p. 11 | BOYS VERSUS CIGARETS

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 25, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 47.

BOYS VERSUS CIGARETS.

The superintendent of schools in Stoneham, Mass., is alarmed over the smoking of cigarettes by high school boys. After carefully studying the subject, he announces it as his conclusion that a boy who becomes addicted to the cigaret habit might as well give up the school—the two do not go together. He asserts that “a boy is physically, mentally, and morally doomed to destruction so long as the cigaret habit is upon him.” That is pretty strong language, and it comes from a strong source; and when it is remembered that the conclusion has been reached only after careful observation and slow deductions, it must give concern to those who see the cigaret-smoking lads around them.

Just what it is about the cigaret which produces such results is not generally known. All sorts of reasons are assigned, and no doubt there is truth in many of them. But the fact that the cigaret does dull a boy’s intellect, and weaken his physique is unquestioned. Tobacco in any form is a disturber for a growing person, and those who would put themselves in the “pink of condition” physically omit its use. All of this is admitted. It is unnecessary to know the reason so long as we know the fact. Yet boys seem to regard the cigaret habit as one of the signs of developing manhood. Boys are queer creatures from fifteen to twenty years of age; then they believe that they know more than they ever afterward believe that they know, save in a very few instances. But the lad who is up to making the best of himself, and to profiting by his opportunities, will accept proven facts as a base upon which to rest action. Such a lad will drop the cigaret business before it becomes a habit. As this school superintendent says, unless he does so, he is doomed physically.—Westerly Sun.