Year: 1859

From the [" "Titcomb Letters

 LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN.

 BAD HABITS.

 There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple

 If the i'll spirit have so fair house,

 Good things will strive to dwell with't

 SHAKESPEARE.

 He that has light within his own clear breast

 May sit f the centre and enjoy bright days;

 But he that hides dark soul and foul thoughts,

 Benighted walks under the midday sun.-MILroN.

 It is entirely natural for people to form hab- it's, so that if bad habits be avoided the good ones will generally take care of themselves. 1 had no intention when commenced these let ters of saying anything upon dogmatic theol- ogy, but l take the liberty of suggesting to those who are interested in this kind of thing, that if there be anything that demonstrates total depravty, it is the readiness with which young men imbibe bad habits. I have seen original sins in the shape of "a short six" sticking out of the mouth of lad of ten years It is strange what particular pains boys and young men will take to learn to do that which will make them miserable ruin their health, render them disgusting to their friends and damage their reputation.

 Some of the fashionable bad habits of the day are connected with the use of tobacco Here is a drug that a young man is obliged to become gradually accustomed to before he can tolerate either the taste or the effect of it. It is rank vegetable poison and in the unac- customed animal produces vertigo, faintness, and horrible sickness. Yet young men perse- were in the use of it until they can endure it., and then they love it. They go about the streets with cigars in their mouths, or into so- ciety with breath sufficiently offensive to drive all unperverted nostrs before them. They chew tobacco-roll up huge wads of the vile drug and stuff their cheeks with them. They ejaculate their saliva upon the sidewalk, in the store, in spittoons which become incorporate stenches, in dark corners of railroad cars, to stain the white skirts of unsuspecting women, in lecture rooms and churches, upon fences, aud into stoves that hiss with anger at the insult. And the quids after they are elected the-way places, great boulders, bolureS, bulbs ! Horses stumble over them. dogs bark at them they poison young shade trees and break down the constitution of swcepers. This may be an exaggeration of the facts, but not of the disgust with which one writes of them

 Now young men, just think of this thing | ou were born into the world with sweet breath. At proper age you acquire good set of teeth. Why will you make of one a putrescent exhalation, and of the other set of yellow pegs? A proper description of the habit of chewing tobacco would exhaust the filthy adjectives of the language, and spoil the adjectives themselves for further use and yet, you will acquire the habit, and persist in it after it is acquired. It is very singular { that young men will adopt a habit of which every man who is it's victim is ashamed. There is, probably, no tobacco-chewer in the world who would advise young man to commence this habit. l have never seen slave of to- bacco who did not regret his bondage, yet, against all advice, against nausea and disgust, against cleanliness, against every considera- ton of health and comfort, thousands every year bow the neck to this drug and consent to wear it's repulsive yoke. They will chew it :; they will smoke it in segars and pipes until their bedrooms and shops cannot be breathed in, and until their breath is as rank as the breath of foul beast, and their clothes have the odor of the sewer Some of them take snuff cram the fiery weed up their nostrils to irritate that subtle sense which rarest flowers were made to feed-in all this working against God, abusing nature, perverting sense, injur- ing health, planting the seeds of disease and insulting the decencies of life and the noses of the world.

 So much for the nature of the habit and I would stop here, but for the fact that I am in earnest and wish to present every motive in my power to prevent young men from form ing the habit, or persuadng them to abandon it. The habit of using tobacco is expensive A clerk on moderate salary has no right to be seen with segar in his mouth Three se- gars day, at five cents apiece, amount to more than fifty dollars year. Gan you af ford it You know you cannot. You know that to do this you have either got to run in debt or steal Therefore I say that you have no business to be seen with a segar in your mouth. It is presumptive evidence against your moral character.

 Did it ever occur to you what you are, what you are made for, whittier you are go ing? That beautiful body of yours, in whose construction infinite wisdom exhausted the re- sources of its ingenuity, is the temple of a soul that shall live forever, a companion of an- gels. a searcher into the deep things of God, being allied in essence to the divine. 1 say the body is the temple, or the tabernacle, ol such being as this and what do you think of stufGing the front door of such building full of the most disgusting weeds that you car ,, find, or setting slow match to it, or filling the chimney with snuff? It looks to me like , an endeavor to smoke out the tenant, or to in , suit him in such manner as to induce him te : quit the premises. You really ought to bt ashamed of such behavior. A clean mouth r sweet breath, unstained teeth, and inoffen ]. siye cothing-are not these treasures wortl E preserving? Then throw away tobacco, ant v all thought of it, at once and forever. Be { e man. Be decent, and be thankful to me fo r talking so plainly to you.

 But there are other bad habits besides tn