The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-07-05

adults, at any rate-and whatever adds to the
agreeableness Of life, adds to its resources and
power Mark Twain writes that he regards
wine as ssclog to the brain, not an inspira-
tom but that he IFS forty-six years old, and
has smoked immoderately for thirty-eight
years, and finds that three hundred cigars a
month are sufficient to keep his constitution
on firm basis The concordant testimony
of hundred literary workers is that alcohol
is an injurious stimulant, and that smoking
may or may not be, according to the tempera-
ment of the smoker.
That Understanding is a low habit the
world does not agree. Jules Simon depre
Gated its use in polite society, as its
tendency is to separate men from the society
of women" On the contrary, few women
dissent to the fragrant odor of good tobacco.
Smoking is domestic habit. It keeps the
laborer at home, and the woman who drives
her husband elsewhere to smoke is little too
angelic for this life. The freside should be
the nearest place to heaven man can find on
earth; but he is there in the iesh and his at
tributes and appetites are of the earth,
earthly and rightly 50, too. The upward
curling smoke is his Jacobs ladder, and if not
rudely thrust from him his fancies ascend
and descend as angels with the rising and fall
ing puffs, until his quiet home, his wife and
babies, seen through this delicious haze, and
his chimney corner become to him the dear
est spot on earth, the way and gate of heaven.
Smoking is a sociable habit. The pipe is
democratic; it is universal leveler GIVE
me a light was the first cry Of men unto the
gods, and the modern Prometheus viii be
painted with his pipe in his mouth. The man
who smokes will be good natured The pipe
is IA safety-valve that may be depended on
when good nature is under strain. Smoking
inclines to generosity, to sociabiity, to good
nature. It is NOT necessarily unclean OF. IN
healthy. The statement that smoking leads
to drinking is without physiological OF clinical
evidence. If it is slow poison, it is like Vol
taire's coffee which had been poisoning him
for nearly ninety years.
AS to expense: If tobacco costs the civilized
world more than its bread, the smoker may
anwer, we have the bread and tobacco also.
If there are those who abuse the use of tobac-
co, the argument also holds against tea, cof-
fee, and all stimulants. Men must learn. to
be temperate as regards food and drink
even oxygen is poisonous to some There
is no solid, liquid or gas that.is not injurious
to man in excess. Then let those who own
themselves, and can enjoy their flesh without
violence, smoke their pipe in peace No
awkward servant will throw mug Of beer
over them in this age Of the world certainly;
not the denizens Of newspaper offices.
King James's "Anti-blast to Tobacco failed
to put out the social fire Sir Walter Raleigh
hndIed in Europe, and the decent smoker
really needs no apology If he does the &C.
companying Psalm Of Tobacco may serve to !
console him.
1.-THE pipe, SO lly-like and weak,
Docs thus thy mortal state bespeak s# aa
j Thou art Q On such,ef Eg }5 518
Ill .e Gone with the touch; .s es43a sci
& Thus think and smoke tobacco. s ,a.vs
"And when the smoke ascends on high, 1'2
Then thou behold the vanity
OF worldly stuff, Isl lee bal a93 III son
Gone with puff; t.-s
Mr. h Thus think and smoke tobacco 49,.
aAnd seest the ashes cast away,
Then to myself thou mayest say
That to the dust 4ss
49, Return thou must; 3is
Thus think and smoke tobacco.
z NThe smoke like burning incense towers %
So should praying heart Of yours,
With ardent cries, t&
.,Ft Surmount the skies;
Thus think and smoke tobacco II