Chapter XXX: Fraud

Say, fellows, the greatest circus man who ever lived said the American people like to be humbugged, and proceeding on that theory, P.T. Barnum got together more animals and performers and freaks under canvas than had ever been seen before. He made a tremendous fortune. There is something in human nature which makes us an easy mark for any pretentious thing that comes down the pike with banners flying. The bigger the claim and the larger the figures, the more readily we fall for it, but simple things must be proved.

When we are told there are 290,680,493,115 stars we accept it without question, but if there is a sign saying "FRESH PAINT" we touch the paint with our fingers to see if it is really so.

Fellows, there is a big sign posted all over the country, carrying in large letters the two words, "It satisfies." It is the expensive advertising propaganda of cigarette manufacturers, and the "satisfaction" they are offering you is that brief and fleeting sensation of being doped, so that "stern realities are changed to pleasant seemings." It matters not to them that your health and morals and money and life pay the cost, just so they sell their product. They tell you cigarettes "satisfy." It is a preposterous fake. They do not satisfy--they produce further craving--and they know that that craving grows, until the habit is formed and their "satisfied" victim becomes a hopeless slave--known as a cigarette fiend. There is only one drawback for the cigarette manufacturer, his consumer is too short lived; the cigarette devitalizes, pauperizes, and destroys. Like the shock troops of the German army, they must be continually recruited--recruited in numbers which almost stagger the imagination.

Did you know, fellows, that to keep up the consumption of cigarettes at the present rate of manufacture there must be _two thousand_ new smokers _daily_ to contract the habit? Nearly all these new smokers must be boys, for men are not fooled into this practice so easily.

In a village I recently saw a large bill-board sign at the top of which in bold letters were the words, WANTED: ONE MILLION RECRUITS! Upon reading farther, I found it was the advertisement of a certain brand of cigarettes, and the manufacturers boldly stated that the "one million recruits" were wanted to join the large and growing army of "delighted smokers" of their "richly blended" cigarette.

You don't have to fall for it. You do not _have_ to be one of the two thousand daily new recruits to the cigarette manufacturer's army of shock troops.

But the sly wolf comes in disguise, and in this case the disguise is "satisfaction" offered. Once the wolf gets its victim it throws off the disguise and stops talking about "satisfaction," but simply hands the "coffin tacks" across the counter, and takes your money, health, morals, success, and real satisfaction, in exchange, while you--well, you proceed to drive the tacks, one by one.

Says the cigarette: "I am not much of a mathematician, perhaps, but I can ADD nervous trouble; I can SUBTRACT from physical energy; I can MULTIPLY aches and pains; I can DIVIDE the mental powers; I can take INTEREST from work and I can DISCOUNT chances for success."

Dr. Heald, writing in _Life and Health_, says cigarettes are in many cases the direct cause of cancer, blindness, deafness, heart disease and dyspepsia. He further says they dwarf the body, benumb the brain and weaken character.

That cigarettes "hinder the development of the body" is testified to by the following physical directors of universities: Drs. Seaver and Anderson, of Yale; Dr. Hitchcock, of Ambrose; Dr. Meylin, of Columbia--as a result of repeated and careful measurements both of smokers and non-smokers.

Judge Ben Lindsey says: "No pure-minded, honest, manly, brave boy will smoke a cigarette."

"Home-Run" Baker says: "I do not smoke--never did. If any youngster wants advice from one who doesn't mean to preach, there it is: Leave cigarettes alone!"

Dr. Coffin, of the Whittier Reform School, says: "Of the 1,700 boys who have been inmates of this institution, 1,670 were cigarette smokers!"

_There_ is "satisfaction" for you; no, not for you, but only satisfaction for the cigarette manufacturer and dealer, such satisfaction as comes from ill-gotten gains, which after all cannot be permanent.

Yes, "it satisfies"--the cigarette,--it satisfies--satisfies the devil, and _he_ laughs, and _his_ is the only real long laugh that the cigarette affords.

The cigarette-tree is known by its fruit. Cut it out.

_Read 1 Corinthians 9:24-27._