p. 20 | Save the Youth by Daniel H. Kress

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 29, 1911

Save the Youth

By Daniel H. Kress

WORD comes to us from Brother Ernest Lloyd, of Los Angeles, Cal., that in their local conference they have already distributed nineteen thousand of the Temperance number of the Youth's Instructor. Their aim is to reach the twenty-five-thousand mark before camp-meeting. This is certainly an excellent beginning. We trust that at the camp-meeting this number may be more than doubled.

This Temperance issue of the Instructor should be placed in the hands of every child in our public schools. This can be done without any expense to us. There are men and women who would gladly donate five, ten, or twenty dollars to assist in carrying forward such an educational effort in behalf of our boys, upon whom will depend the future welfare of our country.

The evils resulting from the use of cigarettes by the boys is not appreciated as it should be. Numerous appeals have come to me, in behalf of some of these unfortunates, by their friends. Among them is the following, from a devoted mother:—

“I have a son who has ruined himself with tobacco and cigarettes, and seems unable to control the habit. Is there anything you could do to help me in this? He is twenty, and unable to study or use his mind. He was very bright and capable until he became a victim of this evil habit. If you can advise me in any way, please write me, and I shall be more than grateful. It seems as if there ought to be some way to save such boys.”

In a reply to an inquiry by me, she said further: “He was as fine and bright a boy as one could meet anywhere, until he began this habit, which seemed to change his entire disposition. He could not study nor read; he gave up his music, in which he has always been much interested; and finally he gave up his school and his young friends. He now devotes all his time and strength to this one thing. He has a taste for cheap entertainments of all kinds, such as picture shows and cheap theaters. We have tried all kinds of good inducements to take their place, but he is determined not to be helped. He will go without clothes to buy tobacco; and as he is my only boy, and as I had hoped much for him, I have felt I could not give him up. This, and this only, is my excuse for troubling you with my affairs. I am, and have been for five years, constantly on the lookout for something or some one to help me. My prayers, though constant, seem to do no good; and in the meantime the years go by, and he is wrecking his young life as well as mine.”

There are thousands of boys in the United States who, like this boy, are ruined for life, and each day thousands are beginning the habit, not knowing the injurious nature of the cigarette. Shall we not make a determined effort everywhere to inform these boys? We appeal to all Christian friends to assist in this noble endeavor. D. H. K.