FINANCIAL VIEW. 19 



that begets inordinate and loathsome appetite and 

 disease and degradation, that impoverishes and 

 debases thousands and adds incalculably to the 

 burden of evil the world bears ; but call not this 

 exchange honest trade, or this gnawing at the root 

 of social well-being getting an honest livelihood. 

 Think of God's justice, the honesty he requires, 

 and cover not your sin with a lie. Turn not His 

 earth and air, given to minister to the sustenance 

 and joy of man, into a narcotic, deadening life and 

 poisoning its current, and then traffic with this for 

 your own good." 



OTHER TOBACCO COSTS. 



Still another point deserves consideration. Be- 

 sides the hours that many spend on tobacco, from 

 which, to say the least, they get no benefit, is the 

 fact that the narcotic, by diminishing their force, 

 tends to lessen the value of their remaining time. 



Moreover, it is estimated by many medical men 

 that the victims of this weed, on an average, cut 

 short their life about one quarter. Thus, from an 

 average life of forty-five to fifty, about ten or 

 twelve are sacrificed to this evil-doer. 



Nor is this all. In order to make a fair esti- 

 mate of what this drug costs the country, we ought 

 to visit our almshouses and houses of correction, 

 our reform schools, insane asylums, jails, and peni- 

 tentiaries, to which poverty, disease, and crime, 

 resulting from the tobacco-fiend, with intempe- 

 rance following in its wake, bring hundreds and 



