The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-21 00:00:00

SMOKING ON RAILWAYS.

The Saturday Review pleasantly enough
argues thus, that a system should be
adopted—as, in fact, on a few lines, it has
been for some time past—of attaching smoking
carriages in the rear of all trains, to which
smoking rooms at the stations might reasonably be
added. A small fee might be charged, if thought
worth while. Thousands would gladly pay it ; and
the company would soon realise enough to defray
all the fines levied on them for casualties by juries
in the excursion season. Morals would be purer,
the carriages less reeky, the risk of fire less,
the public more comfortable, the servants
relieved of an invidious charge, the company
enriched. Under the existing system there is a
constant call for dodging, shifting, " tipping," and
equivocating, and there is desultory smoke ever
flitting about, and the stale aroma, which even to a
votarychoams mb ueen oni ft
ya td, ooa bpn a
tdee cd os,hnoi is ai
it
,Ihn
aeutffi sesacunti
whe , h
asa ttiecevkheiarnnggh
eai
sna
been the
e
cushions. Wherever the practice which we suggest
known to follow from its use. But we will take the
prejudices of mutually antagonistic sections of the
propose would best meet the views of those who
condemn and those who defend smoking.
First, let us take the extremest possible view—
that of the eminently ascetic Dean, whose example
of temperance shows itself in his drink, but does not
extend to his language, and who, under the paternal
rule of James I. and VI., would certainly have risen
to be an archbishop. The Very Rev. Dr. Counter-
blast might say :—" Tobacco is a gorging fiend, let
us do what we can to intercept his ravages by pre-
venting contagion between smokers and the un-
tainted residue of the public. By all means let them
not ride in the same carriage, lest the doom which,
sooner or later, is the smoker's portion fall upon inno-
cent and guilty alike. The man who would light a
pipe would pick a pocket ; but :f the Legislature will
not take my advice, and exclude smokers from the
benefit of railway travelling, let the latter at least
feel the ban of social excommunication, and be
treated even as negroes are in the Northern States
—thrust forth, as an unclean offscouring of
humanity, into a vehicle by themselves."
We next proceed to consider the views of an old-
fashioned gentleman of the grand Georgian era,
who has taken " Prince's mixture" these 50 years,
but hold the ignited weed in polite abhorrence. Ho
will recount his acute sufferings when, there being
family affairs of importance to be settled, he took a
place in the mail train, and was kept from sleep all
night by the fumes of a lively party of subalterns
in the next apartment, who regularly opened fire
as soon as the train was in motion, and had their
whiff over before it reached the station, evading his
detection, and defying his threats. He woke next
morning from hurried slumber in an hotel, and.
found his peruke—faugh! not all the perfumes of
the Georgian era were able to overcome the per-
tinacious odour of the weed. Following the tra-
ditions of the same golden age, he sent a challenge
to the whole party, but discovered that one of the
subs was his own nephew, and wrote at once to get
him cashiered. He could not obtain that favour, but
struck him out of his will, and also brought an
action to compel the railway company to deodorize
their own cushions and his perukes. "Why,„ he
concludes, "not have a ' dickey' behind every train
to receive these riotous young savages, and enable
a gentleman—the few who are left now-a-days—
Ito breathe freely during his journey, and feel pre-
sentable on getting out ? "

On the other hand, our smoke-consuming lieu-
tenant thinks it " a shame a fellow can't have a
weed without all this botheration. Always smokes,
except when there is danger of being rude to a lady,
or, since his uncle had cut him, of a forty-shilling
fine. The present regulation leads to a great waste
of matches, by which many holes are burnt in a
fellow's coats and wraps. Had paid the fine once,
and must have paid it many times over in tipping
the guard. Remembers that night in the mail train.
Nunkey' was great fun, and wanted to fight the
whole lot of them, but has cut him dead ever since,
o toms
from where is the money ,
p
oneyofoyrohu captaincywant
snt t
o k sir ?e'
sm to m
,
from now ? Knows a stunning line, where the por-
taetrlseaaslwt, to ayswhspe
others, never to him—to him they bring
a cigar as a thing of course. Capital good weeds
they are, too ! Is aware that it is forbidden to give
money to the servants. Lots of things are forbidden,
in the army and out of it, but no one makes himself
unhappy about them. Should he object to a smok-
ing carriage ? Of course not. It would be the very
thing for keeping one out of the way of uncles and
other aged or dyspeptic humbugs, who were the
victims of the prejudices of a bygone age. If there
had been a smoking carriage, he shouldn't have been
cut off with a shilling."
Another, a steady-going old smoker, "dislikes
the discomfort of feeling that a man mustn't do what
he can't do without; hates the risk of being bothered
by police, and badgered by old ladies. Doesn't
want to annoy other people, that would effectually
prevent his enjoyment. Likes a pipe above all.
things, but dislikes asking a lady if she has no ob.
jection. In the chilly weather, especially, tobacco
is indispensable to the well-being of the human
frame, and after the wretched comestibles which the
so.called ' refreshment' rooms furnish, some real re-
fresher is, in his opinion, necessary. Why should
people of opposite tastes be forced into familiarity
and made unneighbourly, when a simple arrange-
ment might preclude any such necessity ? Tobacco
rightly applied conduces always to mutual good-,
humour. Why should a man waiting for a train an
hour and a half have his pipe put out? 'Thinks
that the smoking room at the station is as necessary
as a smoking carriage in the train ; and believes the
companies might make a deuced good thing of it,
if they would only open their eyes, and look that
way." We will not add to the argument by any
less original comments. The public must judge
whether the allegations of these various malcon-
tents are genuine or fictitious.

Mn. KINGLARE'S " InVasion of the Crimea," the
fourth edition of Which has just appeared, has
already spread over the continent. Tauchnitz, at Leipzig,
has not only published a German translation of the work, but
likewise a cheap English Continental edition in four small
volumes. A French translation, which will most likely
create more ill-blood, and be read more than any other one on
the other side of the Channel, will, it is stated, be brought
out in Brussele in the warn of the hut math,