The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-08-03
THE TOBACCO HABIT.
IT has UNTITLED ACTOR BOOTH
FOR T6E STAGE.

Others Who Have Succumbed to It's
Vaccinations Dangerous Cigar
and Pipe-Be Careful Not to Becom 9
Their slaves.
The friends of Edwin Booth, says a New
York letter to the Philadelphia Press, are
satisfied that this greatest of American ira
gedians since Edwin Forrest Is likely never
to appear on the stage again. 1t is true
that after Lawrence Barrett's death Mr.
Booth, in Brooklyn, in response to a call
from his audience. said that he hoped to
appear again at some future day, aud this
assertion was taken as indicating that Mr..
Booth did not contemplate retirement from
the stage But those who know what his
plans are were aware that in spite
of this assertion be did not think of acting
for at least year or two. Now it seems
probable that he will act not at all in the
future, for his ambition seems to be de-
parted; be is satisfied with the reputation
he has made; he has paid all of the enor-
nous debts incurred through his attempt to
establish theater for the production of
ShakesDereal plays in New York city; he
has accumulated sufficient fortune, and
he is quite content, according to those who
know him best, to spend the rest of his days
in retirement
OF course Mr.. Booth can do nothing to
increase his reputation as the most subtle,
impressive and artistic portrayer of the
classic characters of the stage. There are
no new plays for him to appear in. The
play writing Of to-day is entirely different
from that which created the dramas in
which Mr.. Booth won his fame. Whether
he would he able to depict @ character
drawn from the life of the present time, or
TO make "A counterfeit presentment Of the
emotions and passions which stir men III
this day Of commercial and unromantic su-
premacy, or not, is question which can
never be answered.
At one time Mr. Booth did hope to get a
play which would give him an opportunity
to illustrate the development of human
nature as it is manifest in these latter days
of the nineteenth century. He read many
PLAYS but he found none which suited his
purpose, and he became satisfied that play
writing Of the modern time was Of a sort
unsuitable to his talents Moreover, Mr..
Booth discovered that the American public
were tired of the classic dra ma. He has
long realized that nothing but his own repu-
tation has drawn paying throngs to the
theaters in which he has played. People
went to see Booth and not to see the play.
MIR. BOOTHS DISEASE.
News has just been received from that
colony on Buzzards bay, where ex-
President Cleveland and jefferson the
actor, with whom Cleveland has struck up
a most delightful intimacy, and Mr.. Glider,
the editor of the Century Magazine, and
two or three others of some repute, have
cottages, that Mr.. Booths visit there has
not help d him physically, and that he, In
spite of the pleadngs of his friends, has de-
NaA xuh no
has gone.
Mr.. Booth left his quarters in the Players
club i'll this city about a month ago. He
was then pale, emaciated had but little APP
petite, and while not morose, was even
more reserved and silent than has been his
habit for some years His friends thought
that if he went to this Buzzard's bay colony.
where the ocean breezes are superb, and
where men in good health sleep like chill
dren and eat like day laborers. that he
would overcome the lethargic tendency
which gives his friends more annoyance
than it seems to give Mr.. Booth himself.
There was one thing, however, which his
friends and his physicians deemed necessary
in order to secure for Mr.. Booth vigor,
ambition and health. They thought that
he must either absolutely give up his habit
Of smoking, or must curtail it to very
limited proportions
j
was stricken with sort Of vertigo while
playing in Western New York, his doctors
told him that his trouble was due to the ex-
cessive use of tobacco. Excessive in that
case meant everything that the word i'm.
plies. Mr.. Booth, from the moment he
awoke In the morning till the time he went
to bed at night, made use Of tobacco, either
in the form of cigars or a pipe. IL was not
the number of the cigars, but the strength of
har that ftnayN GT.rfur IN
told him that if his habit wes such that he
was not easy unless he had cigar or pipe
in his mouth. that he should procure cigars
of mild flavor and tobacco in which the
nicotine was not strong. But with him it
was not the nervous activity which is the
case with so many men who put q cigar
between their lips, but it was the narcotic
effect of the nicotine which he sought. His
cigars we're of the blacklist, his tobacco Of
the strongest. Many seasoned smokers
would have been unable to consume even
one of his cigars without feeling the effects
of it. Yet he was what is called a chain
smOker-he lighted one cigar with the butt
of another which he had just smoked.
The effect upon him has been something
like the result of opium smoking. 1t put
him in a sort of drowsy, half lethargic CON
dition, and that was precisely the effect
which he sought
ITS EFFECT UPON THE WILL.
Long continued indulgence seems to have
had its effect if not upon Mr.. Booths will
power at least upon his condition. 1t seems
to his friends as though he would rather
keep himself under this narcotic influence
than to enjoy the vigor of absolute health.
That is form Of the smoking disease which
is recognized by the physicians, but it is
not a very frequent one. The older Del
monico. one eff the original ones of that
name, was victim of this disease. He did
not use tobacco any more freely than Mr.
Booth because that would be impossible,
but he used it exactly as Mr.. Booth has
His system became completely saturated
with nicotine, his skin turned yellow
when he perspired the scent of nicotine was
perceptible to those near him.
He was warned that the indulgence would
surely cost him his life, and he replied that
life without his cigar had no pleasure for
him. When his last illness came it was
found that medicine had no effect upon HIM
and he passed away even TO the last with a
cigar between his lips.
THE CASE OF MR. IVES.
Another somewhat similar case was that
Of Frederick Ives of New Haven. Mr..
Ives was a man of unusual business acu-
men. He had built up large fortune for
himself, he was a strong republican, and he
owned the leading republican newspaper OF
New Haven-that one which now Mr.
Lynds Harrison. who has achieved some
notoriety by reason of his correspondence in
reference to the Connecticut political mud
die, controls.
Mr.. Ives from being an occasional smoker
became an lncessant one. Like Mr.. Booth,
he was never without tobacco in his waking
hours, and he smoked the strongest cigars
cDYll6 ha off -