Morning journal and courier., 1893-02-23
Early Opponents OF Tobacco.

In England tobacco quickly established
itself, and In the first enthusiasm for the
new habit of drinking tobacco" as they
styled 1t, our ancestors often went to con-
siderable excess. One reverend gentle
man. Buckinghsmshire vicar-deseribed
in that astrological age as a profound di-
vine, but absolutely the most polite per-
son of the period for nativitiss-was 80
bent upon smoking that when his supply
of tobacco ran short he would cut up the
bell ropes and smoke the shredded fibre.
If tobacco WAS enthusiastically welcomed,
Ii was as warmly denounced. Very early
In it's English history an enemy elegantly
wrote:
Let it be dama'd to hell and ali'd from thence,
Proserpine's wine, the Furics' frankincense,
The devils addle eggs.
Joshua Sylvester, the translator Of Du
Bartas, in 1915 published work whose
title is sufficiently violent-"robacco Bat
tered, and the Pipes Shattered about their
Eares, thst idely Idolizs so base and bar
barous Weed, or at least overlove SO
loathsome Vanity, by Volley of Holy
Shot Thundered from Mount Helicon."
One of it's earliest opponents was Ben
Jonson. The dramatist was fond of tav-
ern life, and was devoted to the Lyric
feasts" described by Hsrrick-
Whera we such clusters had,
AS made US nobly wild, not mad,
but for smoking he had no liking. In his
earlier plays he frequently introduces a
lover of tobacco, but always makes him
figure somewhat contemptibly as a kpave
or fool. Another enemy of tobacco was
worthy John Stow, who styles 1t "that
stinking weed 80 much abused to Gods
dishonor." Nashe calls the devil q ''gres.
tcbacco-taker," but, on the other bsnd, he
speaks genially of the "divine drugge,"
and from various other illusions would
seem to have been follower of the new
fashion.
A more determined and unequivocal op-
ponent of tobacco soon appeared in the
field in the person of King James the
First. In his famous "Coenter-blast," he
denounced the Indian weed, clock, stock
and barrel" There was nothing good to
be sa;d for It Its effects were bad, phys
ica.ly and morally. Moreover, and here
his argument became decidedly weak, it
was vic d and dlsgrscefnl for Christians
to borrow nything from bsrbsrous heath
ems. In conclusion, smoking WAS de-
nourced as "a custom loathsome to the
eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the
brain, dangerous to the lungs; and, in the
black sinking fume thereof, nearest re-
sembling the horrible Stygian smoke of
the pit that is bottomless." And yet, not
withstanding this tremendous distribe, his
msjesty somewhat inconsistently permit
ted the planters in the American colonies
to send their tobacco to England, while he
cannily forbade the importation of the
perpicious drug from the dominions of
ha oIIs1 hnUarHr that
he tried hard to induce the Virginian colo
nists to abandon the cultivation of tobao-
CO. and to take up that of elk, which he
recommended as rich and solid commo-
dity preferable to the noxious weed.
In 1891 it was solemnly attacked In the
House of Commons, and a member moved
that ne "would have tobacco bsnishsd
wholly out of the kingdom, and that II
may not be brought in from any port, nor
used amongst u.s." Another member said
that If tobacco were not banished it would
overthrow hundred thousand men in
England, for 1t was now SO common that
she had seen ploughmen take 1t as they
were at plough. But both the House of
Commons and the country refused to be
frightened by the ploughmsn's pipe, or by
terrible predictions of national ruin, and
the use of tobacco continued to spread.
The Merry Monarch had a fling at II
when he sent letter to the University OF
Cambridge forbidding the members to
wear periwigs, to smoke tobacco or to read
their sermons But ths royal mandate
had little effect. The friends of tobacco
even began to turn the tables, ana to act
on the offensive 1t was said that in the
great plague of London none of those who
kept tobacconists' shops suffered from 1T,
and SO smoking came to be regarded as an
excellent preserva,ive from contagion In
such pestilepces. Curiously enough, 1t ID
said to be fact that during the cholers
epidemics of 1881, 1S49 and 1866 not one
London tobscconist died from that dis.
ease. When the plague was abroad even
children were compelled to smoke; and al
the time of the dreadful visitation of 1855
all the boys at Eton were Obliged to smoke
in the school every morning. One Of
these juvenile smokers declared years sf
forwards, to Hesrne, the autiqusry, that
he never was whipped SO much in his life
as he was one morning for not smoking
Times have changed at Eton since thii
anti -tobacconist martyr received his whip
ping.