AT HOME. 279 



prevalent in s the States,' nor is it, as in Great Britain and 

 Ireland, almost entirely confined to the poorer classes. Mem- 

 bers of the House of [Representatives and of the Senate, doc- 



AN AMERICAN SMOKER. 



tors, judges, barristers, and attorneys chew tobacco almost as 

 generally as the laboring classes in the old country. Even in 

 a court of justice, more especially in the Western States, it is 

 no unusual thing to see judge, jury, and the gentlemen of the 

 bar, all chewing and spitting as liberally as the crew of a 

 homeward-bound West Indiaman. It must indeed be con- 

 fessed that Brother Jonathan loves tobacco * not wisely but 

 too well,' and that the habits which are induced by his man- 

 ner of using it are far from * elegant.' The truth is, he neither 

 smokes nor chews like a gentleman ; he lives in a land of 

 liberty, and takes his 'tobacco when and where he pleases. 

 He spits as freely as he smokes and chews upon the carpet 

 or in the fire-place for he is not particular as to where he 

 squirts his copious saliva, and does not think with the late 

 Dr. Samuel Parr, that a spitting-box is a necessary article of 

 household furniture. The free-born citizen of the States 

 laughs at the aristocratic restrictions imposed on smoking in 

 England, where, on board of the numerous steamboats that 



