“_Cigarette smoking first blunts the whole_ moral nature. It has
an appalling effect upon the physical system as well. It _first
stimulates_, then _stupefies the nerves_. _It sends boys into
consumption._ It gives _them enlargement of the heart_ and it _sends
them to the insane asylum_!
“I am often called in to prescribe for boys for palpitation
of the heart. In nine cases out of ten this is caused by the
Cigarette habit. I have seen _bright boys turned into dunces_, and
_straightforward, honest boys made miserable cowards_ by Cigarette
smoking. I am speaking the truth,--nearly every physician and every
teacher knows.”--_Dr. A. Clinton._
In a school of 500 pupils, a careful investigation extending over
several months was made, and briefly summed up, shows the following:--
“The average efficiency of the _non-smokers_ in that school was
ninety-five per cent, in other words, ninety-five out of every one
hundred were reasonably sure of getting at least a good common school
education, while of the _Cigarette fiends_, only five to ten per
cent stand any show in school, and they are _two and one-fifth years
behind in their own grade_, and more than _three years behind the
girls they started with in the first grade_.
“The teachers who made this investigation expressed themselves to the
parents of the boys as follows:--
“We desire to call attention to the fact that a _large majority_ of
the boys of this city are smoking Cigarettes; that the boys who are
smoking are, on an average, years behind the boys who do not smoke;
and still farther behind the girls in the same grades; that the
_mental_, _moral_, and _physical condition_ of many of these boys is
_extremely deplorable_, and will certainly continue to grow worse
unless the habit is stopped; that while the schools are insisting
that this and other unclean and undesirable habits shall not be
practiced in or about the school house or grounds; still, crowds of
our boys are daily seen around the saloons and loafing places of
our streets, smoking, _loafing_, _swearing_, and _cultivating other
undesirable habits_.
“This was _plain talk_, and it had _immediate_ effect. It is
estimated that seventy-five per cent of the Cigarette smoking by boys
was stopped. What was called the worst school in the country, is now
spoken of as doing good work. _The school board raised the salary
of the teachers and principal_ twenty-five per cent. The people are
pleased. The improved condition of the boys is noticeable in their
_language_, _dress_, _manners_, _efficiency_, and especially in their
_moral tone_.
“_The former principal and superintendent smoked._”
But think! that is but one school among thousands in America that is
wasting money in trying to _educate numbskulls_! Bob Burdette, in his
comical way, says:--
“_My son, as long as thou hast in thy skull the sense of a jay bird,
break away from the Cigarette, for lo, it causeth thy breath to stink
like a glue factory; it rendereth thy mind less intelligent than that
of a cigar store dummy, yea, thou art a cipher with the rim knocked
off._”
When you rub the rim off a cipher you have less than nothing.