The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1908-05-07
WORK OF WOMEN
Deal Death Blow to the Cigarette
Habit Amsng Boys
"COFFlN NAILS" MT
Federated Clubs Cause a Cessation
Of the Sale of Vile Smokes
In St. Paul


A few months ago the fourth dis
trict of the Minnesota Federation Of
Woman's Clubs presided over In Saint
Paul by Mrs. Russell r. Dorr COM
menced a crusade in favor Of en-
forcing the law in connection with the
sale of cigarettes and improper litera-
ture and pictures to juveniles.
The causes which led up to this
campaign was the fact that Juveniles
were contracting the cigarette habit
through the facilities boys enjoyed OF
being able to obtain them BY SIMPLY
asking for them at tobacco and cigar
stands School teachers not only re-
ported offenders in this respect To
the parents but seized obnoxious lit
erature and pictures found ia their
possession. In many cases it was
found that the boys received money
to buy candy and spent it for tobacco
or literature calculated to pervert their
morals. So far as the pictures were
concerned it was stated that they
were put into circulation by certain
saloon keepers.
Owing to the energetic measures
adopted by the Federation of Clubs
in Saint Paul these evils have en-
tirely disappeared and the city is
morally and physically better. 1t is
now almost impossible to find boy
smoking in the public streets, the
police keeping a sharp look out for
such offenders and the sale of u1de-
sirable literature and pictures has
been restricted if not entirely stopped.
Now that the women have succeeded
in prosecuting one reform they are
making preparations for a new cam
paign during the summer. This cam
paign is being ably initiated and in
cludes an extension of the work OF
the Detention school and home in con-
nection with the Juvenile court which
has been a boon to Saint Paul under
the jurisdiction of Judge. Orr, close
supervision of dance halls menacing
the moral welfare of young men and
women, and an attempt to improve
the quality of the plays, dramas, and
turlesques given in the Saint Paul
theatres. A plan has also been de-
vised which will induce school chill
dren to take an interest in gardening.
1t would defeat the object Of the
purely altruistic work to state plain
w the aim it has in view, because
il was designed to benefit the poor
and it has actually benefited the rich.
1t can however, be safely said that
the most ardent supporters Of the
movement in Saint Paul are women
who have sacrificed the pleasures Of
Society" in order to master the prob
lens and difficulties which surround
the lives of the poor and ignorant.
This work demands the greatest tact
and sympathy, and can only be sue
cessfully undertaken by people Of tho
finest. intincts. It is distinctly So
cial, and in the prosecution Of it tho
rich and the poor, the ignorant and
the wrteched, the refined and the vul-
gar meet on the common level of sex
for mutual benefit and the improve
ment of society. 80
According to Mrs. Higbee, president
Of the Minnesota State Federation az
Woman's Clubs, the knowledge OBJ
tanned through it has revealed that
more is to be learned from the lives
of the unfortunate Than the rich can
reoay in works of charity OF. phihn-
throphy.