My observations on other people
lead me to the conclusion that tobacco is generally a bad thing, and
that alcohol taken in very small quantities can produce a good effect
in some cases of constitutional debility.
Iv. TOURGUENEFF.
March 14, 1882.
MARK TWAIN.
I have not had a large experience in the matter of alcoholic drinks.
I find that about two glasses of champagne are an admirable stimulant
to the tongue, and is, perhaps, the happiest inspiration for an after
dinner speech which can be found; but, as far as my experience goes,
wine is a clog to the pen, not an inspiration. I have never seen the
time when I could write to my satisfaction after drinking even one
glass of wine. As regards smoking, my testimony is of the opposite
character. I am forty-six years old, and I have smoked immoderately
during thirty-eight years, with the exception of a few intervals,
which I will speak of presently. During the first seven years of my
life I had no health--I may almost say that I lived on allopathic
medicine, but since that period I have hardly known what sickness is.
My health has been excellent, and remains so. As I have already said,
I began to smoke immoderately when I was eight years old; that is, I
began with one hundred cigars a month, and by the time I was twenty I
had increased my allowance to two hundred a month. Before I was
thirty, I had increased it to three hundred a month.
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