The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-12-14
MANY ARE KNOCKED OUT.
November's Elections Were Hard
on Tobacco Chewers.
The National Headquarters of Tobacco
Tinctured Saliva Will Have to Do
Without Some of Its High
Priests Next Year.
Especial washington letter.

The recent election returns accom-
plished one object of which the people
have never heard. 1t will be surprise
to them to know that some of the worst
tobacco chewers in the house and in
the senate are to be relegated to pri-
vate life. OF course their tobacco hab-
its had nothing to do with the election;
but it is a singular coincidental fact
that the adverse ballots of the people
knocked them out of congress, Fore
most and most famous of the tobacco
chewers is L. p. Bland. of-Missouri. be-
cause of his championship of free coin
age of silver. Mr.. Bland was never a
handsome man. and he has done moth
ing to assist nature in making himself
attractive. His hair and beard have
long since appeared to be independent
of brush and comb. He seldom cleans
his finger nails. and his jaws are con-
stantly working away on his tobacco
quid. The iron spittoon which was al
ways carefully placed beside him re-
ceived disgustingly much of his atten-
ton. There must have been some such
men as Bland. Holman and Coke, of
ems was here previous to the publica-
ton of his American Notes" in 1852.
This is what he wrote and printed
about Washington city:
"As Washington may be called the
headquarters of tobaccO-tinctured
saliva. the time is come when | must
confess, without any disguise, that the
Of rhrEa
tees of chewing and expectorating
began about this time to be anything
but agreeable, and soon became most
offensive and sickening. In all the
public places Of America this filthy
custom is recognized. In the courts of
law the Judge has his spittoOn. the
crier his. the witness his and the pris-
oner his. while the iurymen and spec
tators are provided for as so many men
who, in the course of nature. must de-
sire to spit necessarily. In the hos
pitfalls the students of medicine are re-
quested. by notices upon the wall, to
eject their tobacco Juice into the boxes
provided for that purpose and not to
discolor the stairs. In the public
buildings visitors are implored,
through the same agency, to squirt
the essence OF their guilds. or plugs
as | have heard them called by gen.
tlemen learned in this kind of sweet
meat. into the national spittoons, and
not about the bases of the marble
columns. But in some parts this Gus
tom is inseparably mixed up with
every meal and morning call and with
all the transactions of social life. The
stranger who follows in the track |
took myself will find it in its full
bloom and glory, luxuriant in all its
alarming recllessness in Washington.
And let him not persuade himself las l
once did. to my shame) that previous
tourists have exaggerated its extent.
The thing itself is an exaggeration of
nastiness which cannot be outdone."
Mr. Bland is not the only statesman
who uses tobacco to excess. Mr.. Hol-
man. of Indiana. at the age of seventy
Two is an inveterate chewer. He and
Mr. Bland have both almost inaudible
voices in the house on account of their
tobacco habits. When Mr.. Carlisle was
speaker of the house he was an invet-
crate chewer. and his jaws were con-
stantly working. That is the only bad
habit the great Keutuckian ever ac-
quired: but in his younger days tobac-
co chewing was not regarded with such
disfavor as at present.
William H. Hatch. of Missouri. chair
man of the committee on agriculture.
and commonly called Farmer Hatch,
is what may fairly be termed genteel
tobacco chewer: although it is almost
impossible to conceive of gentility as
an idea compared with such a habit.