The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-01-08

is weak and wholly special. 1t does
not put to sleep, but it Gains and
| mollifies the sensibility of the organs. 1t
causes an agreeable torpor. during which
thought continues lucid. and the capacity
| for work is not diminished. Such IS the
| attraction it exercises, and which causes il
to be sought for by so many thinkers and
. students. Tobacco is to them a help in
| mental labor. When fatigue begins and
the need of q moments rest is felt; when
the thought fails to present itself with the
usual exactness, and the mind nesitates
over the shape to give it, the student,
| writer or investigator stops. lights his
! pipe, and soon, by favor of this pleasant
narcotic, the thought appears clear and
limpid through the blush cloud in which
the smoker has enveloped himselS"
The use of tobacco is doubtless not the
highest wisdom, but it is not an offense
against good morals nor at the proper time
and place an ofense against good man
ners, and to pretend that it is savors OF
| ignorance or fanaticism. Dr.. Searle. of
| New York city, an eminent medical and
scientific authority, few years ago had
this to say of tobacco in the North Anseri-
can Review:
The use OF paratriptics or preventers of waste
In the body, is likely to prevail among sedentary
| men. To the employment of tea and coffee lit
tie opposition is made. but to tobacco and wine
| Violent objection is made, which often proceeds
| from the very men who most need them. No
| barbarous nation was ever found without soma
! similar substitute for food Of paratriptic value
| Hasheesh and opium have long been known to
| be pleasurab!e in their effects, but men do not
and Will not use them AZ they do tobacco
DR.. Searle considers the use of tea as
| worse than tobacco, and places tea next to
alcohol in its injurious effects. Tea pro-
| duces constipation and excessive nervous
ness, containing as it does Is per cent. Of
tannin, which restricts the normal action
Of the intestines.
Does our Port Townsend correspondent
ever drink more than one cup Of tea at
sitting; and would he object to any
teacher of the high school being presented
with teacup, a teapot or q teaspoon
Tobacco DR.. Searle describes as the least
harmful of all paratriptics less harmful
than wine, coffee or tea; that in the vast
majority of cases it does not shorten
|
eminent smokers attain is q noteworthy
fact. Tennyson died at So; Carlyle at SO.
In the pension hospital of England out of
15o old soldiers ranging from so to over 100
years Of age all but two had used tobacco
all their lives. Of course a man can be-
come a tobacco glutton, just as he can
become glutton in the use of certain
kinds of food that are wholesome taken in
moderation, just as he can become a glut-
ton in the use of wine, coffee Or tea, but
we may grant all this without granting
the absurd proposition that the use of to-
bacco is an offense against good morals, or,
at the proper time and place, against good
manners. There is altogether too much of
this provincial impertinence. which as
sumes to impeach the worth as teacher
of respectable gentleman because he
smokes a cigar. If be smokes his cigar at
the proper time and place it is nobody's
business any more than it is anybody's
business whether he accepts or refuses
glass of wine at a friends table. The prev
alence Of social scoundrelism and sanctified
rascalitv would seem to indicate that total
abstinence from both wine and tobacco is
sometime associated with disposition to
lie and steal, and the immortality that is
most incurable would seem to be this dis
position to eat and drink temporarily in
order to find more unmatched opportuni-
ties to lie and steal Unexpectedly.
In our judgment it is of comparative ely
small consequence whether good teacher
smokes or not; if he is good teacher; an
honorable, upright, manly gentleman,
who by his precept and example teaches
his boys to speak the truth and shame the
devil, we certainly cannot afford to throw
him away because he will not throw away
his cigars, when science tells US that to-
bacco is less harmful than tea, which the
pious Cowper called "the cup which cheers
but does not inebriate." Brethren, give us
rest from this ceaseless moral snuff
fling about "the tobacco habit" We
remember tobacco crank who was never
weary OF saying that the great majority of
our presidents never used tobacco; well.
what of it; they all used wine, except
Lincoln. President Hayes even drank
| everybody's champagne but his own. JEFF
ierson and John Quincy Adams prided
themselves on the excellence of their Ma
deira and Garfield was as fond of glass of
wine and game of cards, as Arthur.
Charles Sumner and Emerson would not
touch tobacco, but neither of them
banished wine. Wendell Phillips banished
wine and tobacco, but was an in
ordinate lover of coffee, and prob
ably nine-tenths of the old tabbies of
both sexes who moralize about the "to-
bacco habit" and "other narcotics" swill
strong tea until their nerves and voices
are lifted to the concert pitch of homiletic
criticism.
It Is very cheap business, this putting
everybody under a moral microscope to
report some bleIuish of the skin that is no.
visible TO the naked eye. The failure to
smoke is no assurance of q good teacher:
and the tobacco habit is no sound reason
for dropping a good teacher; nor does it
convict teacher or q clergyman or anv
other gentleman of an offense against good
morals or good manners.
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TRANQUILITY UNDER TYRANNY.