THE DEADLY CIGARETTE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLX, Issue 8163, 15 August 1887, Page 5

THE DEADLY CIGARETTE.

Of all the forms of using tobacco the small paper-covered tube known as the cigarette is the moat deadly. There are many reasons for this. In the first place the cigarette smoker has no assurance that the tobacco is anything more than rubbish which cannot be used in any other manner. Secondly, the paper is wellknown to be exceedingly poisonous. Not more so than genuine tobacco, probably, but there is a wild hilarity which follows the smoking of paper that speedily breaks down the strongest nervous system. Thirdly, the cigarette is an insidious evil. It is so mild, and so handy, and so cheap, that the unfortnnate smoker uses many more of them than he has any idea of. The other 997 reasons need not be given here, as they have been at various times discussed in the public press, and so great has been the influence of these exposures that cigarette smoking has increased over 500 per cent during the last four years. Yet there are people who scoff at the power of the press ! It is only necessary to show conclusively that a certain thing is very harmful in order to get thousands of people to test the question for their own satisfaction.. The recent case of Mr John W. Stebbins, of Wyoming, will do much to open the eyes of the users of the vile weed in its vilest form. It will pain many good people to know that the cigarette has insinuated itself into the ruralsimplicityof Wyoming. Hitherto the inhabitants of that territory have been a guileless pastoral people who occasionally indulged in scalping, cattle raids, and ' bad whisky, enlivened by a murder now and then, but never has their worst enemy charged them with smoking cigarettes. Now, alas, all is changed. It is no uncommon sight to see a gang of cowboys peaceably returning to camp after sacking a village, each with a cigarette in his mouth. True, some of the most noble of the cowboys stood out against the growth of- this habit and shot a few of the smokers, but although this method of argument seemed to be conclusive in individual cases, yet matters of policy prevented, its universal adoption. So in spite of the best intentions on the part of the opponents of the vice it continued to spread among the unsophisticated people of the plains. Stebbius fell an easy victim to the cigarette and smoked incessantly. The effect of the habit on him was not noticed until one day be fired at a tenderfoot ftom the East three times in succession and missed him every time. This alarmed his friends, and they besought him with tears in their eyes to abandon a habit that was doing so much to undermine his usefulness and influence on the plains. Stebbins himself felt rather shaken and consulted a physician, who told him that if he did not give up cigarette smoking he would not live six months. Stebbins agreed to quit—next week. This is a peculiarity of the cigarette smokers. They are always going to quit some time in the future. That night there was a social card party in the shanty. Stebbins sat on the powder keg. , He let a cigarette stump fall on the keg. The party instantly broke up. Stebbins and part of the keg were last seen going-through the roof. As neither have yet come down serious fears are beginning to be entertained on that ranch that something has happened to Stebbins. Thus it is that the doctor’s most sanguine expectations have been realised, and the name of John Warrington Stebbins'has been added to the already long list of the victims of the deadly cigarette.