162 TOBACCO. 



Alas for the woman who has surrendered to 

 this vilest habit ! The costliest gifts and the 

 most earnest rebukes are alike unavailing. Neither 

 conscience nor reason, neither ruined health, nor 

 pleading friends can move her. 



But this unspeakably dreadful custom is by no 

 means confined to grown-up women. Indeed it 

 would seem to be, in the South, a part of common- 

 school education ; while the boys spit tobacco-juice 

 all over the floor, the girls hold their snufF-swab, 

 or dip, between the teeth, except indeed, when 

 they share it with some less-favored schoolmate. 



Many have supposed that the snuff taking, for- 

 merly so common among women and girls in the 

 North, and which frequently was an understood part 

 of the social gatherings, had long ago died out. But 

 it would seem that the habit has only changed its 

 form, and that from bad to very much worse. 

 Indeed the use of snuff among factory-girls, M to lie 

 as a sweet morsel between the cheek and gums, 

 is growing alarmingly prevalent. In response to 

 inquiries, a druggist in a large manfacturing town 

 affirms that w there is no limit to its use by these 

 girls." 



The outlook as to feminine smokers is equally 

 disheartening. A tobacco-dealer affirms that 

 " nearly half his trade in cigarettes is directly or 

 indirectly among women and girls." 



A orraduate of one of our best ladies' seminaries 

 has so fearfully retrograded that she indulges in a 

 daily after-dinner cigarette. 





