The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-08-30
THE SCHOOL coy AND TIE GIG.
ARETTE
(By VIM. H. Hamby.)

Every mother-at least every nor
NAL mother-as she stands in the
door and watches her boy away on
his first morning to school, has a Wis
ion of what she would like him to be
and makes a prayer in her heart that
in the coming years he may have
health and character and success.
And the teacher-if she be an ear
nest teacher-as she looks that first
morning into the searching, wonder
ing eyes of that boy, must utter a
prayer in her heart that he grow up
wise and good and useful
And the lawmaker in the legislative
chamber as he votes half the entire
revenue of his state for the free edu-
cation of the youths. or champions
some law to guard and protect them
from evil, must have a profound de-
sire in his heart that that boy grow
into a self-supporting law-abiding. pa
triotic citizen
All these wishes are one The bus
mess man, the lawmaker the doctor.
the teacher. the preacher, the father
above all the mother-are wishing
for the boy the self-same thing-that
he be strong and clean and success
full
1t is this wish in the hearts of all
the world who care for the boyhood
of today and the manhood of tomor
row that is making them bitter enc
mics of the cigarette.
The war on the cigarette habit is
not the mere clamor of professional
agitators-a sentimental outbreak of
reform impulse-but a cool, dispas-
sionate, vital struggle for the very
body and brain and soul of the boy
In 1903 the state of Missouri enact
ed law making it hundred dollar
fine to sell or give cigarettes or Gig
arctic material TO any boy under Is.
In 1909 that law was strengthened by
another making it ten dollar fine
for any boy to smoke cigarettes in
any public place, on any road or
street. in any business house or place
of amusement. And Missouri legisla-
lures are not given TO reform legisla-
ton. In fact an evil must be very
apparent and the sentiment against
it very strong and permanent before
the Missouri assembly will undertake
to curtail the citizens hereditary"
right to be as cussed as he wants TO
be
Kansas has a law prohibiting the
sale of cigarettes in any form to any
body. Almost every state in the Tn
ion has some form of anti-cigarette
law designed to protect the boy from
the evil.
What means all this legislation?
Merely that cigarette smoking is an
expensive and offensive habit? Eating
candy costs money; carrying fish
worms in the pocket is a disagreeable
habit, but there are no laws prohibit
ing the boy from these.
No, it is not mere matter of taste.
We can pass over dozen unpleasant
traits and disagreeable habits in the
boy-we have to-if only they do not
seriously injure him But the fight
is on against the cigarette because
it is deadly enemy to that supreme
wish for boy-that he be strong and
clean and successful.
He cannot be strong and use it. No
habitual cigarette smoker ever won
any athletic contest.
1t is absolutely impossible for a
Understanding school boy to grow
into healthy manhood
DR.. Morgan Clint in discussing the
physiological effects of tobacco in
general says: I'm the anemic. pasty-
complexioned, understood weakling
called a cigarette fiend,' we see the
effect of tobacco in its worst"
children's Act and Juvenile Smoking
Six of the sections of the Children's
Act. recently become law in England,
are aimed. according TO the Outlook.
July 3rd. at juvenile smoking. and
impose penalties up to ten pounds
on persons who sell TO boys apparent
" under sixteen, cigaretts or cigar
cite papers. or smoking mixtures that
can be used in making cigarettes.
One of the most remarkable of these
sections is that which gives author