One of the Devil's Devices.
By John Harvey Kellogg
PAUL, in referring to Satan, on a certain occasion, said, "We are not ignorant of his devices." A good many people are ignorant of his devices. In many cases, however, this is no fault of his, for he makes no effort at all to conceal them; but rather makes exertions to openly advertise them to all. One of his latest and most mischievous devices is now freely advertised by his agents in flaring posters in the most public places. This poster reads as follows:— "Lorillard's Cognac Cocktails: A Chew That Beats a Drink." Which, being interpreted, means that Mr. Lorillard, the tobacco king, now furnishes a brand of tobacco so saturated with French brandy, and so doctored up with the stuff of which "cocktails" are made, that to take a chew of it is better than to take a drink of liquor. And thus the appetite for strong drink is directly created and fastened upon those who use the tobacco. It has been hitherto denied that the use of tobacco does tend to create the desire for strong drink. But that can be denied no longer, when the fact is publicly and widely advertised that now a chew of "Lorillard's Cognac Cocktail Tobacco" really beats a "Cognac Cocktail" drink. Nor is it to be supposed for a moment that this particular brand of tobacco is the only one that is so prepared. In the case of this brand the fact is boldly avowed, and that is all the difference; unless perhaps this is somewhat more heavily dosed than other brands. Nor yet is this confined to chewing tobacco. Smoking tobacco, cigars, and cigarettes, are all laden with nervines, such as vanilla, valerian, cascarilla bark, New England rum, and even opium; and cigarette tobacco is the most highly "flavored" of all, with chewing tobacco next. This is as stated by a manufacturer of the stuff itself. In April, 1882, it was stated by a large tobacco manufacturer in New York City, that he personally knew fifteen chemists who were "employed exclusively in factories in that city" whose duties consisted in "flavoring of fillings and in developing and heightening the narcotic powers of the weed, and thus making it marketable at higher prices." He declared that by the use of vanilla and valerian "the dullest and weakest stems may be flavored up into a fair article of tobacco." Vanilla, valerian, and cascarilla bark, all three, enter into the composition of cigarette tobacco. The vanilla "flavor" is used "in the form of an alcoholic tincture;" while another formula is composed of a combination of vanilla, valerian, and New England rum. It can be very readily seen that the direct and inevitable tendency of the use of manufactured tobacco in any form is to create an appetite for the strongest kind of intoxicating drinks. A great point is made against the Chinese in that they spread the opium curse in this country. Whereas the Chinese would be comparatively powerless in this, were it not for the opium and its kindred drugs in the cigars and other forms of tobacco, by which are sown the seeds of the curse. It is opium in the "best" Havana cigars, that makes them the "best." It is the opium in the fine Havana, that has such a soothing effect upon the smoker, and enslaves him more than does the tobacco. The use of tobacco alone, or of strong drink alone, is destructive enough to satisfy anything or anybody, unless it should be the devil; but the two combined, as the manufacturers of tobacco now combine them, certainly can leave nothing more destructive to body and soul, to be desired even by the devil himself. And this introduces a grave question as to how much longer Prohibitionists, and temperance reformers generally, can leave out of their work the unqualified condemnation of the use of tobacco in any form? To leave it out is to do but half their work, if they do even as much as half. With tobacco in its various forms constantly creating and fastening upon its victims by the thousands the appetite for strong drink, prohibition seems a long way off, while it confines its efforts to the effect, instead of striking at the cause as well. We are happy to say that Seventh-day Adventists are, and have ever been, uncompromisingly opposed to the use of either tobacco or strong drink; for in a measure at least, we are not ignorant of Satan's devices. J.