A CHANGE IN AFFAIRS.—­A poor boy was once put as an apprentice to a mechanic; and, as he was the youngest, he was obliged to go for beer for the older apprentices, though he never drank it.  In vain they teased and taunted him to induce him to drink; he never touched it.  Now there is a great change.  Every one of those older apprentices became a drunkard, while this temperance boy has become a master, and has more than a hundred men in his employ.  So much for total abstinence.

BOOKS BETTER THAN BEER.—­An intelligent young mechanic stood up in a temperance meeting and said:  “I have a rich treat every night among my books.  I saved my beer money and spent it in books.  They cost me, with my book-case, nearly $100.  They furnish enjoyment for my winter evenings, and have enabled me, by God’s blessing, to gain much useful knowledge, such as pots and pipes could never have given me.”

A LITTLE DRUMMER-BOY was a favorite among the officers, who one day offered him a glass of strong drink.  He refused it, saying that he was a Cadet of Temperance.  They accused him of being afraid; but that did not move him.  Then the major commanded him to drink, saying:  “You know it is death to disobey orders.”  The little fellow stood up at his full height, and fixing his clear blue eyes on the face of the officer, he said:  “When I entered the army I promised my mother on bended knees that, by the help of God, I would not taste a drop of rum, and I mean to keep my promise.  I am sorry to disobey orders, sir, but I would rather suffer than disgrace my mother, and break my temperance pledge.”  He was excused from drinking.

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TOBACCO.

INTRODUCTORY LESSON.

You have been learning about the poison alcohol, and what mischief is done by it; we will now study about another poison which thousands of persons are using every day.  It is rolled in cigars and cigarettes, and hidden in snuff and pieces of tobacco, and does more harm to children and young people who use these things than to grown persons.

Perhaps you know how a person feels who takes tobacco or smokes a cigar for the first time; if not, we will tell you.  He begins to be dizzy, to tremble, to become faint, and to vomit; his head aches, and he is so sick for hours, often for several days, that he scarcely knows what to do.  Why is he so sick?  Because tobacco poison has been taken into his lungs; also, some has mixed with the saliva and gone down into his stomach; and each part it has reached is striving to drive it out, and is saying, by the pain it causes, “You have given me poison; do not give me any more.”  If he had taken enough it would have killed him.

He recovers from this sickness and tries chewing or smoking again and again, until he becomes accustomed to the poison and can chew or smoke and it does not hurt him; so he thinks, but he is very much mistaken.

Tobacco is a poison, and hurts everybody who uses it every time they do so, although it does its evil work very slowly, unless taken in large quantities.  To understand more about this we will try to learn how tobacco is obtained, what poison is in it, and in what way it harms people.