The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-29
oNr ron .roaACco.


 At last tobacco and it's users have defender, which Is something unusual in these days. Those who lived years before us, even in the last century, could Ind something good to say of it. Thus Charles Lamb said: For thy sake. tobacco. would do anything but die" and Lord Byron calls 1t rdt- vine tobacco" and writes:
 Divine in hookas, glorious in a pipe. When tipped with amber, mellow. rich
 and ripe;
 Like other charmers, wooing the ca-
 ress
 More dazzlinsly when daring in full
 dress: Yet thy tree lovers more admire by
 far
 Thy naked beauties--give me . cigar!
 And so we might quote many wit ness. from Sir Walter Raleigh up. as evidence of the esteem in which the weed was held in days gone by. That was before science found harm in ev- erythins that men and women enjoy. It is the custom now for medical men and other scientists to cry down to- bacco in all It's forms as an invention of the evil one and its users slittle better than suicides. It does no good to point out to the the many men, and some women, who are far beyond the Psalmist's span of life and who have been "smokin' an chawin' terbecker" ever since they commenced cutting teeth. The medicos will assure you that these old folks are exceptions, and that they have lived long in spite of tobacco, not because of it. and they will further tell you that these people would doubtless be much older If they had never touched tobacco.
 But the divine weed is not wholly friendless. It has a champion who can knock the spots off some of its detrac- tors. and The Boston Globe thus tells about It.:
 The common theory that tobacco smokers enjoy an immunity from cer- tain diseases is supported Dy so com
 sn Which sptaory sates tSas il Is not the presence Of nicotine m ts- bacco smoke that causes the destruc- tion of microbes in theS nasal passa-
 While nicotine Is a strong disinfect- ant, the quantity of this poison m tobacco smoke is exceedingly minute. decidely poisonous oily matter which accumulates in a tobacco pipe does not contain any appreciabie quantity oI nicotine. its chief constituents oeing the very poisonous oil pyridine.
 Yet tobacco smoke does contain very strong germicidal properties, and these are due to the presence of common and very powerful antiseptic. formalde- hyde. of which the cigar yields more Ss than the s.ts pPs ana s the Rhe PRs Sere nas . enough formaldehyde in tobacco smoke to siay an army of microbes. there is not enough to have any poisonous ac- tion on the human organism
 Now, thers are two points of inter- est to lovers of the weed In this article. especially to smokers, and more es- pecially to those who smoke cigars. Not only is cigar smoking not hurtful, but it is a very decided measure of safety as a general proposition. We take it that anything on earth. or above it. or beneath 1t, that will kill or fend of microbes should be not on- ly welcome, but should be sought for, gathered in and given first place among us. For, as all readers should know by this time. the germ theory of disease is established on a foundation as immutable as Gibralter, and who- ever doubts it is entirely out of the running. It Is microbe or nothing, ! that's about the size of it.
 That is the status of the case. Dis- eases are caused or spread by mil crobes. We all have diseases. there fore. we all have microbes. If that isn't a clear and unanswerable syllo- gism 1t rubs it very closely. Then. as all are liable to have some breed of germs about them. the obvious thing to do is to carry about with us a de- fence, and what more convenient, pleasant and soothing than a good cigar. Therefore, man must smoke. There's no getting around that propo- sition.