p. 10 | Speech Vulgar and Profane

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 24, 1910

Speech Vulgar and Profane

There is no need of going to Webster for the definition of a cigarette. Everybody knows that it is a little cigar. It is a bit of tobacco rolled up in a bit of paper, and made to look both attractive and harmless. It is a cigar in its infancy. In time, if the one who indulges in cigarette smoking lives long enough, it will grow into a cigar. But the vile weed done up in the fine style of a cigarette is not thought to be quite so offensive and vulgar as when enjoyed in the form of a pure Havana or a big black Conestoga, or a clay pipe. It is tobacco all the same, filthy and poisonous, whether held together by a leaf from its own stem, or wrapped up in curl papers, or crammed into the bowl of a meerschaum. For obvious reasons it is the cigarette that is most affected by ladies.

However, it is not with cigarette smoking that we are now concerned, but with cigarette swearing. For there is a kind of profanity which bears the same relation to the coarser sort of taking the name of the Lord in vain that the tempting little cigarette does to the full-grown cigar. This, too, is the form of swearing which is most indulged in by the fair sex. It is not often, fortunately, that one hears a round, plump oath from the lips of a woman. When one does, it is unutterably shocking, especially if it be from the lips of a mother in the company of her children.

But profanity akin to this loud-mouthed and repulsive type, and which suggests a very strong inclination to use the more emphatic words, were it allowable to do so, is not uncommon in the

conversation of large numbers of our well-meaning and even cultivated ladies. At every turn of surprise in the talk that is going on, on every little occasion when there seems to be a call for protest, it is “Good Lord!” “Good heavens!” “My gracious!” and so on through the list. Sometimes there is more boldness in the expletive employed, and one whose opinions on actions are not satisfactory is denounced as a “blank idiot.” Every one who hears the expression knows exactly what the speaker wishes to say, and the softened substitute does not much relieve the situation, nor atone for the suggested blasphemy.

Now there is no need here of wandering off into wide ethical discussions, and trying to fix the precise measure or the comparative measure of guilt in God’s sight which there may be in this or that or the other form of profanity. It is enough to say that the cigarette habit of swearing is not good. It is a mild type of profanity; and because it is mild is more frequently put in evidence by women than men; but it is not good. It is an offense to a refined taste. It is a debasement of language, and tends all the time to reduce one’s vocabulary of choice and appropriate words. It lowers the mental tone of individuals and circles, and under the delusive guise of vivacity reduces thought to the cheap quality of a bargain-counter.

The atmosphere of a home which is filled with these explosives is not a wholesome one for children to breathe. It is bad anywhere and everywhere. It is impossible to believe that a disciple of our Lord can be quite so spiritually minded, can live in quite so close and vital a relationship with him who made that startling deliverance about our responsibility for even the idle words that we use, and be quite so much like him in mind and aim and character, if there is no restraint of the kind of speech which savors, even in a mild degree, of the profane. If one can not express one’s opinion, and say one’s say, whether man or woman, without swearing, or so much as indicating a desire to swear, it is better to remain silent.—Northwestern Christian Advocate.