[D8905AJX], Letter from Samuel Insull to Thomas Alva Edison, December 17th, 1889
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Title
[D8905AJX], Letter from Samuel Insull to Thomas Alva Edison, December 17th, 1889
Editor's Notes
My dear Edison:-- I enclose you herewith a letter from a Detroit Crank. As a rule I would not ask you to read letters from Cranks but in this case I think you should give the matter your very serious and close attention. Smoking is very injurious to the system and costly to the pocket, and I would strongly advise you to adopt chewing as an alternative.##True, my advice to you is dictated by a desire to corral these 2500 segars which the Lamp Company owes you and which I periodically promise to buy you the very next day. I write this letter to suggest a compromise. I will supply you with chewing tobacco for two years, and take the segars…##I know I cannot expect an immediate reply to a letter of this character. It is one which requires the most serious consideration, but having supreme confidence in your ultimate decision, it has occurred to me that I will buy 500 of the segars which the Lamp Company owers you, and start in sacrificing myself, pending your decision, which will naturally be in my favor on such a subject. Yours very truly Sam Insull [enclosure]: Thomas Edison Esq Sir, The papers are talking about your inveterate habit of smoking. "Sometimes as many as 20 cigars a day." Would stop it if hurt you, do not see what it does. " Neither did Gro. Gourad see it till it was too late! Permit a stronger to say that your keen, which brain is of too much value to be thus abused. Page after page could be written, and name after name cited to prove that the ablest chemists and physicians write in the assertion that tobacco (the use of it) impairs the power of thought. But time is money. You would not read. I venture to insert k just one article taken from a recent paper. Will you not read at least half of the 2nd then half of the 3rd column?##Note Napoleon's experiment, and remember that two great men have recently gone to there graves from tobacco cancer.##Wont the use of tobacco in any form and all other unnatural stimulants for one week. Note the effect upon yourself.##Again I say, your brain is too strong, too useful. The world cannot afford to let you become the [-----], and, ultimately, the prey of so abject a vice. So drop a line to tell me that you will at least consider the subject, and greatly oblige. Yours very truly, S.E Adams 80 E. Montcalm Detroit Michigan
Author
Recipient
Mentioned
Date
1889-12-17
Type
Subject
Folder/Volume ID
D8905-F
Microfilm ID
125:519
Document ID
D8905AJX
Publisher
Thomas A. Edison Papers, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University