News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-02-28
RUM AND TOBACCO.
What a Veteran has to Say About Their
Use.

What n Veteran has to Say About Ihef
Use.
In an interview with P. t. Barnum
by New York San reporter, the follow
ing conversation took place:
"How long have you maintained such
regular habits ?"
"As far as practicable since l847, when
I became teetotaler, although when l
was travelling Snowman my hours were
necessarily not SO good
''Did you drink much prior to 1947? p
s'Well, I wouldn't have allowed any
body to tell me so, but when look back
over that time l know now that did.
When L built my magnificent Oriental
country seat, Iranistan, was proud of
the house, but ten times prouder of my
wine cellar than of anything else had.
was not in the habit of drinking dis
titled liquors, but every day at dinner
took my bottle of champagne, or its
equivalent in other wines or malt liquors
I did no business after noon, and my
mother-in-law used to say sometimes
that I was heady after dinner. [ felt
quite offended at the suggestion and
threatened to go back to whisky if it
was repeated, for I really considered my
self quite a temperance man, since L
drank only wine, and thought my after
dinner feelings were due to overeating
rather than drinking. But got the
Rev. DR.. Chaplin to come up to Bridge
port and deliver a temperance lecture,
for the subject of which he took the
moderate drinker,' and saw myself in
quite new light. I realized for the first
time the bad example was setting, and
when I went home that night was so
worried that I could scarcely sleep. The
next morning 1 had my coachman knock
the necks off all the champagne bottles
had in my cellar, some five or six
dozen the port and other medicinal
wines I gave away in cases OF sickness,
and the liquors returned to the dealers.
That was the end of my drinking. As
bumblebees are biggest when they are
first Matched, so I was, in the first heat
of conversion, an enthusiast on the sub
| iect of teetotalism. / went all over
Connecticut and New York delivering
free lectures on the subject, and even
went out to Wisconsin, stumped the
State at my own expense, and at least
helped to carry it on temperance plat
form"
''You swore off on tobacco also?"
'sYes-or at least stopped its use.
never chewed, but was a great smoker
When went over to England lecturing
in 1856, after the Jerome Clock Com
pany disaster overwhelmed me, 1 was il
such a situation that every pound wa'
of importance to me, and as | was the1
using every week a sovereign's worth O
cigars, / thought I would practice econ
omy and stop it. One Sunday I chewe(
chamomile flowers all day instead o
smoking, by druggists advice, anC
they almost killed me. The next day
went to smoking again, and continued
, up to 1860. could give up liquor eas
lily enough, but not tobacco, and l aver
aged ten cigars day. One day in 1860
on my way down to the museum, 1 fel
t strange choking sensation away dow
, in my throat, and then throbbing o
t palpitation of my heart. I had notice
? it little for year before, but paid n
particular attention to it until then.
, asked my manager, Greenwood, what
4 was, and he said it was heart disease
and the symptoms I described as min
e meant death. That scared me prett
badly. I determined to give up bus.
ness at once, retire to the country. an
prepare to die, but before doing so cor
e suited DIR. Willard Parker. He examine
: me, and said You may have a yer
/ hard heart, for all l know, but you hav
as strong one as there is in New Yorl
Nicotine is all that is the matter wit
1 you. Stop smoking / did so at once
L was so scared, and never smoked again
a For year, however, 1 used to carry bi
t of calamus in my pocket to chew c
e when l wanted to smoke"