Social Progress of Tobacco 97 



their customers. Another potent reason is the severity 

 with which society of all classes regards drunken- 

 ness, and its consequent decrease. Smoking began 

 to come into favour and practice as it came to be 

 regarded disgraceful for a gentleman to drink to 

 excess. Whether smoking led to less drinking or 

 the diminution of drinking led to smoking is a moot 

 point, though in our opinion the former is the true 

 explanation. After dinner a smoker drinks less 

 between the whififs of his cigar than does a non- 

 smoker, whose whole time is free for the bottle. 

 Gentlemen of the old school complain that young 

 men nowadays care more for tobacco than wine, 

 exercise more care in the selection of an Havana 

 than of their port or claret, and appraise the hospi- 

 tality of their host by the excellence of his cigars 

 rather than by the age and flavour of his vintage. 

 Last, but not least, the mental strain and worry 

 produced by the stress and speed of modern life, 

 together with the fierceness of competition and the 

 highly-strung nervousness of town life, demand a 

 specific, both sedative and stimulating; and in 

 tobacco man has found, as did his ancestors, the best 

 of all Nature's remedies to minister to body and 

 mind distressed. 



