Smoking is a barbarism. This is the main argument against what is
termed moderate smoking. There is something in the practice that allies
a man with barbarians, and constantly tends to make him think and talk
like a barbarian. Being at New Haven last September, a day or two
before the opening of the term at Yale College, I sat in one of the
public rooms of the hotel late one evening, hoping some students would
come in, that I might see what sort of people college students are in
these times. Yale College hath a pleasant seat. Who can stroll about
upon that beautiful College Green, under those majestic elms, without
envying the youth who are able to spend four long years of this
troublesome life in the tranquil acquisition of knowledge amid scenes
so refined and engaging? The visitor is bewitched with a wild desire to
give the college two or three million dollars immediately, to enable it
to become, in all respects, what it desires, aims, and intends to
become. Visions of the noble Athenian youth thronging about the sages
of eld, and learning wisdom from their lips, flit through his mind, as
he wanders among the buildings of the college, and dodges the colored
men who are beating carpets and carrying furniture. In this exalted
frame of mind, suppose the stranger seated in the room of the hotel
just mentioned. In the middle of the small apartment sat one fat,
good-humored, uneducated man of fifty, smoking a cigar,--about such a
man as we expect to find in the "office" of a large livery stable. At
half past ten a young man strolled in, smoking, who addressed the elder
by a military title, and began a slangy conversation with him upon the
great New Haven subject,--boat-racing. About eleven, three or four
other young men came in, to whom cigars were furnished by the military
chieftain. All together they blew a very respectable cloud, and the
conversation, being so strongly reinforced, became more animated.
Boating was still the principal theme. The singular merits of Pittsburg
oars were discussed. A warm dispute arose as to who was the builder of
a certain boat that had won a race three years ago. Much admiration was
expressed for the muscle, the nerve, and, above all, for the style and
method, of the crew of the Harvard boat, which had beaten the Yale boat
a few weeks before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account