The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-02-02
CLINGMAN's TOBACCO CURE.
The Wonderful Remedies Affected by
My Lady Nicotine
(Southern Tobacco JournaI.l

The recent death of General Thomas
Lanier Clingman, of North Carolina, the
last of that notable group of Southern
Senators who left the halls of Congress
at Washington when the war broke out,
recalls the wonderful tobacco cure which
he was credited with being the origina-
tor of, and which he advocated for so
many years, with all the enthusiasm of
his nature. He never chewed, smoked
or took snuff. vet he had more faith in
the saving qualities of tobacco than the
most ardent. lover of the weed. lie
firmly believed in it as the greatest
remedy ever given to man for the al
deviation of pain, the healer of injuries
and the conqucrer of disease, and often
asserted that it had been the means of
saving his life on several occasions, and
in other respects been of inestimable
service to him and his friends. He
never grew tired extolling the virtues of
tobacco as an antidote for every human
i'll, and could reel off stories by the
hour of the remarkable cures effected
by it, both on himself and others.
General Clingman did not claim to
be the originator of the wonderful to-
bacco cure which he advocated with so
much earnestness. The weed had been
used for remedial purposes for all sorts
of complaints long before he took up
the advocacy of it. He related that
the first instance he remembered of its
use as a remedy for infiammations was
when a small boy in North Carolina
seeing man named Kelly squirt its
juice from his mouth into the eye of
a horse, which was very red from inflam-
nation. Kelly said he was curing the
eye in that way. Early in life, too,
General CIingman said he knew of to-
bacco Icing applied to those who had
been stung by walsps and bees, and
when in college student told him that
he had cured a chronic inflammation by
putting a wet tobacco leaf on the part.
The application of a chew of tobacco
to a bee or wasp sting or the sting of
any insect, as well as snake bites, has
long been Il common practice inthe West
and Southwest, and is still practiced by
people who never heard of General
Clingman or his tobacco cure. The
writer knew an old market gardener l;y-
ing about thirty miles out of Boston
who was in the habit of curing Group
in the children of his ueighbors by Civ
ing them a liberal dose of tobacco juice
to swallow. 1t nearly killed the children
but it broke the Group in every case.
Bnt il General Clingman was not the
originator of the tobacco cure. he was
the great expounder of the virtues he
claimed to have found in it as ii remedy
for everything in the shape of disease
and injury this side of cholera and
broken neck, and he championed its
cause so long and so vigorously that he
was looked upon as a monOmaniac upon
the subject by all who knew him.
OF late years nothing had been heard
from him upon the subject. 1t was
about fifteen years ago that he made
his last strong effort TO induce people to
adopt tobacco as the greatest of all rem
cdial agents, the knowledge of whose
virtues, as acquired by him, if generally
known, he said, would be the means of
saving thousands of lives annually in
the United States. In a statement
which he prepared for the public, Gen
eral Clingman gave many interesting
instances of cures by the use of tobacco.
''In March, 1917. on the day after |
had announced myself as a candidate
for Congress-" he said. while careless
ly riding a wild horse, the animal sprang
against the fence and knocked me off
severely spraining my right ankle. As
| had several miles to ride to Hender-
sonville, n c., before a remedy could
be secured, the ankle was swollen to
double it's size and very painful when |
reached there. DIR. Whitehead directed
a poultice to be applied. After enduring
severe pain for several hours, | thought
Of trying tobacco. / sent for some
leaves, had them wet and wrapped
around my ankle. Within an hour the
pain ceased, and | slept through the
night. The next morning the ankle, in
stead Of being swollen, appeared to be
rather less than it's natural size; the
skin had wrinkled appearance and was
very white. The membrane between the
bones which had received the shock,
however, was very tender so that l was
obliged to use crutches. During my
canvass, which lasted four months, |
twice had the ankle hurt by accidents,
and each time subdued the pain ana
swelling by the use of tobacco. during
the war. by the falling of galloplng
horse. | was thrown over his head anu
eprained the same ankle badly, ana
used tobacco with the like effect.
The next application that Generai
Clingman made of his tobacco cure was
to a severe gunshot wound, received py
him on August 10, 1864, near PetefS-
burg, Va, and he thus described II.
"A bullet ranged through my leg from
near the ankle, so as to come out Oh lllc
opposite side just below the knee cut
ting the muscles and nerves ana missing
q very painful wound. | lost 80 n. a,1
blood that / was carried from tile ileiu
in an insensible condition, and me sur
gpnn EXPRESSED great apprehensiolls thaL