The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-19
Smoking Ladies.

But what one thinks in America of
cigarette-smoking women one soon ceases
to think in Europe where tits so frequent.
For does not fat, famous and frolicksome
Emily Faithful smoke like a Lake
Michigan tug-boatp Does not the
Duchess of Edinburgh enjoy quietpuff
now and then. and even the Princess of
Wales have her pretty little cigarette
case which she hides profoundly from
the smokes e-abhorring nose Of her royal
mamma-in-lawp Nine. Ratazzi in Italy
is said to be great smoker, and 80 also
is Elizabeth Thompson, the artist, in
England. The two daughters of the
Due d'Orleans. one of whom was the
beautiful Mercedes, Queen of fSpain, were
fond of quiet smoke, rs also is the wife
of the pretender, Don Carlos. Although
smoking ladies arc so numerous in Eu-
rope one often hears it insisted upon
here that American ladies are the great
est habitual smokers in the world. i
never saw a lady smoke in America" /
had occasion frequently to say in France,
and always with the unsatisfactory feel
ing that was not half believed. Once
upon o time in Paris I lived several
mouths in an extensive pension des de-
myiselle'. In this fourishing school was
Mile. N. a young American of
twenty-five, from Boston, sort of par
lor boarder, who had many extra privi-
leges besides that of q private bedroom,
when every other pupil slept in tiny
couch in dormitory that looked exact
ly like a hospital. "Ah, but your
American ladies do smoke, and smoke a
great deal more than our Frenchmen,
said the matron of the school one day.
Mile. N. smokes much more than M. le
Professeur, and if you don t believe it |
will some day show You the ashes that
co lie down from her room" l said
nothing. And yet I could have told
that which would have made madame's
golden wig stand up like quills on fret
full porcupine, and reduced the matron
to state of gibbering idiocy. l could
have told that, indeed, many cigarettes
were smoked in Mile. Ms room each
night, and that great were the asues
thereof; also could 7 have told that
every night when that huge dormitory
full of pupils was still and every girl
asleep, four OF the teachers, all girls
themselves of from twenty to twenty:
two, whose business it was to watch and
guard that sleeping fold, stole softly
from their beds, up the attic STAIRS
across the roof, down the skylight, and
then into Miss Ms. room, where, with a
bottle or two of beer and unlimited
cigarettes they smoked, drank and
chaffed till-goodness only knows how
late-as if this were, indeed, not \ pen
sion des demoiselles, but q popular bras
serie in the Latin quarter. "Girls,
girls! how indiscreet" l exclaimed one
night when. returning from the theater
after midnight, was quietly let into
Miss Ms. room, whittier had been at
trac ed by the.light, and where l found
the smoke so thick that I could only half
distinguish i've flushed and laughing
faces, looking.i truth must be told. more
like the merry bacchantes of Ruben's
pictures than like the nun-like maidens
of q pension deg demoiselles in virtuous.
monastic France. "Ah, but you will
not betray u.s." they chorused. We
must amuse ourselves a little, and you
know how triste our life ism-Maryaret
Bertha, in CHICAGO Inter. Ocean.