Abbeville press. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1860-1869, 1869-03-26
Shall I Begin to Use Tobacco ?
BY HENRY WARD BEECHER.

BY HENRY WARD BEECIER.
correspondent solicits our candid
lopinion, through the Ledger, respect
ing the use of tobacco. We shall give
it willingly. We are not disposed to
take extreme ground on the tobacco
question, although we entertain very
positive convictions of the mischiets
which attend it's use. AS is usual in
all discussions, two extremes arc devcl-
oped in tho controversy respecting to-
bacco. One party regards the use of
tobacco as an evil, an evil only, and
that continually; it holds that there
is no such thing as moderation in evil !;
and that the least use of the weed is
pernicious, impairing the health and
shortening the life. On the other
hand, the advocates of smoking and
chewing take the bull by tho horns,
and undertake to demonstrate from
the latest grounds of physiology, that
tobacco is an article whose use, in due
moderation, economies the nervous
force, repairs cerebra! wastes, and pro-
longs life. We shall not take n con-
troversy. There are several grounds
on which we would dissuadc young
men who have not formed the habit OF
using tobacco from ever learning to use
! it.
l. 1t is not necessary to health or
to comfort. On the contrary, it is ut
terrepugnant to natural appetite. IL
ofiends the senses and every vital Or
gan. Men are obliged to train them
selves into it's use. The stomach. the
heart, and the brain all protest against
it, and submit, at length, ouly as they
would to any other medicinal agent.
That it may become, after long use,
necessary to comfort, and even to the
health, is saying of it only what may
he said of opium, of strychnine, and
of arsenic, all Of which arc employed
for the very same purpose that tobac-
co is viz: to produce excitement. But
the need is secondary, artificial, and
required. No man in health cares to
use tobacco because he needs it. The
habit begins in puerile imitation. 1t
is an apish trick. Boys revolt against
boyhood, and think they are men
when old enough to copy the faults of
an imperfect manhood. They are
very apt to crawl into manhood
through the dirty door of vice.
1t may be said, that though there is
no natural craving for any particular
drug, like tobacco, yet in highly ar
. tificial state of society men crave slim
ulants, and that tobacco, alcohol, &C.,
: if used with rigid moderation, adapt
themselves as artificial supplies to all
artificial want.
| That men living under the highly
exciting conditions Of modern society
need certain stimulants, We arc not
disposed to deny. But in selecting,
one should avoid those which are pc
culiarly liable to abuse, and employ
those which experience has shown to
be safe. Tea and coffee are useful stim-
ulants. They are not degenerating.
Whatever use tobacco and wine are
| alleged to have in repairing nervous
wastes, tea and coffee will serve in like
manner, without the temptations to
excess which 60 with these more vio-
lent drugs.
2. The habits of using tobacco leads
men to vuiy"rity. I do not by any
means say that every user of tobacco
is vulgar, or that every Que who be-
takes himself to it will, Of necessity,
become vulgar. But, as a matter of
fact, users of tobacco grow Indifferent
to the feelings of others, and habitu-
ally keep before the eyes of their COM
panions disgustful things, which true
refinement would hide or suppress.
Even brute animals, move by mere in
stinct,. learn to hide the excretions of
the body. The much abused pig pre-
ters cleanliness. Give him pure water
and clean bed, and he will keep him
self clean.
But whatever rare and polite excep-
tions there may be, it is undeniable
that the users of tobacco become indif:
ferent to others feelings, and shock
the tastes Of men, with scarcely the
consciousness of offending. The
chewer squirts his saliva as if he were
a"iquid artillery man. The smoker
carries in his hair, his .raiment, and
in his breath, the fetida odor of tobac-
CO.. To some, the fresh smoke of good
tobacco is not disagreeable. i But
the residual smell which fingers in the
pipe, on the clothes, or on the person
is disgustful to every one. If one will
Enge: tobacco, he should at least thereae
ter carefully purge and purify himself:
But<I have observed that persons who
in all other things: have egeptlemanly
instincts, n,the use of tobacco seem TO
lose 1dehraey, andE generosity. q II eco d
great degree Of seldRbness,aand lin.
! difference 10 others comfbrta andsHeeIl