The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-19
The Cigarette and the
Coming Business Man

Coming Business Man.
| A Rational Consideration of the Effects
of Smoking Cigarettes on Boys and
Young men by Charles II. Stowell, NJ.
D., Treasurer and General Manager
! of the J. G. Aver Co., Lowell, Mass
| l would give the following reasons for
! opposing the smoking of cigarettes by
boys under twenty-one years Of age:
II. 1T lessons THE NATURAL. Ape
TITE FOR FOOD AND INJURIES DIGES-
| TION.-Any close observer will know
at once how true is this statement. The
hoy who smokes has a bad digestion and
! a poor appetite. Because of this inter
ference With appetite and digestion the
food is not properly digested and assimi-
lated. cellular activity is checked, and
the growth and development of the body
seriously interfered with by this early
| poisoning.
2. 1T SERIOUSLY AFFECTS THE
NERVOUS SYSTEM.-We often hear
about the tobacco heart" of the adult
If tobacco is strong enough to affect the
beating of the adult heart, how much
stronger must be its effect on the heart
1
have become fixed. The rush of blood
to the head, the dizziness, the unsteady
beating of the heart, the distressing
dreams-all show how seriously is the
nervous system affected
But a more serious charge can be
! brought against it under this heading
This effect on the nervous system is
sufficient to produce the most marked
in
statements from the. University of Michi-
gan, Northwestern University, Yale Col
lege, Union College, together with scores
of other institutions and hundreds of the
most eminent teachers of the country
all testify to the fact that cigarette
smoking interferes with scholarship. If it
| interferes with the scholarship of the
young men over twenty-one years of age,
how much more seriously must it inter
| fore with the mental activities of those
under this age!
8. IT LOWERS THE MORAL TONE
! Another most serious charge against the
cigarette is that it lowers the moral tone.
| Boys who would not tell a lie on any
other matter, not for fortune, our best
and nOblest boys, do not seem to hesitate
q moment TO tell any kind of a falsehood
in order to keep from their parents the
fact that they are smoking cigarettes
| They smoke them away from home. They
| try in every way to conceal the truth.
| Indeed, they will do all manner of things
in order to deceive those who are nearest
and dearest to them.
| A. IT CREATES A CRAVING FOR
STRONG DRINK-There has been great
deal of discussion on this point, but
am convinced that the statement is
! logically true. The hot smoke from the
cigarette tends to make the mouth and
throat dry and creates a peculiar sink
| ing sensation in the stomach. Water may
| temporarily relieve this dryness and may
| temporarily check the sinking sensation.
But with the moral tone lowered and the
mental power weakened, the desire to
yield to the first temptation is strength
ened, because of the slimsy excuse that
the boy must have something to wet his
throat. And so it goes on from bad to
worse. In other words, the boy who
smokes more easily accepts an invita-
ton to treat than one who does not
smoke.
5. IT is A FILTHY AND OFFENSIVE
! HABIT.-No matter how stealthily the
boy may do his work, sooner or later his
clothing becomes saturated with the odor
of tobacco. And let me add right here,
one of the most inexplicable things in
this world is that a well-dressed, highly
accomplished young lady will sit by the
side of a young man in a carriage or
street car, or will walk by his side in
the street and submit to inhaling this
most offensive odor-bad at all times,
but of course increased a thousand fold
when the smoking machine is in full OPP
Grafton
6. IT Is EXPENSIVE.-Boy should not
be taught how to uselessly cxpend money.
Parents, friends, and teachers should give
directly the opposite advice.
| z. IT Is UNLAWFUL-In nearly every
State in the Union there are most strin-
gent laws forbidding the furnishing of
cigarettes or tobacco to minors under a
certain age. In most of these States
there are laws against selling to such
minors. Take the District of Columbia:
we find that 257 physicians, 524 officers
and teachers of the public schools, the
| trustees of the public schools, and sc
pastors of churches petitioned Congress
for the passage of a bill prohibiting the
selling, giving or furnishing tobacco to
any person under sixteen years of age.