The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-02-05
HOLY HERB NICOTIAN. q"
BLESSED SHOULD BE TEE MEM
DRY OF COLUMBUS

From the Boston GLOBE.
Curious it is that this year of our Lord,
1892, is almost gone without q becoming
celebration Of the discovery of our "holy
herb nicotian," as William Lilly called it.
Not one of the thousand eulogists have
dared to cancnize Columbus, or even pub
licly bless his memory for having discovered
the tobacco, the divine, rare, superexcel-
legt tobacco, which goes far beyond all
paDaoess, potable gold and philosophers
stones, and is a sovereign remedy in all
Diseases
Why have not the great men and noble
armies Of fumologisss banded together and
instituted tobacco jubilees on a grand scaled
What a sight END also what smell there
could have been, for, alas, We cannot all
smoke vegueras.
Such celebrations would be the ouly truly
democratic, the one common desire EN-
bracing people of all degrees and condi-
lions But the cigarette fend should be
excluded. He is an offense unto all men
but himself.
Whenever | pass that much malgned
statue Of poor Christopher, as he shivers in
the cold outside the cathedral walls, | re-
greet the absence of any emblem of his great
est gift to mankind. How much more COM
given him good Manuel Garcia, instead of
making him stretch out his hand as If say
ing in tones of entreaty, Got weed about
you, old ohapm
Vain regretsl Ingratitude was ever the
reward Of the great
Not even the result of the late election has
made people eager to render due homage to
the discoverer of the seductive weed. Yet
the fumologist was the first 20 feel the in-
fanny Of the Mckinley bill. Twas the
grand army of smokers who defeated this
American Napoleon, who would
SNATCH FROM OUR MOUTHS
the choice Havana and substitute 1.-TWO
fers"
Why has no one proposed monument In
this year of jubilee to Ralph Lane, the first
governor Of Virginia, who is credited with
being the first English smokerl Nor ought
the 'illustrious Raleigh to have been for
gotten
Twas he of whom it is said that he
''snatched a fearful joy" from the genial
Virginia OF his own importation, and it was
through his noble example as he "tooke a
pipe Of tobacco little before he went 30 the
scaffolde" that the habit become rooted
among the English.
TO the true fumologist it is further mat
ter Of regret that the term Tobacco" has
come into use. IL is a msnomsr and was
not the original name of the plant. The
Guahanitaus dubbed it "cohiban
The word tobacco has come to us from
| peculiar instrument used for inhaling the
smoke by the inhabitants OF HispRniola
! (San Domingo.
The instrument consisted of hollow,
wooden tube, shaped like Y, the two
points Of which being inserted
IN THE NOSE OF THE SMOKER,
the other was held into the smoke Of the
EOhanon fun IN.
hailed.
The Canadian Indians are the first known
inventors of somewhat respectable pipe,
and since that discovery I revere their
memory.
Jacques Cartier, who sailed from St.
Malo to explore the coast of Newfoundland,
nearly fifty years after Columbus visit to
bis history Of the expedition of how the
North American smoked tobacco:
The Indians have a certain herb Of
which they lay up great store every sum-
mer, having first dried it IN the sun. 1t is
used only by the men. They always carry
some Of it in a small bag hanging from
their necks. In this bag they also Keep a
hollow tube of wood or stone.
Before using the herb they pound it TO
powder, which they cram into one end of
the tube aud plug it with red-hot charcoal.
They then suck at the other end till they
have filed themselves so full OF smoke that
it ooZes from their mouths and noses like
smoke from the flew of "a chimney
"They say the habit is most wholesome.
But when we tried to use this smoke IL bit
our tongues like red peppers
While celebrating, we fumolo gists never
forgot the name of Jean Moot, whose
services in spreading the knowledge or the
plant were so great as to give to the genus
its scientific name nicouana.
Moot was the French ambassador at the
court of Lisbon. He presented some of the
plants of Catherine de MediCis, the widowed
mother of his sovereign Francis II.
She took fancy to the exotic, and is the
first person on record who used tobacco in
the shape of snuff or "tabac en- poudre.n ga
it was called. How much more dignified this
name than our homely expression snuff,
from the verb sniff
Owing to Queen Catherine's passion for
snuff, the hero could for a time re ioice in
the proud title of herb de la Refine" But
the learned called it "nicotiauan and the
common folks Of England, France, Ger
many, Italy, Spain and Turkey named it
Tobacco" 'tabac," ''tabak, y "tabacco,n
"tabacon and "Tombeki"
At first the tobacco plant was supposed TO
possess almost
MIRACULOUS HEALING POWERS
and was called ''herba panacea," "herba
sancta," "sana sancts Indorum" Spencer
called it "divine tobacco
1t is recorded thai in 1899 the pope's nun
clio, Cardinal Santa Croce, returned from
the court Of Lisbon TO Rome with packet
of tobacco in his pocket. Some poet Of the
age commemorated the event in the follow
ing gh-howinR strain:
Herb of undying fame
Which hither first with Santa Croce came,
When he his time of nunciature expired,
Back from the court Of Portugal retired,
Zen as his predecessor, great and good
From Palestine brought back the Holy Rood
Surely this is almost enough to stagger
the strongest smoker, and / venture TO say
that had this good poet lived, to-day we
should not have been without proper OBJ
servsnce OF the discovery of the cohiba.
That meddlesome monarch, King James
began the trouble by laying a prohibitorY
tax on the consumption of tobacco within
hia realms. He was the Mckinley of his
age, aud nearly as bad as our own Bill.
In 1919 James followed up his arbitrary
check upon the liberty of the subjects to
smoke by forbiddiug any Virginia planter
20 grow more than hundred weight OF the
baneful weed.
Meantime other GRO wned heads began 10
make trouble for the poor smokers
In 1912 Pope Urban launched bull Of
accommodation against all who took snuff
in church. Some years later the autocrat
of Russia, at the diotation of his clergy,
threatened to cut OFF the noses of all his
subjects who smoked