The Savannah morning news., 1901-10-30
DIR. RRoUGHroN ON CIGARETTES.

The House of Representatives at At
lanta has passed cigarette prohlol-
ton bill. 1t is as radical in its pro-
! visions as any prohibition bill could
/ we'll be without making the violation
/ of it a capital offense. 1t says in ef-
/ feet, if not in so many words, that
4 the adult Georgian has not SUFFICIENT
! intelligence to choose for himself how
4 he will take his tobacco, therefore 1t
! is the duty of paternal state legis-
| lature to make it an offense against
the law for any person to manufacture
for or purvey to the aforesaid adult
Georgian his tobacco done ali little rolls
and covered with white paper. or any
other color of paper for that matter.
One of the leading champions of the
bill is the Rev. L. G. Broughton Of At
lanta. He knows all about cigarettes.
He says so himself. NoDody can tell
him anything new about them, not
even the manufacturers. Nearly all
my life nave made the cigarette, the
result and the habit a study" said DR..
Broughton before an assemblage the
other day. The cigarette itself is
stepped in alcohol and opium" he con-
tinued. II have been through the
cigarette factories of South and North
Carolina and elsewhere, and I know
what l say. The bleached paper in
which the tobacco is wrapped is thor
oughly soaked and STEPPED in arsenic.
1t is made in China, a heather pro-
duction." That in itself ought to con-
denim the cigarette. Away with the
heather Observation-Disclosures papers,
gunpowder, the mariners compass. and
all others tainted by association with
the almond-eyed heathens. whose souls
we are so anxious to save.
And what of the effects of cigarette
smoking? Hear: Amy man who fol-
lows the habit of cigarette smoking for
ten years will become so morally de-
PRAYED that he will do anything. He
will lie, steal, cheat, swindle. He will
commit any crime, no matter how afro
cious, even to murder" That is a
pretty severe arrangement of the ci-
gazette, and incidentally also of those
Europeans and Central and South
Americans who begin smoking cigar
cites as soon as they can walk and
continue the habit to old age, as we'll
as the thousands of well-appearing
American voters who enjoy a Whit of
the rolled weed.
But how does DR.. Broughton know
all of these things about the cigar
cite? His own testimony, according to
the Journal, is: Il know all about this
thing, brethren, for 1 used to smoke
them myself But" he added with a
laugh, Il didn't keep it up for quite
ten years"
DR.. Broughton should have pursued
that feature of his talk further. How
long did he smoke cigarettes? How
narrowly did he escape the fearful fate
which he says must overtake the CT
garette smoker after ten years of in
diligence? How many years may one
smoke cigarettes with the hope of
emerging from that period a great and
sensational reform advocate? Had the
good Doctor vouchsafed a statement
covering his own indulgence, these and
other queries might have been answer
! ed therein.
Meanwhile we hardly expect to see
the cigarette prohibition bill pass both
the Senate and the Governor, or either
of them. 1t is one thing, and quite a
good thing, to prohibit the sale Of CT
garettes to minors, but it is quite an
other thing to tell grown men that
they shall not take their tobacco in
whatever form they please.