Texas Baptist [Anderson, TX], March 15, 1860
For the Texas Baptist.
Brother Baines: Sometime since I wrote you a brief article on the use of tobacco, in which I endeavored to expose the filthy and degrading custom so prevalent among men. I said nothing then of the unwholesome compound usually termed “snuff,” or if its abhorred use by many ladies of apparent sensibility and refinement. I regarded this as wholly unnecessary, unless the soi disant lords of creation could first be induced to abandon their own file customs, and submit, in a spirit which they alone are accustomed to observe, to the correction of all their vile and unnatural propensities for tobacco.
Now to correct any evil, Brother Baines, it is my humble opinion that our efforts will always be more successful when aimed directly at its strongholds; in other words, if its Gibralters can be induced to surrender, soon all parts of minor importance will be compelled to follow. While the “lords of creation” exhibit such a universal and voracious appetite for tobacco, what can it avail for me, or any one else, to lecture my own sex on its use, since it is well known that as the “weaker vessels,” we too often follow in the wake of influence created by our lords? It has been said that men are the oaks that constitute the human forest, while we are but vines that lean upon them for support. If it be true that there really exists such a relation between the sexes as that presented in this figure, can it be thought at all strange that a few ladies should fall into some of the errors of the sterner sex? Then if you wish to stay the progress of this filthy vice, let all gentlemen of refinement and good sense first abandon it themselves; let them view it in others with abhorrence; let physicians denounce it as unwholesome; let ministers and all expose it as sinful, and I do assure you that my own sex can soon be induced to throw their pipes and snuff- bottles into the confused mass of rejected rubbish, that lies entirely without the bounds of Christianity.
So much, Brother Editor, I have written by way of excuse for not having said anything in my previous article about snuff-dipping. I trust Brother J. P. T. will appreciate the apology. And now I beg leave to thank him for his article on Tobacco and Snuff; and I can assure him that all who look with disgust upon the odious stuff, will thank him too. May his resolution to abandon the filthy practice of smoking, never fail, and in that case I feel certain that the priviledges of Leap Year, if there be any in it, will prove a great blessing to him. I can vouch for the fact that all worthy ladies will have more regard for him now that he has become “a decent man.”
Brother J. P. T. views with abhorrence the odious practice of dipping snug , and in this I think he is perfectly right; but when he seems to conclude that my article would have been equally as applicable to this custom as to smoking and chewing tobacco, I am inclined to think that he errs a little. Dipping snuff is certainly not so common as chewing and smoking tobacco; and if it be as filthy in some respects, still I am sure that no lady can be so perfectly indifferent to all appearance of decency as to suffer it to drop unwiped from her chin. I would that I could say as much for all persons who use tobacco in any form.
I do not, however, attempt by any means to justify the use of snuff at all,–and far be it from me try to screen, for one moment, those females who foolishly expose themselves to the just censures of all decent persons by using it. I now distinctly and deliberately denounce the use of tobacco in ALL customary forms, as degrading beyond all measure, and altogether filthy in those that use it. I will go further than this, Brother Baines, and affirm that the use of tobacco as it now prevails in Texas, is most palpably a heinous sin, for which a fearful reckoning will have to be rendered before God’s judgment bar. For proof that it is filthy and degrading, I merely point you to its votaries; and to show that it is shockingly sinful, I will simply appeal to the following statement of facts:
There are in Texas, I am told, probably about 20,000 Baptists. Of these some suppose it would be a reasonable calculation to say one-half use tobacco in one form or other; but to be certain to keep within the bounds of reasonable calculation, I will say that one-fourth, i. e., 5,000 of that number use tobacco. Now in answer to my inquiries I have been informed by different gentlemen that consumers of tobacco expend upon an average each year about $10 apiece.
Now, Baptists of Texas, look at these figures; count the sum annually expended by you for this useless and filthy “weed,” and tell me does the sum given to the cause of missions equal it? See, here is $50,000 annually consumed, not in luxury but in degrading filthiness! The sum is sufficient, according to the pittance usually doled out to missionaries, to sustain one hundred active ministers of the gospel through all the year. And can we imagine that God will hold guiltless those who thus give their money for the indulgence of mere sinful propensities, while in thousands of destitute neighborhoods sinners are perishing for the Bread of Life?
But let it be allowed that my figures above are too large, that there are only about 15,000 Baptists in Texas, and then without changing my other figures, (which I am sure are reasonable,) you will still perceive that the enormous sum of $37,000 is expended annually by Baptists in Texas for Tobacco alone. O “tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon!” Fain would I hide my face in shame at the bare thought of this, our degradation; and here I would [illegible] that this “vice is a monster of such freightful mien, that to be hated needs but to be seen.”
And now, Brother Baines, with your kind permission I will bring this matter nearer home, and apply the above calculation to the Association which includes Bonham in its bounds. There are 1260 Baptists in Sister Grove Association, one-fourth of whom probably use tobacco.—Now allowing that these spend $10 apiece for the luxury of spitting upon their chins, church floors, &c., and we have the sum of $3,150 spent annually in our bounds in the indulgence of this sin alone, while, alas! our missionary fund never exceeds the grudged pittance of $500 a year. “O, shame, where is thy blush?”
Brethren, is it not apparent that you will have to render a fearful account to Almighty God for this reckless expenditure of the money he has committed to your hands? Are you not ‘bought with a price?” Are you not stewards of the living God? Are you not under obligation to give a fair proportion of your means, and labor constantly for the advancement of his precious cause? Oh, then, let me entreat you, for the sake of Him that bled upon the cross, for the sake of sinners perishing in your bounds, for the sake of the prosperity of the church everywhere, renounce this filthy, this degrading, this exceedingly sinful practice, and let the money thus expended be given to advance the cause of Christ on earth.
It maybe, indeed, Brother Editor, that the figures in the above calculations are, after all, too large; the statement is, however, based on information received from Mr. ______, and several other brethren whose opportunities for observation are nearly as good as though they had been “itinerating.” Yet I am confident that were the tobacco fund far less than I have represented it, still the fact would by no means diminish the guilt of those who, in any degree, appropriate their money to gratify a sinful and health-destroying indulgence.
Still entertaining some slight hope of reform among Christians, I again subscribe myself,
Your sister,
Caroline.
Bonham,
March, 1860.