glass of
wine was occasionally offered him as a _pouboire_. The total quantity so
absorbed by him amounted to a liter, or a liter and a half per day. This
had been going on steadily for several years.

"'With the result,' said the doctor, 'that you, who have never been
drunk, have become so completely alcoholized that you have transmitted
to that unfortunate baby in the next room a form of epilepsy which has
developed into homicidal mania.'"

"Isn't it awful, mamma? I should not want to marry a man who drinks."

"I sincerely hope you never will. But there are other habits that are
evil in their effects. Smoking, for example."

"O, mamma, smoking isn't inherited, is it?"

"Well, I don't know but we might say that it is. I knew a woman who was
an inveterate smoker. When her baby was born, it cried night and day
until one day the mother, nearly distracted, took the pipe from her
mouth and put it between the baby's lips and it stopped crying at once,
and after that she took that method to still its cries. You see, it had
been under the influence of tobacco all the time before it was born, and
when it no longer felt that influence it was uncomfortable until it had
the tobacco again. You know how hard it is for a man to give up smoking.
All poisons by long use make such an impression on the body that it
suffers when the poisons are taken away.

"Tobacco paralyzes the nerves of sensation, so that feeling is lessened.
That is why men like to use it. They think they feel better, when in
reality they feel less, or not at all; and to have no feeling or power
to feel is a dangerous condition. Pain, or sensation, is our great
protection, and to remove sensation by paralysis is to render ourselves
open to danger. This paralytic condition may become an inheritance. Many
children have infantile paralysis because their fathers are users of
tobacco."

"I am glad my father doesn't use it," exclaimed Helen with emphasis.

"Indeed, you may well be glad, and you can see to it that your children
have the same cause for rejoicing. The girls of to-day have a wonderful
influence on all time, the present and the future. I wish they knew how
to use it wisely."

"But girls think it is manly to smoke. I've heard lots of them say so.
Stella Wilson says she wouldn't marry a man that didn't smoke; and Kate
Barrows said the other day that she thought girls had no right to
interfere with the enjoyment of men by asking them to give up smoking.