Murder and Suicide—Are They Criminal Acts?
According to the Philadelphia Times, an aid to the anti-tobacco reformer has developed, this ally being nothing greater than a bug which eats the tobacco that has been prepared for the human. One bug cannot eat much, but he has millions of brothers, each one as zealous as himself. As yet, the dealers are the only ones who have been affected by his ravages, and they have lost largely. And it is impossible to get rid of the intruder. One wholesale dealer, with the utmost seriousness, said to a reporter:— "They have caused me the loss of a good many dollars, and with all my years of experience in the tobacco business I can find no remedy. They are the only species of insect that can live on tobacco, and anything that can live on tobacco can't be poisoned." Think of it. Here is a man who sells what he knows to be a deadly poison, and he makes nothing of acknowledging it. No poison can be found that is deadly enough to kill a creature that will not succumb to tobacco. If he should chance to let fall that he was selling so powerful a poison to be mixed with food for hogs, he would not have his liberty an hour, but since he sells it only to men and boys, he will not be molested. Yet who will say that he does not deserve punishment? And then there are the thousands who deliberately buy and devour the poison. Is not attempted suicide a crime, and in some States punished as such? What would become of the world if strict justice were meted out to all? When we remember that it will be done, this becomes a question worth considering.