APPENDIX. 



TOBACCO IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



THE " Boston Journal " of November i8, 1882, stated that 

 seventy-five per cent of the school boys, over 12 or 13 

 years of age, were habitual smokers of cigarettes. This called 

 out replies and provoked investigation, which resulted in de- 

 veloping the following : 



Mr. Billings, of Cambridgeport, placed the age at from 8 

 to 15. He had induced more than 300 out of 350 in his school, 

 to sign a simple pledge to abstain during 1882. About fifty 

 per cent had proved faithful. In the upper classes of the 

 Latin School, one-half the pupils use tobacco. In the Eng- 

 lish High School there is comparatively little smoking. 

 East Boston placed the per cent of tobacco users at from 10 

 to 30. 



Roxbury had been fighting the evil since 1866, but the num- 

 ber of smokers had doubled. All these schools "prohibit " 

 the use of tobacco, but indifference, and bad example on the 

 part of the parents, render it impossible to control the boys. 



In New York and Brooklyn the evil has become so great 

 that petitions are being circulated, asking for a law by the 

 State to prohibit the sale of tobacco to minors. Such a law 

 ought to exist and be enforced in every State. 



