The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1877-11-08
PLAIN TALK ABOUT TOBACCO.

Rev. A. Sutherland Missionary Secre-
tary of the Canada Methodist Church, is
one of the ablest and most effective OF
our temperance workers, and very con-
sistently wages war against the use of to-
bacco as well as alchohol. In a recent
interesting letter to the Guardian he
writes his mind pretty fully about the
tobacco nuisance" He says; "is there
any possible escape for travellers, who
have some regard to personal cleanliness
and decenCy, from the intensely selfish
and disagreeable proximity of smokersP
l say selfish advisedly; for, of all beings
under the sun smokers have the least re-
gard for the comfort of others. They
have only to remember their own feelings
when learning to smoke to be convinced
how disgusting the weed is to those who
do not use it; yet the average smoker will
puff his abominable fumes under your
very nose with an indifference as sublime
as if he were diffusing the aroma of roses.
You sit down at a steamboat table with
the appetite that the lake breezes give;
your neighbor politely requests you to
pass the mustard. But,faughl the request
comes from breath rendolent of stale
tobacco, that efectually spoils your appe.
tite for that time. You retire to your
state,room for little quiet reading, and
lower the window for fresh air, when puff
comes volume of smoke from some vo
tary of the " eed outside. The weather
becomes rough, and the motion of the
boat decidedly unpleasant. You feel
squeamish, and going to the lower deck |
stand beside the gangway looking out up
on the distant waters For minute there |
is delightful feeling that the breeze is
refreshing and settling your eternal econ
omy. Delusive hopel Scarcely have you
begun to realize it when aLother odor
than that of the sparkling waters begins
to steal upon your senses. The irrepres-
sible smoker is there, of course, on the
wndward side, and you are driven from
your refuge with an added qnalm of sick
ness.
On shore it is almost as bad. You get
off at the first dock where the boat makes
a stop, but before you can reach fresh
fields and pastures new" you have to run
the gauntlet of battalion of smokers.
If travelling by rail the evil seems to in
crease. There is a asmoking car, of course,
but it is only protection from one form
of the nuisance. You enter a first class
car, and, unless you carefully inspect the
premises, set down your satChel into a
puddle of tobacco juice. You seat your
self in the cleanest place available, and
lol from the front and rear comes the odOT
of stale tobacco. You retreat in despair,
pay an extra dollar, seat yourselfin Pull
man, and for few minutes imagine you
have fairly escaped. Vain imagination
You soon discover that the conductors
room is full Of smokers, and every breath
ofwind watts the siCkening odor through |
the car. You give up in despair, convin-
ced that the only resort is to grin and
bear it'' as best you can. And if this be |
some of the suffering on the average
traveller, what shall we say of the misery |
inflicted on thousands of delicate ladies
by this intolerable nuisanCe2 Time you
Perhaps it is; but now that my |
hand is in l will relieve my mind a little
further. How can a Christian man smoker |
How can physical, let alone moral, purity |
consist with such habitP Who can
bring clean thing out ofan unClean? The
appetite is not natural-it is purely artif-
cial, and that alone should condemn it |
from the Christian standpoint. The CEN
tral idea of the religion ofChrist is purity, |
and it applies to the body as well as to
the soul. Our bodies are the temples of
the Holy Ghost, and IF man defle the
temple of God, him will God destroy" |
But many ministers smoke Then so
much the worse for the ministers, and 30 |
much worse for the people to whom they |
minister. / have seen and heard a good |
deal about this in my time, and have
often thought that if ministers who talk
so jucosely about their smoking habits
could oyeThear the remarks of the best
people in their congregations, nd realize
now the habit lessons their inf lenoe and
lessons the confidence of others in their
spirituality i am persuaded that many of
them would abandon q practice from
which at the time of ordination, they de-
Clared themselves free. At religious SER
vices how often have / seen the look Of
disgust in the faces of honest seekers
when counsel or encouragement has been
whispered to them in breath reeking
with tobacco And worse still how often
have l felt shiver pass over me when,
in the solemn service of the Supper,
have seen moustache stepped in tobac-
co dipping into the wine cup, and then
have been compelled to put that cup to
the lips Of some delicate, pure minded
woman. Now | am done; and let those
who don't like the homily gait the hab-
it," - ss.,,sf