Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-06-07
MOKIN
A Pernicious Habit which is De-
sIrOying the Health Of Millions
ofAmerican Youths.

OF American lOutnS.
Philadelphia Times.l
No one who has a nose needs to be
told that cigarette smoking is the
most offensive form yet invented for
the consumption of tobacco. There
is something not altogether unpleasant
even to the delicate olfactories about
the fragrance of a choice Havana cigar.
The pipe smokers aflicts his friend
with nothing worse than a strong order
Of tobacco, while the sin OF the chewer
is principally that he defes himself.
But the cigaret smoker, and he is gen
orally a boy, pollutes the air wherever
he moves with the Quintessence Of all
nastiness in smells. He is a public
nuisance. Wether he is smoking OF
not you a smell him. The sicken-
ing odOr seems to, and in many cases
actually does, exude from every pore
in his enervated and l~istless body. In
the opera, in the theatre, the church
and in the street, his baleful presence
makes itself known often before he is
seen. This vice is of very recent and
very rapid growth. Dealers who three
or four years ago did not sell a cigarette
now sell millions a month, and the
evil is constantly growing, so hal it
is said a new brand has been put on
market every day since the beginning
of the year. The habit is confined
almost exclusively to boys and young
men, and the victim can be readily
detected, not only by the nauseating
odor which hangs about him like a
miasma, but by his sunken eyes, hollow
cheeks, from which every shade Of
color except a siekly yellow has depart
ed, by his puny limbs, his fat chest.
STOPPING skolders aud languid gate
He has, indeed, energy enough left to
20 out at the tall of the curtain at the
theatre and take a smoke of vile tobac.
CO and doctored paper, between the
acts. but beyond that the effort of the
confirmed cigarette smoker are gen.
orally confined to lounging around the
streets, where he can be seen BY the
dozen at any hour Of the day or any
corner sucking away at the nasty little
rolls, drawing the smoke with a sort
Of grasp down into the air passages Of
the lungs and forcing it out through
the nose, aud 50 absorbing nicotine and
the empyreumstic oil Of paper and
transforming himself into a walking
accumulation Of filthy smells.
There is a possibility that if the
young maa or boy addicted to this
habit knew how he was blighting his
future life he would stop it, and With
the view of giving him the information
the Times has, through its reporter,
gathered the views of a number of
leading physicians of the city regarding
the effect Of cigarette smoking on the
young. Every one of the physicians
whose expressions are reported below
is a recognized authority on nervous,
throat aud lung diseases. While it
mag startle the cigarette smokers TO
find how warmly and unanimously his
habit is condemned, it will pay
him to read the interview which lol.
lows.
81 am glad to hear that the Times
is going to take up the subject" said
DR.. Roberts Bartholow, Of 1909 Wal
nut street, well known as a specialist
in nervous disorders. 1T is high
time that something was done to put
a stop TO this frightiul evil, which is
stunning the growth and running the
health Of thousand of boys. 1t is Just
horrible to see these boys-little fel
lows, many Of them not more than
eight or ten years old not street boys.
but we'll dressed and careful nurtured
boys-gathered in knots in some cor
ner where they think they will not
be observed, learning to smoke.
Parents see their SONS getting thin and
yellow and irritable, the family doctor
is called in, and without going to the
root Of the evil prescribes tonics which
do no perceptible good.
THE prodigious increase ofciparetts
smoking among boys in the last few
continued DR.. BarthoIow
getting up from his chair and walking
and down his handsome psrlor in
the energy of his indignation, is an
evil which will tend to deteriation of
the race if not checked. But it is not
hard to account for. Boys are yery
initiative. They follow the fashion
with promptness and zeal. Cigarettes
are the rage at Harvard. 1t is the cor
rect thing to smoke these poisonous
little rolls OF tobacco and
Whatever is fashionable in a preat
school like Harvard is sure in q verv
short time to be fashionable tmong
young boys all over the country
Another great cause Of mischief e
that boys are very fond of imitatino
their elders. Smoking in public nlaces
ought to be discouraged. Tbere
ought to be a sentiment created
against it and the press is the power
to create snch a sentiment. Everv
man when he smokes in public ought
to think that he is encouraging some
boy to smoke. The boy will smoke a
cigarette, imagining that he will get
less tobacco in that way and ignorant
OF the fact that cigarette smoking il
the most pernicious form in which to-
bacco Is used. Tobacco in any form
Is q great injury to a growing bow.
and the fashion Of inhaling the smoke
and then forcing it out through The
is deadly in its effect. It causes
catarrh IN the air passages, throat and
nose, and makes the smoker disgust