The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-06-01
THE CIGARETTIST
By Ebert HUBBARD


chose the former foreman whom he
had reduced
n man who is big enough to take
orders and has in his heart the spirit
of obedience is a sure winner. No
man has the right to give orders who
cannot Obey them.
But in all my experience In business
this IS the only instance | can recall
Of a reduced mar taking his medicine.
Usually they explode with wrath, take
to the bulge and get the instant blue
envelope, or else fly, leaving chino
a trail of v~ituperation. About one
line out Of five they remain at work
grumpy, GUM, grOuchy, sOur and sui
len. But to accept the reduction and
put good cheer and instant obedience
into the mental position, marks the
ma of a million. Such a one is in
league with the law of deviation, and
nothing can keep him down.
h foreman I just mentioned was
not q cigarette smoker. He had at
intervals his little times with the
boys. And probably the resulting loss
Of sleep and irregularity OF hours
led to an irritation which brought
about the reduction. But the reduc-
ton sobered him for the rest of his
life.
/ am aware h in some parts of
Europe cigarette smoking is almost
universal, and hat no special deleter-
louS effects are noticeable. This i'm
munity is owing to the temperament
Of h people n the peculiarities Of
the climate My argument herein has
America and Americans in mind.
Poison affects different people differ
nelly. and American nerves cannot
uistand CRITICAL stimulants. The dull
and phlegmatic Russians a do
things we cannot. The Don. Dago,
ent lines from us. Americans need
all the brain power they possess in
their business-the modern hidalgo
has no business.
IN parts OF Europe respectable Wo-
men smoke cigarettes in public places;
in some parts of America ladies smoke
pipes and use snuff; in SOUTH Carolina
are good folks who eat clay; but these
things form no precedent for US.
lor the cigarette habit no argument
can POSSIBLY be made. Ask the "fiend'
about it and he will smile a silly. su-
pcrclllous smile out of his gamboge
face. and feel for his cigarette box.
Cigarette smoking is not periodic
Il IS ConJlnuOus,-a slow, incidious,
sure poison. It's results can be fore
tod as accurately as the expert alienist
can foresce the end of incipient loco
motor ataXia. Fortunately, most young
men VIII begin the habit, quit it be-
fore it gets a vital hold upon them.
We're this not so. how could the stu
dent body outstrip their professors at
Harvard. Yale and Dartmouth? These
young men smoke cigarettes just as
they Table in strange vice when
away from the immediate restraint of
family and home. Later. most of
them square away and become pillars
OF society.
Rut for the young man who has be-
come so CallOused that ne smokes
cigarettes Ill the presence of his
mother, sister or sweetheart. there is
little hope. Hope is only for the youth
who Is ashamed of his Ia DSaS
The poison has already tainted his
moral nature, and for him the work
of dissolution, disintegration has be-
gun.
He is Il defective-a physical. men
tai and moral defective.
aCmlt that the moral strahismus
OF the Cigarettist is not always caused
primarily by his smoking. l admit
that 1t is q fact that the idle, slipshod,
! inert. secretive. untruthful take to the
habit very kindly. In short. l admit,
that because a thing goes with a
thing, he thing is not necessarily the
cause OF the thing. The hOodlum who
hangs around the livery stable or
country railway station, and is prone
to the hay-mow habit, is invaribly a
cigarette smoker and surely it would
not be fair to blame his Temperament
tai disabilities to cigarettes; his
trouble lies deeper.
The cigarette smoker is not a de-
generate because he moke cigarettes.
Quite often he is a cigarette smoker
because he is a degenerate.
IN preparing a culture bed for vice
germs do not omit cigarettes. Cigar
cites stupcfy the conscience, deaden
the brain, place the affections in abey-
arce. and bring the beast to the sur
face.
] am quite aware that cigarette
s,nOkerS make fine distinctions be-
tween the factory prepared article
n those they roll with their weak.
nervous fingers in our presence. But
after q long and careful study Of the
SUBJECT. | can find no reason to sup
pose that there is any real choice in
cigarette paper, cigarettes or cigar
ettists. The buprning of tobacco and
paper together in proximity to the
saliNa distils q subtle, chemical poison