The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1891-06-20

tnem nctltlOus courage that IN
sured the accomplishment of the
deed, regardless of toll and danger.
Other instances given are more per-
tinent, and bear directly on the
general question of morality. In
one of them a Partisan cook, intend
ing to murder his mistress, had
already entered the chamber where
she was sleeping, when he felt his
courage fail him. He went into the
dining-room and drank two glasses
of brandy that he had previously
prepared, after which he returned
and cut the throat of his victim.
But his moral faculties had not
been sufficiently stupefed. When
he saw the blood flow and heard
her cries he found he still had not
the nerve to finish. He fled to the
parlor, took seat, and having fur
ther brutalized himself with the
fumes of cigarette, found himself
able to 60 back and complete his
bloody task without compunction.
These details were related by the
murderer on his trial. The part
that liquor played in this instance
is by no means new, but there is a
certain novelty in making the cigar
cite an auxiliary to crime. That
criminals in general, and women
who lead dissolute lives, are much
given to liquor, often as a means of
weakening the conscience or dead
ening remorse, is a fact generally
acknowledged.
It is Tolstoi's theory that when a
person desires to do thing he
should not do, or does not feel in
clined to do something he ought to
do, he takes a cigar or cigarette,
and so stupefies his conscience that
the wrong action becomes easy and
natural. The use of tobacco pre-
sents certain advantages over other
narcotics. The taking of opium
and hasheesh is neither convenient
nor altogether cleanly. Tobacco is
easily carried, easily kept, and not
offensive to others when kept within
certain restrictions. The more wide
spread, therefore, are it's evil effects.
"Why," asks the Russian moralist,
"are gamblers invariably inveterate
smokers? Why is the use of the
cigarette so rare among women of
irreproachable lives? Why do wo-
men who lead bad lives and those
whose nervous systems are pros
trated smoke incessantly?" and he
replies that in all these instances
habit no doubt goes for something,
but in most cases the motive is the
sitting of that disagreeable monitor,
the conscience.
The faults, the selfshness, the
illusions of the slaves of tobacco
are thrown into relief. The habit
ual smoker in his infatuation forgets
the proprieties of time and place.
The well-bred man is not always a
well-bred smoker. If in a railroad
car or a room he asks those present
if they object to smoking every one
knows he expects an affirmative an
swer, and there is either a timid
assent or An ominous silence. The
most elementary politeness would
seem to suggest that such a ques-
ton should never be asked several
persons, and that no one should
think of smoking except in places
where no one has a right to object.
Smoking as stimulus of literary
labor, argues Tolstoi, is of more
than doubtful value, for it stupefies
or destroys the critical sense that
should constantly aid and direct
the author in the accomplishment
of his task. A certain facility and
abundance has been gained at the
expense of lucidity and conference.
These deductions are made by the
writer from his own experience, he
having used smoking as literary
aid before he decided to abstain en-
tirely from wine and narcotics. 1t
would have given additional inter-
est to his essay if he had mentioned
Rosetti, who wrote usually under
the influence of opium, and Poe,
who often owed his inspirations to
alcoholic stimulants.
In spite of the light that the en-
minent Russian author has endeav-
ored to throw on the subject, the
use of stimulants and certain mar
cotics remains an open question.
1t is true that. there are more and
weightier arguments against the use
of alcoholic stimulants and tobacco
than can ever be urged in their IA
vor, but what can be done against
a habit that involves the presumed
comfort and pleasure of the univer-
sal human animal? The theory
resolves itself in the abstract into
this simple question: "Should the
nerves ever be stimulated in the
interest Of bodily health?" If the
answer is affirmative, it only re-
mains-to be determined how and to
what degrees. F. Chronicle.
The Yellow Pine as Ornamental Wood
A Chicago paper says workers in
ornamental wood now assert that