“You think it smart and cunning, John,
To use the nauseous weed;
To make your mouth so filthy then,
It were a shame indeed.
To smoke and chew tobacco, John,
Till your teeth are coated brown,
Making a chimney of your nose,
And of yourself a clown,—
“Yes, that would be so cunning, John,—
The girls will love you so;
Your breath will smell so sweet,
They’ll want you for a beau.
Because you use tobacco, John,
You think yourself a man;
But the girls will find it out, John,
Disguise it all you can.”
“Shall I assist you to alight?” asked one of those nice young men who loaf about country hotel doors, smoking a villanous cigar, of a buxom country lass, on arrival of the stage.
“Thank you, sir,” said the girl, with irony, and a jump, “but I never smoke.”
Black Eyes and Fingers.
An American traveller visiting the greatest cigar manufactory in Seville, Spain, says, amongst other things,—
“Here were five thousand young girls, all in one room,—and Sevillians, too,—in the factory. They are all old enough to be mischievous, and ‘put on airs.’ I doubt if as many black eyes can be seen in any one place as in this factory. Their fingers move rapidly, and their tongues a little faster. The manufactories consume ten thousand pounds of tobacco per day.
“I have often heard that a woman’s weapon is her tongue, and that the sex were notorious for using it; but, like many other unkind statements against Heaven’s best, last gift to man, I doubted it until I peeped into the Fabrico de Tabacos of Seville. What must be the weight of mischief manufactured each day along with the cigars, I don’t know, but I feel safe in stating that it is at least equal with the tobacco. This factory was erected in 1750, is six hundred and sixty feet long by five hundred and twenty-five wide, and is surrounded by a mole. It is the principal factory in the kingdom, as every one uses tobacco in some shape in Andalusia, not excepting the ladies; but it is when they are on the shady side of forty that they puff and cogitate. Snuff, cigars, and cigarettes are all manufactured here. The best workers among the girls earn about forty cents per day, the poorest about half that amount. Every night they are all searched.”
Disease and Insanity.
Tobacco helps to fill our insane asylums. Dr. Butler, of Hartford, and others, have assured me of the fact. “I am personally acquainted with several individuals, now at lunatic asylums, whose minds first became impaired by the use of tobacco.”