Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-01-27
The Cigarette, Habit

The following editorial. by. Ebert Hubbard, ap-
peared in, the Cosmopolitan and Is appropriately,
illustrated bysGharles A. Winter, M,.is@a powerful
argument and should make theh cigarette smoker
think: .si
Cigarette smoking begins with an innocent boyishA
effort to be smart.
It soon becomes a pleasure, then a satisfaction,
next a necessity.
The last stage evolves into a third, a condition of
fever and unrest, wandering of mind, accompanied
by a loss of moral and mental control. This may
take two years or ten. But finally a %nabbiness of
tissue results from taking the smoke into the bron-
chial tubes, wheDe pure air is required to %oxygenize
the blood, and a nervous weakness follows that leaves
the vitcim unprotected, a prey to any sort of malady
or disorder to which he may be exposed or liable. .4s
Beginning as a habit, the indulgence finally be.
comes a vice.
The first indication of degeneration is in the
youths secretiveness. He feels his weakness and
so seeks to present a bold front. Bluff is his chief
characteristic. He tries to make an impression-he
talks big, is full of promises, plans and confidential
utterances. He %confuses dates, times and places. and
often will tell you he has done a thing when he only
intends to do 1t. A* s#%t r.
Only the strong man is honest; only the healthy
tell the truth.
lie is a disease Of the will; hypocrisy is a symp.
tom.
The cigarettist is apt to dream over his work. to
dawdle indefinitely. He. picks things. VI. and lays
them down, and proves for us again and again the
maxim, that Ithe. strong man is the one Who can com
piete i task! not. merely begin it. 5@:sAi f.1'}sEi
t One. marked, popularity of the cigarette tend IS
that often. he makes the discovery that cleyerness.
astuteness, trickery and untrutl are good substitutes
for simplicity, f~rankness and plain, common honesty.
The cigarettist has an abnormal egotism--he has
ready faith in himself. If this faith wavers, he rolls
a cigarette. Often in advanced stages half the day
is given to rolling cigarettes. To roll cigarettes gives
the defective something to do. Nervous, clutching,
scratching, searching, yellowstained aands-hands
that alternately play the devils tattoo and roll Gig:
arettes-these are the hands that forge your name
and close over other peoples money.
The victim has a fixed belief that he is immune,
and that all men are mortal but himself.
He grns at warnings, laughs at the advice of MS
best friends, and turns your ~brotherly appeal into a
joke.
The man who would quit the cigarette habit must
see his own folly, and convince his owl, mind OF tEe
existence of the vice ere it can be eradicated. Inc
trouble is in his brain. There is no salvation LOT
him outside himself. There is not doubt but taat the
c~igarettist is often a Inant:of. many good impulses,
and over and over in. his heart there sweep resolves
to cease all subterfuge and be true, but these maudlin
resolves are not to be trusted any more than you
hearken to the promises of a dope tiend." The
choice between cigarettes and daily dosessof cocaine,
morphine or bromide is very slight. n
Cigarette smoking is not periodic-it is continuous
"a slow, %insidious, sure poison. 4s
It's results can be foretold as accurately as the
expert alienist can foresee the end of %incipient loco
motor ataxia.ss Fortunately, most young men who
besin, the habit quit it before it gets a vital hold upon
them. Were this not SO. how could the student body,