Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/352

336 between the smoke that I blew away immediately, after I inhaled it, and that which I retained in my mouth for a quarter of a minute. But the greatest pleasure was to take a very long pull and then to puff out my entire stock of smoke in perfect rings, so that it made a chain of ever larger and larger rings, up to the ceiling. It is self-evident that during this entire performance no thought could approach within a distance of ten miles. Vacancy within me, and nothing but smoke before me — that was the world of my thought, and after smoking for several hours it took several more hours before the smoke had dissipated before my mind.'

"This confession actually frightened me. It is dreadful to think of a man in his best years, a man of intellect and character, a man that we can respect and love, in a condition of childishness, even of idiocy. Whenever I think of tobacco now I think of idiocy, and whenever I see an otherwise presentable man, with a 'tobacco sausage' in his mouth I say to myself: ‘I wonder how this man looked when he still had his reason, when he still saw the light!'"

STUDENT SCHWARTENBACH — I second my Sister's motion with all my heart. When she exposed me to public disgrace in the meeting day before yesterday I left the hall with the determination to revenge myself thoroughly. But, after I had thought the matter over calmly, I realized that the best revenge, and one that would be most likely to 'be in accordance with my own interests, would be