Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1870-02-17
gemperaufs.
Tobacco and the Cup.


Connecticut Temperance Convention,
in Hartford, delivered az address on the
relation of tobacco to the temperance
reformation. We present the following
extracts from the report of the Hartford
Evening Post:
"My own belief is that an insidious,
subtle, and powerful foe has had much
tn do in neutralizing and battling our
efforts, in turning the shadow on the
tempers nee dial backward, while the
policy has been to maintain peaceful re-
lations toward him, and shun an open
rupture, as if afraid to arouse his wrath;
and while, moreover, many protesting
temperance have actually yielded to his
bewitching sorcery. Like the Spartan
boy who suffered the fox which he had
stolen to gnaw into his vitals rather than
expose the theft; 80 We have suffered
this foxy foe of temperance to eat into
her vitals without complaint, thinking
sufferance and silence to be the best pol
icy, the dictate Of expediency. Expe-
diency forsooth! Out upon such an ex-
pediency, which ;has SO crippled and
shorn US of our strength; and, after so
many years Of cowardice and defeat, let
us declare open and eternal war on the
twin-demon of alcohol, its seductive
handmade and terrible ally for the de-
struction of mankind. Let US enlarge
our base and plant our guns on the ever
lasting hills, whence they will sweep the
whole field Of the enemy, and pour hot
shot not only into the seEried ranks of
King Aichy, but also rake his willy ac-
complice and pander. Let US no longer
follow the cratic and delusive meteors
of expediency, to be led further back
ward into quagmires and pitfalls; but
take our course by the eternal stars OF
truth and rectitude.
NEARLY every drunkard uses tobacco.
John Hawkins, the father WashiDgtoni-
anism, said he never had seen, In all his
travels, but one who did not use It.. He
began its use before he began to drink;
while it is not true, 1 admit, that every
tobaceonist drinks liquor; though can
not predict that he never will. 1.
On this point medical authorities, the
world over, could be quoted to any ex-
tent. They testify emphaticslly that
tobacco-using leads naturally to liquor
drinking; that it Is the facilis dsscensus
Averni-the slippery and smoky gang
way to the hell Of drunkenness. There
is touch Of philosophy in the wish Of
the poor, degraded Indian. Said he: Il
want three things-all the rum in the
world, all the tobacco in the world, and
then more rum. l. smoke because it
makes me love to drink In his case,
at least, the tobacco demon seems very
like that unclean spirit which, when it
has gone out of . manor gone into him,
rather-says in its unrest, 1 will take to
myself seven other spirits still worse;
and they enter in and dwell there, and
the last state of that man is worse than
the first.
Moreover, Experimentation
Of inebriates-one of the leading objects
of this society-has been found to be i'm
practicable 50 long as they have adhered
to the use of tobacco. The grand Wash
ingtonian uprising of 1870 was rendered
abortive, well-nigh, by this demoraliz-
ing agent; and . very large proportion
Of the inebriates hopefully reclaimed,
all over the country, whe had desperate
ly struggled up and grasped at their lost
fell back again into the depths
of drunkenness under It's Circean sor-
Gerry. Such it is to be apprehended will
be the lamentable result Of the Good
Samaritan movement, in which we all
rejoice, should not its reprisaIs from the
turn away from the tobacco
shops and dash both agents IF ruin from
their lips. Tobacco, in the case Of the
reformed inebriate, wbets and keeps
alive the craving appetite for liquor; and
a lasting deliverance can be gained only
by repudiating it wholly, and a persist
ent determination to be free from the
thralldom of all narcotics.
"I might also speak of the damage
done to the cause Of temperance by the
drug on the part Of men protesting tenn
perance, and urge the necessity of re-
formers having clean hands, or rather
clean mouths, in this particular. But /
pass on to say that the tobacco curse is
spreading. Its consumption is
greater than it was twenty-five
years ago. Then it was not fashionable
for children and boys to smoke and
chew. From the high places of power
the curse sweeps hotly down through
oil ranks of society, like scathful sir
Deco. The very air reeks with its moi
some fumes, and it trails its yellow virus
wherever its victims wend their way
Our beautiful valley of the Connecticut,
which the Father scooped out with his
own beneficent hand, and gave US in
lieu of lost Eden, waves with the estygian
growth; and best acres of our goodly
heritage are devoted to crop but slight
ly prefigured by that which sprang from
the dragons teeth. What high-minded
dweller in this delightful valley can fail
to respond to the following indignant
apostrophe of the late Rev. John Pier
pont?
"A righteous anger doth possess my soul,
When, lovely valley, am doomed to see
TO see that plant, the deadliset that grows,
Supplanting both thy lily and thy rose
See the green, sluggish reptile it receives
Round its pink spikes the loathsome crawler
And man bscsming-a tooacco-uomr'
1--WE this morning listened to an
admirable paper on intemperance in our
colleges. 1t saddened me to hear of the
dissipation of young men blessed with
such opportunities. But when it occur
red to me. as have recently been told,
that the use of tobacco is there almost
and the college, among its
other uses, is turned into. Q genteelsmoke-
house, where not to contribute to the
cloud is to be singular and
and OH the whole not q
very good fellow it did not surprise
me to hear that drinking and debauche-
ry disgrace those institutions. A large
proportion of the pitiable young dupes
hat bow down to the tObOcco idol, which
s appropriately enshrined in front of
The tobacco shops in the image of q stall
wart Indian, with bundle of cigars in
,ne hand and q murderous to mahawk in
lie other-thus to entice victims with
The former, to be inundated with the
atter-a large proportion, fear, will
1 nd themselves ere long prostrate and
lying in the purlieus OF the temple of
Bacchus, should they persist in their
nfatuation. TO be sure, they may new
,r reach that natural destinations; for
German physicians testify that Of the
ieaths in their country of the young
nan under tXentY-five more than half