St. Landry democrat., 1886-10-09
THE TOBACCO HABIT.

An Impressively Entertaining Treatise by
One Who Knows All About 1t.
| am glad to notice strong effort on
the part of the friends of humanity to
encourage those who wish to quit the
use Of tobacco. To quit the use of this
weed is one of the most agreeable
methods of relaxation. | have tried it
a great many times, and l can safely
say that it has afforded me much solid
felicity
To violently reform and cast away the
weed and at the end OF week to find
good cigar unexpectedly in the quiet,
unostentatious pocket Of an old vest, af-
fords the most intense and delirious de-
light
Scientists tell us that a single drop OF
the concentrated oil of tobacco on the
tongue of an adult dog is fatal. | have
no doubt about the truth or cohesive
power of this statement, and for that
reason | have always been opposed to
the use of tobacco among dogs. Dogs
should shun the concentrated oil of to-
bacco, especially if longevity be any Oh
ject to them. Neither would advise
man who may have canine tendencies
or strain of that blood in his veins to
sozodont. To those who may feel that
way about tobacco | would say, shun it
by all means. Shun it as you would the
deadly upas tree, or the still more
deadly whipple tree of the tropics.
In what ! may say under this head
please bear in mind that do not speak
of the cigarette. l am now confirming
my remarks entirely to the subject of
tobacco.
The use of the cigarette is, in fact,
beneficial in some ways, and no pest
house should try to get along without
it. 1t is said that they are very popular
in the orient, especially in the lazar
houses, where life would otherwise be-
come very monotonous.
Scientists, who have been unable to
successfully use tobacco and who there
fore have given their whole lives and
the use of their microscopes to the in
vestigation of its horrors, say that can
nibals will not eat the flesh of tobacco
using human beings. And yet we say
to our missionaries: mo man can be
Christian and use tobacco"
say, and say it, too, with all that
depth of feeling which has always char
acterlzed my earnest nature that in this
We are committing great error.
What have the cannibals ever done
for us as a people that we should avoid
the use of tobacco in order to fit our
flesh for their tables? In what way
have they sought to ameliorate our con-
dition in life that we should strive in
death to tickle their palates?
To me the statement that tobacco
tainted human flesh is offensive to the
cannibal does not come home with
crushing power.
Perhaps do not love my fellew-man
80 well as the cannbal does. | know
that | am selfish in this way, and if my
cannibal brother desires to polish my
wish bone he must take me as he finds
me. l can not abstain wholly from the
use of tobacco in order to crafty the
pampered tastes of one who has never
gone out of his way to do me a favor.
DO ask the cannibal to break off the
pernicious use of tobacco because | dis
ilht Tie udFOE Oh III III Ms DFlSkel!
will defy any respectable resident of the
cannibal islands to-day to place his fin
ger on a solitary instance where | have
ever, by word or deed, intimated that
he should make the slightest change in
his habits on my account, unless it be
that | may have suggested that diet
consisting of more ANARCHISTS and less
human beings would be more product
tive of general and lasting good.
My own idea would be to send class
of men to these islands so thoroughly
imbued with their great object and the
oil of tobacco that the great Caucasian
chowder of those regions would be fol-
lowed by such weeping and wailing and
crashing of teeth, and such remorse and
repentance and gastric upheavals that
it would be as unsafe to eat mission
airy in the cannibal islands as it is to eat
ice-cream in the United States to-day
Bill Nye, IN Chicago NeUs.
Tho L;e+on;~,i