The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1868-02-13

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habit which only lessons what they
have in superhuity, In other words,
sailors, being in situation extremely
unfavorable to spiritual life, ought not
merely to yield to the lowering influence
OF the forecastle, but add to it one more
benumbing circumstance. On the con-
trary, they ought to strive nightly
against the paralyzing effects ofmonot-
Ony,-not give up to them, still less
aggravate them. There is no reason,
in the nature of things, why sailor,
after three years voyage, should not
step on shore a man more alert in body
and mind than when be sailed, and all
alive to communicate the new knowl-
edge he has acquired and the wonders
he has seen. Why should he 60 round
this beautiful world drugged?
We must, therefore, add the sailor to
the hod-carrier and the soldier, and re-
specttully take away his pipe I select
these classes, because they are supposed
most to need artificial solace, and to be
most capable of enduring the wear and
tear of a vicious habit. Each of these
classes also can smoke without much
offending others, and each is provided
with an "expectoratoon" which digusts
no one. The hod-carrier and the SOL
der have the earth and the sailor the
ocean. But, for all that, the pipe is an
injury to them. Every man of them
would be better without it.
But if we must deny them the false
solace Of their pipe, what can be said
Of the all-but-uniVersal smoking of per-
sons supposed to be more refined than
they, and whose occupations furnish
them no pretence Of an excusel We
now see paintersin their studios smok-
ing while they paint, and sculpters peg
ging away at the marble with pipe in
their mouths. Clergymen hurry out of
church to find momentary relief for their
tired thfoats in an eostatic smoke, and
carry into the apartment of fair invalids
the odor of ex-cigars Flow it may be
in other cities | know not, but in New
York a parishioner who wishes to con-
fer upon his clergyman a real pleasure
can hardly do safer thing than send
him thousand cigars of good clerical
brand. 1t is particularly agreeable to
a clergyman to receive present which
supplies him with a luxury he loves,
but in which he knows in his inmost
soul he ought not to indulge. No mat
ter for all his fine arguments, there is
not one clergyman in ten that succeeds
in this short life in reducing his con-
science to such degree of obtuseness
that he can buy box Of cigars (at pres
ent prices) without a qualm of retire
proach. Editors, writers for the press,
reporters, and others who haunt the
places where newspapers are made, are
smokers, except few controlling men,
and a few more who are on the way to
become such. Most of the authors
whose names are familiar to the public
smoke steadily even the poets most
beloved do so. Philosophers have
taken to the pipe Of late years. Mr..
Dickens, they say, toys with a cigar
occasionally, but can hardly be reckon
ed among the smokers, and never touch
es q cigar when he has serious task
on hand. Mr.. Prescott smoked, and o,
how he loved his cigar! 1t was he
who, when his physician had limited
him to one cigar day, ran all over
Paris in quest Of the largest cigars that
Europe could furnish. In my smoking
days l should have done the same.
Thackeray smoked; he was very par
ticular in his smoking; tie scent of
bad cigar was an abomination to him.
That Byron smoked, and loved "the
naked beauties" of tobacco, he has told
us in the most alluring verses the weed
has ever inspired Milton, Locke, Ra-
leigh, Ben johnson, Isaac Walton, Ad-
Olson, Steele, Bolingbroke, Burns.
Campbell, Scott, Talfourd, Christoper
North, Lamb, were all smokers at some
part of their lives. Among our Pres
idents, John Adams, John Quincy Ad-
ans, General Jackson, and probably
many others, were smokers. Daniel
Webster once smoked. Henry Clay,
down to late period of his life, chew
ed, smoked, and took snuff, but never
approved ofeither practice, and stopped
two of them. General Grant smokes,
but regrets that he does, and has re-
duced his daily allowance of cigars.
Edwin Booth smokes, as do most of
the gentlemen ofhis arduous profession.
Probably a majority of the physicians
and surgeons in the United States, un-
der forty years of age, are smokers; and
who ever knew medical student that
did not smoke furiously? This, per-
haps, is not to be wondered at, since
doctors live upon the bodily sins of
mankind.
The question is, Does it pay these
gentlemen to smoke? They know it
does not. 1t would be gross arrogance
in any individual to lift up his voice in
rebuke of so many illustrious persons,
but for the fact that there is scarcely
one of them who does not feel that the
practice is wrong, or, at least, absurd.
Almost all confirmed smokers will go
so far as to admit that they wish they
had never acquired the habit. Few of
them desire their boys to acquire it.
None recommend it to other men. AL
most all smokers, who are not Turks,
Ch;nnnnnn or Indians annrnciatn at