Old Candy Cigarettes

Protests against candy cigarettes started in the second launch of the candy industry. I say second, because the candy of today took off in the 1840s with such marvels as NECCO Wafers, gumdrops, and pulled creams. All things candy shut down in the Civil War and didn’t return until a decade or so later. As before, candy was marketed to kids – inexpensive and fun. Many of them reflected the lifestyle of grown-ups, both good and bad, such as pretend whiskey bottles, toy glass guns loaded with candy “bullets,” and, of course, candy and, later, bubblegum cigarettes.

While many anti-candy activists cited the artificial or otherwise unsavory ingredients in candy, their objection to candy cigarettes was different. They wouldn’t kill you, exactly, but they would ruin your life. One of them, Reverend James E. Smith, declared in 1902, “These candies may look harmless, but they are leading the minds of our boys toward temptation, they are enticing our children to become drunks and cigarette fiends.” The Reverend was far from alone in his crusade. Among the many followers, he praised one cohort, Miss Lucy Page Gaston, aka “The cigarette smasher.”

More to the point, candy cigarettes, like other candies, were considered a gateway drug of sorts…with a most bizarre twist of logic. The Ladies Home Journal of 1906, for example, explained, “The first craving from ill feeding calls for sugar; later for salt; then tea, coffee; then tobacco; then such fermented beverages as wine and beer; and lastly alcohol.” So, by that reasoning, candy is a gateway to…salt? Go ahead. Have a puff. Or in this case, a tasty bite.