Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1919-06-25
Lieutenant Pat O'brien Did
Not Smoke.


Not Smoke.
There is one soldier, an avieor
one who has won international fame
by his exploits, who went thro'gh Vne
war without smoking, and 0nslderE
himself most fortunate tb.t ne dic
not smoke.
O'Brien was shot dom behind the
German lines and wa captured, ou'
escaped by jumping from a trair
when being carried into the interior
After travelling four hundred mile:
and enduring the greatest hardshlps
he finally reached Holland, and later
England. He has written a most inter,
esting book, entitled "Outwitting the
Hun"
In telling of his great privations
and hardships in the book, Mr.. "
Brien has this to say about tobacco
at was a mighty fortunate thing
for me that I was not a smoker
Somehow I have never used tobacco
in any form and was now fully re-
paid for whatever pleasure ! had
foregone in the past as a result of my
habits in that particular; because my
sufferings would have been intensi-
fed now if, in addition to lack of food
and rest, had had to endure crav-
ing for tobacco"
Mr.. O'Brien's experience is COM
plete answer to those tobaccophiles
who at the beginning of the war, for
months, coached and melted by the
great tobacco trusts, made such fran
tic appeals for funds with which to
buy tobacco to "soothe the poor SOL
diers in the trenches"
AS shown by Mr.. O'Brien's expe-
rience, there must have been many
occasions when the soldier could not
procure cigarets or cigars, or if he
could, when it would be impossible
or imprudent for him to smoke, as
when doing "scout" duty or crouch
ing at listening post" On such oc-
casions the man accustomed to smoke
would naturally suffer, in addition TO
the hardships of his perilous work,
the great and disconcerting inconve-
nience arising from the interruption
of a drug habit.
Certainly Mr.. o'Brien's testimony
on this point is worth far more than
that of anyone who has not actually
gone through the trying experiences
at the front. He not only found no
need for cigarets to "soothe" him
when bearing all the strains and
special dangers and hardships OF his
aviation experiences, but rejoiced "a
mid the perils of stealing his way by
night through several hundreds miles
of German territory that he had new
er acquired the smoking habit. Soon
er or later, every smoker who does
not die young, discovers the mischief
that tobacco did to him, and regrets
that he ever became slave to the
weed. The smoker certainly makes
a bad bargain when he sells his health
for cigaret or cigar, and volun-
tarily joins the ranks of tobacco
slaves, whose only compensation for
the surrender of their liberty to a
poisonous weed is a temporary tick
ling of the nerves which soon disap-
pears; after which, smoking is in
dulged in not for the pleasure it gives
but to relieve the misery felt when
the influence of the drug is with
drawn. Such a person must keep his
blood saturated with nicotine con-
tinuously. AS soon as the skin, lungs
and kidneys have eliminated part
of the tobacco poisons, there comes
a clamor from awakening nerves for
a new dose, and so another cigaret
or cigar must be smoked, and thus
the infowing stream of poison at
times comes to be nearly continuous.
Good Health.
\.