Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-11-01
TALENT AND
How Literature Is Saturated with
the Smoke of the Weed.



James Parton has recently written
a letter, which has had wide quota
ton, exhorting writers and brain
workers to throw away their pipes.
This reopens the discussion of a social
topic which affords the largest room
for honest divergence of opinion.
Suppose, without attempting to decide
the mooted point as to the soundness
OF Mr.. Parton's advice, we indulge in
a few random observations on the
prominence of the pipe in literature
Mr.. Parton's counsel to FRAMEWORK
ers may be wise or not, but that he is
in a minority is a fact Of which there.
can be but little question. The con
sumption Of tobacco increases yearly,
and to this increase brain workers, we
believe, contribute a very large pro
portion. English literature, as a
whole, may be said to be surcharged
with smoke. Anti-tobacconists can
point, it is true, to the fact that
Shakspeare's pages do not contain a
single reference TO the weed. But
this notable exception only serves 10.
emphasize the rule. Lord Beacon
eulogizes tabacco, declaring that sit
comforteth the spirits and dischargeth
WEAKNESS, which it worketh partly by
opening but chiefly by the opiatt
virtue which condenseth the spirits"
Ben johnson and Drummond, and
Fletcher and Beaumont constantly
renewed their friendships over a
pipe. The great DIR. Barrow pro-
nounced his pipe to be a cure-all, hi
panpharmacon. Sir Thomas 0yerbury
calls smoking that deleetable pas
time Boxhore, the great Dutch
scholar, smoked almost necessarily 10
his study. Sir Isaac Newton not only
loved his pipe, but had a playful and
somewhat ungallant way of using the
fingers Of his lady friends for shoppers
Steele wrote his splendid essays with
a pipe in his mouth, and Addison sent
out his brightest things from a cloud
Of smoke. Dryden loved his whit
only Of soothing iong-stemmed clay
the church warden" Of the olden
time. Daniel Defoe made his pipe his
nearest friend. All the literary men
OF Queen Anne's day appear wreathed
in fragrant clouds, and no period
surely, has given US a greater number
Of great writer's. Charles Lamb was
long a deVOtee of the weed. before he
wrote his celebrated Farewell To-
bacco,' in which he mathematical
it as:
Filth o the mouth and fob o the mind.
Coming down to later times, we find
the example Of Sir Walter Scott, the
prince Of romancers on the same side.
His novels are full Of tobacco. His
characters are continually shutting or
smoking. Dominic Sampson heard of
Meg Merriles' singing on the stairs
and groaned deeply, "pufing out be.
tween whites huge volumes Of tobacco
smoke" He makes the old bag her
self a disciple Of the weed, introducing
her to Harry Bertram, 'busily en-
gagged with a short tobacco pipe"
Shelley, Edgar Poe and Tom Moore
are three modern poets who are 10 be
set down on the other side as anti
t%Obacconists. Macaulay, we think,
may be added to the number.
In our own day Dickens and Tenny-
son, who stand, at least in popular
estimation, as the English laureates
Of prose and poetry respectively,
are to be set down as ardent
levers Of nicotine comfort. Spur
geOn has reached some eloquent
sermons in defense of the pipe, de-
claring on one occasion that he had
always smoked, and always intended
TO smoke TO the glory Of God" On
this side we think we shall err In set
ting down L~ongfellow, Lowell. Al
drieh and Clemens, at least, as disci-
pies of Sir Walter Raleigh. Oliver
Wendell Holmes, ifhe follows his own
advice to young men, must be set
down as OF a contrary mind. Mr..
Beecher is not attached to the weed.
but a Boston clergyman whose fame
once almost rivaled that of the Brook
lyn pastor, was deeply devoted TO it.
If you want to find out if Mr.. -
is in his study you need not ring the
bell, but just look and see if the smoke
is pouring out Of the window" one of
his deacons was wont to say to people
who wanted to see him,