Charlotte home and Democrat., 1886-10-08
The Cigarette Curse.

Lastweek sbnsiness msn OF the city,
pointing out .. fne-looking lad OF fifteen
l.or sixteen years, With wide-awake mar
ner and an air of apt intelligence, re-
marked ::s'That is oneof tbe most prom
Using boys in the city. He is already q
fine accountant, is up in business methods,
| is industrious and reliable, and bids fair
to make one of the leading business men
| ir the future, if he doesn't ruin himself
smoking cigarettes"
L eff he doesn't ruin himself smoking
cigarettes" There's the rub. How
many bright aud promising boys are de-
stroying the germ of strong aud useful
manhood and ssruining themselves" by
smoking cigarettes a,5.as-
OF all the evil habits of which the
youth of the present day are addicted the
cigarette habit is probably one OF the
most pernicious and injurious. Iu ma
iority of cases it virtually ruins boy be-
fore he is out of his teens. 1t dries up his
emotions, saps his energy, weakens his
strength, gives him bad breath and
bad color; Injuries the organs of the
mouth, throat, and chest; destroys the
pliancy aud melody of his voice; under
mines his nervous system, and Weakens
his mind and his powers of thought and
application. The physical decadence oc-
casioned by its indulgence would be
strikingly illustrated by comparison of
any given number of boys and girls of the
same relative age. In hundred average
girls below the age of maturity the pro-
portion of well-grown, vigorous, healthily
developed girls is in excess, whereas in
hundred average boys given to cigarette
smoking the proportion of weak, un-
healthy, ill-grown, prematurely withered
boys is in large excess. r.. -a-.g. o..
The far-reaching and irremediable con-
sequences of the habit can, therefore. be
easily foreseen; and yet no intelligent or
well-directed efforts are made to prevent,
correct or suppress it. Writing about it
apparently does Lo good. Boys who
smoke cigarettes do not deny that it is
bad and injurious habit, and do not de-
fend it, but they go on smoking their
4 lives away all the same. Parents, in too
many instances, have lost their influence
and control, or have become resigned to
the ruinons practice; and the consequence
is an unlimited indulgence aud the spread
of the habit by contact and association.
Something should be done to stem this
growing evil. The State, which has a
paramount interest in the moral and ply.
sical welfare of her youth, should coun
tensnce and authorize any enlightened
policy for it's correction. The days ol
"Blue Laws" are long since past, and
while laws and ordinances looking to the
inculcation of right habits and the sup
preston of vice among the young-meas
ures which the intelligent judgment ol
the community might conscientiously ap
prove-could not properly be classed with
the "Blue Law" still the principle O
coercion necessarily embodied in suct
measures might wholly defeat their OBJ
iect. Human nature is human nature
and is the same the world over anc
through all time, and while it may be re
strained, it cannot be wholly changed OF
reformed by the rigid operation of repres
sive laws. Purely reformatory meanl
should be employed. ......etf
The public schools, if properly directed
to that end, might be relied upon tt
eradicate it to a considerable extent
Certainly boys should not be allowed tt
smoke cigarettes while attending the pub
. lie schools, and right inducements towart
permanent abandonment of the habi
should never fail to be used, not only ir
schools, but in shops, Offices, stores, facto
ries, and wherever else boys are employed
Competitive premiums for total absti
nence might be offered by the city schoo
authorities, or by regularly constituted
reformatory societies.-Richnaond WHO