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Show REAL PHILANTHROPY. ; A movement has been launched in I tins country to supply the soldiers in the j trendies in Europe wiili pipes, very necessary nec-essary to the comfort of the average man in time of peace as well as war, and absolutely indisdcnsable in the case of inveterate smokers. We may rail at the tobacco habit all we please, but the fact remains that it is a great comfort com-fort and solace to a very large majority of men who camp in the open, aud is by no means despised by au equally large majority of the male sex who do not dwell in tents or trenches, but are comfortably com-fortably housed in cities. Ever since the time of Kiug James I of England, who wrote what he called a "Counterblast Against the Use 'of Tobacco, To-bacco, ' ' many well-meaning men and women have attempted to destroy "My Lady Nicotine. ' ' Among the first things taught in school a generation ; ago was' the declaration of little Johnny j Keed, beginning, "I will not ehew to-j baceo, hq; it is a filthy weed." It ; never had the desired effect and although al-though the chewing of tobacco undoubtedly un-doubtedly is a filthy practice in some 1 respects, you cannot convince a man j who uses it in that manner of the fact. This is especially true of the man who i is compelled to do manual labor out of doors. I But, chewing tobacco and cigarettes cigar-ettes out of the question, no one will have the hardihood to claim that a good pipe is not one of man's best j friends, it soothes and comforts when everything goes wrong; it induces phil-i phil-i osophical reflection in idle moments and ' drives dull care away. Non-smokers I may object to this statement, but their views have no weight and cannot can-not be admitted as evidence against the meerschaum, briar or other pipes of high and low degree. The smokers know that it is so, having had the experience. ex-perience. It is worse than useless to attempt to shame them. They refuse to be shamed. We should like to see some kindly disposed person distribute anti-tobacco tracts in the trenches where the men had been without a supply of smoking material for a day or two. The things those boys on the firing line would say would be highly instructive to the tract distributor, to say the least. We think much of the plan to supply the soldiers sol-diers with pipes. We do not want to start any argument over the use of tobacco. We can even bear to hear it denounced as a great evil, but we could not be convinced in a thousand years that seuding pipes to those poor boys in the trenches is not an act of Christian Chris-tian charity. We have heard somewhere that "a clean conscience, a good fire and a good cigar" enable one to enjoy real earthly bliss, and we can picture a perfectly contented man 'under such conditions. But to return to the j trenches. Just imagine for an instant I the inexpressible joy that would follow the arrival of a big box of pipes and the material -for filling them! |
