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

run for seventeen months! Even ifsci-
ence did not justify the conjecture, !
should be disposed, for the honor of
human nature, TO lay the blame of all
this upon tobacco.
To man who is uncorrupt and prop
erly constituted, woman remains always
something ofa mystery and a romance.
He never interprets her quite literally.
She, on her part, is always striving to
remain poem, and is never weary of
bringing out new editions of herself in
novel bindings. Not till she has been
utterly conquered and crushed by hope
less misery or false religion does she
give up the dream Ofstill being a pleas
ant enehantment. To this end, With
out precisely knowing why, she turns
the old dress, retrims it, or arrays her.
self in the freshness of new one, ever
striving TO present herself in recreated
loveliness. Uncontaminated man SYM
pathizes with this intention, and easily
lends himself to the renewed charm.
Have you not felt something of this.
old smokers, when, after indulging in
the stock jests and sneers at woman
kind, you lay asih your cigars, and
"join the ladies' " arrayed in bright col
ors and bewitching novelties of dress,
moving gracefully in the brilliant gas
light, or arranged in glowing groups
about the room? Has not the truth
flashed upon You, at such moments, that
you had been talking prose upon sub
ject essentially poetical? Have you
never felt how mean and low thing it
was to linger in sensual stupefaction,
rather than take your proper place in
such a scene as this?
1t is true, that few women in COM
mercial cities,-a few bankers and
brokers' wives, and others, -bewilder-
ed by the possession of new wealth, do
go to ridiculous excess in dressing, and
thus bring reproach upon the art. 1t
were well if their husbands did no
worse. Now and then, too, is present
ed the melancholy spectacle of an ex-
travaganthussy marring, perhaps spoil
ing, the career of her husband by taste
less and unpriucipled expenditures in
the decoration of her person. But is
it wholly her fault7 Is he not the purse
holder? Is it not a husbands duty to
prevent his wife from dishonoring her.
self in that manner? When men are
sensual, women will be frivolous.
When men abandon their homes and all
the noble pleasures of society in order
to herd together in clubs and smoking
rooms, what right have they to object
if the ladies amuse themselves in the
only innocent way accessible TO them?
The'wonder is that they confne them
selves to the innocent delights of the
toilet. A husband who spends one
day and seven evenings of every week
at his club ought to expect that his wife
will provide herself both with fine
clothes and some one who will admire
them. Besides, for enc woman who
shocks us by wasting upon her person
an undue part of the family resources,
there are ten who astonish us by the
delightful results which their taste and
ingenuity contrive out ofnext to moth
ing.
1t would be absurd to say that smok-
inc is the cause of evils which originate
in the weakness and imperfection Of
human nature. The point is simply
this: tobacco, by disturbing and i'm
pairing virility, tends to vitiate the re-
lations between the sexes, tends to les
sen mans interest in women and his en-
ioyment of their society, and enables
him to endure and be contented with,
and finally even to prefer, the compan-
ionship Of men. And this is the true
reason why almost every lady of spirit
is the irreconcilable foe Of tobacco. 1t
is not merely that she dislikes the stale
odor of the smoke in her curtains, nor
merely that her quick eye discerns it's
hostility to health and life. These
things would make her disapprove the
weed. But instinct causes her dimly y to
perceive that this ridiculous brown leaf
is the rival of her sex. Women do not
disapprove theirri rivalsi they hate them.
Smoking certainly does blunt a mans
sense of cleanliness, 1t certainly is an
unclean habit Does the reader re-
member the fine scene in "Shirley," in
which the lover soliloquizes in Shirley's
own budoir, Just as the stainless vir-
gin" has gone outY She had gone away
suddenly, it appears, and left disorder
behind her; but every object boreu upon
it the legibls inscription, belong to a
ladyi "Nothing sOrdid, nothing soil
ed" says Louis Moore. 'LOok at the
pure kid of this little glove, atthe fresh,
unsullied satin of the bag" This is
one of those happy touches of the great
artist which convey more meaning than
whole paint-pots Of common coloring.
Whata pleasing sense itgives us of the
sweet cleanness of the high-bred maid
en-! If smokers were to be judged by
the places they have Ieft,-by the smok-
ing-car after long days use, by the
dinner-table at which they have sat
late, by the bachelors quarters when
the bachelor has gone down town.
they mnst be rated very low in the scale
of civilization.
We must admit, too, | think, that
smoking dulls . mans sense of the
rights Of others. Horace Greeleyis ac-
cnstomed to sum up bis opinion upon