A LECTURE ON TOBACCO. 57 



pleasure, what they very much dishke and beheve to be 

 hurtful. The opium-eater does not compel you to eat 

 opium with liim ; the drunkard does not compel you to 

 drink. The smoker compels you to smoke — nay, more 

 — to breathe the smoke he has just discharged from his 

 own mouth. It is true there is no malice in it. The 

 tobacco-smoker does not wish you harm when he blows a 

 cloud of nicotine into your face. . . . He does not care 

 whether you are happy or miserable." 



So far "The Times." The smoker may bear "no mal- 

 ice " if he has his own way ; but if you remind him that 

 he is in a carriage where smoking is prohibited, he is too 

 apt to show his rough side, as the records of police-courts 

 prove, when those who have been insulted by him ha\-e 

 had the pubhc spirit to bring him before the magistrate. 

 You may remember the old story of a traveller in a stage- 

 coach, who brought home to his fellow-passenger the 

 annoyance he was causing. The smoker was asked to 

 refrain, but he answered that he had a right to do as he 

 chose. At the next inn the Quaker (for the Friends are 

 generally the heroes in such transactions) provided him- 

 self with two tallow- candles ; one of these he took with 

 him lighted into the coach ; then he ht the other, and blew 

 out the first. After it had cooled, he reHt No. i, and 

 blew out No. 2, — and so on, till the coach was pretty well 

 filled with their fumes. At last the smoker could bear it 

 no longer, and asked the Friend what he meant by it. 

 He was coolly met with his own reply, " I have a right 

 to do as I choose ! " (After all, candle-smoke is not so 

 poisonous as tobacco-smoke, and it had not passed 

 through the Friend's mouth !) He had the good sense 

 to take the hint and put out his pipe, and they travelled 



