The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-05-25
EARLY OPPONENTS OFrosAcco.
hmm Its Intimidation Into England.

/ III IIHglu lOOdCCO dulChiN CStdp-
lished itself and in the first enthusiasm
for the new ha bit of drinking tobacco"
as they styled it, our ancestors often
| went to considerable excess. One rev.
erend gentleman, a Buckinghamshire
vicar, was so bent upon smoking that
when his supply of tobacco ran short
he would cut up the bell ropes and
smoke the shredded fiber. If tobacco
was enthusiastically welcomed it was
as warmly denounced. Very early in
its English history an enemy elegantly
| wrote:
Let it be damn'd to he'll. and called from thence
/ Proscrpnc's wine, the furies' frAnkincense,
| The DEVILS addle eggs
| Joshua Sylvester, the translator Of
Du Bartas, in 1915 published a work
whose title is sufficiently violent-"To-
bacco Bait cred, and the Pipes Shattered
about their Ears, that idely Idolize SO
base and bar barous n Weed, or at least
overlove SO loathsome a Vanity, by a
Volley of Holy Shot Thundered from
Mount llelicon."
One of it's ca rliest opponents was Ben
Jonson. The dramatist was fond of
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Lyric feasts" described by Herrick-
Where we such clusters had
As made nobly wild, not mad
But for smoking he had no liking. In
his earlier plays he frequently intro
duces a lover of tobacco, but always
makes him figure somewhat contempti-
bly, as knave or fool. Another enc
my of tobacco was worthy John Stow,
who styled it that Sinking weed so
much abused to Gods dishonor."
Nashe calls the devil a great tabacco-
taker," but, on the other hand, he
speaks genially of the ''divine drugge,"
and from various other illusions would
seem to have been a follower of the
| the new fashion.
| A more determined and unequivocal
opponent of tobacco soon appeared in
the field in the person of King James l.
| In his famous ''Counter-blast' he de-
nounced the Indian weed, clock, stock
and barrel" There was nothing good
to be said for it, Its effects were bad,
physically and morally. Moreover
and here his argument became decid-
| edly wealS--it was wicked and disgrace
full for Christians to borrow anything
from barbarous heathens. In conclu-
sion, smoking was denounced as "a
custom loathsome to the eye, hateful
to the nose, harmful to the brain, dan
gerous to the lungs; and, in the black,
shrinking fume thereof, nearest re-
sembling the horrible Stygian smoke
of the pit that is bottombless." And
yet, Notwithstanding this tremendous
diatribe, his majesty somew hat incon-
sistently permitted the planters in the
American colonies to send their tocacco
to England, while he cannily forbade
the impo rtation of the pernicious drug
from the dominions of Spain. 1t must
! be added, however, that he tried hard
to induce the Virginian colonists to
abandon the cultivation of tobacco and
to take up that of silk, which he rec
commended as u rich and solid COM
modify preferable to the noxious weed.
In 1921 it was solemnly attacked in
the house of commons, and a member
moved that he would have tobacco
banished wholly out of the kingdom.
and that it may not be brought in from
any part, nor used amongst u.s." An
other member said that if tobacco were
not banished it would overthrow one
hundred thousand men in Engladd, for
it was now so common that he had seen
plowmen take it as they were working
at pillow. But both the house of com
mons and the country refused to be
frightened by the plowman's pipe, or
by terrible predictions of national ruin,
and the use of tobacco continued to
spread.
The Merry Monarch had fling at it
when he sent a letter to the University
of Cambridge forbidding the members
to wear periwigs, to smoke tobacco, or
to read their sermons. But the royal
mandate had little effect. The friends
| of tobacco even began to turn the
| tables, and to act on the offensive. 1t
was said that in the great plague of
London none of those who kept tobac-
conists' shops suffered from it, and so
smoking came to be regarded as an ex-
| cellent preventative from contagion in
| such pestilences. Curiously enough it
| is said to be fact that during the chol-
| era epidemics of 1881, 1s49 and 1866 not
| one London tobacconist died from that
| disease. When the plague was abroad
| and at the time of the dreadful vista
| ton of 1865 all the boys at Eton were
obliged to smoke every morning. One
of these Juvenile smokers declared years
afterward to Hearne, the antiquary.
that he never was whipped so much in
his life as he was one morning for not
smoking. Times have changed at Eton
since this anti-tobacconist martyr re-
ceived his whipping. Chicago Times.
The Welcome Guest.
The 'good-dinncr woman" is one
who aims to listen well. and avoids the
mistake of being smart. She must be
endowed with that quality which in its
highest form amounts to genius
namely, tact. This is, probably, the
hardest grace to cultivate in the cata-
loguc of virtues, for it embraces all the
others. 1t is really the spirit and the
letter Of the golden rule, and its corner
stone is unselfishness. The popular
woman knows that every huma n being
is happier to tell a good story than
4 - La1 10 hn