Year: 1873

BYJAMEs COULTER LAYARD, NJ. d.
Tobacco is an Indian weed,


Which from tie devil doth procced,


It picks your pockets, burns your clothes,


And makes chimney of your nose"


Old Rhyme


There is plant which is instinctively
avoided by every member of the brute
creation. The horse will not pasture on
it. the OK Will not gaze on it, the ass will
not feed upon it, the goat will not browse
on it, the mule-that eats briars and this
tles-will not eat this. the hog will not
root about it, even the birds will not light
upon it no animal but man will even
touch it. Yet this plant. which is SO
universally stunned by every member Of
the animal kingdom but man, is by him
esteemed luxury, and is daily solace
to thousands, yea, to millions of the
human family, all over the world-from
the Laplaudcr. amid arctic SHOWS, to 'the
naked negro painting on the Line > from
the birthplace of the human race in the
East to the uttermost limits of civiliza-
tion in tue West-nay, farther /; for its
kingdom is not bounded by civilization,
it is used alike by civilized and by saw
age, by the European and the Hottentot,
the peer and the peasant its sway is
only limited by the limits of the species.
and its empire is co-extensive with the
human family itself.


That plant is tobacco. We might
have said that ,0ced, but that is term
unknown to Botany. 1t is an appella-
ton indicative of reproach, contempt and
disgust. Just as when we wish to speak
of man in terms of contempt, VIC call
him a fellow. And if there is any one
member of the vegetable kingdom more
huteful aud disgusting than another, that
one is tobacco which, says a taleu-
ted aud popular divine Of our Own times
IF there ever was weed whose Ioots
went down till they drew sap from below
that weed ID tobacco" And there are
those members of the anti-tobacco league
too-who object TO this term as mis-
nomer. For" say they, lit was crea-
ted by God, and hence must be very
good" The particular purpose it serves
in the economy of creation we cannot,
perhaps. very satisfactorily explain. -
heather can we tell why briars and
thorns were created, nor the deadly upas
tree, nor snakes and toads but we may
rest assured that it was never intended
that we should use any Of these things
to our hurt


HISTORY OF TOBACCO.


Attempts have been made to prove
that tobacco was known to the ancients
And this from the fact that mention is
made in ancient history of the operations
of smoaking and snutfing. This, though
it proves that man-ever prone to evil
did, at an early period, as he has done
since. resort to the smoking of narcotic
herbs for the purpose of procuring sensu-
al enjoyment +; yet there is no evidence
to show that any Of the herbs so employ
ed was tobacco, but sneezing powders,
otherwise called sternuiatoyies which
were employed-at first, at least-medi
cinally.


No, tobacco is native of our own
America. How long before the discovery
of this country by Columbus it was in
use among the natives we have no means
of knowing; but we know that very soon
thereafter, it was carried through the
agency Of commerce to all parts Of the
known world. "As the discovery Of
America cursed Europe with tobacco"
Gays a noted English statesman, "who
can tell whether the discovery has been
more Of blessing or course 2"