How To Give It Up

Northern Advocate, 18 October 1947, Page 4

How To Give It Up

The whole thing begins in the morning, usually after breakfast, although some have a smoke before they get up—to make certain they are awake, I presume. After breakfast comes the first cigarette of the day, the one which is most enjoyed I think. Then comes morning tea, perhaps, and another cigarette is lighted. Dinner, another, afternoon tea, and tea.

During the evening inhalation is indulged in mostly, especially if one is reading or playing cards. Then supper, and the final puff of the evening, unless of course we include the chain smoker again, who likes to fill the bedroom with smoke before going to sleep. Now the problem is to find a way whereby we, can stop all this smoking and still enjoy life. The simplest way I ever heard of was that used by the President of Eire (Eamon de Valera). When he was caught by the British in a flour mill, where he had instructed' his troops, when they ran out of ammunition, to “fight them with knives and forks,” he feared that his beloved pipe would be taken from him as extra punishment. de Valera, who was an inveterate pipe smoker, made a rapid, and it must be, painful decision. With a final gesture of defiance to the British, he threw his pipe to the ground where it smashed to pieces, and he has never smoked since.

That is the hard way to give up smoking—but it works !

Most men, however, prefer the beating-around-the-bush method. By this means the system does not receive such a shock. The idea is to gradually cut down on the consumption of tobacco until—or so hopes the poor gentleman—the habit entirely disappears, and he finds that he can take it or leave it. The breakfast smoke must be had, of course. There is real enjoyment in that. As the morning drags on he pulls out his tobacco, looks at it, and, with the air of a martyr, puts it away again—to draw it out some minutes later.

A slight victory was gained there, though. He continues this process throughout the day until tea time, say. Most men cannot resist a cigarette after tea, but the one who does has done much to kid himself that he will have stopped smoking in two days. Alas; the next day he makes up for his abstinence.

Some say chewing makes knocking off easier; others take on heavy bets and thus have a real incentive to stop the habit. Others again work out how much money they can save a year if they stop smoking. Then there is the man who thinks his health would improve if he gave up tobacco; another who, disgusted at the price and scarcity of the weed, gives up for spite; and finally the man who’s wife smokes so much that he cannot afford to smoke himself and, in the nick of time, leaves the lady to it before he goes bankrupt.