Lucy Page Gaston (1860-1924) was an anti-tobacco activist who founded the Anti-Cigarette League in Chicago in 1899, which quickly grew nationwide to more than 300,000 members. Her movement was aligned with some of the same goals of the temperance movement, but she believed that cigarettes were inherently evil and were in a class by themselves.
It is not known as of this writing how much influence Ms. Gaston had on the Lykens Valley, but upon her death, the Lykens Standard, September 5, 1924, saw fit to publish the following editorial:
LUCY GASTON WENT OUT IN HEIGHTH OF HER GLORY
She was an interesting, verile [sic], earnest, and indomitable woman. She made friends by the hundreds and enemies by the thousands but nobody despised her. She worked too hard for what she wanted. Back many years ago she conceived a hatred for cigarettes. She formed the Anti-Cigarette League, with a world-wide membership, and was responsible for several laws curbing the coffin nails. Until she died last week in Chicago, she never quit preaching against them and campaigning for converts. But her evangelism never moved mountains; she was bucking a stone wall of tolerant laxity and a world which revolved in cigarettes. With another cause she would have done wonders. As it was, she had but a half dozen mourners at her bier and no flags are half-masted at her passing. Nobody is rising to catch the torch she had to drop. Perhaps nobody will; perhaps the anti-cigarette crusade was futile from the start and will be abandoned. At any rate, those who smoke and those wo don’t give credit to a valiant spirit which sent one woman against the multitude in a cause she believed just. She was never beaten, for only the soul can be conquered. She went out in the height of her glory. Who could ask for a better fate?
It was not until 2008 that Pennsylvania banned smoking in indoor public places – The Clean Indoor Air Act – which includes workplaces and commercial establishments where the public is invited or permitted (restaurants, theaters, sports arenas, stores, public transportation, etc.).
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News article from Newspapers.com. Portrait of Lucy Page Gaston from Wikipedia.
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