Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-01-16
.1bstory otthe Young Man
and the Cigarette.
|Id a Sermon But a Plain
Practical, Talk
h a Western Educator Who Has
Studied the Subject.

4 Tie following article, written by
: Professor William A. McKeever, of
The Kansan State Agricultural College,
i entirely free from the sentimentality
and exaggeration which SO frequently
eharacterize treatments of this SUBJ
let. The truth is bad enough, as DR..
Yckeever shows.
zone of the greatest menaces to
our moral and intellectual well-being
today is the fact that cigarette smok-
Ing is becoming a popular fad among
boys and young men, while the use of
strong pipe is a close second in favor.
Go where you will in this broad land
Of ours, and the pale faces, biear eyes,
Trembling fingers and the foul stencil
Of cigarette fumes tell the same pa
thetic story. This most serious blight
upon the bloom and beauty of our
American boyhood is chargeable to
parental ignorance and carlessness.
For the past eight years 1 have been
tracing out the cigarette boys biog-
IraphY, and | have found that in prac-
|tcally all cases the lad began his
smoking habit clandestinely, at an
farly age, and with little or no thought
f It's S; seriousness, while the fond pa
Fnts perhaps believed that their boy
pas too good to engage in such a prac-
Zee
Many Good Men Smoke.
Il is not the purpose of this paper
make an attack upon smoking in
sHeFal. 4 majority of the best and
Ssst mon of the country are smokers,
hi they unduestionably get a great
ll Of satisfaction out of their cigars
pipes. After man has fully ac-
Erpd the habit, smoking tends to,
age away depression and to make
in better satisfied with his lot and a
bore agreeable companion of men and
Emen. By this I do not mean that
h smoker has these advantages over
M non-slnoker, but rather that the
rmer, through the re-indulgence of
habit, gets these results, over and
tgs what he has when he goes with
1t his usual cigar. Out of one hum
fNi such men whom l interviewed
aay-nine frankly admitted that
Boxing tends to injure the health and
at they would not advise any young
En to begin the habit. This habit
very offensive to many delicate ma
Ns is somewhat filthy at it's best,
disgustedly filthy at it's worst, as
ordinary smoking car will bear
'aess. often. in public places, even
Fined women are forced to breath the
kenng fumes coming direct from
nostrs of some coarse, brutal Gig
site smoker. Smoking is a practice
Nely unnecessary to the develop
Wit ard refinement of the race, and 1t
III in time doubtless go the way Oh
liquor drinking habit.
Most HurtfuI in Case of Boys.
ut the serious nature, and even
cruelty, Of this smoking habit
wig men is at once apparent when
e@nslder lis influence and affects
m boys | have tabulated reports
NE conditions of nearly $500 cigar
smoking school boys, and In des-
@hs them physically my inform
y nave repeatedly resorted to the
Of such epithets as "sallOw'.
Ne'eyed' "puny'', "squeaky-voiced,
Siy, "short -winded" and extreme
eyous". In my tabulated reports
Shown that. out of group or
aty-hve cases of young college stu
smokers. whose average age of
SAnihg was 10, according to
= own admissions they had suffered
'Olows: Sore throat, four; weak
ten; pain in chest. eight;
"! wind. twenty-one; stomach
s'e ten; pain in heart, nine.
VI 'nefl appeared to be very sick
me younger the boy, the worse
Ss.loking hurts him in every way.
sese lads almost invariably inhale
uines' and that is the most In
as part of the practice. According
=, SIMS Woodhead, professor of
usy In Cambridge University,
n. smoking in the case Of boys
y paraliZes the nerve cells at the
the brain and thus interferes
se breathing and the heart ac-
MI, ara yet, all this debility and more.
nsn ue SHOWN later. is brought upon
u ~ OF boys who innocently imi-
e example of their elders. l am
sa ~ ready to deny any mature
bll,A e right to smoke, but l am I'M
i. " concede him the right to per-
tisctie youthtul son to take up the
3nr,s peiore maturity is reached.
apa,a,s TIE past year 1 have made
noas OF sphygmograph records of
- u various ages, conditions Of
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