On January 11, 1868, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about tobacco use.

http://www.nytimes.com ^ | Image and text provided by HarpWeek

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

his Harper's Weekly cartoon of January 1868 warns of the deadly consequences of smoking tobacco.

It may seem surprising, but nearly a century before the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General declared that tobacco may cause cancer, an anti-tobacco movement was already in existence, putting forward most of the arguments used today against such products. In 1867, Harper's Weekly editor George William Curtis, who had himself stopped smoking in the 1850's, pleaded with his tobacco-smoking readers to ask themselves whether their habit was conducive to good health. Among several points, he mentioned that tobacco products contain ingredients which are poisonous to the human body, and how those who quit smoking undergo an improvement in their health.

Harper's Weekly carried advertisements for many tobacco products, but it also published notices for a "tobacco antidote" which "removes forever all desire for tobacco" and for a "nicotine-free" smoking tobacco. Yet, in the absence of definitive scientific evidence at the time, opinions on tobacco use were diverse and contradictory. A news item in an 1865 issue of Harper's Weekly contended that moderate smoking did no harm, and dismissed as "utterly groundless" claims that linked tobacco use to cancer. This 1868 cartoon, however, takes an unambiguous stance that smoking tobacco is a deadly habit.

Rob Kennedy

[Looking for Diogenes]

when was RJR founded? Well, surely someone forced pooor Mr. Smudger to smoke the evil weed...it couldn't have been his CHOICE, could it?

Tobacco is addictive. Try it, you'll like it.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company was founded in 1875, when 25-year-old Richard Joshua Reynolds started a chewing-tobacco manufacturing operation in the town of Winston, North Carolina. (Winston would later merge with the nearby village of Salem, creating the city known today as Winston-Salem.)

Someone once said about Mr. Reynolds, "He can see further ahead than most people can see behind them." Having started a chewing-tobacco business, he correctly anticipated the growth in popularity of smoking tobaccos - and introduced pipe tobaccos supported by memorable advertising campaigns. He then went on to revolutionize U.S. cigarette blends, marketing, and packaging.

In 1912, Mr. Reynolds devised an employee stock plan. It's been said that he feared Wall Street like he feared the devil - and he wanted as much voting stock as possible in the hands of his employees. He used profit-sharing formula that paid shareholders an extra dividend - and would make many RJRT employees very "comfortable" in the years ahead.

In 1913, Reynolds Tobacco introduced Camel cigarettes, containing a blend of several different types of tobacco - a blend that would come to be called "the American blend". Supported by a unique introductory "teaser" advertising campaign, Camel became the first nationally popular cigarette in this country.

In 1954, Reynolds Tobacco introduced Winston - the first filter cigarette to achieve a major success in the marketplace.

Reynolds Tobacco introduced Salem - the first filter-tipped menthol cigarette, in 1956.

In 1958, Reynolds Tobacco became the nation's leading cigarette manufacturer - a position the company held until 1983.

RJ Reynolds

[185JHP]

Thanks for the correct wording. Bob was funny and not mean. FReegards

[Argh]

King James I of England wrote a treatise about what the effects of tobacco could be called "A Counterblaste to Tobacco", excerpts of which are linked here.