The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1874-12-11
Smoking i'll self-Defense.
From the Chicago Tribune.

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The habit of smoking is usually acquired
in defiance of the protests of the stomach
and persisted in in defiance of the smokers
female relatives. The weed ought to give
Its votary great enjoyment in order to repay
hlm for the domestic trouble in which il
often involves him. According to the
I smokers view, it discharges it's duty fully.
In promoting good-fellowship, in soothing
SORROW, IN calming worry, in putting a man
| IN good humor with himself and the world.
IL mas no rival. 1t is true that the habit is
expensive, and is sometimes unpleasant to
other people, and often injurious to the
smokers own health. But most personal
pleasures, it is replied, are costly, and
occasionally displeasing to the people who
Go not have them, and hurtful to health.
smoking may be naughty, but it is certainly
nice. When men have to choose between
society and cigars, they are apt to prefer
the latter. Rather than be driven, as
Ihackeray said he was, to smoke up the
chimney at home, they have built homes of
their own, sacred to the Goddess of Nicotine.
in the shape of the great club-houses Of
London and New York.
There is one way, however, that good
deal OF male smoking might be stopped,
and that is by the ladies adopting the prac-
tice themselves. Husbands and lovers who
infect their breath with the fumes Of
tobacbo, and bring themselves into the
presence of wives and sweethearts. would
pc gravely disturbed if they found their
example followed by the other sex. Smok-
ing is no more masculine, per Sc than
drinking. Ii women and men together sip
sherry and claret, why should they not
together smoke cigars and cigarettes? We
get most of our fashions from Europe.
why not import one from Spain?
Ine dark-eyed train of the maids in Spain
Meath their arbor shades trip lightly
while cleaning cigar, like new born star
TwlXt the lips of each burn brightly.
spanish women are not supposed to be
more sickly than their sisters of other
nationalities, though perhaps not SO pleas.
ant to kiss. Tobacco does not seem to
hurt them. Nay, if the argument was to
be patterned otter those of the ultra-prohi-
bltionlsts of our little creature comforts
we might say: Spanish women spoke they
are famous for beauty; therefore smoking
makes women beautiful.
10 continue the GrgDBaentuns 0d homf95ena,
there are some reasons why smoking would
be an especial advantage to women. Their
lives are usually made up of an infinity of
small cares. They would find that thou
sand petty troubles would vanish in the
SaAAiAAc5 up AioHi tt SOSu cigar. uG
departure of the cook three hours before a
dinner party would be viewed with less
poignant regret if seen through blueish-
gray haze of tobacco-smoke. Sorrow over
a chimney that won't "draw" can be
counteracted over cigar that will Then,
when the days work is done and husband
and wife are sitting costly together by the
fire, mutual smoke would bring them
closer to each other, and would tend to
create between them that hearty good
fellowship which is now sometimes wanting.
Popular prejudice forbids a woman to puff
a cigar on the street Or anywhere in public,
but individual prejudice keeps great
many men from doing the same thing. 1t
is doubtful whether any one has right to
polute the air of a place set apart for
public use. But in the privacy of home,
or at the close of a dinner party, why should
not both sexes indulge in the universal
narcotic stimulant? Would not the ordi-
nary chatter of society be changed into
something better under the influence of the
grave kindliness that is born of quiet
smoke? And then, as a self-defensive ap-
paratus, as the husband often eats onions
because the wife does, would it not be
perfect.