190 TOBACCO. 



Says James Partem : K Clergymen hurry out of 

 church to tin el momentary relief for their tireel 

 throats in an ecstatic smoke, and carry into the 

 apartment of fair invalids the odor of ex-cigars. . . 

 A parishioner who wishes to confer upon his minis- 

 ter — if a smoker — a real pleasure, can hardly do 

 a safer thin^ than send him a thousanel cigars of a 

 good clerical brand. It is particularly agreeable 

 to a clergyman to receive a present which supplies 

 him with a luxury he loves, but in which he knows 

 in his inmost soul he ought not to indulge." 



I cannot forbear to enrote here one or two pas- 

 sages from the satirical remonstrance of "A Smok- 

 ing Minister." In writing to The Advance, he 

 says, — 



"I had hoped, it seemed vainly, that, after the 

 death of Mr. Trask, no more unjust and exagge- 

 rated statements and no innuenelos and covert 

 reflections upon us who puff and chew would be 

 admitted into the newspapers, or prayer-meetings, 

 or the pulpit. I write while smarting under some 

 spoken and some implied criticisms that have 

 touched my sensitiveness." 



After enumerating at length the manifold bene- 

 fits he has derived from tobacco, he sums up, — 



" If I am deprived of my usual smoke, my nerves 

 are so unstrung that I am unfitted for any utterance 

 elemanding consecutive thought, accurate expres- 

 sion, anel deep religious feeling. It only aggra- 

 vates my elifficulty to have it referred to in the 

 Sabbath-School, or prayer-meeting, or the pulpit. 



