Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-09-15
Department OF Narcotics.
Mrs. |. $. Wentworth, State Supt.
The Cigarette Fiend.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
one more of the brightest lights in
the literary world has gone out forever.
i'll the death of Robert Louis Steven
son.
Stevenson was a traveller; his i'll
health more than anything else had to
DO with his journeyings to distant
Climes, for some time ago he found it
necessary to be constantly on the alert
merely to keep alive. 1t was for this
reason that he went to live in Samoa in
1891. And there it was that grim
death which had for so long been en-
deavoring to catch him, at last over
took him.
The dark shadow of consumption
hung over Mr.. Stevenson when he
went to Samoa. He hoped the climate
there would give him a few more years
of life He purchased 400 acres of
forest land on the side of a mountain
and built him Il cottage deep in the
jungle. He had with him of course,
Mrs. Stevenson. the light and mainstay
Of his life. OF their life in Samoa
much has been written. both by him
self and others. They were surrounded
by every comfort but the life they led
was a happy go-lucky one. just the
sort of life to fit the man who has now
passed to the great beyond.
The "Tobacco Slave" a little book
published by DR.. c. A. Green. Boston
Mass, in 1899. gives the following:
CIGARETTES.
IF ever the habit of cigarette smok-
mo ha thnrn11ohly- I L.
fastened itself upon any man. that man
is Robert Louis Stevenson. the popular
rGmancer. During one hour of CONVEX
sation ton his brief visit to New York
lecently,) an average sized bundle of
cigarettes was entirely consumed by
the novelist in rapid succession. Mr..
stevenson has ruined his health by the
practice. and both his lungs have been
impaired beyond medical skill solely by
the constant inhaling of the deadly
smoke. He is frankly conscious of the
evil effects of the vice that has so in
sidiously conquered him. and despite
the most earnest efforts of his mother
wife and friends. the practice goes on
undated. With Mr.. Stevenson 1
cigarette it his last companion on re-
firing at night, and first sought by him
IN rising. Physicians Of all lands have
warned him in vain. fearing the cul
mnatng effects on a constitution al
ready nearly shattered, and on a mind
which has emanated those wonderful
romances that have made their author
so widely popular in English reading
lands
LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL.
Following close upon the death of
Mr. Stevenson, is announced the death
of Lord Randolph Churchill of Eng
land, a man about Stevenson's age, and
another who has sought in vain by
travel to regain his shattered health.
If the following item recently taken
from an exchange be true, the cigarette
iend had much to do with his early de-
mise The London papers say: Lord
Randolph Churchill is paralyzed on one
side and is unable to recognize his
friends Constitutionally he is of an
excitable temper, and this has been
overstrained by excessive cigarette
smoking. The want of out door ex-
crcise and latterly the use of opiates
llso are given as causes of the wreck.
IT seems passing strange that so
many men OF emlnence IN power ana
brains should be conquered by that lit
tie 'fiend'' the cigarette
If these men like Grant, stevenson
and Brooks were so great in manoeuVr-
ing the armies to victory, captivating
the mind as romancers, and powerful
in the pulpit and on the platform, what
would they have been, free from the
curse of the poisonous weed? No mat
ter how eloquent, how fascinating, how
commanding and powerful. no one can
be at their best in i'll health, poisoned
blood and debilitated body.