p. 11 | TOBACCO WAS HIS RUIN

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 19, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 25.

TOBACCO WAS HIS RUIN.

He was a young man, only a little past thirty, and yet by his face one would almost think he was sixty; wrinkles, scars, prematurely gray hair—all of them thru debauchery. He was waiting to be taken to the penitentiary, where he had been sentenced for a crime committed when he was under the influence of drink.

When asked how he came to be in such a state, he said, with a look of despair, “Tobacco has been my ruin. I kept pure company and was a clean young man until I formed the tobacco habit. I trace my downfall from the very hour I began to use tobacco. I soon became accustomed to company I would not formerly have thought of associating with. Then came the wine-cup. The thirst for it was created by the use of tobacco, I verily believe. Then the company of dissolute women.” He was the very picture of despair. His whole life destroyed and blotted out by the devil’s hand, the devil’s instruments being used to do it.

There are so many who look lightly upon the using of tobacco—even do not reprove the young men when they begin to use it, call people cranks who do not believe in the use of tobacco, and criticize and even persecute those who are warring against this evil.

Selfishness, unquestionably, is at the bottom of a large part of this; for when one has formed the habit, it is very difficult to give it up, and the temptation is to brace one’s self against all arguments in favor of its being abolished.

It would be well if all such people could take a look at the wrecks caused by the use of tobacco.—Anon.