A WICKED THIEF
OTHER: You know all houses are in danger from thieves. When no one is watching, in the dark night, they come and steal our money and the most precious things we have. There is also a bold thief who takes delight in robbing the body-house.
Elmer: But who can it be? I’m sure no one would want to steal me.
Amy: Nor me.
Mother: You know thieves always try to find some way to get into a house when they wish to steal, and this robber is just like the rest. It is a little over three hundred years old, and it grows more bold and cunning every year.
Percy: Please tell us its name, mother.
Mother: It is called Tobacco. It was first found in America when the country was discovered, but it did not begin to steal from white men for nearly one hundred years. Sir Walter Raleigh, of whom you will learn in your history, took it from America to England. It is said that Sir Walter one day sent his servant for some beer, and he came back sooner than was expected. He was greatly frightened to see smoke coming out of the mouth and nose of his master, and at once threw the beer into his face to put the fire out, calling loudly for help, and saying that his master was on fire inside, and would surely burn up.
Tobacco.
Helen: It is a pity there are not more such servants now, for they might cure some people of this filthy habit.
Elmer: But why do you call tobacco a thief, mother?
Mother: Because it steals.
Percy: But what does it steal? I thought people just chewed, smoked, and snuffed it, and I can not see how that is stealing.
Mother: It steals health. Its first effect is to cause sickness and vomiting. Every servant in the body-house rises up in arms against it, and there is a great uproar as they try to defend their master from the deadly poison. The servants in the kitchen throw all there is in that room out at the front door. The lungs throw it out headlong in the breath. All the little waste-pipes in the skin work as hard as ever they can to push it out that way. The kidneys, bowels, and, in fact, every servant in the house, shows it the door, and will not let it stay inside if he can help it.
Elmer: But can’t the master keep it out?
Mother: Yes, if he would. That is the trouble. But tobacco pretends to be such a good friend, and makes so many good promises, that the master believes its lies, and lets it in. Boys think they are almost men if they can only smoke cigarettes. Some men say “a good smoke” rests them when they feel tired. Others say they must have it “to keep their food down.” Many smoke or chew because others do. And so tobacco deceives them all.
Percy: But doesn’t tobacco do some good, mother?
Mother: I have never heard of it if it does. The nicotin of tobacco is such a deadly poison that one drop will kill a cat in about three minutes. It does not take a large amount to kill a man in five minutes. If a tea is made from it, it will cause death in three hours. Sometimes soldiers who do not wish to do their duty will put a leaf of tobacco under the arm or over the stomach to make them sick.
Amy: I should think if it is such a poison it would kill people to use it.
Mother: It would if they took enough of it. You know arsenic is a deadly poison, yet some people take it in small doses and live a long time. When the servants of the body-house find that their master will use it whether it hurts them or not, they give up making so much trouble as they did at first; but they still keep turning it out as quietly as they can, and say but little about it.
Percy: But I heard an old man say he had used tobacco for fifty years, and it never did him any harm.
Mother: Perhaps he did not know how much it had harmed him. Alcohol does not seem to hurt some people, and yet we have learned that it works mischief in every part of the body; and it is the same with tobacco. If such men do not suffer themselves, their children often suffer in their stead. Because a few can use these poisons without seeming injury, it does not make it safe for others to do so. While we are learning how to care for the body, we should not ask, “Will this do me harm?” but, “Will this habit do me any good?” Let us see what good tobacco does.
Percy: It is good to kill sheep-ticks and plant-lice.
Mother: That shows how deadly it is, and how unfit for any human being to use in his body.
Helen: I do not think there are many persons who would say it does them good.
Mother: We find that its first effect is to take away the appetite; and it hurts the stomach. Second, it does harm in the throat, making the voice coarse and husky, and men sometimes have a disease known as “smoker’s sore throat.” Third, it hurts the nerves, the wonderful telephone system; the tobacco-user is nervous, cross, and hard to please. Fourth, it weakens the eyes, and causes buzzing sounds in the ears. Fifth, it makes the heart weak, so a doctor can tell by feeling a man’s pulse whether he uses tobacco or not. His hands become unsteady, and they tremble, and his heart trembles just as his hands do.
Percy: I think that is enough, mother, to show that tobacco does no good, but a great deal of harm.
Mother: There is one more thing I wish you to know about this poison, and that is that it makes the master of the house weak. He feels so happy and rested while he is taking his smoke, that he thinks surely tobacco does him good and not evil. But the reason he feels rested is because his nerves have been put to sleep by the poison. Our nerves are like a faithful watch-dog. The first thing tobacco does is to put the nerves to sleep, just as a thief would kill a dog that would warn its master of his coming. You can see, I think, what a foolish thing it is for a boy or man to do anything which would put the faithful nerves to sleep so they can not warn him of danger.
Elmer: But, mother, do not the nerves wake up after a time?
Mother: Indeed they do, and then if the man can not get his tobacco, you will see how unhappy he can be; all his good nature and rested feelings have passed away. He soon finds this out if he tries to leave off the poison. He feels “all gone,” and thinks that he must have something to brace him up. He becomes thirsty, and so the temptation comes to use strong drink. A doctor who knows, has said, “Nine out of ten of the boys and young men who become drunkards, have first learned to smoke or chew tobacco.”
Tobacco makes that part of the mind which is called the “will” so weak that thousands who use it have no strength to resist the temptation to drink when it comes to them. Besides, the mind is so weakened that they can not stop using tobacco even when they know it is hurtful to them, but they say—
“For thy sake, tobacco, I
Would do anything but die.”
And many even die because they have no strength to let it alone. Boys think it makes them manly to smoke and chew. Manly, indeed! I wish I could speak to every boy in every land to whom tobacco comes, and tell them that if they wish to grow up clean, noble, unselfish, manly men, they will never taste tobacco. It does more to harm boys than men. One doctor has said, “Boys and young men who use tobacco lose one-fifth of the enjoyment and value, and at least one-tenth of the length of their lives.”
Percy: But cigarettes are not very bad, are they, mother? I know many of the boys in school smoke them.
Mother: Bad! Indeed, they are very bad! They are made of the stumps of old cigars picked up in the streets, and from other vile, filthy things. Even the paper they are wrapped in, which seems so harmless, is steeped in deadly drugs, which makes them still worse. They are made and sold by millions, and thousands of boys are being ruined in mind and body because of using them. I often read in the papers of the death of some boy, caused by smoking cigarettes. I have no words to tell you the mischief they do; and yet thousands of people think them harmless.
Amy: I wish Uncle John wouldn’t kiss me, for he uses tobacco.
Helen: You are like the little girl it tells about in the verses I learned. I will repeat them for you:—
“‘What ails papa, mother?’ said a sweet little girl,
Her bright laugh revealing her teeth white as pearl;
‘I love him and kiss him and sit on his knee,
But the kisses don’t smell good when he kisses me.
But, mama’—her eyes opened wide as she spoke—
‘Do you like his nasty kisses of ’bacco and smoke?
They might do for boys, but for ladies and girls
I don’t think them nice,’ and she tossed her bright curls.
‘Don’t somebody’s papas have moufs nice and clean,
With kisses like yours, mama—that’s what I mean?
I want to kiss papa, I love him so well,
But kisses don’t taste good that have such a smell.
It’s nasty to drink, and smoke ’bacco, and chew;
The kisses ain’t good and ain’t sweet, ma, like you.’
And her blossom-like face wore a look of disgust,
As she gave out her verdict, so earnest and just.
‘Yes, yes, little darling, your wisdom has seen
That kisses for daughters and wives should be clean;
For kisses lose something of nectar and bliss
From mouths that are stained and unfit for a kiss.’”
Mother: Yes, I read this poem in the last number of the Prohibitionist, and I think every girl, big and little, should feel just as this one has expressed it. When Horace Mann was asked where gentlemen should smoke, he said, “Gentlemen never smoke.” Billy Bray said, “If God had intended man to smoke, he would have put a chimney at the top of his head to let the smoke out.”
By giving up every bad habit we may help others to do the same. I must tell you a short story about a friend of mine who helped a young man stop using tobacco.
Amy: Please tell it now, mother.
Mother: She had often asked him not to use tobacco, but the habit was so strong that he felt that he could not give it up. At last he said one day: “I think you are as much a slave to tea as I am to tobacco. If you will stop drinking tea, I will use no more tobacco.” That put the matter in a new light, and she told him she would think about it. She knew that tea contained a poison, and that it did her no real good, but only harm; so she finally decided to drink it no more. When she next met her friend, she told him that she would use no more tea, and in a short time he left off using tobacco.
Elmer: That must be what the Bible means when it says that we should “provoke one another to good works.”
Mother: Yes, that is one way. You know I said when we began talking that tobacco was a thief. I will now tell you of something it steals from the master of the house besides his health.
Percy: I wonder if it is money. I know that is what thieves almost always try to get.
Mother: You guessed it at once. Let us see how much this robber will take from a man if he once lets it into the house. One who is a very moderate smoker will spend about forty dollars a year for cigars. People in England would call that sum seven or eight pounds. Suppose a man should smoke thirty years. Here is an example for you, Amy.
Amy: Twelve hundred dollars. How much would that be in English money?
$40
30
———-
$1300
Mother: About two hundred and forty-six pounds. That would buy him a nice little home, would it not? Or if he was a lover of books, he could get a good library for that sum. And you must remember that this is for a moderate smoker. A merchant said that by saving the money he would have spent for cigars, he laid up twenty-nine thousand dollars, or nearly six thousand pounds. If he had spent it for tobacco, what would he have had for his money?
Percy: Smoke.
Amy: A dirty mouth and bad breath.
Elmer: A weak heart and weak nerves.
Helen: He might not have lived to smoke so long, and he might have been a drunkard.
Mother: Not very much that is good, for spending such a large sum of money, I must say.
Percy: I once heard grandmother say that when she saw a man with a lighted cigar, the thought came into her mind, “A fire at one end and a fool at the other.” It does seem foolish to waste money that way. I wish I had some of it that goes up in smoke to send me to college when I am ready to go.
Mother: Here is a picture which I think shows this matter in about the right light.
Helen: Why, what are those people burning in that big fire?
Mother: Money, money—nothing but money. Here is a rich man; he is throwing in one thousand dollars; and here is another, who is bringing one hundred pounds. Others are throwing in different sums, some less, some more. See how many young men there are who need that money for something else.
Elmer: And see the workingmen, too.
Mother: Yes; and many of them have no homes, and they wear poor clothes, and eat very plain food. They need many things. It may be the wife at home has not had a new dress for years, and the children have no shoes.
Amy: And just see the little boys burning up their money, too!
Mother: How very sad! They are only children, and yet they throw away their pennies and dimes. What are all these people getting for their money?
Helen: Smoke—nothing but smoke.
Mother: They get smoke, it is true, but they also get pains and aches. Tobacco laughs as it takes their money, and grows larger and stronger every day.
Percy: But, mother, can nothing be done to stop their burning up money like that?
Mother: You think some one should call out, “Stop, thief!” do you? Perhaps that was what King James, of England, thought; for when people began using it in that country, he wrote a book, in which he said that smoking was “loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, and dangerous to the lungs.” The Russian Government tried to put a stop to smoking by saying that if a person were caught using tobacco, his nose should be cut off. Perhaps it was thought that people who abuse smelling that way had no right to have a nose. The sultan of Turkey once put to death those who smoked, or used snuff.
Percy: I should think such laws would have stopped its use in a little while.
Mother: They did not; for people can not be made to do right in that way. They used it more than they had before. I think the best way is for the master of every body-house to say, “I will never, no, never, touch it; and I will do my best to let others know how hurtful it is, so they will not use it.” Many, very many, do not know how much harm tobacco does in the body, nor what a sinful waste of money it causes. They spend it a few pennies at a time, and do not stop to think how much it amounts to in a year or a lifetime. More money is spent for tobacco than for bread. One hundred times as much money goes up in tobacco smoke as is given to missions. Let us do all that we can to prevent this waste. No bird or animal would ever be guilty of taking into its body anything so harmful.
MINNIE AND HER CANARY.
MINNIE’S REBUKE.
“You were a naughty bird to-day;
It shocked me, do you know,
To see you fly from brother Frank,
And pick at cousin Joe.
“Now tell me why you acted so;
There, don’t begin to sing,
But tell me why you were so rude,
You saucy little thing!”
THE BIRD’S REPLY.
“I had to leave your brother Frank,
Or else to stay and choke;
He had a nasty cigarette;
I could not stand the smoke.
“And with your cousin Joe—oh, dear!
He put his mouth to mine,
And, oh! I thought I’d faint away,
For he’d been drinking wine.
“The little birds don’t do such things;
No crow, or paroquet,
Or other bird, would swallow wine
Or smoke a cigarette.”