The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1868-02-20
From the Atlantic Monthly.
Does IL Fay 10 Smoke?
BY AN OLD SMOKER.

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men into clubs, these dinners to which
men only are invited, the late sitting
&c the table af r. the ladies have with
drawn, the gathering of male guests
into some smoking-ioom, apart from
the ladies of the party,-is not the cigar
chiefly responsible for these atrocitiesi
Men are not society; women are net
society; society is the minglipg of the
two sexes in such way that each re-
strains and inspires the other. Th
community is already far gone in de-
generacy in which men prefer to band
together by themselves, in which men
do not crave the society Of ladies, and
value it as the chief charm of existence
"What is the real attraction of these
gorgeous establishments" l asked,
the other evening, of an acquaintance
who was about to enter one of the new
club-houses on Fifth Avenue. His re-
ply was; "NO women can enter them!
Once within these sacred walls, we are
safe from everything that wears a pet
ticoat!" Are we getting to be Turks?
The Turks shut women in; we shut
them out The Turks build harems for
their women but we find it necessary
to abandon to women our abodes, and
construct harems Tor ourselves.
Humiliating as the truth is, it must
be confessed, tobacco is woman's rival
her successful rival It's the cigar and
the pipe (it used to be wine and punch)
that enable men to endure one another
during the whole of long evening.
Remove from every clubhouse all the
means ofintoxication,- ii. e, all the wine
and tobacco, o,-and seven out of every
ten ofthem would cease to exist in one
year. Men would come together for
few evenings, as usual, talk over the
evening papers, yawn and go away,
perhaps go homes place which our
confirmed clubbists only know as con-
venience for sleeping and breakfasting.
One of the worst effects Of smoking is
that it deadens our susceptibility to te-
dium, and enables us to keep on endur-
ing what we ought to war against and
overcome 1t is drunken people who
"won't go home till morning" Ty-
rants and oppressors are wrong in draw
ing so much revenue from tobacco;
they ought rather to give it away, for
it tends to enable people to sit down
content under every kind ofoppressiOn.
Men say, in reply to those who OBJ
iect TO their clubs, their mems dinner
parties, and their smoking-rooms:
"Women overwhelm society with su-
perfluous dry goods. The moment la
dies are invited, the whole affair becomes
a mere matter of costume. A party at
which ladies assist is little more than
an exhibition of wearing apparel. They
dress, too, not for the purpose ofgiving
pleasure to the men, but for the pur-
pose of ofinficting pain on one another.
Besides, lady who is carrying con-
siderable estate upon her person must
devote a great part of her attention to
the management of that estate. She
may be talking to Mr.. Smith about
Shakespeare and the musica-cl classes,
but the thing her mind is really intent
upon is crushing Mrs. Smith with her
new lace, Even dancing is nothing
but an exceedingly laborious and anx-
ious welding of yards of silk trailing
out behind" etc.
Smoky diners out will recognize this
line of remark, When ladies have left
theItable, and are amusing themselves in
the drawng-room in ways which may
sometimes be trivial, but are never sens
ual, men frequently fall into discourse
over their cigars, upon the foibles Of
the sex, and often succeed in delivering
themselves of one or more of the obser-
vations just quoted. As these noble
critics sit b0ozing and smoking, they
can sometimes hear the brilliant run
upon the piano, or the notes of finely
trained voice, or the joyous laughter
of group of girls, all inviting them
to higher and purer enjoyment thar
stepping their senses in barbarous smoke
But they stick to their cigars, and as
sumo lofty moral superiority over the
lovely beings, the evidence of whose
better civilization is sounding in theil
ears.
Now, one Of the subtle, mysterious
effects Of tobacco upon "the male of oul
species" is to disenehant him with re.
gard to the female. 1t makes us read
the poem entitled Woman as though il
were only piece of prose. 1t takes of
the edge ofviriity. lfit does not make
man less masculine; it keeps his mas
culinity in state of partial torpor
which causes him to look upon women,
not indeed without certain curiosity
but without enthusiasm, without roman
tic elevation of mind, without any feel
ing of awe and veneration for the angus
Mothers of our race. 1t tends to make
us regard women from what we may
style the Black Crook point Ofview
The young man who boasted that ht
had seen the Black Crook for, y-sever
timesin three months must have beer
an irreclaimabe smoker. Nothing bu
the dulled, sensualized masculinity
caused by this peculiar poison coult
have blinded men to the ghastly ant
haggard ugliness of that exhibition
(. The pinchsd and painted vacancy o
those poor girls faces; the bony hor
rors of some Of their necks, and thu
ao1L,,, .odcodopox, >f othara. tha chaa,