Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1896-01-15
CIGARETTES.

NADER l think l can enllghten you.
An Italian boy only eight years old
was brought before a justice in New
York City as a vagrant, or, in other
words a tramp. But what did the Of
ficer charge him with doing? Only
with picking up cigar stumps from the
streets and cutters. To prove this he
showed the boys basket, half full of
stumps water soaked and covered with
mud.
"What do you do with these?" asked
his Honor. What do you think was
his answer? 81 sell them to a man
for ten cents a pound, to be used in
making cigarettes" Not a particu-
larly agreeable piece of information, is
it, boys?
In our large cities there are a great
many cigar butt g%rubbers, as they are
called. 1t certainly is not a pretty
name, though very appropriate; for it
is applied to boys and girls who scour
the streets in search of half burnt
cigars and stumps. which are dried
and then sold to be used in making
cigarettes.
But this isn't all, mol even the worst
of it. These cigarettes have been ana
lized, and physicians and chemists
were surprised to find how much opium
is put into them. A tobacconist him
self says that 1.-THE extent to which
drugs are used in cigarettes is appall-
ing" Havana havoring" for this
same purpose is sold everywhere by
the thousand barrels. This fiavoring
is made from the tonka bean, which
contains a deadly poison. The wrap
pers, warranted to be rice paper, are
sometimes made of common paper, and
sometimes of the filthy scrapings of
rag pickers bleached white with
arsenic. What a cheat to be practiced
on people.
Think of it, boys, the next time you
take up a cigarette and drop it-as you
would a coal of fire. The latter would
simply burn your fingers; but this
burns up good health, good resolutions,
good manners, good memories, good
faculties, and often honesty and truth
fulness as we'll. A bright boy of thir-
teen came under the spell of cigarettes.
He grew stupid and subject to nervous
twitchings, till finally he was obliged
IT, give up his studies. When asked
why he didn't throw away his miser-
able cigarettes, the poor boy replied,
-. al Ioo,o chat h. ho1 nftap triad 70
do so, but could not.
Another boy of eleven was made
crazy by cigarette smoking and was
taken to an insane asylum in Orange
County, New York. He was regarded
ms a violent and dangerous maniac, ex-
hibiting some of the symptoms peculiar
to hydrophobia.
The white spots on the tongue and
inside the cheeks, called smokers
patches, are thought by Sir Morell
Mackenzie to be more common with
users of cigarettes than with other
smokers.
docs cigarette smoking injure the
!ungs?" asked some one Of a leading
New York physician. For answer, the
doctor lighted acigarette, and inhaling
Il mouthful OF smoke, blew it through
"A corner of his handkerchief which he
held tightly over his mouth. A dark
brown stain was distinctly visible.
Just such a STAIN" said the doctor,
lis left upon the lungs" II you ever
smoke another cigarette, think of the
stains you are making.
There is a disease called the cigarette
eye, which is regarded as dangerous.
A film IL over the eye, appearing
and disappearing at intervals. And
did you know that boys had been made
blind by smoking cigarettes? How
would you like to part with your sight,
and never again behold the light Of
day or the faces of your friends?
Shall | give you two or three pic
turesp A writer greatly interested in
young people Josiah Leeds describes
a pitiful spectacle which he saws
pale, woe begone boy, seemingly les'
than ten years old, standing at the
entrance of alley, without a hat, hi
dilapidated trousers very ragged at thu
knees, his hands in his pockets, shiver
ing with cold, yet whiting away at
cigarette.
DR.. Hammond says: 81 saw in Wash
ington q wretched looking child, scarce
ly five years old, smoking q cigarett,
and blowing the smoke from his nos
trils. His pale, pinched face wa
twitching convulsively, his little shout
ders'were bent, and his whole appear
ance was that of an old man."
These sad pictures are from low life
but l will give you one equally SAT
from high life. At u public entertain
ment, a gentleman stepped into tn
smoking room for q glass of water. A
the sight which broke upon him, b
nearly fell backward with astonish
ment; for sitting there were boys fron
six to twelve, putting away, the al
blue with the smoke from their cigar
cites. One little fellow who could no
have been over eight, and ought t
have been in bed asleep, sat perche
on a chair, bis legs not reaching NOR
than half way TO the floor, and hi
feet swinging back and forth beneat
the chair. His head was thrown bach
while with great gusto he inhaled tn
smoke and then watched it curl VI
ward. His tasteful dress showed tina
he was no waif. And there at min
o'clock, in that hot, poisonous air, b
lolled back smoking with the complt
cent air of a grown a Could b
have been an orphan? If not, where
alas, were the poor child's father an
Is his mother?
Who can tell the injury that tn.
dreadful cigarette habit is doin