07.02.01. His First Bad Habits

1. HIS FIRST BAD HABITS At the age of nine he began to slip out with the boys during recess at school, to smoke cigarettes. Little did he dream when he started this habit that the time would come when it would sap his vitality, dwarf his mind, help to poison his tongue, ruin his dreams for the future, andbecome a staff on which his broken body would lean. He did not know that it would hinder him in health, happiness and education, and that his body would one day so cry out for nicotine that he would spend his last penny for cigarettes and go hungry rather than deny the craving appetite. He did not know that it was the first in a series of steps that would push him from home, from school, and from friends and send him staggering helpless and friendless down the path of time. Todd had one characteristic, which, had it been directed in the right channel would have been a blessing but which proved to be a curse. Whatever he did, he did with all his might. When he started a thing he would "go its length." He never said, "Go on," but "Come on." In forming habits this characteristic was manifested and it was not long after beginning to smoke cigarettes until he was chewing tobacco, smoking a pipe and using snuff. The time finally came in his life when he used seven and eight sacks of tobacco a week, smoking almost constantly. It was the last thing at night and the first thing in the morning. By the time he had reached his teens it had already begun to tell on his life.