Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-03
QUEENS WHO SMOKE.
Tobacco One Of the Favorite Hand
maidens of Royal Ladies.
EMPRESS ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA
Consumes Forty Cigarettes q Day, and it
Doesn't Hurt Her Bit.
PEEP AT THE VICE QUEEN OF TURKEY
WRITTEN FOR THE pIspATcH.I

|
during the past three centuries has been
preached in vain. The consumption of the
soothing herb first brought to Europe by
gallant Sir Walter Raleigh, far from show
ing any signs of falling off, increases every
year. Nor is the use thereof restricted to
men. The fair sex, whose nerves are mnch
more highly strung, and whose hearts throb
half as quickly again, are finding that the
weed first dedicated to England's virgin
Queen is infinitely more effective and in
noxious as a sedative than either chloral or
States the prejudice against smoking still
remains, and there is tendency to regard
those who indulge in the habit as "fast"
and even immoral.
| . But it is different in Europe. There, not
only the women of the most blue-blooded
! aristocracy, but also vast majority of the
| Empresses, Queens and Princesses Of the
world, rest in the conviction that life bears
a more beautiful aspect when seen through
the opalescent clouds of fragrant smoke that
issue from their delicate mouths. Empress
Elizabeth Of Austria smokes from 80 to 40
| Turkish and Russian cigarettes day, and
| it has been for many years her inveterate
custom to puff after dinner at q strong Ital-
| ian cigar-one of those with straw running
horizontally through it - and which is
brought to her with her cup Of Turkish
coffee every evening, already lighted, on
gold salver.
SMOKES AS SHE woRRs.
She says herself that smoking soothes her
nerves and that whenever she feels "blue" q
cigar or cigarette will do more than any
thing else to cause her to see things in a
happier light Spending much of her time
in studies of a serious nature-she is per-
feet Greek and Latin scholar-and in writ
ing, she smokes almost continually whilst
thus engaged. On her writing table are
always to be found large silver box of
repousse work, filled with cigarettes, a
matchbox of carved Chinese jade, and ca
pacious ash-receiver made of the hoof of
favorite hunter, which broke its spine over
black thorn hedge several years ago. dur
ing one of the autumn meets at Schloss
Gedelle in Hungary. The empress caused
the handsome mares hoof to be mounted in
silver in the form of ash-receivers, and gave
one to the Emperor, the other constituting
always part and parcel of her dressing case
| wherever she goes.
Almost mechanically does Her Majesty
light cigarette after cigarette, as she sits at
work In her great writing room at Gedelle,
which is fitted up with carved oak panels
and Gobelin tapestries, the somewhat sombre
hue of the walls being relieved here and
there by trophies of the chase Anyone
who has the opportunity OF examining
closely the slender, white hand OF the I'M
perial lady will certainly have noticed
faint yellow stain on the first and second
fingers Of the left hand caused by the
cigarette.
HASN'T DULLED HER BRAIN.
But this is assuredly the only deleterious
effect which may be said to have resulted
from her use of tobacco. Certainly Eliza
beth's brain has not been dulled, nor has
her marvellous beauty been impaired by
nicotine. For she still remains not only
one of the loveliest, but also one of the most
quick-witted, spirituelle and intellectual
women of the age. Seen riding home in the
evening from a meet at Gedelle, or seated
at her writing table, the contours of her
matchless figure shown to perfection by the
plain black, tailor-made gown that consti-
tutes her customary dress, who is there who
would venture to assert that there is the
slightest trace OF vulgarity in the cigarette
| SO daintilv held between the first and second
| fingers of her ungloved left hand.
The Czarina of Russia, who is likewise
one Of the vassals of King Nicotine, smokes
| in a somewhat more indolent and one might
say Oriental fashion. Stretched Oh the
silken cushions of broad low diyan, at
Gatchnia, she follows dreamily with her
| beautiful dark eyes, the rings OF blue smoke
that her crimson lips part to send upward
into the perfumed air of her boudoir, a bou-
doir which she calls her "den," and which
is copied from one OF the loveliest rooms OF
the Alhambra. with palms in cleisone vases,
eli heir ha CT ha
geous colors and diapered gold of the walls.
DRIVES DULL CARE AWAY.
Heavy hearted and anxious as the charm
ing Sovereign of all the Russias often is,
her mind flied with gruesome fears of
cruel death for those she loves best, she
finds in the cigarette her greatest solace;
and she spends many an hour, her small
patrician head crowned by its wealth of
brown braids. reclining among the gold
embroidered pillows OF her couch, sending
little clouds of smoke upward to the ceiling,
and slipping exquisite caravan tea at $40
pound. The latter is brought to her in q
service made by the goldsmiths of the
Deccan, who provide work beside which all
the best that Europe can furnish appears
clumsy, vulgar and inartistlc.
Queen Marguerite of Italy is another of
the royal ladies who see no harm in the use
of tobacco, and the coquettish way in which
she toys with a verbena-scented papiIetto,
can only be compared with the unequaled
grace with which an Andalusian belle is
wont to daily with her fan. Her flashing
black eyes look laughingly through the
fragrant clouds Of smoke emitted from her
mouth, which looks like the half open bud
OF pomegranate, and she is wont to declare
that her cigarette is more essential to her
comfort than anything else in life. King
Humbert, who is still as much in love with
his charming consort as on the day when,
q years ago, he first brought home to the
royal palace at Turin the lovely daughter of
the Duke of Genoa, delights in smoking his
cigar in her company, and certainly prefers
that he should be allowed to join his wife in
postprandial cigarette rather than to be
relegated, as are SO many other husbands, to
q distant smoking room and to temporary
exile from SO fair presence.
A KING LIGHTS HER CIGARETTE.
Christine. Queen Regent of Spain, is a
great advocate of tobacco. She consumes q
large quantity OF Egyptian cigarettes, and
there is nothing that her little "Bubi," His
Most Catholic Majesty, King Alphonso
XIII, enjoys more than when his mother
permits HIM to strike match and apply the |
fame to the end of her cigarette. When |
thus engaged the little fellow laughs merrily |
and INDUCES in all sorts of antics. like |
light-hearted little monarch that he is, his |
dimpled shoulders rs yet unburdened BY the |
cares and anxietles OF his lofty station.
His Holiness Pope XIII. at any rate does
not consider the use of tobacco as vice;
else he would scarcely have conferred the
IL D.. -.