Chapter XV: Part SIX: The Cigarette

The question is often asked, “Why is the Cigarette doing more harm
than the other forms of Tobacco?” We answer:--

_First_, because the user of the Cigarette is _more apt to inhale_ than the user of pipe or cigars.

“When tobacco smoke is inhaled [breathed into the lungs], the nicotin
enters the cerebral circulation directly and benumbs the brain. It
enters the larynx and bronchial tubes, coating their membrane with
carbon and acting as an irritant.”

_Second_, because the combination of the tobacco and the paper in the Cigarette form several poisons that are injurious. They are:--

_Prussic Acid_: the most deadly poison known.

_Acrolein_: rated in any standard book of chemistry as second only
to prussic acid in its deadly effect. In Webster’s International
Dictionary, 1901, it is defined as “A limpid, colorless, highly
volatile liquid. Its vapors are intensely irritating.”

_Pyridine_: “It is the nucleus of a large number of organic
substances, among which several alkaloids, as nicotin, ... may be
mentioned.”

_Carbonic Oxide or Monoxide gas_: “Carbonic oxide (chem.): a
colorless gas. C. O. of slight odor, called more correctly _Carbon
Monoxide_. It is the product of the incomplete combustion of
carbon.... It is fatal to animal life.”

Besides these poisons, nicotin is always present in tobacco in any
form,--giving a total of _five poisons in the Cigarette_.

_Third, Ignorance of the effects_ of Cigarettes on the human being. The Cigarette being so small, and the white paper so clean in appearance, thousands of innocent people are entrapped and ruined physically, mentally, and morally, by those “_Little White Devils_.” It has been estimated that from _one thousand two hundred to one thousand five hundred boys begin smoking every day_.

_Women and Baby Smokers_

In 1909, I was invited to speak at a woman’s missionary meeting, at Washington, D. C. At the close of the meeting an elderly lady asked for literature giving statements as to the effect of Cigarettes. She said she had a married daughter that was smoking Cigarettes, and _teaching her little three-year-old boy to smoke_!

I knew a woman who began smoking Cigarettes. I was shocked when I heard that she had placed a Cigarette in the mouth of her sweet little four-year-old girl. I tell you that made me mad! I said then that I would do all I could to knock out Cigarettes. A young married lady told me that her husband was a “Cigarette fiend.” He was dopy most of the time. When not under the influence of Cigarettes, he was restless, nervous, irritable, and unkind. Life to her became a burden.

“A Cigarette dealer in Philadelphia states that he sells one hundred fifty thousand Cigarettes a month to women who come in carriages, and send footmen to buy.”

_A World Wide Evil_

Dr. Clinton says that “a good deal has been said about the evils of Cigarette smoking; but not one half the truth has ever been told.”

_Not only in America_, but in every land, in every clime, is the effect of the Cigarette seen. In _China_, where such a successful crusade against opium was made, the tobacco people from our own civilized America went with an unlimited amount of advertising matter, and sample packages of Cigarettes, which were scattered broadcast, and now the Cigarette habit threatens to be a _greater curse than opium was_!

_Effects Upon School Boys_

A physician’s statement:--

“_Cigarette smoking first blunts the whole_ moral nature. It has
an appalling effect upon the physical system as well. It _first
stimulates_, then _stupefies the nerves_. _It sends boys into
consumption._ It gives _them enlargement of the heart_ and it _sends
them to the insane asylum_!

“I am often called in to prescribe for boys for palpitation
of the heart. In nine cases out of ten this is caused by the
Cigarette habit. I have seen _bright boys turned into dunces_, and
_straightforward, honest boys made miserable cowards_ by Cigarette
smoking. I am speaking the truth,--nearly every physician and every
teacher knows.”--_Dr. A. Clinton._

In a school of 500 pupils, a careful investigation extending over several months was made, and briefly summed up, shows the following:--

“The average efficiency of the _non-smokers_ in that school was
ninety-five per cent, in other words, ninety-five out of every one
hundred were reasonably sure of getting at least a good common school
education, while of the _Cigarette fiends_, only five to ten per
cent stand any show in school, and they are _two and one-fifth years
behind in their own grade_, and more than _three years behind the
girls they started with in the first grade_.

“The teachers who made this investigation expressed themselves to the
parents of the boys as follows:--

“We desire to call attention to the fact that a _large majority_ of
the boys of this city are smoking Cigarettes; that the boys who are
smoking are, on an average, years behind the boys who do not smoke;
and still farther behind the girls in the same grades; that the
_mental_, _moral_, and _physical condition_ of many of these boys is
_extremely deplorable_, and will certainly continue to grow worse
unless the habit is stopped; that while the schools are insisting
that this and other unclean and undesirable habits shall not be
practiced in or about the school house or grounds; still, crowds of
our boys are daily seen around the saloons and loafing places of
our streets, smoking, _loafing_, _swearing_, and _cultivating other
undesirable habits_.

“This was _plain talk_, and it had _immediate_ effect. It is
estimated that seventy-five per cent of the Cigarette smoking by boys
was stopped. What was called the worst school in the country, is now
spoken of as doing good work. _The school board raised the salary
of the teachers and principal_ twenty-five per cent. The people are
pleased. The improved condition of the boys is noticeable in their
_language_, _dress_, _manners_, _efficiency_, and especially in their
_moral tone_.

“_The former principal and superintendent smoked._”

But think! that is but one school among thousands in America that is wasting money in trying to _educate numbskulls_! Bob Burdette, in his comical way, says:--

“_My son, as long as thou hast in thy skull the sense of a jay bird,
break away from the Cigarette, for lo, it causeth thy breath to stink
like a glue factory; it rendereth thy mind less intelligent than that
of a cigar store dummy, yea, thou art a cipher with the rim knocked
off._”

When you rub the rim off a cipher you have less than nothing.

Theodore Roosevelt expresses himself as follows:--

“If you are going to do anything permanent for the average man, you
have got to begin before he is a man. The chance of success lies in
working with the boy, and not with the man.”--_Theodore Roosevelt._

_Bad Example of Educators and School Men_

Superintendent J. K. McBroom, in an address to educators, said in part:--

“What will we do with a superintendent who uses tobacco? Send him to
the legislature? Legislative atmosphere seems to be _mostly tobacco
smoke anyway_. Send him to the reform school, I was going to say;
then I remembered that wouldn’t do, for that of course is only for
youthful offenders for whom there yet lingers hope of reformation.”

Speaking of boys, Mr. McBroom says:--

“Now is the time of most urgent need that every safeguard and every
vigilant precaution be thrown around them to save them from the vile
habits and tendencies which they are exposed on every hand, and which
if allowed to get their grip now, will handicap the boys all their
lives, and in many cases ruin them for any further effective or
ambitious effort.

“Chief among these vices, because usually the _first_ to gain a
foothold, is the use of tobacco; and that seems to be the _father_
of all the rest. It _breeds deception_ at the very start, _in every
single case_, I believe; bad company, and even worse meeting places;
_dwarfed ambition, sluggish intellect_.

“Now if the young man has any _capacity or inclination_ in the
line of school work, we have the strongest possible appeal to his
_pride and his ambition_ in telling him that the use of tobacco is
absolutely ruinous to good scholarship. But the pupil will find a
_fatal flaw_ in the logic if the superintendent himself uses tobacco;
for almost inevitably in the mind of the pupil, the superintendent
is a _notable example of high_ scholarship. The best teaching,
except for some rudiments and routine of instruction is mostly a
matter of intangible atmosphere; the _right kind of influence_,
contact and association of the pupil with a _strong, clean, wholesome
personality_ in the teacher. Now if superintendent or college
professor or any other schoolman, has one _conspicuous weakness_;
_one habit_ that is universally considered a bad habit, he fails in
exactly the most important point; and though he may be strong as an
_instructor_, _disciplinarian_, _administrator_, yet he will be weak
as an _educator_, _as a maker of character_.

“He may surround himself with a corps of strong, loyal young men
and women, who will attend to the education of the pupils, while
he attends to the administration of the system; but even then, his
own influence in the development of character in the pupils will be
zero or a negative quantity. Now that kind of influence might answer
in the management of _a railroad_ or a _packing house_, but in the
administration of a school it is _not good enough_.”

What can we say to the boys when they quote the example of physicians, college professors, school superintendents, ministers of the gospel, churchmen, and even their own fathers? Such men should read the following statement with care:--

“There is something about this Cigarette habit that weakens and
unnerves the boy. It _destroys his memory_, impairs his other
cognitive faculties, robs him of his power of attention, saps his
will-power, and deprives him of his initiative; he _becomes tremulous
and timid_, and fears to do the things he would.

“Often this filthy and disgusting habit has so fastened itself upon
the impressionable boy nature, that it can not be shaken off. _What
base slavery!_ What bonds of vice that _eat like canker_ into the
physical being of its victim!

“Many physicians with whom I consulted in the matter have assured
me of the effect of tobacco upon the growing boy, and all have
regarded the Cigarettes as the most pernicious form of tobacco
using. Do _college professors_, and _college men_, and other users
of Cigarettes who are in a position to influence boys, ever think of
their _responsibility_ for the bad example they give? How can advice
to refrain from the Cigarette be heeded when it comes from one who
is himself a user of the Cigarette?”--_Wm. H. DeLacy, Judge of the
Juvenile Court, Washington, D. C._

_Boy Criminals and the Cigarette_

Judge Ben. B. Lindsey, of Denver, known as “The Boys’ Judge,” says:--

“The Cigarette not only has a _grip upon boyhood_, but it invites
_all other_ demons of habit to come and add to the _degradation_.”

Another writer says:--

“There is no surer way for the young boy to procure as associates
the criminal and immoral, than for him to begin the smoking of
Cigarettes; the use of the Cigarette draws to him the older and more
vicious who are ready to initiate him into that kind of life which
paves his way to destruction.”

In testimony of the grip which the Cigarette habit obtains upon boys, and its tendency to crime, read carefully the following statement from Abraham Bowers, Immigration Secretary of the Y. M. C. A. of Chicago:--

“It gives me pleasure to endorse the work of the Anti-Cigarette
League. While I was teacher of the boys in the Cook County jail, I
found that almost every one of them could attribute his downfall
partly to the use of Cigarettes. They were the _most seriously
afflicted_ with the habit of any class of boys I have ever known.
They desired to have a recess every forty-five minutes to go outside
the room to smoke a Cigarette. At night frequently about two or three
o’clock in the morning, some of them would be _aroused from their
sleep_ for the want of a Cigarette, and not having it they would
_pound the cells_, and wake all the other boys and men in the jail,
if necessary to get the Cigarettes. Many of them admitted that they
had _been led to steal_ originally to get money with which to buy
Cigarettes.”

The following statement is from the pen of Judge Leroy B. Crane, of New York:--

“Cigarettes are ruining our children, _endangering their lives_,
dwarfing their intellects, and making them _criminals_ fast. The
boys who use them seem to lose all sense of _right, decency, and
righteousness_. To have great men requires the most forceful means to
check this pernicious and death-dealing habit. Ask the mothers of
the land to help you and they will respond.

“In my court _ninety-five per cent_ of the boys brought before
me charged with offenses from _shooting crap_ to _burglary_ are
Cigarette smokers, while those who do not smoke them seldom appear
before me.

“This morning three boys were brought before me for petty larceny,
the oldest eighteen, the youngest sixteen,--the stain of Cigarettes
on their fingers, and the mothers there to accompany their boys.
I was compelled to send one to the reform school at the mother’s
request; the other two were placed on probation to give them another
start.

“I call Cigarettes Little White Devils. The U. S. government should
pass laws preventing their sale and manufacture within its borders.”

Of the tendency of the Cigarette to promote crime and insanity, the following experience will testify:--

“Of all the juvenile criminals tried in my court, not _one for years_
has been found free from the _stain of Cigarettes_ on his thumb
and first two fingers. Of all the _lunatics_ tried in my court, an
attempt is made to learn the cause of lunacy, and in _more than
half_ Cigarette smoking is assigned as the cause.”--_Judge Balder,
Louisville, Ky._

“It does seem, as one stated, ‘that either the smoking of Cigarettes
_causes insanity, or that it is the insane who smoke_.’”

Says Thomas A. Edison:--

“Acrolein is one of the _most terrible drugs_ in its effect on
the human body. The _burning_ of ordinary _cigarette paper always
produces acrolein_. That is what makes the smoke so irritating.
I really believe that it often _makes boys insane_. We sometimes
develop acrolein in this laboratory in our experiments with
glycerine. One whiff of it from the oven drove one of my assistants
out of the building the other day. I _can hardly exaggerate the
dangerous nature of acrolein_, and yet that is what a man or a boy is
dealing with every time he smokes an ordinary Cigarette.”

“_The blood of persons poisoned by the inhalation of illuminating
gas_, rich in carbonic oxide, is found to be _coagulated_ and
_indurated_, and may be pulled in strings from the _veins and
arteries_.

“Owing to the loose structure of the Cigarette, its combustion is
modified and destructive distillation proceeds with combustion, and
owing to the incompleteness of oxidation, carbonic oxide is largely
produced instead of carbonic acid. This carbonic oxide inhaled into
the lungs enters the blood unresisted, and the damage it does is
in direct proportion to the quantities inhaled. _Carbonic oxide
when inhaled in small quantities produces faintness, dizziness,
palpitation of the heart, and a feeling of great heaviness in the
feet and legs._ These are exactly the effects of the Cigarette and
the depression and nervousness which follow as a reaction make the
victim crave some balm or tonic for his malaise. He is then led to
consume the drug in ever increasing quantities.”

Notice the following prison record:--

“On the first day of this month we had 278 boys between the ages of
ten and fifteen. Ninety-two per cent of the whole number were in the
habit of smoking Cigarettes at the time they committed the crimes
for which they were sent to the reformatory. Eighty-five per cent
had become so addicted to their use as to be classed at the time
as ‘Cigarette fiends.’ Of 4,117 boys received into the reformatory
since its organization on June 8, 1893, ninety-five per cent were
in the habit of using tobacco, and nearly all were Cigarette
smokers. Consequently we see that the Cigarette is a great factor in
developing criminals.”--_Hon. Geo. Torrence, formerly Superintendent
of Illinois State Reformatory._

Reliable testimony:--

“I regard the Cigarette as a _fuse of infernal_ fire, tending to
explode the _worst passions of the body_! In dealing with more than
sixteen thousand delinquent children during the last eight years,
I find as a rule the user of Cigarettes is a _stunt, a weakling in
body, mind, and morals_.”--_Zed H. Copp, Chief Probation Officer,
Juvenile Court, Washington, D. C._

_Heart Tracings_

We invite your attention to the work of the delicate little instrument, called the sphygmograph, which records the strength and regularity of the heart beat. Notice the following tracings:--

_No. 2_

_No. 3_

_No. 4_]

No. 1 shows a healthy heart beat. No. 2, the heart beat of a young man while smoking. Where the mark ^ is, you will notice that the heart skipped a full beat. No. 3, after smoking, with a partial skip in the heart beat, even while under the stimulus of tobacco. No. 4, the heart beat of a tobacco user.

The tobacco heart has become a prominent feature in the medical diagnosis of the day.

_Danger to Growing Boys_

This progressive use of the Cigarette is especially true with boys in
the period of rapid growth. The wreath of Cigarette smoke which curls
about the head of the growing lad _holds his brain_ in an _iron grip_
which prevents it from growing and his mind from developing just as
surely as the iron shoe does the foot of the Chinese girl.

In the terrible struggle for survival against the deadly Cigarette
smoke, development and growth are sacrificed by nature, which in the
fight for very life itself, must yield up every vital luxury such as
healthy body growth and growth of brain and mind.

If all boys could be made to know that with every breath of Cigarette
smoke they _inhale imbecility_ and _exhale manhood_; that they are
tapping their arteries as surely and letting their life blood out as
truly as though their _veins and arteries were severed_, and that the
Cigarette is a maker of _invalids_, _criminals_, and _fools_--not
men--it ought to deter them some. _The yellow finger stains_ is an
emblem _of deeper degradation and enslavement than the ball and
chain_.

Hudson Maxim.

_Business Men and the Cigarette_

How do employers of men and boys rate the Cigarette smoker? Read the following terse statements:--

“We might as well go to the _insane asylum_ for our men as to employ
Cigarette smokers.”--_The late E. H. Harriman, Railroad King._

“Never advance the pay of a Cigarette smoker; never _promote him_;
never _trust him_.”--_Elbert Hubbard._

“More and more young men are hoisting the sign, ‘I am a fool,’ by
appearing in public with a Cigarette.”--_P. M. Sharpless, Cream
Separator Manufacturer._

“The use of intoxicating liquor by men, and the use of Cigarettes
by boys, is creating a race of _feeble-minded_, _unhealthy_, and
_valueless citizens_.”--_John Wanamaker._

“We do not employ boys in the Larkin office, who smoke Cigarettes. An
applicant addicted to the use of Cigarettes would hardly interest us;
but if he seemed to possess qualifications that made him desirable,
he would have to _decide between Cigarettes and the job_.”--_Wm. R.
Heath, Vice-President Larkin Company, Buffalo._

The notice which follows was posted throughout the factory of the Cadillac Motor Company, Nov. 28, 1911:

“Cigarette smoking is acquiring a hold on a great many boys in our
community; the habit has grown to an abnormal extent among boys and
men in the last year or two. Since it is such a bad practice, and is
taking such a hold upon so many people, we think it a _disgrace_ for
a grown man to smoke a Cigarette, because it is not only injurious to
his health, but is such a _bad example_ to the boys.

“Boys who smoke Cigarettes, we do _not care to employ_ or to _keep
in our employ_. In the future _we will not hire any one_ whom we
know to be addicted to this habit. It is our desire to weed it
entirely out of our factory just as soon as practicable. We will ask
every one in our factory who sees the seriousness of this habit to
use his influence in having it stamped out. We have two objects in
interesting ourselves in this matter. First, to help men and boys;
second, _We believe that men who do not smoke Cigarettes or frequent
saloons, can make better automobiles than those who do_.”

The following is an extract from the Fidelity, one of the oldest insurance companies in America:--

“After a careful investigation we have decided that we will not bond
a man who uses Cigarettes, for such men _are not safe, physically or
morally_.”

“I verily believe that the _mental force_, _power of labor_, and
_endurance_ of our profession is decreased at least twenty-five per
cent by the use of tobacco.”--_Ex-Senator Doolittle, in an address
delivered to the graduating law class of Wisconsin University._

_Cigarettes and Tuberculosis_

The claim made by Surgeon General Rixey of the United States navy
that the smoking of Cigarettes is responsible for many of the cases
of _pulmonary tuberculosis_ that occur among the men of that body
is an interesting one. _The Cigarette_ has long been considered a
_dangerous luxury_, and taking into consideration the opinion of Dr.
Rixey, the statement that during the past three months the crew of
the ship Missouri--700 men--used _one thousand five hundred books of
Cigarette papers_, _one thousand two hundred pounds of tobacco_ and
_thirty-seven thousand Cigarettes_, the fact that the ratio of men
suffering from _pulmonary troubles_ in _our navy is larger than in
the navies of either Germany or England_, is not surprising. As a
matter of precaution and common sense, this devotion to the Cigarette
should at least be curbed to a very great extent.--_Washington Post._

“It has been brought to the attention of the bureau from many
sources,” says the surgeon general, “that Cigarette smoking is
becoming a _serious impediment to robust health in the navy_. This
habit seems to have taken a decided impetus in the service since the
Spanish war and has spread to incredible proportions.”--_The Deadly
Cigarette, Lucy Page Gaston._

_Leads to Drinking and Opium_

Dr. Chas. L. Hamilton, of the Keeley Institute, says: “The continual
_dryness_ of the mucous membranes of the mouth and pharynx, due to
the _paralyzing influence_ of the Cigarette on the nerve terminals
and which the drinking of water will not relieve, is readily quenched
by _alcoholic drinks_, and this discovery, once made by the Cigarette
habitue, leads to frequent indulgence in liquor, and aided by the
effort to combat malnutrition and its attendant weaknesses, almost
invariably causes him to become an _alcoholic inebriate_.”

Also a quotation from Dr. B. Broughton, in charge of the opium
department of the Keeley institute, Dwight, Ill.: “_More young men
are led into the opium habit by Cigarette smoking_ than by patent
and proprietary medicines. _Sixty per cent of all males_ under forty
years of age, treated at Dwight for morphin, opium, or cocaine using
in 1896 had been smokers of Cigarettes, and sixty per cent of these
had no other excuse than that they needed some _stimulant_ more than
the Cigarette furnished them.”

“Our experience here at Dwight, where many hundreds of Cigarette
cases have been treated, is that persons applying for treatment for
both liquor and cigarettes dread giving up their Cigarette more
than they do the liquor. Moreover, those who return to the use of
Cigarettes in after-life, are almost certain to resume the use of
liquor to allay the irritability of the nervous system produced by
tobacco smoke inhalation.”--_Some Effects of Tobacco Using._

_Cigars and Fires_

“Cigarettes for boys spell tragedy everywhere! The fire at Bangor
last Sunday began with a careless smoker. The Baltimore fire, the
Chelsea-Boston fire, the fire of the Windsor Hotel, New York, the
Albany Statehouse fire, and the Horrible Triangle Waist Company
holocaust, all of these, with charred human bodies, and wrecked
homes and lives, are traced to the carelessness and brutal disregard
accompanying the Cigarette habit.

“Fire Commissioner Waldo attributes 700 fires per year in New York to
this cause. The _tobacco companies_ deny the evil of their product,
and invite inspection of their premises and processes. But a mere
inspection of the Cigarette boys, in the public schools and factories
ought to be enough!”--_Editorial in Religious Weekly._

_Dangers of Inhaling_

The following paragraphs are selected from “Confessions of a Cigarette Smoker in England.”

“Inhaling consists simply in drawing a _volume of smoke_ from the
Cigarette into the mouth, and then taking a deep breath, in the act
of which the smoke is carried from the mouth down into the lungs....

“Let the nicotin fumes go where they may, in their passage they
come into contact with the _nervous system_, and the result is an
_instantaneous communication to the brain_, which takes the form of a
momentary _semi-paralysis_--that is, when a man is new at the habit.

“I remember very well the experience of a youngster of _eighteen_ on
his being _taught to inhale_ the smoke of a Cigarette for the first
time. One afternoon some _friends persuaded_ him to make the attempt,
and he did so. Almost upon the instant he fell full length upon the
floor in a _dead faint_; and his features became pallid, his _pulse
faint and irregular_; and those about him were for a time in a great
fright. A day or two later he tried to inhale again, with a result
_not quite_ so bad; and he went on trying till now he is a _veritable
slave_ to the habit.

“A leading tobacconist in the city of London told me that in the
space of five years he had seen _regular frequenters_ of his shop
completely _broken down in mind and body_ through having contracted
the inhaling habit; moreover, that some of them were in the cemetery
who, he was convinced, need not have been there. Of course, the
medical certificate did not give inhaling tobacco smoke as the cause.
Very likely it said consumption. But I can quite believe, and so can
any confirmed inhaler, that it was the Cigarette that was the cause
of it all.

“The moral of all this is a simple one. _Never upon any
consideration_ be tempted to inhale for the first time. Probably this
_initial attempt_ would lead to the establishment of the habit, with
all the sad consequences I have enumerated. And, as I indicated at
the outset, breaking away from it is such a difficult matter that
_not one person in a thousand_ ever succeeds in the attempt. Inhaling
is one of those habits which _can not be broken off by degrees_.
The division must be drawn sharp and clean, and there must be no
smoking of any sort. To the confirmed inhaler this system of cure is
a painful one; but it is the only one I have known to succeed.”

_A Sure Cure_

“I have found a way to cure Jimmy of smoking Cigarettes,” said Mrs.
Maloney over the back fence to Mrs. O’Brien.

“And what is that?”

“By the laying on of hands. It is a great remedy and a sure cure.”

_A Campaign_

_for_

Better Books for the Young

The world is flooded with the cheapest and most pernicious literature for children and youth. Go with me to the book store and see if we can find a sensible, illustrated book for the children. Notice the rotten paper used, and the quality of the work in both printing and binding. Who would think of buying such stuff for grown people?

But worse than all the rest is the nature of the literature contained in many of these books. It is as unreal and meretricious as the material is of poor quality and the workmanship bad. And right at the time of life when character is forming for time and eternity, the brains of these little people are filled with fairy stories, and grotesque pictures of nondescript animals, and the impossible doings of impossible people.

The effect on the impressible, unformed minds of the young is to create unreal sentiments and a feverish imagination. Look at the eagerness with which the little hands grasp the atrocious colored illustrations of the Sunday newspaper.

People say the children must be amused. In this we agree, but claim that it is not necessary to descend to this demoralizing stuff to interest them. We claim that the things that are true, the things that are uplifting, the things that will lay the foundation for a useful education and training for life, can be made just as interesting for these little men and women as is the stuff usually imposed upon them.

We must remember that the bad literature for the children is training their impressible minds in wrong directions, and developing a dwarfed character. No true education can be built upon such a foundation. It must all be eradicated, and the evil effects overcome before there is any hope for a proper, useful education. It will take years to do this; it may never be accomplished. Many will carry through life and to the grave the taint of these early lessons.

The Nashville Book Company was organized for the express purpose of providing for the children and youth a clean, uplifting, educating, yet intensely interesting literature. That our efforts have been successful is attested by the eagerness with which the books are read and re-read by the little men and women, and the influence for good the lesson stories are having upon their lives, as attested by parents into whose homes these books have found their way. The books now ready are:--

“_Tiger and Tom, and Other Stories for Boys._”

Suitable for boys from eight to twenty years of age, and for grown-ups as well. Contains 224 pages, printed from new plates on good, heavy paper, with more than one hundred illustrations, engraved expressly for this book, many of which are full page, all printed in colors. Prices and Bindings:--

Vellum de Luxe Cloth, marbled edges, 50 cts
Paper Cover, in three colors, 25 cts

“_The King’s Daughter, and Other Stories for Girls._”

“Companion to Tiger and Tom.” Same styles and prices

“_Gospel Primer No. 2._”

Ninety-six pages of short, attractive Bible stories. Each page a chapter. The chapters connect in forming a continued chain of historical stories. For children from six to fifteen. Printed on heavy paper, handsomely illustrated by over 100 engravings, printed in colors, in the following styles of binding:--

Red Vellum de Luxe Cloth, red edges, embossed in three
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“_Spring Blossoms._”

For children from four to ten. Contains Bible stories, interesting stories from every-day life, puzzles, and drawing lessons. Printed from large type, handsomely illustrated in colors. Sixty-four pages, each double the size of “Tiger and Tom.” Bound in heavy board sides, cloth back, cover beautifully printed in four colors,

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=The _best_ selling line in America.=

* * * * *

General and Local Agents wanted. Liberal discounts. Write for circulars and terms.

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Transcriber’s Notes

Inconsistencies and errors in the source document have been retained,
except as mentioned below. Where the source document uses illustrated
capitals at the start of chapters, opening quote marks and other
punctuation may be missing; these have not been added.

Depending on the hard- and software used to read this e-book and on
their settings, not all elements may display as intended.

Changes made:

Some obvious minor typographical and punctuation errors have been
corrected silently.

Page 42: closing quote marks moved from ...learned a lesson by
this time, ventured Bertha.” to ...learned a lesson by this time,”
ventured Bertha.

Page 49: Closing quote mark inserted after ...pumped a nice fresh
pail.

Page 63: closing quote mark inserted before But the poor woman did
not realize....

Page 65: closing quote mark inserted after ...folly and dissipation
by the poor prodigal.

Page 71: ...a chap let of perishable flowers... changed to ...a
chaplet of perishable flowers....

Page 76: ...they have a bank of desposit... changed to ...they have a
bank of deposit....

Page 105: opening quote marks deleted from before Susan Bell’s heart
beat very fast....

Page 135: ...and minister’s preached... changed to ...and ministers
preached....

Page 138: closing quote mark inserted after ...the storm’s done for
us,

Page 142: Look here, Dainel, if you will promise me... changed to
Look here, Daniel, if you will promise me....

Page 145: opening quote mark inserted before I can now take up the
mortgage,....

Page 151: closing quote mark inserted after ...in the name of mercy,
do promise,....

Page 169: ...on her kness to help her... changed to ...on her knees
to help her....

Page 197: Quote marks inserted around I’d just like to hear anybody
speak against him, I would; Her eager eyes ran hurridly... changed to
Her eager eyes ran hurriedly....

Page 198: ...God being by helper! changed to ...God being my helper!

Page 225: opening quote marks inserted before I yield that much to my
wife’s dislike... and before But you don’t know how it chokes her,....

Page 247: closing quote mark added after ...in the administration of
a school it is not good enough.

Page 248: closing quote mark inserted after ...known as “The Boys’
Judge,

Page 250: Superintendent of Illinois Stale Reformatory changed to
Superintendent of Illinois State Reformatory.