Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1881-09-01
The Cigarette Vice.

Of the evils resulting from the viz.
OF smoking cigarettes we have hereto
fore spoken at some length. But OF
the full extent to which that vice is
practlced, many persons, we apprehend
are not aware. On that point there are
some appalling figures in the lust
issued report of the bureau of inter.
national revenue at Washington. Ry
that report it appears that during the
fiscal year ending on the 3Oth of June
last, there were taxed, at $1.75 a thou.
sand, no less than 567, 1856, ,9S2 cigar.
cites. Of this large number it is safe
to say that by far the greater portion
was consumed by boys and growing
youth and young men. OF the poison
thus imbibed from arsenical paper and
the wretched stuff which in most cases
passes for tobacco, no calculation can
be made. But the effect of all this on
the rising generation the most cheerful
optimist cannot anticipate with pleas.
ure.
The government during the fiscal
year covered by the report, derived
from this abominable manufacture a
revenue of $685., 2,929.22. Whereas. in
the fiscal year ending June 80, 1880. at
the same rate of taxation, their receipts
from this source were but $715, ,227. SO:
which is to say that during the last
fiscal year the consumption of cigar
cites was one-third greater than it was
in the preceding. This is an enor-
nous advance, and one which no rea-
sonable and judicious person can see
without deep dissatisfaction.
That something ought to be done to
diminish the consumption of cigarettes.
seems clear. Considerations of public
health are sufficient to warrant govern
ment action. 1t is a notorious fact.
well known to all dealers in tobacco. as
well as to many medical men, that.
with few exceptions, the cigarettes sold
are, both in the wrapper and in the
filling, made of deleteriOus substances
1t is because they are so made that they
can be sold so cheap. Thus tens of
thousands who would be unable to pur-
chase cigars use cigarettes because they
cost so little. If cigarettes were made
of imprisoned paper, and the filling
was of tobacco, it would be impossible
to make them for the price at which
they are now sold. If congress has the
right to prevent the adulteration of
food and drink and of drugs, it has an
equal right to check the sale of these
fraudulent things called cigarettes,
which are not at all what they pretend
to be. We hope that some one who
has the public good at heart, will take
the earliest opportunity at the coming
session of congress to introduce bill
for governmental inspection of cigar
cites, so that, if our boys and young
men will use these disease-breeding
articles they shall, at least, smoke
something that can be called tobacco,
and not kill themselves with the deadly
paper generally employed. OF course,
the manufacturers of cigarettes will
violently orss9Se such a measure, as
the increased price at which it viii
compel them to make cigarettes will
greatly diminish the consumption.
But we will not allow ourselves to be-
lieve that the bowling of these venders
of paralysis, idiocy and disease of many
kinds will have much weight with con-
gress, of which the action, we hope,
will be urged by a concerted movement
on the part of all who comprehend the
danger of the evil we are combating.