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His Slavery

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International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 6, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 30.

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His Slavery.

It is easier to break off a bad habit suddenly than gradually. The gradual plan was tried at the inebriate asylums, but it was found that the best thing to do with an old toper was to cut off his supply of drink at once. For a day or two, or even three or four days, he suffered much; but the vital powers, after being relieved of the daily poison, quickly rallied, and the man improved in health every hour.
It is so with the tobacco slavery. An interesting anecdote in point is told of the late James Harper, one of the founders of the great publishing house of Harper & Brothers. When he was a young publisher in Cliff Street, he tried hard to dissuade one of his neighbors from drinking. One day, when he had talked earnestly on the subject, his friend turned upon him thus:—
“Neighbor Harper, you don’t like the taste of liquor, but you are as much a slave to tobacco as I am to rum, and you couldn’t break off that habit any more than I could break off drinking.”
To this retort Mr. Harper made no reply at the time, but it sunk deep into his mind. He thought it over all day, and finally made up his mind that no habit of his should ever be a snare to another. Before he slept that night he put his tobacco, his pipes, and all the apparatus of smoking away up out of sight on the top shelf of his kitchen. To the day of his death he never used tobacco again. It cost him a severe effort to keep his resolution, but he made it cheerfully, and did not mention the matter until the victory was complete.
Many persons are still living who have heard him relate this incident of his early life.
Thurlow Weed did something similar. When he had been a pretty hard smoker for fifty years, his physician told him that his cigars were injuring him, and that he must stop smoking if he wished to ever have better health. Mr. Weed took his cigar from his mouth, threw it away, and never smoked again.—Sel.