“You would think that if the brass says: ‘Redskin Brand Chewing Tobacco, cut plug’ they would realize it has something to do with that,” he said. Kinner served in the Coast Guard, worked as a welder ...

Jim Kinner doesn’t chew tobacco. Never has. But deep in the basement of his home, he keeps spittoons. Glass spittoons, brass spittoons, porcelain spittoons. Spittoons that look like fish heads ...

The spittoon had the dull sheen of burnished copper, with a wide-open mouth, like a vase for flowers. Chewing tobacco was a habit that Pa had picked up during a lifetime working as a “scooper ...

All told, Kinner, 71, has more than 350 spittoons and chamber pots, more than the Duke Homestead State Historic Site and Tobacco Museum in Durham, N.C., which has one of the few spittoon exhibits ...

“You would think that if the brass says: ‘Redskin Brand Chewing Tobacco, cut plug’ they would realize it has something to do with that,” he said.