The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-02-28
FACTS ARour 1oBAcCo.
Valuable Lecture by Dr. E. H. Jenl


 station, delivered an unusually interest
 ing illustrated lecture, the fourth in the
 Sheffield lecture course, upon the sub-
 feet of "Tobacco'' Friday evening. Dr.
 Jenkins confined himself strictly to the discovery of tobacco, the history of its
 use, it's cultivation in Sumatra, Cuba
 and America, and the instruments used by various nations for smoking it. He showed the primitive forms of number of ancient pipes; those of the Mound
 Builders. formed from stone harder
 than modern steel can cut, and profuse-
 ly ornamented, with their mounted fig
 ures facing the smoker, instead of the
 public, as in our modern pipes. He
 showed also several made of wood and
 stone of curious shapes and odd sizes,
 used by the Iroquois Indians.
 The Chinese claim antiquity in the art
 of smoking Pomponius mentions it;
 the Asiatics and Africans were smokers
 in many of their religious ceremonies.
 The Libyan oracle is represented as sit
 ting over a smoking pit. The North
 American Indian ascribed to his calumet
 miraculous properties; he used it in peace and war, and believed it charm
 against death and famine, and respected 1 a stranger or an enemy when he smoked it. He could go in safety from tribe to tribe when he used it with every assurance of protection. Ancient devo- tees of smoking would willingly with stand hunger and thirst if he could but have his pipe, and the modern user will do the same.
 l Tobacco was discovered by sailor on the Pinta, upon Columbus first expedi tion to San Salvador in 1492, and Colum- bus verified the wonderful stories told of his discovery by exhibiting in King Ferdinands court the smoking by the Indians he took with him to Spain.
 Tobacco was introduced in Spain in 1850 by physician named Hernandez; in Italy by a nobleman, Santo Croce in 1874, and into England in 1886 by Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh. The French physicians tried it for medicinal pur- poses in 1896, with poor success. King James disapproved its use and com- pared it to the fumes of the bottomless pit. He forbade his courtiers using it. Pope Urbanus VIII. issued Papal bull, threatening excommunication to all who used it. and another was issued by h. nocent X, but these were revoked by Benedict XIII. The Czar of Russia pro- hibited it's use in 1894, on account of the large number of fires in St. Petersburg and this prohibition Peter the Great re- voked in 1897. The Spaniards raised it ,,J,, i,, Ct1he in 1880. About 1919 the Jamestown planters raised great quantities of it, and there it was accepted as money and was for some time used as medium of exchange. Girls brought from England intended for wives for the planters were paid for in tobacco, one hundred and twenty pounds each. But they raised too much of it, and the king was con- pelled to restrict it's production to rath- CT narrow limits. The history of tobac- co is commingled with the history of English and American liberty. It has contributed more to the expense of gov ernment and is more largely used than any other weed. There are about sixty varieties In America it is divided into three grades: Chewing. export and c- gar and pipe. Its raising is a science.
 Dr. Jenkins then gave detailed de- scription of the needs of the American market, American varieties and the To- calities where produced He described at length also the Sumatra farms, the methods of planting, cultivating, har- vesting, curing, boxing and exporting; the Chinese coolies, their methods of life and employment, their pay and skill their processes of fermentation instead into fourteen grades, based upon size and color. There it Is baled into bum dies weighing about one hundred and seventy-nine English pounds, so that and waste are reduced to a minimum. American import duties range from $150 to $2.0O pound on this Sumatran product.
 Dr. Jenkins followed with descrip- 1 lion of the industry in Cuba and Flori- ia, where the processes are nearly the same. but accomplished with vast sav- Ing of labor and time. In conclusion, | the rude huts of the Sumatran laborer, | with his sixty dollar salary per year, were entrusted with the homes of the | American tobacco-raiser; the life of the l Cuban and southern negro with the life | of the prosperous Connecticut tobacco | who twenty years ago worked Or a dollar day, and now owns, unen- a splendid country house, with every modern convenience, and has money in the bank and in his pocket-a ribute to American genius and progress