The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-03-24
A MAxILLARY MARVEL.
He Was the Champion Plug Chewer
of COnnecdcutj Hut Now, Alas! He


He Was the Champion Plug Chewer
of COnnecticutj Hut Now, Alas! He
Isn't.
Hartford Correspondence New York Her
aid.
| Residents OF Ledyard, rugged country
town, eight miles north of New London,
on the wooded eastern bank of the
Thames river. are a quaint, peculiar set,
as hard-headed and "sot" as their town
Is hard and fiinty; and they "chaw" hard
tobacco and drink hard" cider all the
| year round.
Everything is hard about Ledyard. II
was due to the characteristic Ledyard
practice of 'chawin" hard tobacco ex-
cessively, and in most abnormal way,
| that an odd little incident came to pass
| there recently which brought about the
| reformation OF Farmer James Larrabee
In respect TO his tobacco habit, and prom
ises to effect a similar reformation on the
part Of half the tobacco chewers of the
town.
Mr.. Larrabee. who is between 50 and 60
| years old, and lives in a wild and isolated
region, is six feet tall in his cowhide boots.
| lank, gaunt and sinewy, and until year
or more ago was as robust. vigorous and
tough physically as any white oak of his
native hills All his life he had been a
persistent chawer' and smoker: at
least, he began the practice Of chewing
when a school boy. only u years old,
and had chewed uninterruptedly ever
since.
In respect to his tobacco habit, ne was
the bright and shining horrible exam
ple' of his town. He chawed all the time,
not less than sixteen hours each day, and
in the last year or so he frequently got
out of bed once or Understanding oft
ener-in the night, and, seated on the bed
side, he took q hunk of plug and chewed
He arose regularly at the first streak Of
dawn, and always che first chore 10 be
performed, even before he lit the kitchen
fire, was to bite of a liberal slab of to-
bacco and eat IT. That Is precisely what
he called 1t. because oftener than other
wise he swallowed the juice OF his to-
bacco rations. In fact, his reputation as
master hand at chewing was recoe-
nized in two or three other adjacent
towns and, while there is no end OF ca
pable chewers both in North Stonington
and Groton. hired men" as well as farm
ers and teamsters, yet not one accounted
himself a rival Of the great Larrabee.
In fact, Mr.. Lar7abee used up plug and
fine cut so rapidly that in the last five
years he has been in the habit Of pur-
chasing his tobacco supply In Wholesale
quantities and at wholesale prices, so that
the grocers Of Poquetannuck and Center
Groton hamlets were wont to make special
tobacco purchases to meet the single Lar
rabee demand. He bought whole caddies
OF plug whenever he drove to market at
Groton or Poquetannuck, and once or
twice in "layin time" his supply Of weed
having fallen short, unwittingly on his
part. he quilted the hay field in the face
Of an approaching thunder storm and
drove like mad to the Center to lay In
a fresh stock Of It,
Mr. Larrabee's health suddenly and un-
accountably began to fall about six or
eight months ago; soon he became weak,
emaciated, cadaverous; he was lackadais-
cal and melancholy; he pinned and dropped;
he was troubled with strange lasstude
and dejectedness-what Is eioquentiy and
tersely termed "lowness" IN the ancient
town Of Ledyard. He told his neighbors
that he couldn't guess" what ION earth
oppressed him. unless twas the grip or
suthin' like IT." and neither could they
make out tho nature OF his complaint |
any better than he They guessed, though |