Temperance | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 4, 1880

Temperance.

A VICE THAT IS SAPPING MANHOOD.

If the youth of the present day gave but a thought to the injurious effects of cigarette-smoking, and sturdily tried to avoid the pernicious habit, we are convinced that both their mental and moral well-being would be vastly improved. It has been often stated by good authority that the indulgence of this habit on the part of our youth tends to degenerate the physical stature of the person who is a slave to the cigarette. It may seem a graceful accomplishment to roll the fragile piece of paper with dexterity. There may be an innate desire on the part of an ambitious youth to arrive at that stage in the process of cigarette-smoking when one can swallow the smoke which arises from the tobacco and paper, and let the blue cloudlets find egress through the nose. But we warn our youthful readers that in becoming such adepts in the art which is sapping their manhood, they have entered upon a course which will eventually lead them to an early grave.

Perhaps the injurious effects of this habit would not be so bad were it not for the vile adulterations which enter into the manufacture of both paper and tobacco. The demand for this form of smoking has been so great, that the market is flooded with imitations made of the worst paper, and the cheapest refuse of the tobacco factory. A physician in New York recently analyzed a cigarette, and found the tobacco was strongly impregnated with opium, while the wrapper, which was warranted to be pure rice paper, was found to be the ordinary quality of white paper, whitened with arsenic! Thus does the death-dealing abomination stalk through the land, dwarfing the mind and deteriorating the body. A recent writer has said that our next generation will be born of puny-chested, slim-legged, small-necked chaps, and what kind of a generation it will be! Idiots and monkeys! This may seem drawing it rather strong, but we have no doubt that it is in the main correct. It is truly shameful to see a little fellow not higher than your knee puffing away as if his very life depended on the effort. It needs the most watchful care upon the part of parents to try and check this tendency to an evil habit in their children. If the consequences of their actions, and the fatal results which an indulgence in cigarette-smoking would have upon their future life were forcibly impressed on them, we think our youth would try to avoid the habit. But if they bid defiance to all parental and friendly counsel, and continue upon their dangerous course, we can truthfully tell them they may as well give up all chance of ever becoming worthy citizens of this great republic. When manhood is about unfolding its charms to their gaze, it will find them weak, spiritless and unambitious, and they cannot if they would enter upon the race which leads to preferment and honor. The vice of their youth has incapacitated them from fulfilling all worthy endeavor. We hope our young readers will give heed to these warnings, and not be so foolish as to pursue a course which will eventually be their ruin. A hint to the wise is sufficient.—Pacific States Watchman.