H.Brydon wrote:
I don't believe it was common knowledge in those days that cigarettes were as harmful as we now know.
Obviously not, knowledge was not as easily shared or read as it is now. However, Twain spent a fair amount of time attacking those who said smoking was a bad habit, writing essays about it. Anti-smoking groups grew in Europe from the start of the last century (1904 the first properly organized group) with the link between smoking and lung cancer identified, it took hold so well in Germany that when the Nazis came to power Hitler was able to launch his no smoking campaigns. In 1604 James I of England wrote a treatise expressing his dislike of smoking tobacco, one of the reasons was the danger to the lungs and referenced a number of medical theories of the time.
“I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.” Bill Hicks