218 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



Nothing tends so powerfully to keep the passions in 

 abeyance as a simple diet, free from condiments, espe- 

 cially when coupled with a generous amount of exer- 

 cise. 



Tobacco and Vice.— Few are aware of the influ- 

 ence, upon morals exerted by that filthy habit, tobacco- 

 using. When acquired early, it excites the undevel- 

 oped organs, arouses the passions and in a few years 

 converts the once chaste and pure youth into a veri- 

 table volcano of lust, belching out from its inner fires 

 of passion, torrents of obscenity and the sulphurous 

 fumes of lasciviousness. If long continued, the final 

 effect of tobacco is emasculation; but this is only the 

 necessary consequence of previous super-excitation. 

 The lecherous day-dreams in which many smokers in- 

 dulge are a species of fornication for which even a brute 

 ought to blush, if such a crime were possible for a 

 brute. The mental libertine does not confine himself 

 to bagnios and women of the town. In the foulness 

 of his imagination, he invades the sanctity of virtue 

 wherever his erotic fancy leads him. 



When a boy places the first cigar or quid of tobacco 

 to his lips, he takes— if he has not previously done so— 

 the first step in the road to infamy ; and if he adds wine 

 or beer, he takes a short cut to the degradation of his 

 manhood by the loss of virtue. 



We are aware that we have made a grave charge 

 against tobacco, and we have not hesitated to state the 

 naked truth ; yet we do not think we have exaggerated, 

 in the least, the pernicious influence of this foul drug. 

 As much, or nearly as much, might be said against the 

 use of liquor, on the same grounds. 



Obscene Books.— Another potent enemy of virtue is 

 the obscene literature which has flooded the land fof 



