TOBACCO 



INTRODUCTION. 



Whatever benefits may be legitimately claimed 

 for tobacco, very few will deny that the prevailing 

 habit of using it is expensive, unwholesome, and 

 uncleanly, if not actually demoralizing and peril- 

 ous. Why, then, must it be touched so gingerly? 

 Why must we approach it with deprecating bows 

 and apologies, as if, after all, it was not much of 

 an offence ? 



Alas ! it is because this ugly brown idol is set 

 up in high places ; because it has more worship- 

 pers than any heathen god ; because it is enshrined 

 in many a heart as the dearest thing on earth. If, 

 now and then, some fearless hand attacks it, not a 

 few, even among those who are not its votaries, in 

 their concern lest some good man may chance to 

 get hit, stand ready to warn off the assailant. One 

 is thus often reminded of the old slavery days, 

 when many who were not practical partakers con- 

 doned the offence of such as were. 



Are not those who use this narcotic in its vari- 

 l 



