XXXVIII. RAISING TOBACCO.
In the early days of Marshall County every farmer who used
tobacco, and some who did not, raised a small patch every year s regularly as
they did lettuce and onions and beets and cabbage and other garden truck. At
that time there was very little of what was called “boughten tobacco” to be
had, and what there was, was known as “Kentucky pig-tail.” It was soaked in
licorice, was a black as tar, and was altogether villainous stuff. Some of the
tobacco raised here then was of fairly good quality, and after having the habit
of using it firmly fixed it answered the purpose, and was as good - or more properly, bad – as much of the
imported stuff in use nowadays.
It was a dreadful ordeal one had to go through with to
accustom himself to the use of tobacco, and it was equally as hard to rid
himself of the habit after it had been acquired.
The writer remembers as vividly as if it were only yesterday
his first effort at learning to chew tobacco. It was the home grown weed.
Nearly every boy in those days deemed it necessary to use tobacco. The boy who
couldn’t chew the stuff and squirt the “ambier” – to use a word coined for the
purpose – didn’t amount to a ---!
It was on a summer day. He was resting from the day’s labor
in a fence corner in the shade of a tree when the man who was with him asked
him to take a chew of tobacco. He concluded that was as good a time as any to
begin and bit off a large mouthful and went at it. For a time all went well,
but presently a sickly feeling came over him and it was not long until he
heaved up Jonah to beat the band!
191 HISTORY
OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
Sick! Well! Don’t talk! A sicker child you never saw! He
parted with everything from the top of his head to the soles of his feet! He
saw all the stars in the heavens above; the aurora borealis quivering in the
northern hemisphere, and felt several distinct shocks of earthquake! Finally he
managed to get to the house, where his mother almost went beside herself, being
sure he had the cholera! The true state of affairs was divulged and after sassafras
and sage tea had been administered and the proper antidotes applied, life began
to return, and by the next morning he had fully recovered.
The reader may think that this experience ended his efforts
to learn to use the filthy stuff! Not so! The neighboring boys had mastered the
art and were squirting the tobacco juice with as much gusto as the biggest man
in the neighborhood! So he determined to learn to chew tobacco or die in the
attempt. And he did, and after a while the habit became so firmly fixed on his
system that when he wanted to quit it he found it was almost impossible to do
so. He determined, however, not to be a slave to tobacco or anything else, and
long ago quit it entirely, forever and a day.