Stevens County tribune. (Morris, Minn.) 1877-1880, 1878-06-13
The SlllOke1.S Cor.

Reader, have you ever, either by accident
or design, been in the smoking car of rail-
road train well under way? 1t not, we beg
of You to improve the first opportunity TO do
SO. It will enable you to see life in new
phase, and you may possibly learn lessen
from it.
We think we are safe in saying there is no
life, either animal or vegetable, less tenacious
than that of man, which could continue
long within its smoky precincts. Thirty,
forty, and sometimes as many as fifty pipes
and cigars of all kinds and conditions, in
full blast, are giving off their clouds of
poisonous smoke, which fills the entire capa-
city of the car.
Fumigation SO thorough would soon clear
an infested ship of rats and other vermin.
Plants subjected to its influence would be
poisoned to death in short time. A child
would be soon suffocated, and strong men,
who have not been accustomed to such an
atmosphere, would succumb to its poisonous
influence. s-- -..-. '.--- -.
The human physical organization is of
wonderful endurance. We have only to
notice the vast amount or poisons, admins
tered by medical advisers in their daily prac-
tice, which the system rejects, always with
fact. Without going to extremes for illustra-
| tons, we see how tea, coffee, pepper, spices.
and other things not natural to mans APP
petite, or beneficial TO his system are, after
constant and moderate use. not only received
| by the system without opposition, but hnany-
hunger is induced which they alone can
satisfy, or which at least it is difficult to over
| come. The same may be said of the use of
| spirituous liquors. arsenic tobacco in its
| various forms, opium, and many other forms
of poisons Perhaps man was so constituted.
expressly to enable him to withstand the
poisonous atmosphere of the smoking-car.
4 The smoking car may be taken as an il
lustration of mans moral as well as his
physical nature and tendencies. If the doc
trine of total depravity, as once taught, was
true, we might suppose ourselves born in
spiritual smoking-car whose cloudy con-
tents were in exact consonance with our I'M
holy condition, and amid which we should
revel with the highest enjoyment.
But in these days of more liberal views,
we are taught that men are only naturally in
| clined to evil ways, and readily believe that
in our individual cases the inclination is so
very little from the perpendicular that there
Is no danger of fall. Our neighbor, who
! INDUCES in whole pipefull of sun, may be in
danger, but our little cigarette can work no
harm. In fact, we see no reason why we
should not be allowed to smoke it if we
choose. "a
| The little sins are but blossoms of which
the larger ones are the fruit, and the season
of growth is sometimes exceedingly short.
One wrong thought or action is followed by
another as readily and inevitably as is the
cigarette by the cigar.
The confirmed sot had his first glass of
/ wine, and he who stands lowest in the moral
scale, his first departure from the paths of
| righteousness.
/ We are all journeying on life's railway.
and on each train there is smoking-car.
Those who enter it do so from choice. They
may be urged or influenced by Others, bnt
the decision, the yes or the no, is with them.
More or less of the dust of the road win be
found on each one of us. We shall not run
into the terminal station with our apparel
fresh and clean, let us do the best we NAV:
but we can show that we have striven to
avoid contamination, and that we have at
| least kept clear of the denominations Of the
smoking-car.