Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-01-12
Our had HnIBit.

OuT bhu AhhbN'
While ii is well 10 consider our national
taste in matters of dress, how much more
important il is that our attention should
occasionally be called to our national bad
ha bit tobacco chewing. II is a national
habit inasmuch as two-tbirds OF our coun-
try men are slaves TO this vile custom, and
it is peculiar TO our people. Abroad chew
ing is only practiced in seaport towns by
sailors. That the habit is all but uni
versal here, was shown by the statistics OF
1850, published twenty-six years ago, and
that the habit. like all bad customs, has
materially increased, cannot be doubted.
One hundred and fiily million pounds of
tobacco we're in that year cut up or pressed
into cakes for chewing purposes. About
five pounds for every man, woman and
child in the country al that time. We are
Informed that the custom is no longer con
fined to Tue sterner sex, but that women
now use the weed. This may be true in
regard 10 The female portion of the poor
white trash in The Southern States; but we
have yet TO see, aud hope never to be so
unfortunate as TO behold the woman given
to tobacco chewing. Woman is the medi-
um through which this bad habit may be
somewhat abaed, and we look TO her to
discounlenance IL.
Do men not realize that chewing is often
sive 10 ladies? That 1t detri cts from le-
tinement and renders the cultured man un-
attraclive9 Does the novice fiatter himself
that The quid lies unnoticed in his cheek
That he fuses" tobacco 50 that il is unub-
seIvable. Only little few times a day.
Did not The old stager commence in this
way? Just a little, and that little as sick
ening TO him as he is 10 his friends BOW.
As says an old anti-tobacco ballad, pub
lshed by New England temperance So
ciety in 1920,
''They think they chew so folks can't tenit;
They cannot chew SO we can't smell it,"
Alter prolon ed practice, the quantity
chewer can consume is enormous. DIR.
Arnott mentions "the case of harbor su-
periuteDdent, formerly sailor, aged six
ty-iour, who had chewed tobacco upward
of fifty years, and now also eats il, swal
lowing every particle of leaf and juice.
For many years he has been in the habit of
eating a quarter of a pound of ne9rohedd
every .fve days" The Lancet 1877, vol. l.,
p. 440.
Let us turn in Webster's dictionary to
the definition of the word 'chew," 40 bite
and grind with the teeth, to masticate."
Tobacco chewing then is constant grinding
with the teeth. Whati quid? What is
quidf "a portion suitable to be chewed,
cud." The definition of "cud" is "a por-
tion of food brought up into the mouth by
ruminaling animals" And man is rum
mating or chewing animal. Like the cat
tie Of the field he cbews the cud, but what
a different cud, an emetic, even offensive
to the brute.
Chewing is univ ersal among the lower
classes of our people, but is not confined
to them. This is evident to any one who
treads the sidewalks of our most fashiona-
BILE thoroughfares and notices their condi-
tiou. In many of our incest homes the
vessel known as a ''spttoon" occupies
conspicuous place. Very Omen one sees 1t
on a hearthstone, and should then feel
than full that il is modern invention, for
certainly its existence in former times
would have destroyed all the romance as
soeiated with the old black log and blazing
pine knots around which our ancestors de-
lighted TO gather. Who would take pleas
ure in recalling these traditions If we pic
tured our ancestors gathered around the
spiltoonH Spittoons are sometimes found
in the American drawing-room yes, and
sometimes even under ones nose in the
dining groom, where, though perhaps
thought useful and pretty by some mem
ber of the family, are positively disgusting
and anything but appetizing TO others. In
certain so-called fashionable churches, spit
toons are sometimes placed within the
pews, and are a poor substitute for the
kneeling bench of old.
or late splttoOns have become "cuspe-
dores," aud a prominent furniture dealer
Informed me they we're frequently ordered
of elaborate design to match sets of furni-
ture. Sometimes TO be carved artistically,
and sometimes painted ones in porcelain
OF the most costly pattern. A western man
had lately ordered "pair" to be placed
under the noses Of his friends at an ex-
pense Of three hundred dollars.
At Washington man must be amused,
If not disgusted, 10 notice how the repre-
sentatlves OF our people are provided for.
There Is always aspiltoon for every soma
Aar, IL aaat Asmlat0r FAR sch splttoOn-