SOCIAL AND ESTHETIC VIEW. 161 



Nor does this loathsome custom stop at the 

 South. Careful investigation has proved that for 

 a number of years it has prevailed to a consider- 

 able extent in the city of New York, the tobacco- 

 nists, who call it " digging," admitting that a large 

 part of the demand comes from fashionable circles. 

 These diggers, however, conceal their perform- 

 ances, seeking the privacy of their own rooms 

 when giving themselves up to their disgusting de- 

 bauch. With a horn or a spoon the abominable 

 stuff is deposited inside the lower lip, and thence, 

 when sufficiently moistened, passed round the 

 mouth. 



Says the journal from which most of the above 

 facts are taken : rf That our readers may form 

 some idea of the enormous prevalence of this habit 

 in their midst, we may state that one tobacconist, 

 having a small store on Broadway, retails one hun- 

 dred pounds per week, to his f digging' customers 

 alone. Another firm, which keeps a store on 

 Broadway, and also one down town, makes and 

 sells three barrels — seven hundred pounds — in 

 three days, all of which is consumed by women of 

 New York city. The amount used by each f dig- 

 ger,' varies from one quarter of a pound to a pound 

 a week." 



A victim of this terrible mania, finding when she 

 had started on a journey, that she had forgotten 

 her snuff-box, gave a black stewardess five dollars 

 for a little of the baneful dust which she had in her 

 possession, 



