"If he was not smoking a cigarette, the smoke of which he inhaled, he had a quid of tobacco in his mouth, and sometimes he smoked and chewed at the same time.” (Image by Lewis Hine.)

There were laws in the nineteenth century prohibiting the sale of cigarettes to children under sixteen, but they weren’t often enforced. The results of this oversight were not pretty, as the following quintet of articles from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle demonstrates.

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“Cigarettes Did It” (August 3, 1889): “Insane through smoking cigarettes was the verdict reached by Justice Duffy at the Essex Market Police Court, New York, this morning in the case of Max Casserly, a pale faced youth, who was found wandering along Grand street, in that city, last night.

‘He smokes three packages of cigarettes a day,’ explained Policeman Cohen, who made the arrest.

‘Please, judge,’ stammered the prisoner, ‘give me a cigarette.’

‘You ought to get rattaned instead,’ said Justice Duffy, as he committed him for medical examination.”

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“Nicotine Poisoning” (September 7, 1883): “The death of William P. Morris, of this city at the age of 15, from nicotine poisoning ought to be a warning to the boys who take, as he did, to smoking cigarettes and chewing tobacco before they have done growing or their constitution is able to resist the affects of narcotic poison. Whether tobacco be or not injurious, when used in moderation by full grown men, there can be no two opinions as to the vital injury it does to children. It is true the boy Morris smoked and chewed to excess and that when he once began to use tobacco it became an infatuation with him. If he was not smoking a cigarette, the smoke of which he inhaled, he had a quid of tobacco in his mouth, and sometimes he smoked and chewed at the same time.”

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“Death Caused By Cigarette Smoking” (December 14, 1887): “The death of John W. Quick, a 14-year-old lad, a victim of excessive cigarette smoking was investigated to-day by Coroner Ashbridge. A medical examination showed that death was accelerated by cerebral congestion due to narcotic poisoning the result of excessive cigarette smoking. Mrs. Quick had said that her son was an inveterate cigarette smoker and though she tried repeatedly to break him of the habit, she scarcely ever saw him without a cigarette in his mouth. A verdict in accordance with evidence was rendered.”

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“The Girl Smoked Cigarettes” (August 30, 1897): “Bertha Abel, the girl who was taken to the Bellevue Hospital, New York, Saturday in a fit of hysteria, during which she spoke of having smoked eighteen cigars a night, has not yet recovered from her fit. She is in the insane pavilion and under treatment. Dr. Robertson, who has charge of the insane pavilion cases, said he did not believe the girl smoked eighteen cigars a night. The girl is said to have smoked cigarettes.”

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“My First Smoke” (February 6, 1898): “One day while coming from school I met a boy who had a pack of cigarettes. He gave me one to smoke, while smoking it my sister saw me and she told my father. He did not whip me but he filled his big pipe full of tobacco and gave it to me to smoke. He told me if I did not smoke it he would whip me, but it made me awful sick and it seemed that everything was flying around and I had to hold on the back of my chair to keep from falling off. That was my first and last smoke.–George Peterson (aged 10 years old), 109 North Ninth Street.”

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