The
spreading anxiety over young people taking up the tobacco habit led,
by 1890, to 21 states and territories banning the sale of cigarettes
to minors (usually defined as under 16), with penalties for sellers
averaging $20-25. Some states legally required underage
offenders to turn in their tobacco suppliers or face fines or jail
time themselves. The perceived ineffectiveness of such laws
prompted the anti-tobacco movement to push for total prohibition,
and between 1889 and 1907, four states banned all cigarette sales.
A
Harper’s Weekly cartoon
from the September 13, 1890
issue looked humorously at the ban on cigarettes sales to minors.
On a serious note, editor
Carl Schurz’s commentary in the January 13, 1894 issue
supported the crackdown on cigarette smoking endorsed by the Board
of Education in New York City. In particular, it was the work
of reformer Charles Buckley Hubbell, who proposed that schoolboys
sign pledges not to smoke until 21 years old, and of a
grammar-school principal, Mr. Elgas, who identified smokers among
his students and worked to break them of the habit. |
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Harper's Weekly References |
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1)
September 13, 1890, p. 719, c. 3-4
cartoon, “Cigarettes and the Law”
2)
January 13, 1894, p. 27, c. 3
editorial (Schurz), “Cigarettes in the Public Schools,” supports the
Board of Education’s crack down on smoking |
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Sources Consulted |
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Tate, Cassandra, Cigarette
Wars: The Triumph of the Little White Slaver (NY:
Oxford UP, 1999) |
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