Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1912-03-13
W. c. 7. U. PRIZE ESSAY.
SIS the Cigarette Smoker Safe. "
Newton Dorset of Johnston
High School Wins Prize
Of $500.

in their opposition to the cigarette
habit, particularly among boys.
Fathers and mothers do all in their
power to prevent it; preachers and
teachers are against it; business
men consider it an intolerable evil;
and legislators look on it with ap,
prehension and shame. No well
regulated boys school will permit
it; nearly all the states have pro-
hihited the sale of tobacco in any
form to boys, and in many states
it is illegal, not only to manufac,
ture or sell cigarettes, cigarette to,
bacco, or paper but to have these
articles in ones possession. What
does all this mean? 1t shows be-
yond all doubt that in the sober
Judgment of our wisest and best
people the cigarette smoker is not
safe. They believe that in many
ways this habit endangers his hap
piness and we'll being.
There are four ways in which
the we'll being of the cigarette smo-
er is endangered; First, is the ciga-
rette smoker physically safe? Did
you ever see man, or boy, whose
growth had been stunted, with a
pale yellowish complexion and the
tips of whose fingers were saturated
with nicotine? There is no need for
asking the cause of this, you may
rest assured that cigarette smoking
did it..
Cigarettes not only make your
skin yellow and stunt your growth
but in truth they effect every part
of the body. They prevent the
proper digestion of food, which is
necessary to build bone and muscle.
They get into the blood and shriv-
ell up the little blood corpuscles,
so that the oxygen cannot as well
be conveyed through the body.
The smoke is inhaled in the lungs
and with this smoke, there is also
inhaled a great quantity of carbon
monoxide. This is poisonous
gas that is known to have killed
whole families when given out by
improperly ventilated stoves. The
usual smoker inhales one-6fth of a
part of this gas for each ounce of
tobacco thus used. Cigarettes also
effect the other organs of the body,
and if you could examine the heart,
brain, or kidneys of any person,
who smokes cigarettes habitually,
you would see little brown patches
of tissue, and many of these organs
inhamed and sore. Oh yes, there
are a great many excuses, for the
cigarette smoker has, he thinks,
the best of reasons for smoking.
One may say, They quiet the
Yes indeed. they quiet
the nerves by stupefying them,
which, in truth, is onlya process of
shattering them. Again, boy will
say my father uses them," but
this is no reason that the boys
should smoke. Boys have had more
light on the subject than their faith
ers, and every father implores his
boy not to follow in his foot
steps.
Now let us see how cigarettes
hurt us mentally. You have seen
boys who could not think rapidly,
and whose school work was below
the average. Ask them if they smoke
Nine out of ten will say,
yes" Why is this, you ask? Be
cause the tobacco used in a ciga-
rette, is brain poison. What in
jures the brain, must certainly i'm
pair the mind, and what enfeebles
the mind prevents good thinking.
1t is said that no tobacco user has
graduated at Harvard, ahead Of
the class for fifty years. and in our
own high schools four girls grad
uate to one boy. Why is this?
Namely, because there are 30 many
fool boys at one end of a cigarette
and fire at the other.
Now let us look at the industrial
side of this question. The ciga-
rette smoker is practically debarred
from all the most desirable lines of
employment. His untrustworthi-
ness, ineficiency and Indifference
have been so clearly shown that
merchants, railroads, insurance
companies, and all the other great
agencies refuse to employ a ciga-
rette smoker. 1t is said that man
who smoked cigarettes, wished to