The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1913-05-19
The BOY AND
HIS TOBACCO
MOTHERS AND PARENTS Asso-
CITATION IN BOSTON HEARD
SOUND ADDRESS BY PROF.
o'sHEA ON THE QUESTION:.
SPECIAL TO THE JOURNAL.

! Boston. May 1S.-The use Of to-
| bacco acting as a social suggestion is
| the first thing that sends boys to the
! bad" according to Prof NJ. O'Shea
| who spoke before the National Con
gress of Mothers and Parent Teachers
! Association here at its seventeenth an
| nual meeting.
Going to the bad" added Prof
/ O'Shea, does not necessarily mean
committing any crime or getting in
jail. The things that are most dreaded
in a boys conduct by parents and
/ teachers involve usually the forming
Of habits which waste the energy and
| bring disease upon the individual.
Usually the boy goes wrong when he
fails to hold his sensuous impulses in
check, or when he fails to develop mind
and body so that he can accomplish
what modern society thinks is neces-
sary for individual and social we'll
Prof O'shea stated that in other
countries it was quite the thing for a
boy to use his vitality in the gratifica -
ton Of lower impulses and 1.-The Aneri-
can youth in our times he added,
must exercise considera BILE self con-
t~ol and give himself to wholesome
physical, intellectual and social activ-
tiles in order to avoid going to the
bad"
The Real Difficulties.
Continuing Prof. O'Shea spoke in
part as follows
Here is the difficulty Parents
teachers and all students Of human
nature know that the chief suggestions
that play upon the boy tend to arouse
the old impulses that urge him to dis
sipatiOn. There is money in appear
ing to the boys elemental passions
Everywhere he goes. the stage is set
FOR him and inflames him.
Moreover, the ma jority Of boys now
are reared under the complex condi-
tions Of city life. They are necessarily
stimulated and over-stimulated. They
live constantly with adults and imi-
III right for the adult is simulated by
immature individuals with disastrous
results. All students of human nature
realize that over stimulation in early
years leads to ripening too cary with
cessat ton Of development in one re-
spect or another. It always leads to
lack Of nervous poise and balance with
the result that impulses easily get the
upper hand Of an individual in times
Of stress and strain. No civilization
has yet evolved the problem Of city
life. The chief cause of degeneTacy in
the race has been the inability &c con-
serve youth under urban conditions.
DePrecates Use of Tobacco.
Parents and teachers realize that
ore thing that sends the boy to the
as the boy is concerned, this is a mat
ter purely of socia! suggestion. When
he first uses tobacco everything in him
rebels. He learns it simply because
it is forced upon him through sug-
eesticn. And when he comes To use IL
a particular psychological effect upon
h m results. It might make HIM feel
that he is mature, so that he tends to
become indocile in his attitude toward
the schc ol and the teachings of the
home. 1t may be that tobacco does not
hurt the boy physically, bat il GER
tainly rcbs him Of mis- simpfCity and
racticity; and tends toward his ar
rest OH low plane. q plane On which
ne does rot use his mind or body for
TIE nigf est uses