A man then walks up to the platform saying, "A business man makes the first offer." Read the card and say: "Mr. A. Cigaret, representing the Smoke and Brownleaf Co., bids for the child. He offers good fellowship, the thrills of the happy smoker, and the name of a jolly good fellow." This card you have prepared before the service, and placed in the hands of one of your assistants who delivers it to you at your call; after he presents the card he takes his seat. In reply to this bid you say: "This bid is rejected. King Tobacco cannot have this boy with the pure life and happy smile. The bid is rejected for the following reasons.
"It is a deadly poison. 'In a cigaret there are five poisons: the oil of nicotine, the oil in the paper, saltpetre to preserve the tobacco, opium to make it mild, and the oil in the flavoring.'
"It leads to insanity. Dr. Forbes Winslow says, 'Cigaret smoking is one of the chief causes of insanity.'
"It is a crime-maker. A New York City magistrate says: 'Yesterday I had before me thirty-five boy prisoners; thirty-three were confirmed cigaret smokers. Tobacco is the boy's easiest and most direct road to whisky.'
"It is the highway to disease. 'Tobacco is the admitted cause of upward of eighty diseases, including blindness, and cancers of the lower lip and tongue, and is credited with killing twenty thousand in our land every year.'
"It is an agent for death. Dr. J. J. Kellog says: 'I had all the nicotine removed from a cigaret and made a solution of it. I injected half of it into a frog, and the frog died almost instantly. The frog was full grown and average size. A boy smoking twenty cigarets in a day inhales enough poison to kill forty frogs.'
"A cigaret smoker is slain before he is dead. Slain to all the good chances for success in life.
"E. H. Harriman, former head of the Union Pacific R. R. System, says, 'We might as well go to the lunatic asylum for our employees as to hire cigaret smokers.'
"The cigaret is a deadly thing. You are seeking the young child's life. Your bid is therefore rejected."
The next bid is brought to the platform by an assistant who hands you the prepared business card marked: "Mr. Pool-room. I will give a jolly evening for years to come in my game-room. There will be a bunch of happy lads there, full of glee, happy all night long. I will give him the thrill of making money easy. Will preserve him from hard work. Will help him drive away dull care."