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DIALOGUE ON SMOKING

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Apr 19, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 16.

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DIALOGUE ON SMOKING.

Charles.—Do you remember teacher telling us to avoid three bad things?
George.—Yes; he said it was bad to take strong drink, bad to swear, bad to smoke.
Charles.—Is it fair to put the three together like that?
George.—They often do go together in practise. Do you know a drinker who does not both swear and smoke?
Charles.—I can't say I do; but smoking is not so bad as swearing or drinking.
George.—O, no! Losing a shilling is not so bad as losing a pound; but it is bad, for all that.
Charles.—What makes you think it bad of a lad to smoke?
George.—Well, it costs money; and when a thing costs money, it should be good for something. What is the good of a boy smoking?
Charles.—Don't you think it looks manly?
George.—I don't think it does! The practise of sucking through a tube belongs to babies rather than to men. It is childish to go back to that after you have grown up, even tho you draw smoke instead of milk through the tube.
Charles.—But you would not call a cigaret a tube?
George.—Yes, it is; just a paper tube filled with tobacco scraps, mixed often with scraps of rubbish.
Charles.—O, now! a cigaret is a very innocent affair.
George.—No, it is not! It is about the most hurtful kind of smoking you can try.
Charles.—Why, what harm is there in it?
George.—Well, I can't quite explain, but those who ought to know—doctors and other learned men—tell us it is bad in every way for boys to smoke at all, and, worst of all, to smoke cigarets.
Charles.—In what way would it harm us?
George.—Many ways. I find one great doctor saying: The poison of the tobacco gets into the blood; another says it injures the heart; another, that it weakens the sight; another that it hurts the nerves, often even helps to bring on paralysis; and other doctors tell us it is bad for the brain, and is one cause of insanity.
Charles.—Stop, stop! bad for the heart, bad for the blood, bad for the sight, bad for the nerves, bad for the brain? That's an awful character to give it. May not all these grand doctors be mistaken?
George.—Not likely; others than doctors tell much the same story. Many employers now will not engage a boy who smokes.
Charles.—If the boy can do his work, I don't see why the master should interfere with the boy's own affairs.
George.—Well, the masters say the smoking interferes with their business; and that the boy who smokes does not work so smartly or so well, as the boys who do not smoke. In one of the newspapers lately, there was an advertisement for a "sharp, intelligent, honest, and obliging lad," but all boys who smoked cigarets were told not to apply.
Charles.—Well, but what if I don't need to apply for a situation, and am able to live as a gentleman?
George.—To my thinking it is no more gentlemanly than manly to smoke.
Charles.—Why?
George.—Well, a gentleman will never needlessly annoy others, and the stench of tobacco is very offensive to many people.
Charles.—But I would not smoke in presence of those who disliked the smell; that would be selfish and ungentlemanly.
George.—Ah! but one who smokes is scarcely ever free from the smell!
Charles.—Enough, enough! I give in. If it is neither manly nor gentlemanly, neither safe nor profitable, to smoke, I'd better not begin.—Selected.