Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/137

 Indeed. "The pitcher that goes oft to the well,"—do you know the proverb? It is somewhat musty.

There is another abuse of the teeth, the mouth, and the whole body, which we may as well delicately reprehend. We mean—well, not to put too fine a point upon it, as the immortal Micawber says—"snuff-dipping." It is foolish to deny that in certain parts of our country this disgusting habit prevails widely among the better classes of society, and is nigh universal among the lower. We passed several days, once, in the house of a lady by birth, wealth, and position, the wife of a General of some distinction (Federal or Confederate we say not), whom we saw using with caution, but with assiduity, the hateful dipping-stick. A leading snuff manufacturer tells us that his market is chiefly for this purpose, and that certain brands are notoriously used in no other way. Now, there is nothing which ever has, or ever can be said against smoking or chewing, from King James' "Counterblast against Tobacco" downward, which does not apply with tenfold force to this nauseous indulgence.

We are no tobacco-phobes. We confess, indeed, to having gazed without repugnance, even with sentiments akin to admiration, at some dark-eyed Spanish damsel, delicately applying to her ripe lips the fragrant cigarette, and wreathing her raven tresses in odorous circlets of silvery clouds. But snuff-dipping, pah! The offence is rank. Let us leave it.