Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 13, 1991                   TAG: 9103130084
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL GRACZYK ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON-ON-THE-BRAZOS, TEXAS                                LENGTH: Medium

MUSEUM FOCUS ON EARLY TEXAN'S FONDNESS FOR CHEWING AND SPITTING

And now the operators of the Star of the Republic Museum want people to remember how pervasive the practice of tobacco chewing and spitting was in the early days of Texas.

"That's what's pretty exciting about working here. You can deal with all aspects of life," Sherry Humphreys, curator of exhibits at the museum, says of her exhibit entitled "Chew, Chew, Chew and Spit, Spit, Spit: Tobacco in the Texas Republic."

"You're not limited to major military events or the political events, even though they're terrifically important. Everybody knows that and we don't try to down play that at all, but these are just things that people don't normally think about."

The exhibit debuted over the weekend as the museum celebrated the 155th anniversary of Texas' Declaration of Independence from Mexico. The museum and a surrounding state park are at the site of the signing on March 2, 1836.

The chew and spit presentation includes displays of advertisements for things like spittoons, an example of roped tobacco, pictures, explanations and an authentic snuff box of the era.

"What we want to do is show the human aspects of things," Humphreys says. "We're not going to talk about the battles so much. We're trying to show that there were really people who lived then. Even Sam Houston spit on somebody's porch. There are stories about that kind of thing."

The exhibit's title is drawn from a letter written by a British traveler, Francis Sheridan, from Galveston in 1842.

"High and low, rich and poor, young and old, chew, chew, chew, and spit, spit, spit, all the blessed day and most of the night," Sheridan wrote, complaining about the "incessant remorseless spitting" of tobacco juice and use of other tobacco products.

Research by the museum shows tobacco often was twisted into rope and sold by the yard and could be chewed, shaved for pipe smoking or powdered into snuff. It was sold under the name "Honey Dew," "Pig Tail," and "Twist" and also could be flavored with licorice, rum, sugar, honey, nutmeg, cinnamon or other sweeteners.

Cuspidors or spittoons and spit boxes were in all hotels, public buildings and homes and if a receptacle was not provided, the floor was quickly covered with "ambeer," which was a more polite term for spit, Humphreys says.

"They really expected you to provide a spittoon," she says.

Sheridan wrote that he once watched a man teaching his 2-year-old son in Galveston how to spit "and loudly applauding every successful effort of the precious prodigy."

The practice was not limited to men, with early 19th century women often pipe smokers and dippers, Humphreys says, noting that fancy snuff boxes likely would be found in the living rooms of Texas homes.

"No gentleman would think of smoking in a parlor with ladies present, without first asking their permission, yet he would not hesitate to chew, and its necessary sequel, to spit," she says.