The Latter Day Saints have always been against the use of tobacco products, but not everybody got the message early on. This is the advice Brigham Young addressed to the faithful at Salt Lake City in 1861 regarding the fine old nineteenth-century tradition of tobacco chewing:
Many of the brethren chew tobacco, and I have advised them to be modest about it. Do not take out a whole plug of tobacco in meeting before the eyes of the congregation, and cut off a long slice and put it in your mouth, to the annoyance of everybody around. … If you must use tobacco, put a small portion in your mouth when no person sees you, and be careful that no one sees you chew it. I do not charge you with sin. You have the "Word of Wisdom." Read it. Some say, "Oh, as I do in private, so do I in public, and I am not ashamed of it." It is, at least, disgraceful . . . to expose your absurdities. Some men will go into a clean and beautifully- furnished parlour with tobacco in their mouths, and feel, "I ask no odds." I would advise such men to be more modest, and not spit upon the carpets and furniture, but step to the door, and be careful not to let any person see you spit; or, what is better, omit chewing until you have an opportunity to do so without offending.
The Victorian cuspidor illustration comes from Iron Horse Antiques
P. S., According to Merriam-Webster, cuspidor comes from Portuguese: "cuspidouro place for spitting, from cuspir to spit, from Latin conspuere, from com- + spuere to spit."
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