Norwich bulletin., 1915-07-08
THE ToBAccocURE

 Henry Hilipitter was an excessive smoker. In his earliest remembered days he had been an excessive eater. There were days along about the prime of 12 years of age when he regarded himself as an excessive Worker-under pressure. So when he began smoking, 1t was not surprising that he smoked too much
 It became his boast that be smoked too much. He would meet friend on the street, buttonhole him, sigh deep ly. coughing slightly at the end of the sigh. and say:
 T say. old man. I've got to cut out smoking. know I'm smoking too much
 Then he would borrow a match and whi6 away down the street. He liked to picture himself wasting away under the dark brown curse of tobacco. But
 he didn't waste. He grew fat. There are few things more annoying than to
 be a minority of one in self-pdty. He continued. to grow fat. One day he picked up an anti-tobacco pamphlet and he read this:
 "Are you too thing7 Are you too fat?
 Are you dizzy when suddenly ris- ing from a stopping position? Do you suffer from indigestion? Do you get up feeling sleepy in the
 morning?
 Are you wakeful?
 You need to stop smoking"
 too thin: but it was evident that nic- otine worked both ways. He had never put a drop of nicotine on a dogs tongue, because he was naturally kind to dumb animals. But he had nc doubt the dog would die if he did handkerchief and saw the dark brown
 smudge. and thereupon had a mental picture of his once-white-or pink | lungs, looking like that. He must be
 one big brown smudge in his insides I He coughed slightly as he thought ot 1 it-and sat down to smoke and think | 1t over.
 Then he went to the drug store and
 bought a pound of cure for the tobac- co habit. He believed that every dror | of the cure would counteract a drop o1 nicotine on a dogs or anyone's tongue
 So he took medicine dropper an9 nc dosed himself. 1t made him rather i'll and his supper tasted like quinine, but I he wouldn't be budged. l He continued to smoke, because he
 was assured that the cure would work without any especial strain on his will power. The craving would just na- turally leave him, the way rats leave
 sinking ship. The comparison oc- curref to him, but he hastily dis I carded it. He didn't like to think himself as sinking ship. | After the first pound of cure was
 soaked into his system he noted a los: | of weight, which was gratifying-an6 not surprising, because he had lost hi. appetite and lost sleep, getting up 1T | the night to try out the cure by light I ing his pipe. He wanted to see if ht
 had, so to speak, got converted. H. I didn't.
 l He knew the cure was working, be. cause he felt queer inside and looked queer outside. But he kept on smok. I ing. 1t was the great thing about thu
 cure that 1t worked automatically Like the drop of ink in a glass O.
 water. All the water had to do was tt
 drink the ink and turn opaque. H, was like the water, and he waited fol l results.
 One day he stopped in at his tobac conists' for a fresh supply of plug GU l-Blacksmith' Blend, his favorite H, had never told the tobacconist wha he was doing, because he hated t. was an old friend, and not warn towards reforms. He was grizzled ant old, and he had never been seen with out pipe in his mouth. He was T
 years old and still puflng like a brusl fire on wet day. He used to talk
 his pipe out of his mouth long enougl
 to say:
 Here be, goin' on 79 vars. an rv' smuck ever sense cd start draft
 Folks tell me I'd be a hunderd b.
 nov, ef I hedn't smuck my var
 away"
 | It was the only joke he knew.
 So when Henry Hillpitter walked fl
 and asked for four ounces of Black l smiths Blend. old 'Lisha said, as h. passed out the blue box and change: i Y'u mus, be a-tryin' t go straigh
 t perdition. Aip't y'u smokin' more'l usual? Thet's fh' third box O Bleni y'u've he'd this week.
 Henry Hillpitter took his tobacc and went out to think it over. He If his pipe, so he could think better. H was sitting on bench, still thinlkini
 some but smoking harder than h was thinking, when his old friend. Do Abstrutter, came along and sat dow
 beside him. He took out briar pipe opened an envelope, took therefrou
 some wisps of brownish leaf, cramme' them into the pipe bowl. lit the stui and drew a long breath. It was