SMOKING, it seems, had its origin in devil worship. The North American savages brought tobacco to their gods as the most acceptable offering they could make. The burning fumes ascending before the gods were supposed to appease their anger, or as stated by one of the seventeenth century writers, "They thought the angry gods were marvelously delighted therewith." When America was discovered, the Spanish sailors who saw the natives smoke, in describing it to their companions, said, "They drank smoke, and puffed it from their nostrils like devils."
Before tobacco was much known in Germany, some soldiers, it is said, belonging to a British cavalry regiment, were quartered in a German village. One of them, a trumpeter, happened to be a Negro. A peasant, who happened to be a black man, watched the trumpeter at a safe distance groom and feed his horse. After the Negro was through, he filled his pipe and began to smoke. As the peasant saw the smoke come out of his mouth and nostrils, he became much alarmed. The Negro, seeing his look of fear, offered the pipe to him. "No, no!" cried the peasant, in great alarm. "No, no, Mr. Devil, I do not eat fire."
It is evident that Mr. Devil has met with better success since, for fully eighty per cent of American men are fire eaters. Sixty per cent of our boys over eleven years of age drink, smoke, and "puff it from their nostrils like devils." We have become accustomed to witness this strange savage custom, which made so profound an impression upon the sailors of Columbus and the German peasant.
Illus. London News
Mr. Devil seems to be having things his way, even among some of the pastors and teachers. Cigarette smoking is one of his most successful agencies in destroying the human race physically, mentally, and morally. "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." His most destructive weapons are not the big guns, but the little cigarettes, and the host of other narcotic drugs that are employed in civilized lands.
