The Indianapolis journal., 1886-01-18
BOYS AND TOBACCO.

tance along the thoroughfares of any city or town
in our country, without meeting the pathetic as
well as disgusting sight of small boy with a
cigar in his mouth Boys of ten, twelve and
fourteen years of age, perhaps year or two
older, sometimes having clean faces and good
clothing, indicative of respectable homes, so fire.
quently use tobacco in public that the majority
of men have grown Indifferent to the practice
Even the best of men. as rule, while they ac-
knowledge this habit in children to be wholly
deplorable, treat it as unavoidable, if not a
necessary evil. It's commonness and publicity
seem to have binding and discouraging effect
when they should rather arouse and stimulate
an aggressive warfare against it. To be sure, the
use of tobacco is often condemned by ministers
of the gospel in their public discourses: and 9th
er reformers speak and write strongly against all
forms of this indulgence, in general But what
is needed is some combined and effectual action
which will awaken public opinion to sense of
the particular evil of the habit in boys The
lethargy of parents in this matter is almost un-
accountable. Is it the consciousness of their
own deficiency that ties up the hands of fathers.
and the misleading old saying that 'boys will be
boys" which leads mothers too often to meet
with slight reproof and sigh the knowledge
that their young sons use tobaccol
The truth is, boys do not wish in any sense to
be simply boys, but rather and chiefly to be
men. And if they are not carefully watched
and guarded they will almost certainly initiate,
as far possible, the bad habits of their elders,
and neglect the good. They DO this, not because
of their own depraved tendencies, but because
hoa kcl hcl>:
1t is not strange, therefore, that-boys without
the safeguard of special teaching should consd
er the worst or most notable habits
of men their peculiar badge of
manhood, and thus the things necessary
to be acquired by would be men, "Father
smokes. why shouldn't II" is the most natural
thought boy. under favorable circumstances,
can have. But that good old argument of ex-
ample as the best support of precept is some
times too strongly insisted upon, and the neces-
rendered less emphatic. The fear of inconsist-
ency is great bugbear to many good people,
and, consequently, a hindrance to progress. 1t
is not necessary for man to uphold tacitly or
verbally what he knows to be wrong, simply be-
cause he is, or has been, guilty of it himself. On
the other hand, he should he the one to condemn
his particular weakness most severely, to prevent
others from being wrapped in the tolls. Boys
should be Taught especially what manness is,
and how it is to be acquired. They should be
=
even the minister smokes, he lacks that much,
at least of being the highest type Of a man.
From earliest childhood. their minds should
be impressed with the truths that
tobacco is poison end it's common use wrong.
A boy thus carefully taught can no more readily
be excused for disobedience or disregard for
parental wishes in this respect because father
smokes or chews than for getting angry and say
ing naughty things because father manifests his
anger somewhat forcibIy once in awhile If in
tplllpent
their own beliefs in this matter public opinion
would soon be sufficiently revolutonized to de-
mand and obtain what is a necessity for the good
OF all classes OF boys-a stringent law prohibit
ing the sale of tobacco to minors. We have a
right to demand such a law on sanitary and hu-
name grounds, as well as from the higher
grounds of morals and manners.
The best physicians long ago decided that the
use of tobacco, even the least amount before
the full maturity of the system was attained
was injurious to health Many fatal diseases
are known to result from the use
of tobacco. Smoking is perhaps the most
common form of the habit among young persons,
and to them cigarette smoking is almost wholly
confined. This last and newest form of smoking
is said to be the worst, and it is apparently be-
coming more and more widespread. The pecu-
liar danger in the use of cigarettes is, indeed,
almost daily the subject of paragraph in the
newspaper. The following is. perhaps, the most
serious, if not the latest testimony: "Out of
several hundred young cigarette smokers, one
fifth had heart disease" 1t is not difficult to
understand that only bad effects can result from
the constant infusion of what is an acknowledged
strong poison into sensitive, growing, human
frame. A boy who smokes or chews cannot be
perfectly healthy. His face has often a pallid,
unhealthy appearance, and he is troubled with
weak eyes. His digestion is. without doubt,
always impaired, and his appetite capricious and
often feeble. His growth is probably, in many
instances, retarded or wholly stunted, and his
constitution permanently weakened; and if he
does not thus the seed of some future physical
trouble, he will be less able to resist serious dis
eases which may attack him through life This
is almost selfevident truth, but if desired sta
tistics could probably be obtained which would
prove it incontestaby Again, tobacco is
stimulant, and thus making constant drain
upon the vitality, causing the to live faster
it must in this way shorten life Attempts are
constantly made to prove the last-mentloned eff
feet of tobacco fallacy; but if it was not true,
no special effort will be called for to prove its
falsity.
Who are responsible for these physical injuries
done to boys by the use of tobacco9 Not the
boys themselves whose judgments are imma-
ture, and whose knowledge and power of fore
sight are so limited. It is upon their elders par.
ents, guardians and lawmakers who are bound
by every moral and religious law to protect
these little ones from bodily harm. that this re-
sponsibility rests. and by them alone can it be
properly met; but an acceptation of the burden
and realization of its weight is, of course first
necessary.
From the stand-points of manners and NOR
ais the subject is still more serious. boy who
uses tobacco is necessarily less Of a gentleman
than he would be otherwise Fer he is not only
offensive to the sight and smell, but in doing
that which he knows to be disagreeable to others
he becomes in degree callous to the feelings Of
other people, and the gentemanly instincts he
may possess are weakened thereby. His con-
ception Of true manliness becomes distorted,
and he acquires the idea that in some things the
opinion of his mother and sisters is to be entire
ly ignored. AS natural consequence he is less
courteous to all women, and less nice and deli
cate to every one.
Finally. injury to morals is almost insepara-
bly, connected with injury to health and injury to
manners. A boy who smokes or chews iniures
his nervous system, and with it his power of self
control and is then less able to resist all kinds of
temptation, and that which makes one re-
gardless of the feelings of Others