The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1897-08-29

Did ever tell you why swore Off
smoking" asked veteran travelling man
as the younger members of the party light
ed up their weeds and settled back for nm
AFTER dinner smoke. mo? Well, III
amuse myself with a recital of my trou-
Dies, while you fellows are busy trying to
make chimDeys of yourselves. think
must have had a hereditary desire to
smoke. Anyhow, l started in before
naa reached my teens. borrowing my re-
spected parents old briar pipe and burning
up his strong tobacco out H. a secluded
corner OF the old barn. or course, wa.
discovered and read severe lecture on
the ualger to boys health from the nic-
Dune. VI course, l promised not TO do 1t
again, but somehow In my childish way ]
inquired out that my health was as good as
my lads and that If he could stand it
could. So | kept on sub rosa. One day,
when dropped match and nearly burned
the barn down, did get fright and let
the weed alone for couple OF weeks, but
1T was not long before / was soon at 1t
again. The older / grew the more
smoked, and between pipe, cigar and
chewing tobacco, | managed to ke=p rising
tobacco pretty continually. The last thing
before | went to bed in the evening /
my mouth and roll off to pleasant dreams.
II did not find 1t there in the morning
1t did not make much difference. For
long time l did not realize how strongly
the tobacco habit was becoming fixed on
me. | always flattered myself with the
belief that l could quit whenever | wanted
to. One bright summer day I planned
to go out with friend TO spend the day
shooting in the country about fifteen miles
from town. My friend did not smoke. In
the morning when we were starting out
cal efully provided a big pouehtul Of to-
bacco, handful of cigars, a pipe, and
generous hunk Of chewing. These / did
up in bundle and dropped in the rear Of
the buggy with the guns. had a little
plug in my pocket and this kept me pretty
busy until We reached the shooting ground.
The first thing did was to look for my
supplies. You can imagine my horror
and dsmay to find them gone. The bun
die lad been jolted out Of the buggy on
the way out. 1t was then that l realized
what an important part of my existence
tobacco had become. All day long l suf-
fered the fortunes of Tantnlus. l could do
no shooting; / Was too nervous for that.
could do nothing but speculate on the
possibility of getting tobacco TO satisfy my
longings. II there had been place within
five or six miles where could get some
| would have cheerfully gone. But there
was not. My friend could not understand
my sufferings, but he could see that was
suffering He tried to get me interested
in other things in vain. Finally proposed
that we go back TO town early in the of-
ternoon. He good-naturcd!y consented,
and we started. Ny one idea when we
started back was to get 10 some place
where ! could get cigar as quickly as
POSSIBLE I,ut / never smoked the cigar
wanted so badly. / have never smoked
it yet Somehow the scales fell from my
| eyes before reached town and saw my
| self wearing all the calling chains Of abb
| ;ect slavery to foolish habit. I made a
| declaration TO myself then and there.
said, Nicotine, old boy you'll mover have
| a chance to torture me this way again
| He never did II was the greatest battle
{, of my life. The enemy did not die until
he reached the last ditch, but beat him"