Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1883 — Cigarette Smoking. [ARTICLE]

Cigarette Smoking.

The vice of cigarette smoking, winch is prevalent everywhere, is attracting serious attention in Eastern cities. A census of boys in the public schools who use tobacco has lately been' taken in Boston. It" shows that many lads less than a dozen years old are habitual cigarette smokers, and that among boys over 15 the vice is almost universal. In Philadelphia the habit has become so alarmingly prevalent that it has been made the subject of social agitation. A crusade against the smokers of the cigarette has been inaugurated by the young ladies of that city, and not long ago the local papers teemed with communications from the fair sex expressing a firm resolve not to kiss any young man who was known, to be a cigarette smoker. What effect this action has had upon the young man is not known, but no form of agitation has been able to banish the vice from the public schools. It is estimated that 75 per cent, of the male pupils use tobacco in this form. The teachers are trying to break up the habit by moral suasion, and a circular setting forth the abominations and hurtfulness of cigarettes is pasted inside the cover of every text-book.