224 TOBACCO. 



w Boys learn to smoke because it is a habit of 

 our times ; because it is sanctioned by the practice 

 of many eminent men in all the walks of life, — 

 some of them intellectual leaders of the age ; 

 because literature, art, and song have been satu- 

 rated with the fragrance of the choicest tobacco, 

 till it affects the taste, as well as appetite. Gen. 

 Grant's smoking is the boy's answer to many an 

 appeal in this country, as the Prince of Wales's 

 smoking is in England. I have had under mv 

 charge a boy who could reply to my argument on 

 the ground of health, 'My physician smokes ; ' on 

 the ground of morals, f My minister smokes : ' on 

 the ground of hi^h-breedinsf, 'My father smokes.' 



" Parents are surprisingly ignorant of the habits 

 of their boys in this regard, surprisingly helpless 

 when they find their sons using tobacco, or sur- 

 prisingly timid, and criminally indifferent. 



" The tobacco-reform must begin in the enliofht- 

 ened conscience. A habit which destroys or 

 enfeebles the physical powers, which affects the 

 whole nervous system, and thus reaches the will 

 and the moral character, is a sin, 



" It is specially important that parents, preachers, 

 and all others whom boys propose to themselves 

 as models of deportment, honor, and usefulness, 

 should themselves be exemplary. I would not 

 have a teacher here who used tobacco, or sympa- 

 thized with those who do." 



Prof. William Stephens, of Philadelphia, has 

 caused to be pasted on the inside of every text- 



