Evening star., 1917-10-26
HUMOROUS WRG|N|AN'S
LAUDAT|ON OF TOBACCO
Peter J. 0tey, Once Congress Mem
ber, Quoted in Behalf Of Plan
for Soldiers.

In their demand for tobacco Ameri-
can soldiers in trench and training
camp are running true to form.
Efforts to supply this need recall the
efforts during the war with Spain to
have the government Issue to each
enlisted man in the Army and Navy
a regular tobacco allowance Is part
OF their ration.
A leader in this movement was Rep
resentatiye Peter Johnston Otey OF
Virginia, who urged that Congress au-
thorize the issuance of one and two
thirds ounces of smoking tobacco and
two ounces of chewing tobacco week
ly to every soldier. sailor and marine
during the period of the war.
During the discussion OF the war
revenue reduction bill in 1900 Mr.. Otey
delivered q whimsical and humorous
speech. typical of utterances which
won for him wide reputation as q
congressional humorist-
Representative otey's Speech.
He said:
Mr.. Chairman, IL is IN vain that we
appeal for reduction of tax on to-
bacco-tobacco which is more uni
versally used among mankind than
any other one thing, except the most
ordinary articles of food: eSo,000.000
of the worlds Inhabitants use it, while
500 100000 use tea, 100000 600 use
opium and 100. 1000, 200 use coffee. sta
tistics on whisky being not just now
tst hand.
so my appeal for the relief of the
man who follows the plow and hoes
the tobacco hill being in vain, 1 appeal
for him who. on the sanguinary nelds
of Cuba, was forgot by you.
Panegyric on Tobacco.
The speaker referred to the bill he
had introduced concerning the weekly
into panegyric on tobacco, in which
he said:
From its earliest discovery tobacco
has been considered curative. We
speak of narcotic poison as If 1t would
kill on sight. and yet what is known
as solanine In the potato is an acrid
narcotic poison, two grains OF which
produce paralysis in rabbit in two
hours"
Representative Otey then proceeded
to cite authorities provoking laughter
by his naive assumption that House
members must know the scientists he
referred to. He continued:
.'Hariot-you all know who Hariot is
Qaughter)-who Joined Sir Walter
Raleigh, 1884, wrote in 1888 a true re-
port of the new-found land of Virginia.
ward tobacco, he said:
They use the leaves to take the
fumes or smoke thereof by sucking
through pipes into the stomach and
head, from whence it purged super
fuous 4eames and other gross humors;
II opened the pores and passage of the
body, by which means the use thereof
not only preserveth the body from OBJ
notably preserved in health and know
not many grieyous diseases where
with all We in England are ofttimes
affected
This is one reason why We should
abrogate the anti-smoking rule in this
House, the fumes of tobacco thus neu-
traliztng the carbonic acid gas, which
is heavier than air, and which Is al
ways exhaled from the human system
while breathing, every ounce of which
falling from these galleries is inhaled
by us, than which no deadlier poison
could enter our frames
Refers to Sanitary Effects.
He proceeded to quote from Fairholt.
with whom, he said, no member of
1t was the sanitary effects of tobacco
which led to its introduction in Eng
land; quoted old poets on. the mental
satisfaction of tobacco: quoted au-
courages the flow Of the digestive
juices. and. speaking OF the effects on
an old soldier, continued, amid laugh
ter:
His patriotism expires only with his
life; his soul is enraptured with en-
thusiasm; his memory Is on the wing
and runs back with Tightening quick
ness to the battles fought and victories
won: but he will recall that the ration
Of tobacco plucked from his mind a
rooted sorrow, razed out the written
troubles of the brain, and with this
sweet obliyious antidote cleansed the
bosom of perilous stuff that weighed
uuon his heart"