The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-11-12
TRsDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 10. 1885
Raleigh generally gets the credit for the

1t does not mako any particular differ
ence to anybody now, and posteritJ
will not be likely to fight over thu
| question. Shrewd people are beginning
to suspect that many of these interesting
little personal anecdotes are bits of pleas
ant fiction aud that history is not always
just. Everybody remembers the story Of
Sir Walter Ra.eigh's servant, who
finding his master smoking, supposed
him to be on fire, and endeavored to
extinguish him with cold water. Re-
gardless of how much of these stories
may be true or false, we do know that
tobacco was introduced into England by
somebody in the latter part of the six
| teenth century, and that its use soon
became as general there as on the CONT.
nent.
Everywhere in Europe and in young
American colonies, when their time came,
the most severe laws we're passed to
check its progress. Venice was the first
to place tax upon tobacco, imposing it
as early as 1868. James 1. forbade culti'
vation, and ordered growing plants to be
uprooted. The Gear of Russia announc.
ed that every one in his dominions,
whether subjects or not, who smoked
tobacco, was to be punished with death,
uuless:tbe culprit could prove exteuuat-
ing circumstances, in which case the
sentence might be reduced to amputa-
tion of the nose. The Shah of Persia
proclaimed to his army that if any soldier
should be seized in the act of smoking,
he and his pipe and tobacco should all be
burned together. Amuret w., Sultan of
Turkey, issued a mandate that every
person convicted of smoking should be
marched, mounted backward, on an ass
through the streets of the capital with
the instrument of his crime stuck
through his nostrils.
In Italy, Popes Urban VIII. and In
nocent XII. made it the subject of
vehement ex communication.
Even in Switzerland special tribunal
Vas created for the express purpose of
bringing to punishment delinquents who
Used the forbidden cd.
Yet in spite of all this the use of
tobacco steadily increased. 1t made its
way surely and irresistibly among the
people, till to-day it is established in
popular favor in every quarter of the
globe. In this country, and in Europe,
il is stating it very safely within bounds
to say three out of every four adults are
smokers. A rough estimate of the aver
age annual consumption of tobacco for
the whole human race few years ago
obtained total of 1,000,0 900 900 pounds,
OF seventy ounces per head each year.
In this country alone in the year 1884, it
is known that there were consumed
nearly three and half thousand million
cigars, over q thousand million cigarettes,
and hundred and seventy million
pounds of tobacco, aud the average
yearly consumption in the United States
has been computed at twenty four pouRds
for every family in the country. Within
q few years Great Britain's consumption
WIS reckoned at fifty million pounds
yearly.
The difficulty in dealing with these
enormous figures is that that they are 80
large that people, do not really compre-
he,nd them. and they are so weak by
reason of their very magnitude. 1t is
perhaps more forcible state to say that
thu number of cigars and cigarettes
smoked in this country alone each year
would, if placed end to end, would give
us rope of tobacco that would reach
far beyond the moon. With this for
standard it is easy to see what a superla-
tive long line the annual smoking
material of the world would make if
treated in the same manner. At any
rate enough has been said to give very
Just idea of the magnitude of our subject,
aud thus impressed we may proceed to
examine it more in detail.-Boston Globe