St. Paul daily globe., 1889-06-30
Tbs Cigarette Has Found It's
Way to Their Fa-
vOr.
Mrs. Cleveland and Mrs. Whit
ney Started the Fashion
in Washington.
Dainty Tobacco Trays a Part
Of the Dinner Serv-
Ice.
A VassaP Graduate Says All
College Girls Puff Blue
Smoke.

Smoking is a habit which Is which is
no longer confined to the masculine
gender. The Parisienne has her silver
box in which the small, sweet Havana.
filled cigars are kept moist; the Russian
lady cannot content herself with less
thanseven cigarettes between dinner and
bedtime. and from Bernhardt down to
the BOwery chorus girl, tobacco is not
only regarded as soothing luxury. but
necessary adjunct of the toilet, and
as Indispensable as pot of cold cream.
1t is true that American women have
smuggled cigarettes and smoked them
in college rooms, in back yards after
dark and in the privacy of their
boudoirs. but never till recently has the
habit been admitted or the fashion
smiled at by relatives and friends.
While Mrs. Cleveland was in the
White house no one disdained the prof
fered roll of Turkish tobacco. The fair
and radiant mistress did not care par
ticularly for the weed herself, but il
was provided always and passed round
la Russo to the ladies with black cof-
fee or. demi-tasse. At Mrs. Secretary
Whltney's beautiful. spreads the cigar
cite trays were as much a part of the
service as the bone-diShes or finger
bowls, and the ladies in the foreign lega-
tions did her the honor of prOnouncing
her tobacco superior to any grade to be
found in American circles.
*x*
It was thought that Mrs. Langtry
would be authority for fashionable
fumeuses after her debut in "As Look
ing GLASS;" but her manipulation of the
Sweet capOral did not make the ex-
pected impression on the smoking crit
les. Old stagers pronounced her mar
tistic and awkard, aud the lady smok-
ers in the profession, who went to see
her, said that, between a dread of set
ting fire to her clothes and getting the
smoke in her eyes, she was painfully
.amateurish. A fashionable vOtary of
the weed, who has charge of one of
responsible for the later-day grace and
ease with which the Jersey Lily learned
to smoke. Originally her method was
masculine. She held the paper roll be-
tween her fingers. leaving her thumb
free, as they say in the Delsarte schools,
and allowing her large white hand to
fill with angles. whereas the curves of
grace should bend every digit. AS re-
suit of i'll tutoring, she habitnated her
self to holding the cigarette in the cor
ner of her mouth, and it was long;
time before she could be made to under
stand that such position gave her a
tough appearance.
Mrs. Whitney's cigarettes are re-
served for her intimates, and before the
Derby box, with its grotesque carvings
in silver. is open one might fancy the
service to contain the die, sealing-wax,
waters and writing material for dis
patching a note to some high dignltary
of state. On the tray are dainty patties
for receiving the ashes, a match safe of
exquisite workmanship, yase-fOrm
filled with cigarette holders, and
usually a veStal lamp of wrought copper
and silver. against the soft radiance of
which some very lovely figures have
been silhouetted during an after-dinner
coffee. Fancy, if you can, the piquancy
of an artisticaliy disposed fumeuse bend
ing over the flame, her head inclined
to one side and halo of etherealiZed
essence wreathed above the FURNISHED
hair. There is picture in the grace
fully-arched wrist, in the turn of her
shoulder, the sweep of her waist and
the position of a neatly dressed foot that.
one can admire and enjoy without the
power of reproducing 2 the study.
Nowhere is cigarette so thoroughly
enjoyed as in the bOudOir of La Princess
Engaletchieff. Like the senior Salvini,.
this daughter of Russian nobility car
ries supply of Turkish tobacco where,
ever she goes, and thinks no more of
being whimsical than does the Ameri-
can lady who provides herself with a
favorite brand of soap and perfume for
continental journey.
There is to-day scarcely an actress on
the stage who is not addicted to cigar
cite smoking, and instead of the per-
nicious effects supposed to result from
the habit, l am told that the very re-;
verse is the case. A Vassar graduate,
who is one of the brightest of youngi
women in the profession, has. this
to say:
cat college learned to smoke. What.
girl doesn't? We used to beg cigarettes;
from the boys and smoke them surrep-
titiously. 1t wasn't always as amusing
as you might imagine, particularly in
cold weather, for the windows had to
be kept open to let the tell-tale fumes
escape. We smoked when we we're.
alone OH the campus, and when went
home I smoked i'll the garret
and took Turkish baths just for the sake
of enjoying acigarette without being in
terrupted. That's where l learned to
hold a cigarette, to blow off rings, to see
pictures in the blue smoke and to look
pretty. Anybody can puff away cigar
cite, but you have to study for effects
jut as you study to make a point on the
stage. That woman was an artistic
Al II 1no frNvo ID io=o hnrl
been smoker from childhood. She
never to drop ashes on her dress or the
carpet, and she had dainty way of TAX
ing the weed in the tips of her thumb and
fOfefinger, bringing it to her mouth
with curl of the arm and tipping up
her chin to meet it in style that was
simply captivating. Then, too, she
used to tell me to sit before the lamp
or window, so as to let the light play
through my fingers, and she taught me
to expel the smoke through my nostrils
and to show the profile of my face in
the blue, wreathing Clouds l know of
perhaps three hundred women in the
profession, people l have worked among
and travelled with, and out of them I
could name possibly five who do not use
tobacco.
s.Harm?
~
Nonsense! There isn't any more
harm in throwing yourself back in
chair, with a cigarette between your
lips, than there is in gorging yourself
on pound of bon-bons. It's all ques-
ton of tasue, and to my mind, there is
no difference between the gum-chew-
ing, candy-munching and cigarette
smoking habits. After the play it is
not possible to sleep. The actress is
wide awake. She is all excitement.
Her faculties are keenly alive. She has
ideas. fancies, fears, and they must be
expressed in something or to somebody.
The men can go out and walk. We
women are denied that convenient form
e x,rfa do OIL orr h