CIGARETTE SLAVERY

Hokitika Guardian, 5 January 1921, Page 4

CIGARETTE SLAVERY

(“Cigarette smoker wishing to give up smoking altogether finds it difficult. Any ihelpful experience would be appreciated.”—Advertisement ill tho | “Times”). j There is a real pathos in this simple advertisement. It is a cry from the heart. We can easily imagine the ease | with which the poor creature descended j the primrose path which leads to the j everlasting bonfire. What was once a . (juiet alleviation of boredom became a j cruel scourge. The slave grew into the > master. And at last the gloomy vie-j tim of a foolish habit ceased to be a lawyer, or a poet, or a member of Parliament, and stood revealed to himself and to the readers of The Times as a “cigarette smoker.”

There is little glory in the vice of the cigarette smoker. It cannot be said that the world is well lost for this silly con promise with tobacco. Even to die of large and costly cigars would, | i think, be a better death than to peter out with a limp gasper sticking to your ’ip-' , ... And there is none of the dignity in the cigarette, which time and repute have given to the honourable pipe. The cigarette is an upstart, no older than 80 years, and it competes in vain with j the bowls of clay wherewith our ancestors solaced themselves 400 years ago. From the first discovery of the divine herb violent partisans are ranged on either side for defence and attack. James 1. denounced the smokers in his “Gounterblaste to Tobacco” as “slaves to the Spaniards, refuse to the world, and as yet aliens from the holy Covenant of God.” If words have ally weight with the cigarette smoker of The Times we would confidently commend King James’s angry treatise to his notice. And if that treatise fails to cheek his appetite lot him read attentively the famous poem of Joshua Sylvester. Its mere title should strengthen him to break his ashen chain: “Tobacco Battered and the Pipes Shattered (about their cars that idlelv Idolize so base and barbarous a Weed; or at least-wise overlove so loathsome Yanitie); by a Volley of Holy Shot Thundered from Mount Helicon.” Was poem ever so fiercely described ‘j If only the victim of the cigarette would learn thirty lines of this masterpiece a day he would in a, month be surely purged of his tiresome habit.

But to the hardier smokers of the seventeenth century, like gentlemen from a pipe, both prose and poetry spoke in vain. In the reign of James, the arch-combatant himself, seven thousand shops in London were said to sell tobacco, and the King, though lie denounced what lie thought an unsavoury practice, placed a heavy tax upon it and found it exceedingly profitable. And profitable it lias remained unto this day. Not only has it yielded a kindly solace to those who understand its use, but also it has filled the public treasury with a constant, increasing loyalty. Smoked with a wise modesty, then tobacco lias proved a benefit both to the citizen and the State. And it is not easy to feel much sympathy for the pallid victim of the cigarette. It is no business of ours to provide him with a cure. Indeed, there is no antidote feu the disease other than cessation from the use of the drug.

How, then, shall he cease 7 The method he must find out for himself. When he has sufficiently mastered the works of King James and Joshua Sylvester lie may perhaps he strong enough to swear on oath that his consumption shall be limited to ten, to six, to four cigarettes a day. And when he has attained unto the last figure then shall he proclaim to himself, to his friends, to The Times, that his cure is complete.

Hut in spite of the piteousness of the smoker’s appeal for help, lie cannot lie commended for taking the world into his confidence. We have seldom met with a sorrier appeal. We alone can cure the vices which we have slid into by ourselves. If we reform our habits by depending upon others, we may be sure that our reformation is insecure.

And this clamouring for advice is but a symptom of the longing for control which seems to have beset this once free and independent people. The most of men are content, even desirous, to he spoon-fed and rationed. If they find themselves in a difficulty they run tti their fellows or. to the Government for help. The gentleman who wrote to The Times the other day would doubtless be quite happy if the State stepped in and dealt out to him per diem as many fags as it thought good for his health. And do not let us believe for a moment that because one frail personage yields foolishly to a temptation thej thing tempting him should be summarily abolished. We can hear the fanatics exclaim, “Here is a poor devil who has become a slave to the habit of smoking cigarettes. Therefore let cigarettes fye.for ever suppressed.” It is a false argument, falsely applied. Do not suppress the cigarette. Do all you can to discourage the man who cannot smoke cigarettes without running into excess. The world is made not for the weak, but for the strong. And if the weak man suffer, let him suffer in silence. Such is the moral that wo may draw from the sad personage who advertises his woes. If in his miserable self-indulgence he has lost hope, he must recover it himself. Cannot he look at the sunset or the rising of the moon except through the mist of the meanest kind of tobacco smoke? Is the changing beauty of the trees or t-lio music of the birds a sight or a sound for him which lie cannot disengage from the enfeebling odours of the cigarette? Then ho is unworthy to hear or to see whatever is wonderful in this earth of ours.

Above all, let us remember that nobody outside can solve our problems or abate our weaknesses. We are already unworthy if we seek for advice or lean upon a doubting Government for support. We make ourselves, such as we are, by our own strength, our own selfdenial. Laws are but a concession which virtue makes to vice. The man who sacrifices his life to so poor a habit, as the inhaling of cigarette smoke cannot hope for the help or sympathy of his fellows. Tf he is set upon destroy-1 ing his activity and his peace of mind, j let him choose a more gallant method of self-destruction. ! At any rate, it is not tobacco that is to blame. Tobacco has stood the test j of centuries and has fully justified it- .

self as a wholesome and pleasant herb. Wherefore, I will wish the the pool gentleman who cannot refrain from the | pernicious cigarette a happy deliverance from his bondage and will cheerfully light my own friendly pipe.