Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1887 — CHEWING TOBACCO. [ARTICLE]

CHEWING TOBACCO.

A Bad American Practice Fast Becoming Obsolete. New York Somas aerial Advertiser. When Charles Dickens was first in America there was nothing that seemed to him so worthy of ridicule as the way Americans used tobacco. He never got tired of ringing the changes upon this theme. One who had never been in England and knew nothing of ’English habits would have supposed that Americans were the only people in the world whq chewed tobaccb. Times change and national habits change with them. We are no longer a nation of tobacco chewers. That manner of using the weed is gradually passing away. The habit will be as rare in a few years as snuff taking is now. Common observation shows this. Within the memory of very young men it used to be necessary to decorate every public place that was desired to be kept ■clean with admonitions to the tobacco chewer not to expectorate on the floor. There used to be a splendid opportunity in those admonitions for fine, caustic references to the bad habits of some people. “Gentleman will and others must use the spittoons,” with the “must” in all. the emphasis of six-line letters, was a common legend. “If your early training has not taught you that it is bad manners to spit on the floor, an officer of the boat will show you the use of the spittoon,” was the elaborate textthat once ornamented the gorgeous cabin of a Mississippi River steamboat. Brief plaintive appeals of the same general tenor were as frequently to be seen as are the warnings about smoking on the elevated platforms now. But in spite of warning and exhortation the bad practice went on. Perhaps the corridors of the national Capitol at Washington where about as bad in that respect as any place in the country, Oitiiens who were showing off the wonders of the place to foreign guests used to hurry through that portion of their excursion as fast as they could. Their haste, however, did not enable them to escape from many shamefaced apology for a practice that, to foreign eyes, was absolutely disgusting. For, although we were not the only nation in the world, by any means, which chewed tobacco, we were the only one

that permitted evidences of the habit to be seen in every public place. We are getting oyer that now howevery tobacconist recognises the great change that is taking place in what may be called in a rather new sense, the public taste. Any average tobacconist, whose trade is not chiefly among sailors and truckmen, will tell you he does not sell one-half as much chewing tobacco as he did ten years ago, and not onethird as much as he did twenty years ago. Very likely he will be liable‘to guess why it is; but he can’t deny the fact. I asked one of them about it the other day. He said: “The change is due to a varity of causes. It is a great deal more apparent here in the East than in the West and South, but it is going on all over the country. One thing is undoubtedly the strength of opinion that it is an uncleanly habit. It is hard for a man who chews to keep evidence of it from his clothes. That fact makes it inevitable that the habit should go down before the increasing attention to dress, that is a feature of modern' life. Then a great many refined and wellintentioned persons have waged war against it for years. It was inevitable that some effect should follow their crusade.

“But the principal causes are right here: There is a great deal more dyspepsia and stomach trouble in the country now than there used to be. And no person can chew tobacco who has a weak stomach. James Parton says in his famous pamphlet against rum and tobacco that the stomach will hold out against the weed longer than the lungs. James does not smoke or chew, and therefore he doesn’t know. Common experience shows that he is wrong, and doctors support the verdict oi common experience. The action of the tobacco juice, which trickles down the chewer’s throat, is to paralyze the action of the stomach. Ij will do that long before smoke will have any perceptible effect upon an ordinary pair of lungs. “Then the cigarette has done a great deal to put an end to the habit of chewing tobacco. The growth of the cigarette practice in this country is, as they say of Western towns, ‘phenomenal.’ The consumption of cigarettes has doubled many times over in the last fifteen years. About seven out of every ten' boys who are growing up now smoke cigarettes. And after a boy has smoked cigarettes a few years he not only has no taste for tobacco in any other form, but he has no constitution left to stand chewing tobacco. It is curious how boys will take to cigarettes. I believe it is very largely because of the fuss that is made about them. It has got to be the common opinion that cigarette smoking is the most injurious practice known. That is just why boys adopt it. It makes them an qbject of awful interest to other boys and to girls. It is soothing to a boy’s foolish pride to know that people have marked him out as one who is rushing with frightful temerity to early destruction. Whether that is

the cause of it or not, it is perfect]v certain that more and more cigaretes are being sold every year antHfit find lets' chewing tobacco.” 1 i t In the old days “befo, the wah,'”4hen the South set the fashion for the whole country, nearly every statesman used to chew. The chewers in Congress are rare now. With the exception of Speaker Carlisle and bluft old Philetus Sawyer there is scarcely a well-known man on either side of the House who is confirmed in the habit. When Belford, the gentleman from Colorado, who rejoiced in title of the “Red-head-ed Rooster of the Rockies,” and who could make more noise than any other three men in Washington, was in Congress, he used to chew incessantly. It is said that he did not cease the practice even when he slept., An astonishing report comes from Colorado that even Mr. Bedford has been caught by the wave of reformation, and has abjured the weed. In a recent letter to a friend in New York, he asserts that for six weeks he has solaced himself with arrow root and gum. People who have years preached a crusade against the tobacco habit may reflect upon this case and take heart. The sufferings which an inveterate tobacco chewer endures when he first deprives himself of his accustomed weed are popularly supposed to be something dreadful. Some old chewers say they are, and some say they are nothing that a resolute will and a clear head can not easily stand. They all agree, however, that to have som athing in the mouth to quiet the jumping veins, deprived of their usual tranquilizer, is desirable and pleasant. To supply this want somebody invented a plug of stuff to be chewed looking much like tobacco, and warranted to supply its place in every particular without injurious effects. "When it appeared the enemies of the chewing practice declared that there was now no reason why the most confirmed chewer in the world should not stop, since he had here the long-looked-for substitute. This seemed reasonable enough, and a good persons acted upon the suggestion, until it was found by an inquiring chemist one day that the remedy was worse than the disease. The substitute for chewing tobacco consisted of some harmless leaves, soaked in licorice, and then dressed with a tincture of opium.