The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-06-14
THE VERY DEADLY
CIGARETTE.
II Is Rapidly Undermining the Health
Of Boys and Girls.
Parents Are in Measure to Blame for the
Evil = Cigarettes Made From Cigar
stumps Picked Up in the Cutters.

The perncious habit of cigarette-sm0king
that has of late years taken such hold on
the American youth is gaining ground
every day and unless something be done to
quell it the health of the coming generation
will be greatly impaired. The habit, it is to
be deplOred. is not confined solely to young
men and boys, but has also taken a hold
upon our young girls, some of whom have
not yet discarded their short frocks. or given
UP their studies even in primary or grammar
schools.
Boys from years and up may any day be
seen with cigarette in their mouths and
inhaling the vile odors. 1t is common oc-
currence to see half dozen or more of these
youngsters in a secluded srot near any of
our public schools at noontime, or at recess,
putting away at a cigarette, and in many
cases there will only be one to go around,
but they will each have a pull at it. But
this is not the only place it may be seen,
for fair percentage of the small BOYS that
you meet on the street will have a cigarette
between their teeth sucking down the
poison it contains.
And the pc ison that the cigarette contains
is not alone what these youngsters are in
haling and drawing into their systems.
There is still another poison that they lay
themselves subject to, it is the olson Of
contagious disease, that can so easily be
tr ansmitted from one person to another
For instance, one boy purchases cigarette,
he is the capitalist, for the time being. of
the gang He takes few pulls at it and
then his companion has next" Alter a
few more pulls it is passed to another and
so on until rObaby half dozen has had a
turn at it. Who knows but what the first
boy is affected with throat disease of some
kind that has not yet fully developed itself,
and the germ of disease is passed from one
to another If those who had next" or, in
other words, helped each other
TO SMOKE OUT THE CIGARETTE.
There is still another thing that the youth
full cigarette smoker does not seem to know,
or 1t Is doubtful whether a cigarette would
enter his or her mouth. That is that many
of the cigarettes offered for sale are made
from refuse picked up in the streets, and
even cut of Scayenger boxes. Does it ever
occur to the youth what becomes of the
thousands of cigar butts that are daily cast
into the gutter. many of them from the
mouth of persons afflicted with dreadful dis
eases Of one species or another? 1t certainly
can not, or he would never use cigarette.
Has he not noticed an army OF young Italians
going about the streets with tin pals pick
ing cigar stumps from the cutters that are
filled with mud, water and other filth? He
has, but is be aware what becomes of them?
To be charitable it is but fair to presume
that ne does not
These stumps, many OF which, when whole,
contained the yilest of tobacco, are not
smoked by the ''gutter-snipes, or boys who
pick them; quite the contrary. They are
taken to place in River street. where they
are dried, rolled out fne and the tobacco is
then sold to cheap cIgarette-makers, who
in turn, manufacture them into cigarettes,
which flood the market. And these are the
kind of cigarettes that the boys generally
smoke, and they are invariably looking for
quantity, regardless of quality. Would they
take handful of filth from the gutter and
put 1t in their mouth? Mol Yet that is just
what they are doing, only the filth is refined
and in a less obnoxious form.
Who is to blame for the rapid spread OF
this fearful habit? In many cases it is the
parents. Fathers and mothers too frequently
think that il looks smart to see their five or
six year old son smoke cigarette without
getting sick. They think it looks manly,
but ere he reaches his majority they wonder
what causes the
saLLow COMPLEXION, HOLLOW CHEEKS
| And diiated eyes that have taken the place
of the once healthy look that the same face
bore 1t does not occur to them until too