The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-07-29
sMoKING IN AUsrRIA.


Growth Of the Cigarette Habit = Pfuee
and EnuR Taking.
vienna Dispatch TO London Daily Telegraph.
ACCORDING to statistics Just issued, the
number OF cigars smoked in Austria dur
ing the past year was Loss, 00o, 900, showing
production of 1900 GOO on the previous
years returns. On the other hand. the
HcQsc sold 695, 600 coo OF cigarettes, which is
l14.01O000 more than during the year be-
lore. The quantity of tobacco sold BY the
government has neither increased nor di-
minished. though the consumption Of
snun Is steadily declining. Cigarette smok-
ers IN Austria prefer the ready made arsi-
&c, whereas 70 France and Spain smol ers
made their own cigarettes. The Austrian
heJk cigarette Is scarcely of q quality TO
satisfy the average foreign palate. The to-
oacco may be sound and the paper free
from injurious ingredients, but the whole
lacks fragrance and flavor At . time
when was smoker myself could never
get through Reggie cigarette.
~ Is surprising how the habit OF this
KIND OF smoking has spread In this conn
Try. where but nfteen or twenty years ago
the pipe and cigar were INDUCED in almost
exclusively. An increase of over "a per
cent. IN the Reggie sales tells its own tale.
You now see boys of 10 and IL at every
street corner. whiting their paper cigar un-
rebuked. taking 1t IS . matter of course
that their pocket money should be spent
In tobacco. In former years it was not
usual for ladies to smoke In restaurants
and places OF public resort. The gvundes
DANES OF society are not all smokers, but
many OF those who are think nothing of
lighting cigarette after dinner at any of
the fashionable eating houses. Some of
them smoke cigars, though they seldom
venture to do so in public
Most ynuDp men have abandoned rfUara
altogether, and keep up cigarette-smoking
from early morning till bedtime. It would
be idle TO deny that the abuse of cigarettes
IS working havoc among the Austrian
youth Here, as elsewhere. 1t has dises-
trous effect on the eyes, throat and stom-
OF the Vienna atmosphere, and when that
Is coupled with the smoke of indifferent to-
bacco and paper, the effect on the respira-
tory organs is necessarily most injurious.
Then IN Austria smoking is allowed every
where, excepting at church and the thea
terra. There are railway carriages labeled
for non-smokers, but on recent journey
got on one of these and was not little dis
mayed to find each side of. the compart-
ment provided with an ash-tray. The Vi
emma cafes are renowned for the delicious
cdJe-au.fd they give at early breakfast. but
60 at whatever hour you Will. from . in the
morning, and you viii find the air poisoned
with foul cigarette smoke, while the bread
and the "nniik-coffee" itself are also slightly
impregnafed with the favor of tobacco.
The old fashioned viennese, who can no
longer enjoy his pipe outside his own house.
has taken to the Virginia or rat-tailed
cigar. with the straw mouthpiece, . single
one of which is sufficient to fill the Albert
hall with vague odor of burned seaweed.
This atrocions cheroot Is mere apology
for smoking, Not one in thousand tastes
of tobacco. yet the Virginia" seems to
have the fatal fascination of the cigarette.
It is making the same ravages among the
lower classes as Is the cigarette among their
betters. Almost every w0rkingman carries
four or i've '.Virginias" in his breast pocket
when he goes to his work in the morning.
and in many cases they do not last him the
day through. His clothes are saturated
with the abominabIe smell of Virginia"
smoke. 1t makes him offensive even at q
distance, and renders the closed premises
which be frequents simply intoierable.
"virginiaa smoking Is decidedly greater
nuisance than snutf-taking.
1t is only in the Tyrol and Galicia that
the habit Of taking snuff still exists. though
the quality of the Austrian Rcgie snuff is
excellent. 1t is exported far aud wide. and
is high in favor with amateurs and all ma
tons. It has been predicted, on good au-
thority. that the difficulty of obtaining
good tobacco to smoke will revive the Gus
tom OF taxing snuH. In AusHla, however,
il is not the case. Even among the clergy
il is not as prevalent as in other Catholic
countries: here the priests smoke. In
place where it may be said that everybody
puffs the Indian weed, 1t is sometimes
drawback to be a non-smoker. When you
pay q call, on business or otherwise, you
are at once offered cigarette, which, even
if you only take q couple of whiffs, you are
expected to light. 1T You do not do so, in
many cases it throws chill on the CONVEX
sation to come.
In the East il is considered hardly good
manners to refuse cigarette, just as in
America it is unfriendly to decline "a
drink An illustrious Pasha. who, after
being q Turkish ambassador in Vienna,
governed one of the suitan's fairest prov
inces, once met my objection to smoke
with him by the following characteristic
remark: 'Rappelez vous, cher ami, que
causer ct ne pas fumer nest pas Orientai."