The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1904-04-08

sales TO young boys, out was entlrely
inadequate to cope with the evil. That
will be found to be the case in Eng
land. The only way in which there
can be any substantial Improvement
in what is now a most alarming situa-
tion IS by creating a sentiment against
indulgence in such devastating vice,
and experien ce has shown that that
sentiment can be created.
The writer, with the co operation
of number of school principals in this
city, and with contributions from sew
eral of his associates in the Board Of
Education and some friends outside to
meet the expense of the movement,
was able without very much effort to
enroll over $4,000 boys in the public
schools of this city in anti-cigaret
leagues, organized in the schools, for
the purpose of preventing the growth
of the evil that the boys soon came to
understand and avoid. A constitution
and bylaws and the machinery of in
telligent organization were provided,
interest was excited and maintained
and much was done to arrest the
growth of the vice. Intelligent in
struction with reference to the subject
was given, and the boys soon came to
understand that they could not CON-
pete in the struggle for success after
they left school if they were handicap
ped by the habit that rendered their
employment undesirable in offices and
by corporations down town. The es-
tablishment oi these lea ues extended
to various parts Of the country, and
afterward they were established in
England on the same lines as here in
dicated.
The astonishing thing about the sit
uation is that, so far as am informed,
there is rot college in the country
where any effort has been made to
stamp out the cigaret Inhalation hab-
it, and little or no effort has been made
to warn students who are leaving our
academic institutions every year by
hundreds, with health more or less
shattered, as a direct result of four
years indulgence in the inhaling hab-
it. In my opinion there is no more
important matter to be considered by
our college authorities than the sub
ject matter of this article. 1t is rath-
er delicate matter for some of them
to handle, as some of the professors in
our colleges are hopeless'y addicted to
this habit, and their usefulness is af-
fected, in my opinion, quite as serious
ly as though they were addicted to
the alcoholic or the morphine habit.
Many of the physicians in the college
towns are themselves inhaling fiends
and are not in position to give influ-
entail advice. When the boys and
young men come to understand that
there are hundreds Of offices in all the
large cities where the inhaling victim
cannot secure employment, it would
be natural if they should have some
feeling of resentment toward those who
should have pointed out their danger
years before.
In my opinion there should be an
organization established in every COL
lege by the manly leaders among the
students, whose object shall be to in
duce the freshmen on entering to
pledge themselves against such an un-
American, un- ale, un- -Harvard-and,
may l mention my own ALMA mater?
-un-Williams vice. There should be
an organization formed in every city
and town in the country with a view
of bringing the influence Of the best
citizens TO bear against the further
spread of this disastrous evil.
Any effort in this direction will be
met by efforts of the cigaret manufac-
turers to demonstrate that the ciga-
ret is quite innocuous. At about the
time the writer of this article was most
interested in the movement referred
to, an article written by an alleged
medico legal expert was very largely
circulated, its object being to demon
strate that the ci garet was a most in
nocent and harmless combination of
paper and tobacco. Similar activity
is again apparent.
The Police Magistrates Of this and
other cities have stated again and
again that the majority of juvenile
del,nquents appearing before them are
cigaret fiends, whose moral nature has
been warped or destroyed through the
instrumentality of this vice. The
managers and trustees of institutions
for the correction and reformation of
youthful offenders have the same sto-