The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1901-02-28
(Reidsville Weekly }


1t is known of all men that the
Weekly is the uncompro missing enemy
of the cigarette. II has fought this
boy destroying business in season and
out of season. 1t may he that it's
hostility to it may have been en-
hancsd by the fact that the most
odious trust which has ever been
formed in the worlds history practi-
callv CONTROLS the output of the pesky
things. We should be glad to see
the present Legislature measure up
to tho requirements of the occasion
and pass a law which will prevent
their use in North Carolina. The
fact that North and South Carolina
produce most of the tobacco used in
why the law should not be passed.
To claim that it is, is the very essence
OF seltishness. AS well say that no
restraint should be thrown around
The sale and use OF alcoholic stimu
lants because North Carolina farmers
produce the grain out of which they
are manufactured. In the pipe, in a
cigar, or as a chew, tobacco used in
moderation is conceded to be harm
less. but in the form of a cigarette it
is evil and that continually. 1t will
be remembered that during the ses-
sion Of the Legislature of 1897, we
think it was, Judge Sutton, of Fay
etteville, presented statistics show
ing that two hundred deaths resulted
from smoking cigarettes in North
Carolina in year. A leading Metho-
dist preacher told us several years
ago that it was his honest conviction
that Dukes factory was doing more
harm than any licensed government
di>tillery in North Carolina. The
Biblical Recorder, organ of the North
Carolina Baptists, says the cigarette
does more harm than whiskey; that
whiskey wrecks homes, while the
cigarette gets in its deadly work be-
fore the boy has chance to make a
specialists have testified to the same
effect. Ask any disinterested physi-
clan, he will tell you that cigarette
smoking is the most deadly and ener-
vating form in which tobacco is used,
the poisonous smoke going directly
into the lungs, where it is absorbed
and vitiates the blood and under
mines the nervous system.
A race of degenerates is growing
up as a consequence. Few cigarette
smokers have been able to pass the
medical examination for admission
to the army. We will quote the we'll
informed Wilmington Messenger on
this point:
''The real truth about cigarettes
is that army examinations show that
nearly all cigarette smokers. are unfit
WHY so. if cigarettes do not hurt, are
really no more injurious than cigar
smoking? All know that men by the
several hundred thousand fought in
the late great war in this country
| who chewed and smoked tobacco, or
used both, and in great excess. and
vet were able to fight and march
| through the years-to rough it as not
| many have roughed it.
1.-The surgeons report that the re-
| lections are three times greater than
| in 1861, and the enormous increase is
attributed entirely to the cigarette
| habit.
Then attend to this: The sur
geons say that outside Of cigarette
smokers .the reflections are actually
less than in the Civil War Ninety
per cent. at least Of cigarette in
dulgers are found incapacitated. II
is n great way to keep out OF the
| tn % a .
heavy and bring about physical disa-
! bilitv, if not mental"
| The army medical corps comment
on the great change wrought. The
rsiections are nine out OF ten, OF
ninety in the hundred.
| The following from well known
North Carolina exchange will be o'
interest in this connection:
1T has transpired in the mastering
OF troops into the United States ser
vice that quite good many mer
have been rejected for physical rea
sons. A glance into these reason.
has revealed, says an investigator o
the subject. that about ninety PEI
cent. Of the cigarette smokers among
the volunteers have been rejected anf
! sent home. Much has been sale
about the physical degeneration which
invariably follows the use of cigar
cites, but thi- is perhaps demon
stration OF this on scale never be
fore made. So fatal is the cigarette
to thoroughly developed constitu
tional manhood that its use ought t
be prevented by law, If there is an,
wav of reaching the practicable enact
ment of statute covering tha
point"
n this deadly work goes on, kov
long will it be before the countr,
find. itself unable 10 repel foreign az
yre.sion and maintain its rishts b,
forcea