If we fail in our efforts to reform the tobacco habit, the next best
thing to do, is to show men what the nature and capabilities of the
poison are, and endeavor to persuade them to use the milder varieties
and in a moderate quantity.


ONE OF THE GREAT CURSES OF THE RISING GENERATION

is the passion for imitating and acquiring the evil habits of men, under
an impression that it hastens their approach to manhood. Weak, frail,
delicate boys, with inherited tendencies to disease, who should, by all
means, never use tobacco, or anything injurious, are often as
obstinately bent upon learning to smoke, in spite of medical advice, as
those in whom a moderate use would be far less objectionable. A recent
observer, in examining into the cases of thirty-eight boys who had
formed the habit of using tobacco, found that twenty-seven of them had
also a fondness for alcoholic stimulants. A large proportion of the
Franklin Home inmates attribute their habit of drinking to the effects
of company; many commenced in the army, and many were induced to drink
at first by invitation. If smoking was a solitary habit, it would be
less likely to lead to drinking; but the same companionship, and habits
of treating prevail, as in the saloon, and the step from the _estaminet_
to the bar-room under invitation, is an easy one, where the diseased
thirst, so often induced by tobacco, favors the movement to treat.

We have no prejudice against tobacco, other than what would naturally
arise in the mind from a careful examination of the effects of the
poison in hundreds of cases. We have seen large, hale-looking men forced
in time to abandon, although very reluctantly, the use of tobacco in
every form; and the most bitter enemy we have ever met to the _vile