180 TOBACCO. 



Very dark is this cloud in our horizon. In true 

 gallantry American mankind is ahead of all the 

 world. Could we only secure this earnestly 

 coveted, much-pray ed-for reform, it would add 

 the one finishing touch. It would exalt this same 

 American into the ideal gentleman. But where 

 will the present current land him ? 



Wrote Mary Clemmer in the Independent : " Gaz- 

 ing on the average American who crowds the cor- 

 ridors of the capitol on the last day of the ses- 

 sion, it is impossible to believe him the fraction of 

 a civilized nation. Nothing in their way could be 

 more exquisite than the staircases of tinted marble 

 leading to the galleries of both Senate and House. 

 Yet had they been tottering staircases leading to 

 dens of dissipation instead of to the highest legis- 

 lative chambers of the nation, they could not be 

 more defiled. From base to summit they reek 

 with tobacco. It drips from their edges and is 

 piled in 'quids' in their corners, while the spittoons 

 that line the way would disgrace a pot-house. 

 With tobacco reeking under your feet ; tobacco 

 spurting diagonally on your clothes ; tobacco mak- 

 ing the air blue with smoke and foul with smell, 

 over acres of marble that should be stainless as 

 your conscience, altogether it is quite sufficient to 

 make you doubt the civilization of the people who 

 claim to be the mightiest on the earth." 



