THE CIGARET A DEADLY PERIL.
By Editor
FROM time to time we have spoken of the cigaret evil, and its effect upon young men. Others, too, have lifted warning voices, but they have not been heeded. The evil has grown apace, and is everywhere manifest. The value of the raw tobacco, that is, what the planter received for it, was, in this country in 1892, $57,563,510. This represented 821,823,963 pounds, of which about 110,000,000 pounds are manufactured into cigars and cigarets. Tobacco may be used by older men in the ordinary way of chewing, drawing the smoke into the mouth and expelling it, with seemingly but little harm to the ordinary health of the individual. But cigaret smoking seems to be responsible for another form of smoking, much more potent for evil. It has been said that the evil of the cigaret was caused by the opium it contained, but opium is used in none of the cheaper grades, on account of its expense. Prof. Charles B. Hubbell, president of the Board of Education of Greater New York, etc., etc., points out in an article in the Independent that the perniciousness of the cigaret vice comes especially from the inhaling habit, to which more than nineteen out of twenty of the cigaret smokers are addicted. A recent issue of the London Times "included a manifesto demanding legislation by Parliament, looking to the prevention of juvenile cigaret smoking," and "an entire column of that influential journal was required to contain the names of the signers of the petition," "the list including peers, bishops, judges, the leading head masters of colleges and medical officers." Professor Hubbell declares that the cigaret habit, first observed among the students of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, N. Y., has spread from that point, until now "it is more devastating to the health and morals of boys and young men than any habit or vice that can be named." The London Lancet, one of the most reliable medical journals published in the English language, has recently stated that the most deleterious product in the combustion of tobacco is carbon monoxide, which is the deadly constituent of water gas, and is present in comparatively large quantities in tobacco smoke. This is the poison that is responsible for the utter demoralization of that unhappy individual, who has come to be known as the cigaret fiend, whose pale face, shattered nerves, and hopeless position in the community is recognized as applying to many of our American youth, whose opportunity for usefulness and happiness has passed away. Experiments have demonstrated that this poisonous gas is taken up by the blood, when tobacco smoke is inhaled. A few years ago it was the privilege of the writer of this article to render some service in connection with the administration of the public school system of this city. During the period covered by that service several of the principals in the public schools complained of a condition that it was difficult for them to understand. Boys of ten, twelve, and fourteen years of age, naturally bright, were observed to be losing the power of concentration and application of mind. Nervousness, listlessness, and a tendency to truancy were associated with the names of nearly every one of them. It was found that nearly all the incorrigible truants were cigaret fiends; that is to say, they were almost hopelessly addicted to the inhaling habit. Their nerves were shattered, and the value of public school instruction was greatly lessened in their cases. Further investigation disclosed the fact that very many of these boys stole money from their parents, or sold all sorts of articles that they could lay their hands on, in order that they could gratify an appetite that fed on its own indulgence. A justice of the Supreme Court of this State, since deceased, told me that in the last year that he was practising at this bar, he had had nine office boys in his employ, who had been discharged for stealing postage stamps, it having been proved in every instance that the boys stole in order to purchase cigarets. Juvenile offenders brought before police magistrates are found to be invariably cigaret smokers. Professor Hubbell speaks of "college students who are leaving our academic institutions every year by hundreds, with health more or less shattered, as a direct result of four years' indulgence in the inhaling habit." And yet, so far as he knew, not a college in the country had made any effort to stamp out the inhaling habit, and but little effort to warn the students. He thinks there is no more important matter to be considered by the colleges; but the trouble here is that "some of the professors in our colleges are themselves hopelessly addicted to this habit, and their usefulness is affected, in my opinion, quite as seriously as tho they were addicted to the alcoholic or morphine habit." The remedy proposed is to arouse public opinion, and make concerted effort against the evil monster. Societies should be organized against it. Legislatures should act. "Parents should inform their boys of the danger attending any indulgence in this habit before they are likely to contract it; forbid it, and should, in my opinion, visit condign punishment on those who offend against this parental law." Many thousands of employers already refuse to hire a cigaret smoker. And yet, the one thing emphasized by Professor Hubbell is the inhaling habit, not the smoking. But the inhaling habit is the one thing which furnishes the object in smoking,—it intoxicates, it pleases. Why do men smoke at all?—Because of the soothing effects of the toxics of tobacco. Why do they inhale the smoke?—To secure greater effects. One might as well half justify the pulling of a trigger, but condemn the discharge of the rifle; or say that men might put whisky in the mouth, but must not swallow it. The first step toward evil is in smoking in any way the first cigaret. Avoid it, boys, as you would a pestilence. If you are a tobacco devotee, break from its bondage in the strength of God. One more thought: What a picture does this present to the watchman on the walls of Zion of a degenerating world? These youth are the hope or the despair, the bliss or the bane, the cure or the curse, of the future. Surely there is in the awful picture more of curse than cure. Well said the prophet: "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." Surely the age hastens to its end, and to the coming of the Judge.