The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1900-08-03
W. CT. U. COLUMN,
CONDUCTED BY MRS. NJ. L. HOBBS.
NARCOTICS.

drugs which stupefy the brain and
nerves. When taken in small
quantities they excite the nervous
system to unnatural activity for q
time, followed by depression. II
taken in large doses they cause
stupor, paralysis and death.
The most common narcotics are
opium, tobacco, alcohol, tea and
coffee.
Tobacco is plant whose leaves
are used for chewing and smoking.
On the surface Of the tobacco leaf
are formed small glands which con-
tains an oil called nicotine. This is
one of the strongest poisons. Our
first knowledge Of the plant comes
to us through the savages Of Ameri-
ca. The Indians smoked tobacco
in the pipe of peace. In war they
poisoned their arrows with nicotine.
1t was Sir Walter Raleigh who first
taught the young mobiles Of Queen
Elizabeth's court to smoke. But
Queen Elizabeth, disturbed by the
pernicious fumes, issued decree
against it as demoralizing vice,
lending to reduce her subjects to
the condition OF those savages whose
habits they initiated.
King James, in his counter blast
against tobacco, calls it custom
loathsome to the eye, hateful to the
nose, harmful to the brain, danger
Gus to the lungs, and in the black
sinking fumes thereof, nearest re-
sembling the horrible stygian smoke
of the pit that is bottomless.
In 1880 the Puritans in Boston
petitioned the government that no
tobacco be planted in that colony.
This | believe was the beginning Of
the crusade against tobacco in our
country.
Pope Urban the Eighth hurled
the anathemas Of his church against
this narcotic. The Turkish Sultan,
Amurath the Fourth, decreed the
most cruel death of that age to the
victims of the tobacco habit.
Other Sultans joined the crusade
against it; and when life was spared,
the pipes Of the smokers were thrust
through their noses.
In Persia and Prussia, the noses
OF smokers were cut off. In Persia
the victim was burnt alive.
But in spite Of Rings, parliaments,
popes, towns, PROVINCES and colleges,
tobacco still holds it way. 1t now
encircles the earth, and holds in
slavery more human beings than
any other narcotic.
Eighty diseases are found to be
caused by tobacco, and every year
thousands of people die from its
use. / pause in astonishment at
this record.
This evil has grown with the
years, until it has assumed gigantic
proportions. The constituencies
and greedy tobacco trust, like the
whisky trust, yearly amasses untold
millions Of money, and gains added
political influence, with which to
defy its opponents.
The worst form in which tobacco
lis put on the market is the cigarette.
Opium, arsenic and other poisons
are popularity supposed to Turk ia
the cigarette and its wrappings,
The Chicago city councils famous
Couglin license ordinance prohibits
the sale of cigarettes containing
opium, morphine, jimpson weed,
belladonna, glycerine or sugar.
The city chemist reports upon anal
ysis of fourteen brands that none
contain those substances, and :ha,
the paper wrappers we're found "a
be pure and free from arsenic OIL
lead.
II the analysis Of the Chicago
city chemist is correct and the ci-
fgarette has been falsely accused lie,
the truth be known and justice be
done. The deadly effects of the
cigarette, however, remain, and We
are driven to the conclusion that
the offender that is doing this great
evil is nicotine--a fact that some
people have suspected all along.
The scrapings Of an old pipe will
kill a cat, or child will be thrown
into commissions by blowing bub-
bles with pipe that has been used,
which are hints that possibly even
in tobacco itself there is a poison.
i 1t is said that much Of the nico-
tine in cigar is drawn by the
moisture Of the lips into the stub.
II these are used in quantities in
the manufacture of cigarettes, then
the cigarette must contain nicotine
lin q highly concentrated form.
The father throws away the poison
which his son or the son Of some