The Free lance. (State College, Pa.) 1887-1904, December 01, 1887, Image 9

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    pecially value the increasing influence of Decem
ber 25th, as proclaiming glad tidings of peace
and love and as advancing that righteousness
which exalteth a nation. j.
THE INVINCIBLE WEED,
BY GEORGE C. BUTZ, B. S,
The surprisingly small per centage of students
using tobacco, as found in my class in Physiology
numbering 26 members (4 of whom are ladies,)
has led me to canvass the several classes now in
the institution, in oider to determine to what ex
tent the "weed” is being used. I have carried
the investigation, as well as the opportunities at
my command would serve me in a limited period
of time, through the ten graduating classes
of the last decade of years.
While I do not consider the figures presented
below sufficient or even trustworthy, from which
to make proper deduction, yet I think they will •
serve at least to illustrate a few facts of more or
*
less interest. I must add that in all these figures
the ladies have been excluded as not possessing the
right, even though they may have the desire of
being represented.
Greatly to be appreciated are three facts
which impressed me during the investigation :
Ist, that a very small number of students used to
bacco by the base method of chewing it; 2d, that
only a few of the smokers practiced the habit in
an immoderate degree, although a few years ago
excessive smoking was quite prevalent among the
younger classmen ; 3d, that most of the smokers
acknowledged' the practice to be an evil one by
attempting to conceal their guilt.
Barring a few exceptions, the Faculty of the
institution is a model corps of instructors, in the
light of this question, as will be seen by reference
to the following table:
THE FRE
LANCE.
The fact that the percentage of smokers in
the Preparatory Department is lower than that in
the college might indicate to some readers that the
habit of smoking is contracted by many students
during their life at college ; which, however, I feel
confident is not the case. Consult any young
man who dates the beginning of his manhood by
his first cigar and you will ahpost invariably find
that he became "of age” in his younger teens, or
before entering a college.
A few years ago smoking among the lower
classmen was so general that there was a precious
few of their quarters which were not decorated
with disabled pipes, festooned with strings of
'empty pokes, and perfumed with a foul aroma of
"Old Judge” or "Old Durham j" and in which
the centre table was not displaced by some more
essential piece of furniture as a cuspidor, spittoon
or “gobboon.”
We do not see so many students now as in
former years with sallow faces, inflamed eyes, and
that lost-my-best-friend expression upon their
countenances, all of which symptoms go with
excessive smoking, to say nothing of the indiges
tion, impure breath and the dulling of the sensi
bilities engendered by the use of tobacco.
James Parton, in a dissertation on smoking
TAW,I! SHOWING NIIMHIItOU, BTU’tN OTIt
ON Till! VICTIMS TO TOHACOO.
5 £ IS S*
1 fi si g|
2 0; re Bre Sre sre
2 • n o; oq *i •■a *i
* * trc
Faculty 15
Glass ’78..... 5
“ ’711..... 7
“ ’Bil (I
“ ’Bl 3
“ 'B4 (I
“ ’B3 5
’• 'St 4
“ ’S'. 7
“ ’B3
“ ’B7
’• ’BB
•' ’B3
‘ 128 18 18 ' 7
“ ’3l 23 8 7 4
. “ ’34 33 U
’33 123 111 .. ..
Total suulunts 131 88
Graduates’7B-’87... 53 23 .. ..
Present Studoifts...l33 Ml .. ..
I’Tcsont College Stu, 73 31
l’roscnt Prop. •* Ui St ..
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v. •
a'o
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e*
1 o
2 2
4 4 a
5 0 0
1 t M
7 7 4
l 1 n
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