1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



901 



5f0B^cc0 (3®^MN. 



CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH WE GIVE SMOKERS TO I'ERSONS WHO 

 STOP USING TOBACCO. 

 First, the candidate must be one of those who have given up 

 tobacco in consequence of what lie has seen and read in this 

 department. Second, he promises to pay for the smoker 

 should he ever resume the use of tobacco in any form, after 

 receiving the smoker. Third, he must be a subscriber to 

 Gleanings. Any subscriber may. however, have smokers sent 

 to neighbors or'personal acquaintances whom he has labored 

 with on the matter of tobacco-using, providing he give us his 



E ledge that, if the one who receives the smoker ever uses to- 

 acco again, he (the subscriber) will pay for the smoker. The 

 one who receives the smoker in this case need not be a sub- 

 scriber to Gleanings, though we greatly prefer that he be one, 

 because we think he would be strengthened by reading the 

 testimonials from time to time in regard to this matter. The 

 full name and address of every one who makes the promise 

 must be furnished for publication. 



THE TOBACCO HABIT, AND ITS EFFECT UPON 

 SCHOOL WORK. 



The following is from the principal of the 

 Iowa State Normal School. I have copied 

 it from a little tract sent to me : 



After making a study of several hundred boys, 

 running through a period of ten years, I give only 

 observed facts, and neither assume the conditions 

 nor jump at foreordained conclusions. 



1. Boys that begin the habit at an early age are 

 stunted physically, and never arrive at normal bod- 

 ily development. 



2. Accompanied with the use of the narcotic 

 were certain disordered physical functions, such as 

 indigestion, impaired taste, defective eyesight, dull 

 hearing, nervous affections, and diseases of the 

 heart. I have not found a single case of early ad- 

 dicting to tbe habit of tobacco-using that did not 

 suffer with one or more of these direful abnormal 

 conditions. 



3. Tobacco, used in any form, destroyed the abil- 

 ity to apply one's self to study, and prevented his 

 comprehending or remembering his lessons. The 

 mental faculties of a boy under the influence of 

 the narcotic seem to be in a stupor; and since de- 

 praved nerve power stultifies and weakens the will 

 power, there is but little use for the teacher to seek 

 to arouse the dormant, paralyzed energies, or to 

 interest and foster the fagged desire. I have not 

 met a pupil, that is addicted to the habit, who will 

 go through a single day's work and have good les- 

 sons. I have never had one whose scholarship rec- 

 ord was good, and in almost every case the deport- 

 ment was below the average standard. At the 

 regular examinations for promotion, nearly, every 

 one of the tobacco-using pupils fails in doing the 

 most reasonable test work, even if this is not the 

 first time the work has beeu passed over in class. 

 I have had numbers of cases in which they have 

 remained in the same grade for four successive 

 years, and then they were not ready to be advanced 

 into the next higher class. 



Actual Cases.— 1. A high-school boy, who had al- 

 ways done excellent work, was reported one term 

 as not getting his lessons. I had a talk with the 

 boy, and stated the facts, assuring him that with 

 his past record his poor work was unexplainable, as 

 he insisted that he devoted his time faithfully to 

 his studies. He denied using tobacco at all. His 

 work failed from month to month; and before the 

 year closed, his parents withdrew him from school. 

 His father deeply regretted the failure, admitted 

 that a change had come in the boy's conduct at 

 home, hut as he had heretofore been truthful and 

 faithful he could not think that the pre-supposed 

 cause was the true one. In a few months the habit, 

 thus far secret, became more pronounced and more 

 public, and it was absolutely established by the 

 boy's own admissions, that it was begun several 

 months before the trouble noticed at school, and 

 that no one knew it save the salesman that furnish- 

 ed him the supply of the narcotic. 



2. Four years ago a boy entered one of my pri- 

 mary schools as a chart pupil. Before the boy was 

 four years of age he had learned the habit of smok- 

 ing cigarettes and stubs of cigars. His father 

 taught him the use of narcotics, and considered it 

 sport to see his son exhibit the habits and tastes of 

 his elders. Durinsr the four years he did not com- 

 plete the twenty-four lessons on the chart, although 

 he attended regularly, and applied himself as dili- 

 gently as the average pupil of that grade. He 



seemed perfectly unable to learn like other chil- 

 dren, though he was at the beginning a precocious, 

 promising child. His mental activity was so dulled 

 and paralyzed as to render him but little better 

 than an idiot or imbecile. Experience has shown 

 that the younger the habit is acquired, the more 

 disastrous the results to the mentality of the child. 



3. One boy was a successful primary pupil. His 

 work and his interest were constantly praised 

 by his teachers. On his entering the last half of 

 the third grade, his work began to lag and his 

 interest to decline. At the examination for pro- 

 motion his case was conditioned, and it was de- 

 tected that he had begun some months before 

 to use tobacco. His parents were informed, and 

 strenuous efforts were made by his teacher to 

 get the habit restrained and corrected. His reform 

 was not secured; and, though he remained five 

 years in the same grade, he was never able to ad- 

 vance on merit, and several trial promotions proved 

 failures. 



In a case where reform was secured and tbe habit 

 overcome, the pupil again returned to normal prog- 

 ress, and had a successful career as a student. 



Other Observations.— So far as my observations 

 have extended, not a single boy has passed the ex- 

 amination required for admission to the high school 

 after he had acquired the habit, and not one has 

 graduated from the high school who began the 

 habit after beginning his course in that school. 



But the moral results are also as serious. Pupils 

 under the the influance of the weed are constant 

 subjects of discipline, are not truthful, practice de- 

 ception, and can not be depended upon. A change 

 in character in a formerly good boy is a very strong 

 indication that some habit is getting hold upon him, 

 whose tyranny must be broken before he will again 

 be clothed in his right mind. The worst character- 

 istic of the habit is a loss of personal self-respect, 

 and of personal regard for the customs and wishes 

 of ladies and gentlemen, especially when among 

 strangers. 



If these observations mean any thing, they de- 

 clare that something ought to be done to save child- 

 life from the pitfalls that commercial interests are 

 digging, and that greed is encouraging; that more 

 should be done than to instruct by oral or text les- 

 sons in school; that teachers, parents, and philan- 

 thropists are not yet sufficiently aroused regarding 

 the magnitude of the evil of tobacco-using hy chil- 

 dren; that, in the crusade against alcohol, we 

 should recognize that other evils, though more qui- 

 etly, are just as surely sapping the strength and 

 destroying the vigor of the youth of this generation. 



I have read the above over very carefully, 

 some parts of it several times, and I am 

 forced to say that the facts given accord ex- 

 actly with my own experience. I am pres- 

 ident of our school board in Medina I have 

 talked with the boys in our schools, in re- 

 gard to the use of tobacco. I have watched 

 those who persist in using it, for years, and, 

 awful as it is, it is no doubt true. My 

 friends, are you setting as bad an example 

 before your boys and your neighboi s' boys? 

 and, mothers, are you sure your boys are 

 not using it secretly? Again and again 

 have I been astonished and pained to learn 

 that boys had been some time secretly us- 

 ing tobacco when their parents were mem- 

 bers of churches, and did not in the least 

 suspect such a thing. Such boys, however, 

 soon drop away from the Sunday-school. 

 The presence of good people is a reproach 

 to them, because they feel guilty in their 

 hearts— guilty of living a falsehood, even if 

 nobody had ever asked them whether they 

 used tobacco or not; and it seems to me 

 that the worst kind of falsifying in this 

 world is telling a falsehood by actions— tell- 

 ing an untruth to everybody whom you 

 meet, in trying to have them suppose you 

 are a clean, pure-minded boy. Every boy 

 tells such a falsehood when he puts his 

 cigarette out of sight when he sees some- 



