The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1919-07-18
The Boy and
the Cigarette

cigarette about ten minutes. The
! boy weighed ninety pounds; the
cigarette less than a quarter of an
ounce. The boy could walk about,
and talk, and read and think. The
cigarette could do nothing Tut
shoulder when some one put q
lighted match to it. Yet the little
cigarette threw the boy down, took
him prisoner, made slave of him,
and worse than this in the end, as
you shall see.
| 1t makes no difference what kind
of cigarette it was. Any kind will
do. But it makes a great deal of
difference what kind of boy it was,
for there is only one kind of boy TO
whom the little cigarette could have
done these terrible things. We have
all seen him. There are some of that
kind in every town and village; some
in every, school. He is not very.
smart boy. In fact he is not smart
at all. In fact he is very stupid,
weak and foolish. But if he is not
smart, he thinks he Is. l should call
him not smart, but "smarty."
He is very impatient to be man,
and he thinks he can be man all at
once by copying the mans habits
and doing just as he does. This
would be all right if he would copy
the best things the man does, but
the "smarty" boy never does that.
The "smarty' boy thinks it is manly
to smoke, spit, swear, make bets,
talk loud, brag, stay out nights, in
short, to do the silliest things that
the silliest men do-for all these
things are silly, and men or boys
who do them are very silly, tho they
often think they are very clever.
The boys father did his best to
prevent him from falling into the
tobacco trap. Mo- am wrong. He
did not do his best, for he smoked
himself, and so set the boy bad ex-
ample in his own home. But he
warned the boy against it, and told
him it would do lot of mischief to
his health and reputation. He
pleaded with him not to smoke at
leasr until ne was twenty-one, and
even offered him gold watch and
500 if he would not.
But the boy was wiser than his
father. Most of the "smarty' boys
are. Huh" he said, 81 know as
much about it as he does. l don't
mean to get into the habit of smok-
ing, but am going to smoke a
cigarette with the other fellows
when | feel like it, and l don't care
what anybody says. My father does
it himself, the schoolmaster does it,
the minister does it, my mother does
it on the sly at the Woman's club,
and If they can, can." The little
cigarette heard all this, and laughed |
in it's sleeve.
The boy tried the cigarette. 1t
made him very sick and he didn't |
care to smoke again. But the other
''smarty" boys all laughed at him,
and called him mollycoddle, and of
course no "smarty' boy would stand
that.
At twelve he was swallowing the
smoke and blowing it out of his
nose, and Dragging about it,
At thirteen he was spending about
half of his pocket money for cigara-
cites. He couldn't buy them openly
vt the shop, but the other boys
AACW INV W 6CI LhClA duu IOlu
At fourteen he tried to get a job
n a store. The man looked at him
sharply and said, do you smoker"
No" said the boy. Said the man,
Show me your fingers" The boy
'howed them. Said the man, "You
'moke cigarettes, and you have lied
bout 1t. I don't want Sou." . H
At fifteen he began to grow thin
md pale. His father and mother
and sent for the doctor.
The doctor looked at him sharply
nd said, How long have you been
moking cigarettes?" Said the
10Y, mot very long, and l don't
moke much-only with the other
elbows when they are smoking"
aid the doctor, "Stop it." The boy
7as frightened and tried to, and
ound that he couldn't, or thought
q couldn't. III
But he was mistaken. At sixteen
Q stopped 1t, and never smoked
gain. The people said at the
lneral that he died Of general weak II
ess. The doctor looked wise and lie
aid nothing. His mother cried, his IL
ather and the schoolmaster and the |E
linister wondered that the poor boy |E
build have been so foolish, and the Il
tile cigarette laughed in its sleeve. lie
Animals. liz
-3- lie