New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-05-01
THE BRITISH PIPE.

John Bull is called upon solemnly TO give up
his pipe, and to puff no more either the stumpy
Guilty or the long and graceful "church-
warden A number of devoted men have
banded themselves together as "The English
Anti-TobaccO Society "-and very respectable
gentlemen and dignitaries the society seems
to be composed of-Deans, ArchdcacOns, Bar
onets Doctors of Divinity and Medicine,
Mayors and many plain Misters and Esquires.
The With Annual Meeting of T. E. A. T. S.
was held in Manchester on the 2Sth ult., and
was numerously attended. The way in which
everybody went for pipes, either Uira rOce
OF by letter, was whitening, wild, and
we may properly say, smashing. "They
undermine" said Dean Close, &" the whole
"structure of mans physical and moral
"frame." By "they," it must be understood,
however, that the good Dean did not mean
merely "pipes" but pipes and drinks together
Sir w. c. Trevelyan considered smoking to be
&c debasing, filthy, Notwithstanding, costly,
"and most essentially selfish indulgence"
This strong kind of language was used by all
the speakers also. Smoking was denounced as
uncleanly,n "sensual,n bunting the finer
feelings of all who resort to it," causing
fatal explosions and destructive fires" "lead-
"ing to thriftlessness and improvidence,' and
" threatening the vigor, stamina, and moral
"preemnence of the British race" We could
give additional specimens of this language of
vigorous not to say vituperative denunciation;
but let these suffice. We very much question
whether this sort of terrible warning is likely
to do much good. 1t is overweight. 1t is
unreasonable and it is not exactly just.
Smokers laugh at it. They unders and, per-
fectly well, that there are men VINO can smoke
and men who cannot smoke but when they
are told that smoking is the cause of all these
evils, that it always and invariably has all these
deleterous effects, they laugh, for they know
better, and they puff away, for they are not in
the least frightened. If smoking be really an
evil, then this exaggeratiOn only does harm
and defeats its own purpose. UnquestiOn
ably, most men might better not smoke but
there are many other things which they might
better not do, and which they will continue to
do, without killing themselves or without re-
ducing themselves to idiocy.
In the same way, the special physical evils
of tobacco-smOking were exaggerated at this
most respectable meeting There was DR..
Drysdale who gave the Society perfect cata-
logue of technical hOrrors-cancers, infamma-
tons, consumptions, palpitations, headaches,
toothaches, neuralgias. Then the Rev. John
Ross took up the wondrOus tale from a
religious point of view and cOntended that
" the habit of smoking was opposed to the
" exercise of the virtues of Christian purity,
vigilance, self-dcnial, bounty, and influence"
Thus we see that an indulgence in meer-
schaums may be at once the ruin of the body
and the soul. But everybody, as we have said,
knows better, and nobody is deferred from
the habit by this hyperbolical language. A
moderate demonstration of the evils which
may, but which do not in all cases, re-
suit from the habit, would be much more
likely to do good. 1t would be great deal
better to point out that smoking is not
habit for the young; that when its effects are
plainly prcjudicial to health, man should
have the moral courage to abandon it; and
that gentlemen never smoke in the presence
of those to whom they know or have reason
to think 1T TO be offensive. But this Will not