars per an
num,-from three hundred to twelve
hundred. On the other hand, our
friend the hod-carrier can smoke a
whole week upon ten cents worth Of
tobacco, and buy pipe for two cents
which he can smoke till it is black with
years.
All this inconceivable expenditure
this FIVE hundred millions per annum-
comes out of the worlds surplus, that
precious fund which must pay all the