The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-20

| proverbial; the inventor of roast | X pig is immortally enshrined; but the first smoker is unknown. He is robed in no legend and enwreathed by no fable. Poets have not sung him, artists have not pictured him, nor have historians traced his rise and conquests, greater than those of Mahomet. Yet there is no practice so curious and universal as that of inhaling the. smoke of tobacco. We lhave no story of the hero who dared the world first smoke; of his fortitude under its tribulations of his constancy, and of the rarest joys which fell to him. the first smoker. There was. indeed, no such person. 4.
 And to the true smokers sense of the eternal fitness of things this silence ac- cords well with the divinity of the herb. Nicotia had no birth, and smoking no beginning: they knew not time. With the other herbs of the field tobacco rose from chaos, and smoking had It's begin ming in the earliest and deepest feelings of mans soul.
 The origin of the strange practice of inhaling the fumes of tobacco must not be sought among the pleasures of primitive man. It was as religious rite that smoking originated: the burn ing of tobacco was an expression of mans homage to the Great Spirit.
 l Smoking Is as conductive to good gov ernment as sound logic. James the First transmitted his hatred of tobacco to his | Iec NatR of fho T., of the Charleses knew the wisdom-g givA ing practice of smoking. Under the to- baccoless tyranny England was ill-at- ease, beheading Charles the First and flinging out James the Second. William the Third, an honest smoker, was the one who set the country to rights again. | Cromwell, the typical Englishman knew the virtues of tobacco, especially in the consideration of weighty matters When he was offered the kingship, and dallied and played with the attractive offer, he frequently discussed the ques- tion for three of four hours. "He com monly." says a contemporary biography "called for tobacco. pipes and candle, and would now and then take tobacco himself" If Cromwell had not smoked, and had accepted the crown, today we might be ruled by the house of Crom- we'll What an influence the pipe may have exerted upon old Noll and all his tory!
 Swinburne absolutely abhors tobacco On one occasion, at the Arts club, he could not find room free from smoke. With poetic fury he burst forth: James tn, First was a knave, tyrant, fool, a liar. coward but I love him. l wor- ship him. because he split the throat of that filthy blackguard. Raleigh, who invented this filthy smoking!"
 There is story of a clergyman who. mounting the pulpit for the sermon, re- freshed himself with several pinches of snuff before announcing his text. This, aptly enough, was, My soul cleaveth unto the dust" l Huxley's conversion to the use of to- bacco as related by himself to a sec tional meeting of the British association. forms an amusing story
 For 40 years tobacco had been dead | ly poison to me. (Applause) AS med ical student l tried to smoke, but at every attempt tobacco stretched me upon tne 1oor On entering the navy again tried to smoke, and again met with defeat. | hated tobacco. I could have almost lent my support to any institutions that had for it's object the execution of smokers. (vociferous applause from anti-smokers.) | A few years ago I was in Brittany with 1 some friends. It was a miserable, drench- | ing day and they looked so happy and comfortable with their pipes that I thought I would try a cigar. (Great ex- pectation and anxiety.) I did so. smoked that cigar; it was delicious. (Groans.) From that moment I was a changed man, and now feel that smok- ing in moderation is comforting and laudable practice. and productive of good. There is no more harm in a pipe than there Is in a cup of tea" Dismay and