A pair of black lungs is not a thing desired. A rational man, if ever there was one, certainly does not care for a dried-up withered pair of these instrumental organs. Despite all the irrefutable scientific evidence proving the ill effects of smoking, it is a wonder to me that is it legalized in public areas all over the world.

The absence of a law banning smoking in public is surely the most fascinating absence of law. This lawlessness is an annoyance most irritating and constricting as it makes one feel powerless against the will of the populace to kill themselves with the person nearest to them. In a 2010 article by the American Cancer Society it is reported that 34,000 people die of lung cancer annually, simply because they have been exposed to the smoke exhaled by those nearest them. It is difficult to find a polite smoker who will delay his exhale until after you pass and will not send it in to your face. I find it most bothersome to stop breathing comfortably when smokers plant themselves in such a position that the wind continuously blows their nicotine into my lungs, or when I am forced to cross the street to rid myself of their pleasant presence. I do not find the city I live in attractive when its grasses, plants, and trees are hideously carpeted with old cigarettes.

The allowance of people to smoke in public is an unfortunate thing, though with a few laws and a lot of fines I am certain the world will make fine progress. People may begin to live long enough to see a new change in the world; cleaner air and healthier inhabitants may be produced. If the police force would do as little as fine a smoker who disobeyed the law of smoking in public with a $100 fine, there would not be anyone left to smoke on the streets. If anyone remained in the parks, they would be jailed. Change may yet come.

The baleful effects of smoking are so serious that I will be bold enough to write that it is my belief that if this practice of forcing black smoke into one’s body was introduced on this very day, it would not be made legal. The ways of old have hardened the hearts and lungs of the modern world, though with some effort I believe we may yet live to see the light of day without patches of smoke in it.