Bisbee daily review., 1910-12-04
In the Temple of
 King Nicotine

PiS sS ,ltnuOftdiIy eHsHidlleus put the f rst smoker is unknown. He is robed in no legend and enwreathed by no fable. Poets have not sung m artists have not pictured him. nor have historians traced h $ rise and conquesss. greater than those of Mohammed Yet there is no prac tice so cur r-ous and universal as that of nha4ing the smoke of tobacco. We have no story of the hero who dared the worlds first smoke: of his fortitude under the tr bulation: of his constancy, and of the rarest joys which fell to him, the first smoker. There was, indeed no such person.
 And to the true smokers sense of the eternal fitness of things this silence accords well w tn the diyin- ity of the herb. \. .co;a had no birth and smoking no beginning. they knew not tm me. With the other herbs of the field tobacco rose from chaos, -aa smoking had ts beginning in the earliest and deepest feelings of mans soul.
 Ihe or gin of the strange practice of nhaling the fumes of tobacco must not be sought among the pleasures of primitive man. It Was as rel gious rite that smoking ex iSted; the burning of tobacco was an expression of mans homage to tbe Great Spir l.
 Smoking is as conducive to good government as sound logic. James l. transmitted his hatred of tobacco to hs decendents Neither Of tn Jameses nor the Charleses knew the wisdom-giv ng practice of smok- ina Under the tobacco4ess tyranny Eng and was ill-a.-ease. beheaoirg Charles l. and flinging out James II. William Ill, an honest smoker, was the one who set the country to r ghts again.
 Cromwell, the typ cal Engiishman knew the virtures of tobacco, espec- ally in the consideration of weighty matters. When ne was offered the kingship and dallied and played rh the attractive offer he frequently s- cussed the question for three or four hours. "He commonly" says a contemporary biography, "called for tobacco pipes and candle, an would now and then take tobacco himself II Cromwell had not srnok ed and had accepted the crown, to day We might be ruled by the hous. Of Cromwell.
 Huxsey's conyers on to the use o tobacco, as related by msels 10 a sectional meeting of the Brit sn as socianon, forms an amusing story.
 For 10 years tobacco had been a deadly poison to me (Applause, Az ? medical student I tried to smoke but at every attempt tobacco stretch ed me upon the floor. On enter n the navy I aga tr ed to smoke, and again met with defeat. I baleC tobacco, I cOu have almost lent my support to any institution tEat had for it's object the execution i smokers. iEoSiieTous applause from ants-smOkers.) A few years ago [ was .n Br ttauy " th some friends.
 
 and they looked so happy and com -o1t@bie with the.r pippes that l thought I would try a cigar. (Gl eat expectations and anxiety) l did so l smoked that c gar; t was del.cioIs. tGroansD From that moment 1 was Changed man, and now fest that smoking in moderation is q comfort ing and laudable practice. and pro duct.ye of good There is no more harm in a D De than there is in a cup of tea" lDismay and anger of smokers.)
 Tennyson's passion for long clay is wei known He smoked Miios and afterward Dublin ciays; mild birds eye was his favorite tobacco. The story that he never smoked the same ? De twice is absurd, for, like all smokers. he detested new pipes. He entertained that ISeiiest hatred or Florence, because he could not get any decent tobacco there and on this account promptly returned ? me, Carlyle describing Tennyson said: Smokes inf nite tobacco" Hisl
 
 cevot on to the herb became so in- tense that literally he could not ex- st without it. On one occasion, at soree of the Royal Society he declared he mus have a poe. Al friend said he should smoke up the chimney Of the Library or on the roof. Tennyson chose the latter, and with his body thrust half way through the skylighf, puffed away in peace, decendsng in a quarter of an hour greatly refreshed. Where ever he went he must be allowed to smoke. Accepting an invitation to visit Mir. Gladstone in 1876, he wrote: As you are good enough to say you VIII manaze anything rather than lose my visit, will you manage that can have a pipe in my room when ever I lke?" NO one has ever disputed the right of Mynbeer Van Klaes. who fourished aboue 70 yeans ago, to tne tt'e os the King of Smokers,