The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1908-08-08

TEMPERANCE COLUMN
Edited By the
Wcmcn's Christian Temperance Union
OUR UPAs TREE.

a
About 100 years ago Foersch,
German surgeon. found upas trees
growing in the valleys of Java. g,
poisonous that they seemed to i'm
pregnate the whole atmosphere. Ne
grew beneath them, AND !
the ground was covered with ths
skeletons of birds and animals which
had fallen victims of the deadly ema
nations. Ii has since been learned
that the trees were not so deadly as
was supposed. the fatality being
partially due to the presence Of car
homie acid gas In those low valleys.
But the tree has passed into lifera
ture as an emblem of every furtiv"
deadly influence.
Such upas tree Is the cigarette
habit which now overshadows our
own land. Not birds and animals,
but boys and girls are being destroy
ed by its baneful effects. For year.
the cigarette has brought physical
and moral deterioration to Spain.
bnt the youth Of America are becom-
ing even more infa tuated by this ter
rible habit than the Spaniards them
selves. This Is largely due to the
energy with which American dealers
have advertised their wares. They
are Turing the boys into the habit
with every Imaginable prize and de-
vice that will attract boys atten-
ton.
Cigarette smoking Is the worst
form OF tobacco using. because of
the habit of iphaling the smoke into
| the lungs. The younger boy begins
to smoke. the W orse the injury. ami
very small boys learn to smoke Gig
aretts.
In early life the brain Is sentative
to injury, and this vicious hab''
stunts and weakens 1t. and the
younger the child, the more easily
weakened. Teachers every where OBJ
serve that cigarette smokers are dull,
restless, and incapable OF close atten-
ton to study.
This Is the testimony Of Il teacher:
lin an. experience Of twenty-five
years with high school students.
have never known boy to form the
habit of smoking without utterly
uniting himself for school work.
Another teacher said: There has
been but one cigarette smoker grad
VA ted from our high school In twen-
lty-fiye years, and it took him five
years to get through"
| Cigaretts tend to empty the school
houses aud fill the refOrmatortes-
The Truancy Officers Association Is.
sued an appeal To parents to helE
. stop cigarette smoking. because II
was the chief cause Of truancy and
: decentralization. There have beer
e II 900 arrests Of boys in Chicago II
. the last year. and the Chief OF Polic'
n has sent notice to all the tobacco
stores warning them IF the penaltie
against selling cigarettes to boys.
careful investigation was made In
e school in New York. and 1t wastoun
J. that the boys were much inferior Z
d the girls, and that many of the boy
/ were cigarette smokers. Twent
smokers were chosen by lot, an
u twenty uou-smokers In the SAN
,el way. They were carefully observed
in and marked In a scale running frol
ve perfect to hundred below perfec
e, Seventy per cent Of the smokers we
IN nervous. sixty-five per cent had IN
al paired hearing. sixty per cent poo
u memory, sixty per cent were IN POI
physical condition. ninety per Gel
had low rank In studies. Theno
smokers were marked In the sau
ar manner, but in no point did the
e grades run belo " ten per cent. al
" In most OF the points they count
n from i've per cent to perfect.
ar DIR. Leonhardt. specialist In hea
and nervous diseases. said: "Cigs
he cite victims are pallid. nervous. me
tally dull and prematurely old"
~ DR.. Knox, president Of Red KY
'gs Valley University, raid: II la
he seen no one addicted to cigaret
ed succeeding in moral issues. or In
aeld of intellectual endeavor."
'ue The president Of a business cole
oh where fifty thousand people hi
been educated. declares that this ha
Ely DESTROYS the mental grasp Of I
TIA boys and blunts his moral nature
-; superintendent John Morrill,. OF
uie Allegheny schools, says that in
most every case where truancy
infractions Of school discipline ar
they are traceable to the cigaretu
alive Orfson SWEET Marden. In success
sore SAYS: 1.-THE moral depravity WI
<1~~~ MA 70 habit Ia R0