The Evil of Cigaret Smoking
The cigaret is an evil thing, always evil. Not one good thing can be said of it, unless it is desired to make men ineffective mentally, and shorten their lives physically. A Chicago banker recently said that smoking was not simply discouraged in his bank, but forbidden; and the Santa Fe Railway Company, since January 1, hold for instant dismissal those in all departments who are addicted to cigaret smoking. An increasing number of firms are adopting the same rule. In the schools the truant boys are almost invariably found among the cigaret smokers. The picture cards which are given by the manufacturers of cigarets sometimes are the very means by which boys are induced to smoke. In a careful study made of 500 boys in a number of private schools, a boy expert concluded that the use of cigarets among boys stunted the boys either physically or mentally, and usually both. The scholarship showing for the smokers ranged from ten per cent to seventeen per cent lower than the non-smokers. These are facts which ought to be kept before the boys.