The the confessions of a smoker [sic] / by an Octogenarian.

  • Octogenarian.
Date:
[Between 1860 and 1869?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The the confessions of a smoker [sic] / by an Octogenarian. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    With failing love and growing hate* I had the noxious weed to keep And smoke from dawn to evening late,* 0, horrid craze, with widening sweep I 0, dreadful coil, insatiate ! Nor let the young adept suppose He will be able to refrain, And bring the smoking to a close, Just when his fancy would abstain* Not thus, the vicious habit grows, Too hot the forge, too fierce the flame.- Oh, speed your sails, ye “ golden age*” Bring to our shores a noble race Of virtue-loving men, to wage Incessant war with every trace Of habits, which besmear the page Of life, and mar its angel face ! The masses of the rising race, No pleasure find in sucking smoke, In puffs, and whiffs no wisdom trace, No comforts gain, no health provoke, No added charm to mouth or face, Nor worthy purpose to promote. Oh that with ardent vigour stirred, Our sons—the pipe, would scorn and scout Themselves with wholesome habits gird, ^ The smoking doom to endless rout. YOUNG- MEN arise! pronounce the word } And stamp the senseless practice out. Old smokers can’t resist the foe, Slaves they have lived, slaves they must die, And to my grave this vice will go, Learnt in my youth—the secret why— Prostrate beneath the self-made woe* I curse it with a bitter cry ! Oh ye who plough, and sow the seed, And husband for the nation’s weal, Grow not the waste-producing weed, Think of the loss, and shame we feel, Why pander to a senseless greed ? Why probe the sore, ’twere wuse to heal ? WELLCOME INSTITUTE LIBRARY Coll. welMOmec Coll. pam ^ ^ ^72 No. 1 S6 C2.|c To be had of the Editor, “ Newington, N , Clissold Lodge,” 15. Bethune Road, Stoke Pitman, 20, Paternoster Row.
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