The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-09-25
NUMBER 6.
SNUFF-DIPPNG.
The Filthy Practice Not Confined to the
Southern States.

Southern States.
From the New York Times.
The various modes of using tobacco
are by snuffing, chewing, smoking and
dipping. 1t has been generally cOnsid-
cred that the latter practice belongs alto
gether to the southern and southwes-
tern sta5es, but it is not so it extends
to a certain degree throughout the en-
tire length and breadth of the land.
Snnf-dipping is so called perhaps from
the reason that it IS used in small
quantities obtained from the bottle or
box, as the case may be, by dipping it
out with a stick or small spoon. The
practice prevails to a slight extent in
the state of New York, and to a much
greater extent in the cities than in the
country. It originated among the denli
monde, and from them gradually made
its way to other classes of society. Two
kinds of snuff are used by the dippers,
both of which, however, are known as
Scotch. The difference between them
is that cne has a certain amount of table
salt mixed with it, and the other has
none. They are known as salt Scotch
and fresh Scotch. Fresh Scotchis pre-
pared more in this city than in any
other part of the state. The following
ID bAAO A4AdLLOL u O1BDAuB IL NSH 4SLh
The dipper Is provided with q small
spoon, about half the size of a common
teaspoon, with which she dips a sufi-
cient quantity of snuff from her bottle.
Then seizing the lower lip with the
thumb and forefnger of her left hand
she draws it well forward and fills the
cavity with the bonnie 6O1tche contained
In the spoon. There she lets it remain
until it is gradually diffused through
her mouth, expectorating the while, in
a manner that would do credit TO a
veteran. Sometimes the delicaey is
daintily enYeIoped IN a fine piece of
tissue paper and deposited in the same
place. In the eastern states the salt
Scotch is preferred, but it is not used
In the same way as in New York. There
the dippers use small stick of some
very fibrous wood, the end of which is
chewed until it assumes a mop-like ap-
pearance owing to the separation of the
fibres. This is dipped into the snuff
and then rubbed on the gums and teeth.
A large quantity of the snuff is used by
the factory girls in all the eastern
states, and it may readily be imagined
how easily habit of that kind may ex-
tend among people,
In the southwest, that Is to say in
isiana and Texas, Scotch snuff is used
exclusively with a stick, as in the east
ern states. The habit is indulged in
! by all classes, in secret by the higher
and openly by the lower. In North and
South Carolina high toast" snuff is
the kind in demand. It IS peculiarly
strong and pungent, as it is made by
very much the same process as the Irish
! BlackguHrd, being dried on heated
screens before being ground. In Geor-
| gia and Alabama Maccaboy snuff is the
favorite. It is a strong, black snuff,
salted, and scented with otto of rose.
| In all the aforementioned states the stick,
or &" brush" as they call 1t, is employed.
| In Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey,
| Maryland, and the western states, there
is but little snuff dipping. but there, as
in all other states, the habit is steadily
increasing. The Scotch snuffs above
alluded to are all of a light coffee brown,
and are perfectly dry and ground as
fine as flour. The Maccaboy, which is
almost black, is coarse and quite moist.
So far as expectoratiOn IS concerned, the
spoon dippers are not excelled by their
sisters who prefer the stick, either of
them being able to compete with the
celebrated Mr.. Hannibal Chollop, the
gentleman whom Mr.. Chuzzelwit met at
Eden during his travels in America, who
"required two foot in a circ-lar di-rec-
tiOn, and who had "gone ten foot In a
circ-lar direction" on q wager.
Dipping is apparently vely beneficial
to the teeth, and it may be that the
habit is often acquired from using snuff
as q dentifrice. The writer of this ar
ticle has travelled extensively through
the south and the southwest, and his
experience has been that wherever the
practice prevailed the teeth of the wo-
men were beautifully white aud singu
larIy free from decay. Tobacco pos
sesses high antiseptic and detergent
properties, and must exercise b nefcial
influence in purifying the mouth.
In order to show to what an extent
the habit has obtained, it will only be
necessary to say that in the year 1873.
one New York firm alone, BIessrs. P.
Dorillsrd & Co., sold in round numbers
161, 900 pounds of snuff, all of which
was of the kind used for dipping, be-
sides more that $50, 900 pounds of the
regular mixtures for the old fashioned
snuffers. Add to this enormous guam
tity the large amounts manufactured in
the other cities, and some idea Tsy be
formed of the extent to which dipping
is carried in the United States.