Year: 1867

| HABIT AND EAAMRLEs ss. =


"Mot6er, how much tobacco does it take to make
sermon2' 2'' s ..'E % a.a T..


what DO you mean my son?'' -.
| "Why, mean how much tobacco does father
chew, and how many segars does he smoke while
he is making sermon" q" 81:
"Wen, the tobacco and the smoke don't make
the sermon, do they? p .:% 81


"I don't know but they do-they help along at
any rate; for heard father tell Mr. Morris, the
minister who preached for him last Sunday that
he could never write well without segar. So
thought may be the tobacco makes the sermons, or
the best part of then" !" .s+.


"My son, I am shocked to hear you talk so o!''~.
"Wen, mother, [ was only telling what father
said and what it made me; think. He said a
prime segar was great solace Whatever that is J
and he said besides, it drove away the bues put
him into happy frame Of mind and sinanaerated
or stimulated his brain so he could work better
suppose stimulate means to make one think ca
sier. Now, mother, / have been thinking I could
study better if had something to stimulate my
brain and the next time ! have one Of those knot
ty questions in arithmetic to work out / will get
segar, and see if it won't help me along. You
know you often tell me if follow my father ex-
ample will not 60 yeryfar astray; and now |
would like few segars to make my brain work
well, so can stand at the head Of my class.


81 hope shall never see my son with segar
in his mouth; it would be the first step to Rim


"You don't think father is ruined, do you and
he has taken good many steps since he took the
first segar"


II think, my son, your father would be better
without segars or tobacco in any shape but he
formed the habit when he was young man"


"But father says we are to blame for forming
bad habits and that it is sin to continue in them.
heard him say that in the pulpit not long ago
There is old Tom jenkins, who gets tight every
day. I suppose he would find it rather hard to
break off drinking whisky. But father says, it is
no excuse for man, when he gets drunk, to say
he is in the habit Of getting drunk. he says, it
only needs resolution and moral courage to break
off bad habits


"But, my son, smoking tobacco is not quite like
drinking whisky and getting drunk. .r.-i


mo, know that mother; but l was going on
to say that, if smoking was bad habit, father
would have given it up. long ago. But don be-
q great deal Of good. You know how nervous and
fdgetty father gets when he has to go without any
segars; and, besides he could not write his ser
mons without them. I am sure If he could write
as well and do as much good without using tobae-
co. he would not spend so much money for it
When want to buy little candy or bit Of spruce
gum, father tells me had better practice the grace
of selfdenial, and save my money for the mission
ary box Besides, he says such stuff is not good
for me; it will spoil my teeth and ruin my health
Now am quite certain that father would not spend
money-more than have ever spent in my whole
life for candy, gum, clothes and everything.-f he
did not believe tobacco was real benefit to himself
and others Why, mother do you know anything
about the price of segars in these times? Cousin
Ned Wilkis, who smokes great many, says, you
can't get decent segar for less than fifteen cents
and the best cost forty or fifty cents apieceP And
I have heard Deacon Tompkins say his segars cost
him six hundred dollars year for he uses moth
ing but the very best, and they are all imported
He told father so the other day, when they were
smoking together in the study after dinner, and
was trying to get my arithmetic lesson. Now,
mother, do you think my father and Deacon Tomp.
kins, and whole host Of ministers and elders, and
temperance lecturers, and lots of good Christian
people would spend so much money to keep them
selves in bad habits? Why, just the sum that
Deacon Tompkins alone spends upon segars,
would support missionary in the West for whole
year, and would be better salary than many
Western ministers now get. Really, mother, L
can't believe that using tobacco is wrong as long as
so many good christians do use it. don't care so
much about 'cheaong g-would rather have some
nice, clean spruce gum such as they have got down
to Dickson's store, but I would like to smoke as
father does and please mamma give me little
money to get few segars.


"My son. you may talk to your father about this
matter Ask him if he thinks it would improve
your habits and your manners to learn to smoke
and if he approves, you may ask him tor segar.
ErchanQe.