Imperial Valley press., 1922-05-22
ESSAY ON CICARETS
WINS MEDAL

HOLTVILLE, May 20. - Imperial
county has won in two w. C. 7. Z.
county contests in essay work and sew
en- years ago the daughter of Doctor
johnson, then living just outside OF
Holtville, won second prize at the Ma
tional contest This year the county
prize gold medal was won by Margory
Smith, daughter of Reverend Smith of
J Brawley. The Judges were Mrs.
Graeser, Mrs. Oakley and Mr.. Hoover.
Miss Smiths prize essay follows:
Cigarets
Cigarettes, frequently called coffin
nails, are made of the leaves of the
well known plant called tobacco, which
is shredded very fine, then mixed with
special ingredients, consisting of drugs
such as opium, and rolled i'll small OBJ
long pieces of specially prepared paper.
"Less harm would be done by the
cigaret if it were more harmful. - This
sentence tells a great truth, and it ex-
plains why there are many more cigaret
smokers today than ever before. The
harm that cigarets do is not felt in a
dav or month and so, many cigarets are
iniuring them.
The cigaret contains, in the tobacco,
poisonous alkalofd called nicotine,
which is highly injurious to the heart,
nervous system, digestive organs, etc.
In those who use cigarets to excess,
the heart heats more rapidly than it
should, while the force of the beat is
greatly lessened. The heart s action
then becomes very irregular, at one
lly- of hon
time too slowly, and occasionally miss
ing a beat altogether. When the heart
is thus weakened the digestive organs
do not get a sufficient supply of blood
and the digestive juices are lessened in
amount, so that the food cannot be
properly digested. This trouble comes
on very slowly and is not noticed by
the person. Cigarets makes the whole
nervous system more irritable and the
brain of the user may become so dis
turbed he cannot sleep, his muscles are
weak and he cannot control them, his
hands tremble and he becomes so rest
less il is impossible for him to remain
quietly at work.
The cigaret arrests the intellectual
development and the ability to concen-
trate the mind. Colleges and high
schools report that the smoking of
cigarets lower the scholarship of stu
dents, it has been found that non.
smokers, when compared with cigaret
fiends, are much better students. They
not only prepare their lessons more
quickly and easily, but they retain
what they have learned longer
Cigarets are the most dangerous form
of smoking tobacco, because the lighter
smoke of cigarette may be inhaled
and drawn into the lungs, as it is sc
close to the nose. In other words tn,
cigaret is the most efficient instru
ment for administering the tobacco
poison, therefore the most harmful
and sad to say, it Is the most used.
Cigarets weaken the viii of young
man, destroying his power OF decision
When this happens he may easily be
led into bad company and demoralizing
environment, which produce moral de
pravity, resulting in lying, cheating
| and inpurity, and also the loss of al
those fine qualities which make {
gentleman.
Even if the use of cigarets were
harmless they would still be nuisance
for yellow fingers and stained teetf
are unpleasant sights, and many people
are made sick by the odor of cigaret
smoke. These are all marks of Gig
aret fiend, caused by the poison oil OF
the wrapper and the nicotine. No ont
has right to do that which would