San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-04-23
ABOUT TOBACCO.
Written for the LIGHT.

Written for the LIGHT.
As sit in my comfortable arm chair in
my room, smoking my pipe "a pipe is far
better than a cigar and as the smoke
rises and curS, all around my head. de-
licately pertaining the air, my thoughts,
take an excursion to the past, and tobac-
co is the theme of my cogitations. The
heroes and the handles of antiquity were
ignorant of the soothing, comforting and
invigorating effects of tobacco. They had
no IDEA of the companionship of a pipe.
VIII en- one is in solitude, or is pestered
with remorSelesS duns, or is forced TO
wear seedy clothes and patched shoes,
and TO decline an invitation to dance at
Mrs. Skips, for lack OF the regulation suit.
No Hector and Paris had tobacco TO
brace their nerves while the Greeks were
thraShing them, on all occasions, when
ever they poked their heads outside the
walls Of Troy. Achilles, Ajax, Mes tor, &C.,
would have been far more heroic in case
they could have smoked half a dozen pipes
of tobacco day, and as many more, as
they reclined in their tents, after the tolls
and whackS OF the day were ended, and
their bruises and wounds had been doc
tored.
From all accounts, Sir Walter Raleigh
carried the first tobacco from America
to Europe, along with an Indian pipe, out
of which to smoke it. That was not more
long ago. There is an anecdote to the effect
that when Sir Walter Raleigh was sitting
in his chamber, smoking his Indian pipe
filled with tobacco, and sending out puffs
of smoke from his mouth, one of the SER
wants coming into the room, and seeing
smoke issuing from the mouth of his lord,
concluded he was on fire, and so rushed
out, seized bucket. of water and dashed
it over the head of the knight. The taste
for tobacco was wholly an acquired one,
and had to be acquired under difficulties,
as its use at the start produces the most
deathly nausea and swimming in the
head. As the weed was grown only by
the Indians, who are prOverbially indo-
lent, the supply was quite limited at first,
and the use of tobacco by Euro
peans was very costly for many years.
In England, it was sold for its weight in
silver-the buyer placed his piece of silver
in one end Of the scales, and the vendor Of
tobacco put enough of the weed in the
other end of the scales to balance it.
King James, the first, issued several
pedantically worded procamations de-
nouncing tobacco and forbi1ding his sub
jects to use it, but slowly and silently It's
use spread and increased. The poor of
that age seemed TO relish 1t more keenly
than did the men of wealth and fashion,
and seemed TO suck Solace and comfort
from their pipes, which were almost con-
stantly in their mouths. One very con-
siderable drawback on its use, was the
di fficulty of lighting ones pipe, when
travelling, or out in the field, as matches
were not invented until 1s40, or
Whereabouts. On cloudy day-&
lens, or sun glass, was wholly useless,
so that the difficulty of lighting pipe
prevented out of door smoking to very
great extent. Cigars and cigarettes were
not invented for nearly two centuries
after tobacco was introduced into Europe.
and smokers were confined to the use of
clay or stone pipes,
At one time tobacco was grown quite
successfully in Ireland, but the English
government put an end to its cultivation
by series of unfriendly acts, intended TO
protect it's culture in Virginia and North
Carolina.
While tobacco is a plant indigenous to
America, no explorer has come across
the plant, growing wild or in a state OF
nature, so that we are left in doubt as to
whether the plant was common to North
and South America and the West Indian
Islands, or was propagated afterwards
from the sowing of seed in different local
titles. The tobacco carried 10 England by
Sir Walter Raleigh, was obtained from
the Indians in Virginia, he having made
the first settlement in that state,
and it may be that the plant was
a native of Virginia, and has been
propagated in other countries from the
seed, as was done in Kentucky, Tenn
essee. Georgia, Alabama and other states.
For many years, the supply OF tobacco for
European consumption, was derived from
Virginia. The salaries of the Episcopal
clergymen in Virginia (Jhe Episcopal
church being the established church in
that state prior to l776) were mostly paid
in tobacco, owing TO the scarcity OF
money in that colony.