FROM "OLD SALT." 



The Puritans, from the first introduction of the plant, 

 were sincere haters of tobacco, not only in England but in 

 America. Cromwell had as strong a dislike of the plant as 

 King James, and ordered the troopers to destroy the crops 

 by trampling them under foot. Hutton describes a Puritan 

 as one who 



" Abhors a sattin suit, a velvet cloak, 

 And sayes tobacco is the Devill's smoke." 



Probably no other plant has ever met with such powerful 

 determined opposition, both against its use and cultivation, 

 as the tobacco plant. It was strenuously opposed by all 

 possible means, governmental, legislative, and literary. When 

 tea and coffee were first introduced both were denounced in 

 unmeasured terms, but the opposition was not so bitter or as 

 lasting. 



The following verses bearing the nom deplume of an " Old 

 Salt," record much of the history of the plant : 



" Oh muse ! grant me the power 

 (I have the will) to sing 

 How oft in lonely hour, 

 When storms would round me lower, 

 Tobacco's prov'd a King ! 



** Philanthropists, no doubt 

 With good intentions ripe, 

 Their dogmas may put out, 

 And arrogantly shout 

 The evils of the pipe. 



* Kind moralists, with tracts, 

 Opinions fine may show : 

 Produce a thousand facts 

 How ill tobacco acts 

 Man's system to o'erthrow. 



" Learn'd doctors have employed 

 Much patience, time and skill, 

 To prove tobacco cloyed 

 With acrid alkaloid, 

 With power the nerves to kill 



" E'en Popes have curst the plant; 

 Kings bade its use to cease ; 



