Tobacco and Degeneration
By Editor
THE Rev. Mr. McIntyre, a Methodist pastor in Chicago, is quoted as saying: "This nation is destined to be a Spain; and the pity of it is, there is nothing can be done about it. The tobacco habit has gotten such a hold upon the people, that it is going to be resistless; not only men and boys, but women and girls are going to be increasing users of tobacco, and especially the cigaret." This was uttered some time ago, and we see the fulfilment of his prediction, for tobacco-using is increasing, and the sad thing is that men and women and girls are forming the habit. We sympathise with the Anti-Cigaret League and the societies that are working against the evil, and we are glad in God of all that they can save from the foolish habit; but appetite and companionship are tremendously strong factors in pulling down the mass. Lucy Page Gaston declares truly that "the cigaret is only the beginning, the door-step to vice. It is the seed of the drink habit, of impurity, of the most horrible practises that are prevalent to-day; and when you see the innocent cigaret in the hand of a boy, I want you to think to what it may lead. I visited a cigaret factory in New York, and stood by machines that turned out three hundred cigarets in a minute; and as I heard that click, click, click, click, click, it seemed to me it was drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, the life-blood of the nation. I was in one factory that turns out six million cigarets a day. You have no idea of the tremendous growth of this thing, and how it is sweeping this land."