p. 13 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 15. (4/19/1910)

A Dance of Death

A Dance of Death.—Over 300 lives were lost at a fire in a dance-hall in Oekoerite, Hungary, March 27, and at least 100 more were injured. The improvised dance-hall was crowded, and the door was nailed up to keep others out. It was a blessing to those outside who wished to get in. It was a dance of death to those within. Some day the Gates of God will open to let the last soul in, and then they will close upon all sin forever. Happy he then who is shut in with God; but shut in with selfishness and sin is always death.

Story of the Seer of Patmos. By S. N. Haskell.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

The author's latest book is on the thrilling prophecies of the book of Revelation. It presents no vague, new theories, but in simple narrative style portrays the story of the prophet John's life, and traces his prophecies and their wonderful fulfilment.

Illustrated with original engravings made especially for this work. The text of the entire book of Revelation is printed in the margins, and accompanying it are thousands of Scripture references elucidating the text; and besides all this, the explanatory comment of the author on each chapter. It is a companion volume to "Story of Daniel the Prophet," by the same author, and is written in the same style.

The two books are uniform in size and style, and treat two of the most important and least understood books of the Bible. Fully illustrated. Contains 424 pages. Half cloth, $1.50.

Address this office.

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SOUTHERN PACIFIC

The Great Second Advent Movement

By Editor

The Great Second Advent Movement. By J. N. Loughborough. A late revision of the old book "Rise and Progress of Seventh-day Adventists."

This book forms a most interesting and instructive narrative on the subject indicated by its title. Commencing with the early experiences of the Advent movement of 1843 and 1844, the writer, who has been actively engaged in proclaiming the doctrine since 1849, here presents a graphic account of the struggles and difficulties through which the pioneers were safely carried by their unwavering faith in God and their unfaltering loyalty to the cause they had espoused. Due attention has been given to those agencies which, in the providence of God, have aided in building up and preserving the work represented by this people. Illustrated, 480 pages. Cloth, $1.25.

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The Cigaret-Smoking Boy

By William A. McKeever

[From Home Training Bulletin No. 1, by William A. McKeever, professor of philosophy in the Kansas State Agricultural College.]

ONE of the greatest menaces to our moral and intellectual well-being to-day is the fact that cigaret smoking is becoming a popular fad among boys and young men, while the use of a strong pipe is a close second in favor. Go where you will in this broad land of ours, and the pale faces, blear eyes, trembling fingers, and the foul stench of cigaret fumes, tell the same pathetic story. This most serious blight upon the bloom and beauty of our American boyhood is chargeable to paternal ignorance and carelessness. For the past eight years I have been tracing out the cigaret boy's biography, and I have found that in practically all cases the lad began his smoking habit clandestinely, at an early age, and with little or no thought of its seriousness, while the fond parents perhaps believed that their boy was too good to engage in such a practise. . . .

Plate A.—Nos. I, II, III, of a young man of 19, four years a smoker, inhales fumes. Tracings just before, during, and fifteen minutes after smoking. See No. III next plate. IV, V, VI, of another smoke inhaler's heart, before, during, and after.

Out of one hundred such men [smokers] whom I interviewed, ninety-nine frankly admitted that smoking tends to injure the health, and that they would not advise any young man to begin the habit. This practise is very offensive to many delicate natures, is somewhat filthy at its best, and disgustingly filthy at its worst, as the ordinary smoking-car will bear witness. Often, in public places, even refined women are forced to breathe the sickening fumes coming direct from the nostrils of some coarse, brutal cigaret smoker. Smoking is a practise entirely unnecessary to the development and refinement of the race. . . .

Most Hurtful in Case of Boys

But the serious nature, and even the cruelty, of this smoking habit among men is at once apparent when we consider its influence and its effects upon boys. I have tabulated reports of the condition of nearly 2,500 cigaret-smoking schoolboys, and in describing them physically, my informants have repeatedly resorted to the use of such epithets as "sallow," "sore-eyed," "puny," "squeaky-voiced," "sickly," "short-winded," and "extremely nervous." In my tabulated reports it is shown that out of a group of twenty-five cases of young college students, smokers, whose average age of beginning was thirteen, according to their own admissions they had suffered as follows: Sore throat, four; weak eyes, ten; pain in chest, eight; "short wind," twenty-one; stomach trouble, ten; pain in heart, nine. Ten of them appeared to be very sickly. The younger the boy, the worse the smoking hurts him in every way; for these lads almost invariably inhale the fumes, and that is the most injurious part of the practise. According to Dr. Sims Woodhead, professor of pathology in Cambridge University, cigaret smoking in the case of boys partly paralyzes the nerve cells at the base of the brain, and thus interferes with the breathing and the heart action. And yet, all this debility and more, as will be shown later, is brought upon thousands of boys who innocently imitate the example of their elders. . . .

Plate B.—Nos. I and II, heart tracings of a young man of 18, tobacco user two years. Note skip of heart at x. No. III, strong, healthy youth. No. IV, a cool, calculating person. No. V, heart tracings of a strong, healthy young woman.

During the past year I have made hundreds of sphygmograph records of persons of various ages, conditions of health, and temperament, about one hundred of these being boys and youths addicted to the smoking habit. The records reproduced herewith are representative each of its class. It might not be out of place to explain that the sphygmograph is an instrument with a clock-work-and-trigger mechanism, and that it is adjusted at the radial artery, the records being traced on a strip of smoked paper. This delicate instrument records very satisfactorily the comparative strength, regularity, and nervousness of the heart-beat. It will also show very quickly any changes in the heart movement resulting from either mental or physical stimuli. It may be said, too, that there is almost as much individuality in "heart writing" as there is in hand writing. But with the aid of this instrument it is an easy matter to distinguish roughly between healthy and unhealthy conditions. The discussions here will be confined to an attempt to throw additional light upon the nature and condition of the cigaret smoker.

How the Smoker's Heart is Affected

There is much in the illustrations offered herewith to warrant the conclusion that the habitual cigaret smoker's heart is very weak and feeble, except for the few minutes during which he is indulging the habit, and that the pulsations at this time are unduly excited. Plate A shows three records each of two different subjects. Numbers I to III show the heart action of a young man nineteen years old who began smoking cigarets at the age of fifteen, and who inhales the fumes. The three records were taken without removing or adjusting the instrument, as follows; No. I, immediately before smoking; No. II, during the indulgence of the habit; and No. III, fifteen minutes later, after the narcotic effect had become apparent. Now, by reference to plate B, No. III, we may observe how this young man's heart should record itself, for the latter is a tracing of the heart pulsations of a young man of the same age and temperament. Nos. IV to VI, plate A, are representative of another inhaler twenty years old, who began the practise at thirteen. He now uses a strong pipe.

Plate C.—Heart tracings I and II, strong man of 36 years, weight 230, No. I before smoking, No. II after. No. III, low vitality of nervous fatigue. No. IV, young woman on the verge of nervous prostration. No. V, of a long tobacco user.

Plate B, Nos. I and II, are respectively before and after tracings of a sensitive youth of eighteen, who has been smoking only two years. Observe the skip in his heart-beat at x, and the corresponding partial skip under the stimulus of smoking in No. II. No. III, plate B, as mentioned above, is the tracing of the strong, healthy heart of a young man of somewhat choleric temperament. No. IV

represents the phlegmatic temperament, a person who is cool and calculating. No. V is the heart tracing of a strong, healthy young woman.

Plate C, Nos. I and II, are the pulse records of a man of splendid physique, 36 years old, and weighing 230 pounds. No. I was taken before, and No. II after smoking a cigar. He does not inhale. His responded readily to the stimulus, but, as the first tracing indicates, he does not seem to suffer from any heart prostration between indulgences. No. III is the record of a person whose vitality is temporarily low from nervous fatigue. No. IV is the record of a young woman who was on the verge of nervous prostration. No. V is representative of a heart weakened by long indulgence in the smoking habit. The young man in question began very early, and continued the practise till his physician convinced him of the extreme danger threatening his life. The pulse wave is nearly normal in length, but is entirely too weak. Under such a condition of the heart a man is capable of very little courage or aggressiveness.

From the foregoing evidence we are led to the conclusion that, in the case of boys and youths, cigaret smoking is very deleterious to the physical and mental well-being. Moreover, my investigations indicate that it makes very little difference in the effects whether the victim uses the pipe or cigaret, provided he inhales the fumes; and with very few exceptions the young smokers are inhalers. The ordinary case exhibits about the following types of conduct: (1) While the craving is at its height the victim manifests much uneasiness and often much excitation. (2) During the indulgence the cheek is alternately flushed and blanched, the respiration considerably increased, and the hands tremble. (3) About twenty minutes after smoking, the muscles become relaxed, and respiration slow and shallow, the skin on the face dry and sallow, and there is an apparent feeling of unconcern about everything.

Smoking a Most Serious Obstacle to Studentship

The injurious effects of smoking upon the boy's mental activities are very marked. Of the many hundreds of tabulated cases in my possession, several of the very youthful ones have been reduced almost to the condition of imbeciles. Out of 2,336 who were attending public school, only six were reported "bright students," a very few, perhaps ten, were "average," and all the remainder were "poor" or "worthless" as students. The average grades of fifty smokers and fifty non-smokers were computed from the records of one term's work done in the Kansas Agricultural College, and the results favored the latter group with a difference of 17.5 per cent. The two groups represented the same class rank; that is, the same number of seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen.

The ordinary cigaret-smoking student often has a very peculiar experience in his effort to prepare his daily lessons, about as follows: He goes to his room in the evening with the full intention of studying, and opens his text-book, but a certain feeling of nervous uneasiness soon leads his hand automatically to roll and light a cigaret. He indulges the habit a few minutes, when, presto, the lesson task which a while ago looked serious and urgent now appears trivial and unnecessary, and he accordingly neglects it. He is now affable and companionable, but the higher moral judgments have lost their value to him, and he is now ready to yield to the evil suggestions of others. The partial brain paralysis resulting from the smoking makes the victim regard with indifference the most sacred promise he has ever made to any one, and he is likely to violate it upon the slightest provocation.

Change of Address

By Editor

UTAH TRACT AND BIBLE SOCIETY have changed their address from 415 Hooper Building, Salt Lake City, Utah, to Rooms 6 and 7, Eagle Block, Salt Lake City, Utah. This change also applies to the conference and all departments.

Olives

By A. E. Crist

I have quite a lot of nice, large ripe olives. 5 to 25 gallons at 50 cents; 25 to 50 gallons at 40 cents per gallon, F. O. B., Chico, Cal. Satisfaction guaranteed. Are good keepers.

A. E. CRIST, Chico, Cal.

Wanted

Two lady graduate nurses, Seventh-day Adventists in good standing. Also good carpenter, to work for treatment, board, and room. Garden City Sanitarium, San Jose, Cal.

Notice

Send me 25 cents only and I will send you my "Beautiful Zion" picture and that most beautiful picture The Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments lithographed in ten colors and varnished. Every command illustrated. Agents wanted. Send 25 cents for outfit. W. H. Wild, Hinsdale, Ill.

LIBERTY

By Editor

THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY BUREAU

An illustrated, 48-page, quarterly magazine, published as an exponent and advocate of true religious liberty; defending Christianity and the rights of conscience; upholding the Bible as the infallible word of God; recognizing the church and state as ordained of Heaven for specific and distinct purposes, but vigorously protesting against the alliance of the church with the state in the attempt to advance religion and to promote the state.

Price 25 cents per year. Liberal terms to agents.

Address, LIBERTY, Takoma Park, D. C.

Life and Health

By Editor

A PRACTICAL health journal, published with a view of meeting hygienic needs in every home; teaching how to care for the health and how to preserve life; prescribing simple home treatments to assist nature in throwing off diseases rather than adding more poison by using drugs or unnatural stimulants as remedies: teaching how to avoid disease as far as possible, how to manage in the home when sickness does come, and how to combat the disease by simple remedies which nature provides.

Send for sample copy and special rates to agents. Price 10 cents per copy or $1.00 per year.

Address, LIFE & HEALTH, Takoma Park, D.C.

Education

By Editor

Education.—The object of true education and how it may be realized by the youth, the parent, the teacher, the writer, the tiller of the soil, and the business man, is the great theme of this book.

Its first chapter is devoted to First Principles; following that are illustrations taken from the history of Israel. Master Teacher, Nature Teaching, the Bible as an Educator, Physical Culture, Character Building, the Under Teacher, and the Higher Course, are titles of other chapters. 321 pages. Cloth, $1.25. Address this office.

Left with a Trust

By Nellie Hillis

Left with a Trust. By Nellie Hillis. Is a story of the struggles of a family to help mother and each other during the absence of father, and pleasantly reveals the brighter side of youth where there is a worthy purpose and a will to be kind and affectionate. 160 pages, illustrated. Cloth, net, 50 cents. Address this office.

Bible Lessons and Songs for Children

Bible Object-Lessons and Songs for Little Ones.—By Lillie E. Affolter and F. E. Belden. This book contains fifty-two illustrated lessons, accompanied by thirty original hymns and songs, and thirty-one large engravings from the famous "Hofmann Series." The steps in the teaching are natural and progressive; the music is good and pleasing, and adapted to little children, and the illustrations are beautiful. Blue cloth, ink titles, white edges, 7½x10 inches, $2.00. Bible kindergarten material (3 boxes) to illustrate lessons, $1.75.

Our Little Friend

By Editor

An Illustrated Paper for the Smaller Men and Women, for the Children and Little Ones

Instructive and entertaining, clean, wholesome, sensible. It is a character builder, a helper to father and mother. Our Little Friend would plant seed in the joyous life of the children in the Present, that it may bear blessed fruitage in the Harvest of the Future. Respect your child's individuality. Take the paper for him or her. Only 60 cents a year.

Address, OUR LITTLE FRIEND Mountain View, Cal.

God’s Unchangeable Way

By Editor

God is one, not many. He is not of many plans or standards, but one. He does not change His plan to meet human whims and prejudices; that would be a wrong to man. In Him, in His perfect, unchangeable way, is life.

God can teach the humble. The haughty, the proud, the arrogant, the self-sufficient, place themselves in that condition in which it is impossible to learn. "The meek will He guide in judgment: and the meek will He teach His way."

The "Signs of the Times Monthly" for 1909 comes to our table in a neatly bound, half-leather volume, with the colored cover designs included. It makes a valuable and attractive volume, and contains much matter which will not grow old till the leaves of the judgment book unfold. We have a few copies to sell. The price bound is $2.00.

A Set of Gibbon's Rome.—The SIGNS OF THE TIMES library is in possession of an excellent set of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," which it secured in a lot of old books from London. The set is in twelve volumes, calf bound, in good condition except one cover of volume 1. It contains quite full sketch of the author's life. The type is large, clear, open, with marginal side-heads and foot-notes. The date is 1807. It is a rare old work. We sell it, because we do not need it. The price is what it cost us, $5.00. We will repair the cover for seventy-five cents. Purchaser will pay carriage.

We are grateful to our friends for the clippings which they send. It is utterly impossible, however, to comment upon them all. Wherever this seems profitable we will do so; but if clippings are not noticed, it may be concluded that it is either because it is impossible for lack of space, or the same thing may have been noted under other data, or they are not deemed important. Still we thank our friends for sending them, and hope they will continue thus to do. A clipping is worthless, however, unless it states the name and date of the paper from which it is clipped.

Mr. Roosevelt and the Pope

By Editor

SOMEHOW the pope's traditional autocratic ideas and Mr. Roosevelt's free republican spirit do not harmonize very well. Mr. Roosevelt expresses his high respect for the pope as an individual and as the head of a great church, and would much like an interview with the "Holy Father," but he can submit to no conditions. As he will not submit to conditions Mr. Roosevelt can not be presented. Our ex-president freely grants the pope the right to receive or not to receive whomsoever he will and on whatsoever conditions he may name, but retains his own right to refuse to "submit to any conditions which in any way would limit my freedom of conduct." The whole trouble is over our Methodist friends. Vatican authorities say that the pope was willing that Mr. Roosevelt should visit any other church in Rome save that of the Methodists, and they were willing that Mr. Roosevelt should claim the right to visit the Methodist people if he would give private assurance that he would not do it.

Mr. Roosevelt wishes no controversy over it in America, but there will be. The whole world is talking. Mr. Roosevelt visited King Victor Emmanuel twice, and will afterward visit all the great rulers of Europe. These are incidents, but they are also index fingers which point to great and decisive events in the future.

Contained in This Issue

By Editor

Editorial

The Holy Spirit—the Decalogue . . . 9 Assertion or Proof? . . . 9 The Obedience of Faith . . . 9 Our Bible Band . . . 9

General

The Fruits of Bible Conversion . . . 3 The Holy Spirit . . . 4 Out of Babylon to Zion . . . 5 The Last Day . . . 7 Casting All Your Cares . . . 8

Question Corner

Questions Nos. 3096 to 3102 . . . 2

The Outlook

Predatory Wealth—I . . . 10 Is It Religious Liberty? . . . 10 Halley's Comet . . . 11

Temperance

The Cigaret-Smoking Boy . . . 14

The Story

Shiloh: the Man of Sorrows—Chapter 7. The Death of Herod . . . 12

Bible Reading

The Word of God . . . 8

Poetry

Love So Divine . . . 13 Resurgo San Francisco . . . 6 O Captain! My Captain! . . . 6 The Golden Shore . . . 8 Love So Divine . . . 13

Old and New Subscribers

By Editor

We do not wish any of our old subscribers to lose the good things in this year's Signs of the Times by failing to renew in time. Have you thought of these?

1. The excellent, practical articles by Mrs. White, ever bringing us to the Word of God, and illuminating and enforcing its sacred truths.

2. The articles on the Holy Spirit, and the operations and gifts of that Spirit in these days. These articles will be very instructive.

3. The series, "Out of Babylon to Zion," is of great interest historically, prophetically, and practically.

4. Our story, "Shiloh: the Man of Sorrows," filled full of the life and spirit of the Master, developing constantly in interest as we near the end.

5. A good Bible reading in each number.

6. Our "Busy Man's Corner" will begin soon.

7. We have in hand an instructive and helpful series of nine articles on Higher Criticism. All Bible students will be glad to read them. The genius and history of Higher Criticism are given.

8. We have in hand thirteen articles on Christ Jesus our Saviour from sin. This takes up the entrance of sin, and its putting away through the great fact of the atonement, and the types which shadowed it forth.

9. The study of the book of The Revelation will follow the series "Out of Babylon to Zion."

There is much more than this. It is not boasting, it is stating mere fact, to say that the Signs of the Times will contain more Bible truth in the year to come than any other journal published in the world. You will need its help. Your children need it. Your neighbors need it. Help us to double and treble its circulation. See previous page for terms.

Bible Version Used in This Paper

By Editor

Our authority is the Bible, the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. When the Common (“King James” or “Authorized”) Version or the American Standard Revised Version is used, the version will not generally be designated in reference. Any Bible quotation in this paper, therefore, differing from the Common Version, unless otherwise indicated, will be almost invariably from the American Standard edition of the Revised Bible, copyright 1901, by Thomas Nelson & Sons.

For further particulars, subscription rates, etc., see page 15.

Anti-Vivisection

By Editor

Anti-Vivisection.—Perhaps some of the anti-vivisectionists are extreme, but we sympathize with the extremest of them. There may be occasional experiments that are necessary, but they are few indeed. We believe that the great mass of vivisection operations, the cutting of live animals for experimental purposes, is barbarously cruel and wholly unnecessary. And this lay opinion is based upon the testimony of many able physicians and surgeons. In the words of Forbes Winslow, D. C. L., Oxon., M. R. C. P., London, "It is most unjustifiable and cruel, and in no way advances medical science." It does more harm in hardening the heart and conscience of young students than it can ever do good.

The Temperance Number.

By Editor

The Youth's Instructor of Takoma Park, Washington, D. C., has issued a special temperance number, dated March 22, 1910. Its contents are not matters of date, however, save that they have decided present application to conditions prevalent in our country. It is a decided anti-alcohol, anti-tobacco issue, filled with good articles, statistics, and appeals from beginning to end. It will be furnished to agents, 5 to 40 copies, 5 cents a copy; 50 or more copies, one order to one address, 4 cents a copy. Address as above.

Eruptions on the Sun.

Prof. Edwin B. Frost, of Yerkes Observatory, Wisconsin, reports violent eruptions from the sun, clearly visible at the edge of the disk. One eruption shot out 150,000 miles from the surface, detached itself from the main body, and sped through space. It disappeared about 250,000 miles from the sun. We are told that it is probably caused by release of pressure, but this is wholly conjectural. It is thought that recent brilliant auroral displays were caused by the sun disturbances.

Museum of Safety and Sanitation

The Museum of Safety and Sanitation for the prevention of accidents, having its office in 29 West 39th Street, New York, is doing excellent work in endeavoring to make conditions better for the worker. For instance, their last Bulletins plead for safety devices for window cleaners; for shields for men who work around electric wires, to insure their safety, with illustrations as to how these can be applied. The organization is doing good work, and ought to be encouraged.

Converted Through the Signs

By Editor

A letter comes to us from an old pilgrim seventy years of age who tells us that he once belonged to one of the great popular churches, was in that church converted, and because of conditions there became an infidel, but through our publications he has been led to give himself to God. For two years he has read the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, and has found the truth. He is now rejoicing in it and expects to stay with the SIGNS as long as he lives.

How It Mars

How It Mars.—Matt Henson, the Negro who accompanied Commander Peary to the North Pole, declares that for all the years he has known him, Peary “has been a selfish man, after his own glory and that of nobody else.” How selfishness mars the character and blights the reputation!

Fighting Mosquitoes and Flies

Determined war will be raged this summer against the malarial mosquito and the common house-fly, the last of which is a multum in parvo of evils. The great preventive of mosquitoes is to do away with stagnant water; of the fly, it is cleanliness outdoor and in.

The Great Battle of the Bruisers

The arena for the great battle of the bruisers to take place near San Francisco in about three months will seat, it is said, 30,000, and the seats range from $5.00 to $50.00 each.