The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-10-20
YOUNG LADIES WHO SMOKE.
How the Pretty Amateurs Take Their First
Lessons.

There are not few very charming
ladies', says the Chicago Herald, mem
bers of leading social circles, who smoke
their sweet Caporal cigarette after desert
and would consider it great deprivation
to forego the luxury. They have too
much propriety to offend the taste of the
gentlemen of the family or social circle,
and so slip up to the drawing room or
private boudoir, where they have a per-
fectly blissful smoke. At first the novice
dons robe-de-chamber, for although the
window seat is always preferred to facili-
tate the rapid escape of any stray viii Fl
that might betray the fair smoker she be-
comes semi-asphyxiated, which is the de-
lightful part of the operation, and proba-
bly, before the rice paper is half consumed
she jams it down in the lowest region of
her recticule and tumbles into bed. In this
partially insensible condition little volition
is necessary to lay Morpheus under con-
tribution, and after an hours nap her eyes
have all that dreamy heaviness and her
carriage the languishment so desirable in
modern belle In the toilet that follows
bath is considered imperative, and in
order to thoroughly remove the faintest
odor of the Havana the mouth is rinced
with bay rum and the lips and eyebrows
moistened with Forentine water. But the
naughty girl soon learns that practice
brings endurance, and that instead of half
cigarette three and often four are re-
duced to vaperous rings before the reverie
reaches q climax.
But these little tobacco buds do not
beg. Their supplies are procured at the
drug store with perfumes and costumes.
Various quantities are bought ranging
from two to twenty packages. Nor are
these the only feminine smokers. Ladies
of less leisure having a weakness for that
stimulent indulge just before retiring. We
learn from lady employed in the pension
Office that among female bookkeepers,
amanuenses, correspondents and others of
similar pursuits, tobacco is largely used to
cure sleeplessness. Many, too. of those
overworked shop girls, who have always
found it struggle to keep body and soul
together, are glad to find any means for
keeping the body itself; and it is by no
means unusual to find in nearly every era
vat, shirt, cloak and clothing factory,
some poor, half dead and alive creature
substituting q pipe, rank cigar or bunch of
cheap cigarettes for her luncheon. At
many of the first class restaurants. partic-
ularly those connected with hotels the
dining hall proper is augmented by private
rooms of sufficient size to accommodate a
table and chairs for tour persons.
1.-THE patrons who occupy these rooms
between the hours of 80 and o'clock
are self-sustaining young women who rep
resent the better class OF shop girls. Their
order does not indicate large salary, nor
give any evidence of reckless extrava-
gance. They make dinner on bowl
| of soup with crackers and one kind of
dessert, or if not in accord with the tickle
weather of Chicago, pay twenty cents for
| q small steak trimmed with bits of parsley
and basting, and served with fried pota-
| toes and rolls. At another time tea and
| toast with q plate of sauce. form the
luncheon. These mealer are invariably fol
lowed by cigarettes or cigars. These girls
are not only lady like In Gemeanor, but
1 possessed of superior intelligence, and
would be more prompt and very likely
have better right to resent an insult or
an incivility than the average leader of So
called society.
THE reader must not suppose that any
unnecessary time is squandered by these
odd little 1sborers. The meal is dispatched,
1.-The cigar consumed. and after such ablu-
ton as the fnger-bowl, and bit of lemon
that she usually has about her will afford,
she gets back to her post inside of an hour.
"a motherly sort of a matrom who runs
\ dinner restaurant on Madison street hae
secured almost the entire patronage of this
class. She is an expert in the culinary de-
pertinent, sets an excellent table and hel
only advertisement is her reputation The