During the last winter I drew up the following pledge, and obtained many signatures here and in other parts of the state.
ANTI-TOBACCO PLEDGE.
We, the subscribers, believing that the use of Tobacco, in all its forms, is injurious to health, and knowing it to be a slovenly, sluttish, and disgusting habit, do pledge ourselves that we will not smoke it, chew it, nor snuff it; and that we will use efforts to persuade those addicted to the practice, to discontinue its use; and above all, that we will not traffic in it, nor countenance those who do; and that we will use our influence to banish the "vile stuff" from New England, our country, and the world.
A gentleman in North Bridgewater, to whom I lent a pamphlet on this subject, said he had not read it half through, before he emptied his pockets of tobacco, and resolved to use no more. He also took a pledge to circulate among his neighbors.
Another man who had chewed tobacco thirty-three years, abandoned the habit and remarked that he would not return to it for fifty dollars.
Two benevolent individuals, in Providence, had two or three hundred copies of the above pledge printed to circulate in the State of Rhode Island. One of the principal clergymen in P. said, a member of his church, a trader, told him that the money paid for tobacco in the city was sufficient to support the public preaching. A gentleman there, who has recently given up tobacco, said he would not go back to its use for a thousand dollars, although it cost him a great effort to refrain from it. A young man, after receiving a private lecture from an anti-tobacco friend, committed to the flames half a dozen cigars he had by him, and signed the pledge.
I have conversed with very many addicted to the use of tobacco, and nearly all express regret at having formed the habit.
A few days since in a town not far from Providence, as I was sitting in the stage about starting for the city, up came a reverend gentleman, a very fine man by the way, with a big cigar about half burned. He had too much good breeding to get into the stage with it, and to all appearance, disliked to part with so good a friend; he
accordingly stood outside and puffed away like a steamer, at the same time keeping an eye on the driver; when all was ready, he scrambled in, and we drove off. What an example, for a clergyman to stand in a public street and puff a cigar like a loafer or a blackguard!
Rev. Mr. C., in a village adjoining Providence relates, that a brother clergyman called to preach for him. He was in the habit of chewing tobacco, and Mr. C. took the opportunity to speak to him on the subject. At first the brother remarked that there was nothing wrong or injurious in it; but on Mr. C's pressing the matter and asking how he could preach "righteousness, temperance" and good habits in all things, when he was himself addicted to such a practice, the brother frankly acknowledged that he knew he was setting a bad example, and that tobacco was poisonous, injurious to health and shortened life, but he excused himself by saying he could not give it up, for he found it impossible to write a sermon or preach it with any success, without taking tobacco. Sermons and preaching inspired by tobacco! What better is this, than the inspiration of brandy?