SMOKING.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 176, 27 July 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

SMOKING.

[<By Phyllis Crowley, 79, Ponsonby Road Auckland, age 16.) The fact that my readers don't smok< •imply doesn't matter—l must have mj •ay. If you have become a slave to Mj Lady Nicotine, for goodness sake, please don't 'try to break your bonds ol eerviture. I am not thinking of youi welfare,' but of those with whom yoi come in contact. Take no notice oi advertisements, stories, '•and theories about the evils of smoking. Stick tc your guns, and have enough courage tc continue smoking despite adverse criticism. Now, here are my reasons foi all this spilling of good ink (remembei I am one of the "with, whom you come in contact persons," so I am not absolutely talking through my hat.) r Now, dad smokes a strong pipe, the brother medium to strong cigarettes, and muni one very mild "fag" a day. . I'm the only one that doesn't imitate a chimuey, I eat confectionery instead, not . -yet .being old enough to worry about my figure or complexion. It was Sunday.. Dad's tobacco supply . had given out—everyone, even the cat, knew it, too. Doors slammed all through the house. I happened to meet dad in the passage (be assured the meeting was accidental) and his face much resembled a thundercloud. I was skipping off upstairs when he growled after me: "Now you lazy young beggar, why couldn't you have looked to see if I had any tobacco, and gone out and got me some on Saturday? You're absolutely no use at all, so it seems to me." "Try a choc., dad," I chirruped, offering him one. The lightning flashed out erf the thundercloud then, and dad began to loosen his belt. I finished' skipping upstairs. ." Later I was creeping past the sitting room door, tfhen the cat came whizzing out, described a neat arc, landed on its feet, and shot away to preserve one of its seven lives. Bad language issued from the sitting room, a newspaper rustled savagely, the door banged'shut, and I disappeared to regions more peaceful. Some weeks afterwards, brother Dave decided to give up smoking. I wondered what would be the result, and trembled in my foot encasements. Well, anyway, after the .first day his face began to grow longer, thinner and gloomier. In the afternoon, he being out, I found it necessary to go to his room and borrow a pencil (having lost the last one I borrowed from him). I was rummaging around diligently wheu the door opened and there stood Dave, glowering like an outraged Jove! I would certainly have done a disappearing trick,, only he took up all the doorway. He wanted to know what the — I was doing in his room and.if anything was safe'* in this — house? I didn't bother to explain, but made a swift get-' away, as soon as he moved away from the door. A b00k,., which caught me neatly amidships, helped, to accelerate any departure. Later in the day I found him actually standing on the cat's tail, with a demonical look in his eye, which quite convinced me that he was "going off his rocker." In' trying to rescue puss, I received such a cuff on the ear that it nearly detached my head from the rest of me. At meal times he ate little, merely sat and glowered at the rest of us, and looked as if ho might start throwing crockery at the slightest provocation.

After the second day, he went backto tlie good old cigs. again and wondered however he could have been such a fool > to leave them. Once more he was the old, good-natured, happy-go-lucky Dave. Last Monday and Tuesday were holi- \ days. Mum finished her last mild fag on Sunday. All the house went "cronk" in consequence. On Monday r thei roast beef was tough, the.potatoes i floury and nothing was right. Poor : mum looked tired and pale. Tuesday • was worse, for she had tried one of the i boys' mediums, and it had irritated her : throat. . ! Drifting down to the kitchen after- > wards, I wanted to know* if I could i make some toffee. By .what followed, s I gatheied that I could not. But still I loafed round, for time hung heavily • on my hands. Mother looked at me— i I stood not upon the order of my going. , but went, finding work outside! ° And so there you are, that's why I've ; slung so much ink, in trying to persuade you not to give up smoking!