Does it pay to smoke? / by an old smoker.

  • James Parton
Date:
[1872?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Does it pay to smoke? / by an old smoker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ing aid as men do; and therefore her Rochester has a fragrance of the weed about him at all times, with which many readers have been captivated. “ Jane Eyre” is the hook of recent years which has been most frequently imitated, and consequently the circulating libraries are populous with smoking heroes. Byron, Thackeray, and many other popular authors have written passages in which the smoke of tobacco insinuates itself most agree¬ ably into the reader’s gentle senses. Many smokers, too, have been made such by the unexplained rigour with which the practice is some¬ times forbidden. Forbidden it must be in all schools ; but merely forbidding it and making it a dire offence will not suffice in these times. Some of the most pitiable slaves of smoke I have ever known were brought up in families and schools where smoking was invested with the irresistible charm of being the worst thing a boy could do, except running away. Deep in the heart of the woods, high up in rocky hills, far from the haunts of men and schoolmasters (not to speak of places less salubrious), boys assemble on holiday after¬ noons to sicken themselves with furtive smoke, returning at the close of the day to relate the dazzling exploit to their companions. In this way
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