Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1869-03-26
TOB A Q G O.
" A Dream that was not all a Dream
BY W. J. RosENcRANs, NJ. D.

For the Chronicle.
Having attended the anti-tobacco meet
ting, and the discussion pro and con being
still in imagery present to my mind, re-
tired at late hour, fatigued and feverlsh.
Thinking of my brothers who had been
scduced from natures tranquil, sober
course by the great curse of the nineteenth
century, and of the probabilities of my
boys, and possibly my girls, sucking
poisonous cigar or nauseous pipe, or per-
chance rolling the disgusting quid like
a sweet morsel in their cheeks, fell into
an uneasy sleep. The lullabys of my wife
hushing to quiet our infant child, and an
occasional passing team, slightly disturb
| ing nv rest, was thrown into that dreamy
state where we see facts as if they were
fancy, and the histories of the past and
the events of the present pass before the
mind in a panorama, as Barnard shows us
the Mississippi, or some travelling show
man illustrates the fable of the procession
of the animals into Noah's ark.........I
was suddenly startled by the clear, rever-
berating ring of the Indian war -whoop,
and looking up saw in the deep reccsses
of Virginia forest, band Of swarthy,
grimy savages, amusing themselves by
burning an Intoxicating weed and drawing
the smoke through long reeds into their
mouths, while ever and anon the echoing
whoop or bachannalian laugh rang thro'
the branches of the trees or reverberated
| from the hills. The scene was truly dis
gushing. The half-naked savages, dirty
and delirious, and the loathsome fumes of
the foetid weed so told upon my senses
that l turned away, comforting myself
that civilized man could never lose his
self-respcct so much as to initiate, in any
of its essentials, this revolving spectacle.
But while attempting to abstract my at
tcntion by gazing around at the many.
shaded hues of tree and flower, and watch
ing the birds, and listening to their songs,
and dreaming of my far-off home, was
suddenly accosted by the foremost of
a small band of white men, who, emerging
from small thicket near, commenced
making signs of peace to the Indians. |
soon learned they had been up the James
| river in search of gold, which they said
had been their great object in coming to
| America. The Chief of the Indians Of
fered his smoking apparatus to the whites,
some of whom entirely refused, others
took Whit or two; all disliked it but
one-an old sailor, who had smoked hemp
in India and opium in China, down whose
throat had been poured torrents of rum,
beer and arrack-he declared the delirium
Fit produced delightful, and prophesied
that the weed, in some form, would be-
come an universal favorite !; and, procur-
ling seed from the savages, he started for
the settlements, with the belief that his
| fortune would be made as soon as he
could establish tobacco bartholomew.
And looking down the course of time
saw that this form of intoxication came to
be more loved and honored than all 9TH
ers. The farmer at his plow, the artizan
at his bench, the factory operative, the
deliver in mines, the lawyer with his brief,
the clergyman coming his sermon, the
salesman at his counter, and the judge
dispensing equity - all, or nearly all,
smoked or chewed the weed and even
| the tender mother drew the milk from her
breast and incorporated it with tobacco
smoke before giving it to her child. The
Yellow Malay and the fair browed Euro
pean, the Chinaman, with his pig-tail cue,
the kinky haired African, the Indian of
the torrid zone, and the dwellers of the
frozen clime-all all bowed down to this
debasing, debauching Moloch. "Alas !!
alas % cried " is there no hope? Must
the young and the old, the homely and the
beautiful, the simple and the talented,
the poor and the rich, the meek and the
naughty, the dwellcrs in low places, and
the dwellers in high places, without dis
elimination of abilities, or virtue, or in
telligence-must ALL be borne down and
inundated by this high-rolling, broad
sweeping wave of intemperance? Must
it pollute their breath, poison their blood,
paralyze their blood, debauch their morals
and override their wills? Is our race
doomed to this slavery damned to this
ceaseless, senscless folly ?" ........But at
this moment l turned my gaze down the
vista of years, and saw that in the latter
part of the nineteenth century, the rage
for intoxcation began to abate, and man
kind returned slowly to the dictates of
common sense. The philosopher and the
phianthropist turned their attention to
the evils of TOBACCO, and to their reform,
and it's use soon became confined to the
ignorant and the intentionally vicious.
Reason again bore sway over blind, drunk
en- appetite, and civilized men again drew
one long, gratifying breath of relief.
DAKOTA, Wis, February, 1869.