p. 12 | A Double Poison by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 13, 1906

A Double Poison

By C. M. S.

What the cigarette is doing for the youth of the country is strikingly demonstrated in schools designed to prepare young persons for entrance to colleges and universities. Those having charge of such schools have been collecting statistics along these lines to guide them in their work. Dr. Fisk, who has charge of the Northwestern Preparatory School, has become so thoroughly convinced of the deleterious effect of cigarette smoking upon youth that he has asked any boy in the school who can not or will not give up cigarettes to leave, and offers to refund to such all they have paid in fees and tuition. The doctor does not deal in generalities or denunciations. The statistics which he has gathered cover a period of several years, and show that of the boys who smoke only two per cent are among the twenty-five per cent who stand highest in class scholarship. On the other hand, thirty-seven per cent of the smokers are among the twenty-five per cent who stand lowest in scholarship. Concerning this showing the Chicago Record-Herald says:—

“At the present time the boys who smoke appear to be entirely incapable of passing examinations or keeping up in their studies. Two out of every nine boys in school confess that they smoke cigarettes, and not one is in good standing in his classes. The proof of the positive deleterious effect of the cigarette upon a boy’s mind appears to be conclusive, Dr. Fisk not being the only educator in this country who has gathered statistics of similar import. School authorities are justified in resorting to every possible device to persuade young boys who are addicted to the cigarette to abandon the habit.”

The cigarette snare has proved one of Satan’s most luring devices to capture souls. It interferes with both the mental and the physical development of the young. It dulls the conscience, and opens the way for the practise of every evil thing. It blunts the edge of every good ambition, and renders the mind incapable of appreciating spiritual things. The most difficult case for an evangelist to deal with in the whole rank and file of the people is the person addicted to the cigarette. A veritable oil of lethargy seems to have been poured over the spiritual perceptions of such an one, and the most precious truths of the gospel flow over it with little, if any, impression. Parents should educate their children and their neighbors’ children to avoid it as they would the most deadly poison, for it is a poison to both body and soul.

C. M. S.