Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1895 — NATION OF TOBACCO USERS. [ARTICLE]

NATION OF TOBACCO USERS.

Wa Consume Yearly Five Pounds to Every Man, Woman and Child. It is evident from the internal revenue receipts from the consumption of tobacco that we are a nation of chewers, smokers and snuffers. This is discouraging to thbse who rail against the vice, but then they have the satisfaction of knowing that the indulgence costs the smoking public dear. Just how expensive it is to use tobacco cannot be easily ascertained, but it may be gauged from the fact that the revenue from tobacco alone during the fiscal year 1894 was $28,617,898.62. Surely a nation that can afford to expend such an amount in taxes on tobacco —lor of course the tax comes from the consumer—to say nothing of the cost of the material, must have money to burn. That, of course, is its end—burned up, chewed up or snuffed up. And despite the magnitude of the sum the internal revenue

tax from tobacco in 1894 shows a decrease from that of 1893 of $8,271,818.12. The falling off is naturally attributed to the hard times. In one way and Another the people of the United States use a great deal of tobacco, estimated by bulk. The figures show the consumption to be about 844,(XX),000 pounds for the year 1894, or, on the basis of 60,000,000 population, nearly five pounds per annum for every man, woman and child in the country. To those who have thought that the unpleasant habit of snuffing has gone out of existence it will,be interesting to learn thjit the total domestic production of the article for the year was 11,627,092 pounds. Think of the enormous number of pinches this represents. Despite th§ falling off in the revenue, it is a curious fact that the decrease is less from snuff than from any other form of tobacco except cigarettes, which actually shows an increase. The percentages are approximately as follows: Cigars and cheroots, 68.5; chewing and smoking tobacco, 81; snuff, 55. The increase in cigarettes is about 125 per ceuc.