The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1888-11-09
THE CIGARETTE,

our columns the following article from
the New York Journal of Commerce. We
print it at the request of a good friend of
humanity, [one of our Superior Court
Judges and we print it cheerfully with
our most emphatic endorsement. The
journal of Commerce says:
IF the inventor of an unmitigated
nuisance deserves to be cursed by his own
and succeeding generations, then the man
ufacturer who first produced the cigarette
ought to face Mount Ebal all the days of
his life and leave his memory subject to
the same anathema.
There is not one redeeming feature
about this abominable pest. 1t is noxious
to the smoker, and when used in public is
foul otfense to the victims of his incivil-
lty. cigar composed of fragrant tobac-
co may be tolerated even by those who
make no use of the weed, and a lighted
pipe may be submitted to, us persons who
soiace themselves away from their homes
IN that fashion seldom intrude among
those likely to object to it, But the ci-
garette, with its vile odors, finds its way
everywhere, and is oftenest lighted where
it is certain to be most intolerable.
''From the incident cuts that herald It's
pet name to invited customers, all the way
to the exhaled stencil that signals its de-
struction, it is unwhoesome, nsalubrious,
pernicious and debasing to all concerned.
The obscene pictures on fences and dead
walls all over the country, that advertise
1t to the public, fully symbolic the foul
ness of the practice that patronizos its
production and sale. These immodest as
soclatlons have contributed largely to in
troduce and confirm the baneful habit
which makes the manufactule profitable:
and not few are led to purchase and
finally taught to use the in lrious com
pound, for the sake of the meretrcou.
wrappings and the sensual indulgence
they are designed to foster.
with regard to their evil effect on the
health of the smoker, there are not two
opinions among those who are best quail
fed to Judge Our most ell inent physi-
clans and chemists speak With untitled
voice when they warn the bile against
the increased danger of poison from The
deadly nicotine, and the injurious couse-
quences certain to follow the indulgence.
Even where the little roll is made Of to-
bacco that might be smoked in a pipe
without material injury, il is most un-
healthy used in this form, when the con
tents are consumed in free draught so
near the lip. But III most cases the art-
Gle offered to the public would be danger
Gus to health when smoked in any guise,
along with the added fumes of the burn
ing paper
zone of the greatest evils connected
with the invention is the special tempta-
ton thus offered to the use of tobacco by
the young. No child ought ever to be al
lowed to touch the weed in any form; but
here we have it in its most dangerous
guise prepared especially for the consump-
| ton of those who are yet in their infancy.
A cigar or pipe in the hands of boy ma
terially checks his growth, and seriously
affects the vital processes necessary to the
attainment of manly vigor. But young
children cannot readily smoke tobacco in
that way. Cigars are too costly and pipes
are too cumbrous, and there is not time
for the use of either
''No judicious parent would allow his
offspring to practice any such habit at
home, and those at service dare not do it
in the presence of their employers. For
these reasons few children, except those
left to the education Of the streets and
docks, UP to a recent period, were found
to have acquired taste for tobacco. The
ragged waits about our thoroughfares
would pick up abandoned cigar stump5
and light them, but rareiy was a respecta-
ble boy of tender year, ever known to in
dulge in this pastime.
The Introduction Of the cigarette has
produced a most alarming change in this
respect, especially IL all Of our larger
cities. There is hardly a boy or youth
that is in any service away from home
who has not learned to smoke. IF en-
ployed upon errands outside his place Of
business he has hardly left the office door
before he has lighted one Of the little rolls
he carrie in his pocket. 1t cost him but
a trifie, and can te thrown away and re-
placed with another as often as the oppor-
tunity presents itself where ne can indulge
without detection. The evil is twofoli
the boy is running his health, and tic !;
making himself an intolerable nuisance by
4 communicating the air wherever he goes
ut is for the children that we are mos1
, solicitous, for the statements Of our prom
| nent physicians as to the blighting effects
of the cigarette upon the young are mad,
with increasing emphasis as they ar,
brought to light in their practice. Th
r public will be startled some day to fine
: how many thousands Of our boys have com
to premature decay if not to death by thi
q indulgence. 1t is time that something
9 was done to stay the tide and introduce
thorough and radical reform.