Those who make a moderate use of alcohol and tobacco are gradually reduced as to the quantity they use some weeks or even months before the actual Games, until all the members of the teams are non-smokers and water-drinkers.
There is this to be said of the smoker, as long as you do not try to prevent his stifling you with his smoke he does not pester you to imitate his example like a drinker does.
He merely pityingly informs you that “you do not know what you have missed.”
As the “joy” missed consists of chronic sore throat, palpitating heart, and shaky nerves, I cannot see that much is missed by the non-smoker.
The invariable answer to the question “what pleasure do you find in smoking” is “it soothes the nerves.”
Healthy normal nerves need no soothing.
When an automatic function of the body is normal and healthy, it does not indicate its presence.
A man does not feel his heart when it is healthy, only when it is diseased.
In the same way a man who has not injured his nerves by nicotine or alcohol does not know that he has any nerves, but on the other hand, nerves being destroyed by narcotics fight back, and make their agony known.
A man would fight against his headache being “soothed” by being clubbed over the head.