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

ened US; we have all experienced va
rious i'll effects from what smokers call
smoking too much; and very many
smokers have, once or twice in their
lives, risen in revolt against their ty-
rant, given away their pipes, and lived
free men long enough to become con.
scious that their whole being had been
torpid, and was alive again. No, no!
let who will deny that smoking is un-
friendly to life, and friendly to all that
wars upon life, smokers will not ques-
ton it, unless they are very ignorant
indeed, or very young. 1t will be ei
no avail to talk to them of the man who
lived to be hundred years old and had
smoked to excess for half a century.
Smokers have that within which keeps
them we'll IN mind that smoking is per-
nicious. II there are any smokers who
doubt it, it is the few whom smoke is
rapidly killing; such, for example, az
the interesting professional men who
smoke an excellent quality of cigars and
"break down" before the are thirty-fve.
1t is not honest, legitimate hard work
that breaks so many people down in the
prime of life. 1t is bad habits.
Smoking is barbarism. This is the
main argument against what is termed
moderate smoking. There is some
thing in the practice which allies a man
with barbarians, and constantly tends
to make him think and talk like bar
barian. Being at New Haven last Sep
tember, day or two before the open
ing of the term at Yale College, l sat in
one of the public rooms ofths hotel late
one evening, hoping some students
would come in, that l might see what
sort of people college students are in
these times. Yale College hath pleas
ant seat. Who can strOll about upon
that, beautiful College Green, under
those majestic elms, without envying
the youth who are able to spend four
long years of this troublesome life in the
tranquil acquisition of knowledge amid
scenes so refined and engaging! The
visitor is bewitched with a wild desire
to give the college two or three million
dollars Immediately, to enable it to be-
come, in all respects, what it desires,
aims, and intends to become. Visions
efthe noble Athenian youth thronging
about the sages of old, and learning wis
dom from their lips, fit through his
mind, as he wanders through the build
ings of the college, and lodges the COL
ored men who are beating carpets and
carrying furniture. In this exalted
frame Of mind, suppose the stranger
seated in the room ofthe hotel just men
toned. In the middle of the small
apartment sat one fat, good-humored,
uneducated man Of fifty, smokinga ci-
gar, about such a man as we expect
to find in the "ofice" of a large livery
stable. At half past ten a young
man strolled in, smoking, who address
ed the elder by a military title, and be-
gan slangy conversation with him up
on the great New Haven subject, boat
racing. About eleven, three or four
other young men came in, to whom
cigars were furnished by the military
chieftain. All together they blew a
very respectable cloud, and the CONVEX
sation, being so strongly reinforced,
became more animated Boating was
still the principal theme. The singular
merits Of Pittsburg oars were discussed.
A warm dispute arose as to who was
the builder of certain boat that had
won race three years ago. Much ad-
miratien was expressed for the muscle,
the nerve, and, above all, for the style
and method, of the crew of fthe Harvard
boat, which had beaten the Yale boat
few weeks before.
Nevertheless, it did not occur to me
that these smoking and damning gen.
tlemen could be members of the col
lpge. / supposed they were young
loafers of the town, who took an inter-
est in the pleasures of the students, and
were exchanging opinions thereon with
their natural chief, the lord of the sta
ble At length one said to another,
"Will Jones be here this week?" The
reply was: "No, wrote to the fellow,
but, damn him, he says he can't get
here till next Thursday" "Why. what's
the matter with the cuss?" 20, he's
had the fever and ague, and he says
there's no pull In him." This led me
to suspect that these young fellows
were the envied youths Of whom l had
been dreaming under the elms,-a sus-
piciOn which the subsequent converse
ten soon confirmed. There was moth
ing wrong or harmful in the subject of
their talk. The remarkable circum-
stance was, that all the difference which
naturally exists, and naturally appears,
between an educated and an uneducat-
ed person was obliterated; and it SEEM
ed, too, that the smoke was the "com-
mon element in which the two were
blended. 1t was the cigar that kept
the students there talking boat till mid
night with an elderly ignoramus, and
it was the cigar that was always draw
ing them down to his level. lfhe had
not handed round his cigar-case, they
would have exhausted all the natural
interest of the session in few minutes,
and gone home to bed. All of them,
too, as it happened, confessed that
smoking lessons the power of man to
row boat, and lamented that eer-
tain student would be lost to the crack
.orov, from, his unwillinonessIt0 give I'M