THE IMPEACHMENT OF TOBACCO.
By H. Wren
TOBACCO may be impeached of the following “high crimes and misdemeanors,” all of which it can be proved to have often committed, and to be still committing:— It poisons the body. It renders the body unclean. It makes the breath foul. It destroys the clearness and brightness of the countenance. It makes the teeth black. It pollutes the mouth. It pollutes the clothes. It poisons the air and renders it unfit to breathe. It makes the air offensive to the smell. It weakens the intellect. It causes imbecility. It causes insanity. It causes intemperance. It kills more than alcohol. It lessens muscular power. It excites unholy passions. It leads to sin and crime. It ruins the voice. It destroys the fineness of the sense of taste. It destroys the acuteness of the sense of hearing. It impairs and often entirely destroys the eye-sight. It deadens all the finer feelings, whether physical, intellectual, social, or moral. It renders people more liable to contagious diseases. It transmits infectious diseases from those who have handled it to those who use it. It causes premature decay of the whole nature. It causes premature death. It causes many serious maladies, and some that cannot be cured. It causes cancer of the stomach, of the lips, of the tongue, of the cheeks, of the pancreas. It causes apoplexy. It causes paralysis. It causes dyspepsia. It causes consumption. It causes impotency. It causes torpid liver. It causes diarrhea. It causes constipation. It causes asthma. It causes delirium tremens. It causes incurable ulcers of the mouth, throat, lips, and tongue. It causes congestion of the brain. It causes palsy. It causes piles. It causes heart disease. It causes nervousness. It causes vertigo. It causes sore throat. It causes epilepsy. It causes loss of memory. It causes sleeplessness. It causes decay of the “jaw-bone.” It causes neuralgia. It causes something which the doctors call “locomotor ataxia.” It causes rheumatism. It causes something which the doctors call “angina pectoris.” It destroys manliness and resolution. It causes laziness and idleness. It injures the blood. It weakens the stomach. It injures the brain. It prevents the right action of the nerves. It injuriously affects the mucous membrane of the mouth. It causes enlargement of the tonsils. It lessens vitality. It enervates the offspring of those who use it. Its effects are often worse in the children than in the parents. It makes sallow skin and sickly countenances. It stunts the growth of boys and youth. It dwarfs all their powers, physical, intellectual, and moral. It makes them very sick when they begin to use it. It makes boys, and sometimes men, impudent. It causes catarrh. It causes disease of the kidneys. It causes disease of the gums and teeth. It makes men cross and irritable (and some women too). It makes the hands tremble. It curtails the power of endurance. It causes untold pains and suffering. It causes one billion dollars to be worse than thrown away, every year. It costs more than bread in England. It costs eight times as much as bread in the city of Boston, and in many other cities, no doubt. It fills the world with paupers. It causes little children and women to go poorly clad and hungry. It gives Holland one million sallow, sickly people who are there engaged in its manufacture. It exhausts the soil. It diminishes national vigor. It impedes civilization. It impedes Christianity. It undermines the valuable resources of nations. It renders armies susceptible to the diseases of camp-life. It renders them vincible on the field of battle. It disqualifies kings, emperors, presidents, councilors, judges, legislators, ministers, teachers, and parents for the finest comprehension and discharge of the responsibilities resting upon them. It takes from ministers of the gospel that sacred influence that should always radiate from them. It prevents them from attaining the ends for which the ministry was created. It renders them (and others) unfit to be received into the houses of refined families. It renders men unfit to ride in the same car with other people; and lays upon railroad companies the necessity of furnishing them a separate car called the smoker’s car. It does no good. It imparts no real happiness. It does incalculable evil. It causes untold misery, want and wretchedness. It is one of those mighty chains with which Satan enslaves this world and binds it to his chariot. Thank God for the health reform, which saves some from its scourge. But the poor old world loves its chains, and curses those who would set it free.