The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-04-04
WHY MEN +.

There shall be no more "cake 8 n
ale." Count Leo Tolstoi has grown
aweary of them, has exhausted all the
pleasure and satisfaction he once
found in them. He no longer
cares to look upon the wine when
it is red, and the fragrant. curling
smoke of cigar or cigarette has lost for
him it's flavor. 1t follows naturally, in
his opinion at least, that the whole
world should follow in his d%ecorous, re-
formed footsteps. He is always
terribly in earnest, and his latest conun-
drums must not be trifled with. The
conundrum tiend, however. is always
more or less Of a bore. Least 80, per-
haps, when he he exhumes some time
worn "Joe Miller" and We can have the
satisfaction Of crushing him with a
ready and correct reply. Most so, with
out a doubt, when he has something
original that he is burning to force be-
fore the public gaze. 1t is then that
his airs ofssuperiority can be best worn,
and that a suffering listener is COM
PEELED to admit the vast gulf which
separates his own mediocrity Of brain
from the genius of the interrogation.
Leo Tolstoi is pluming himself upon a
new discovery. He knows why smokers
smoke. 1t will not do for the victim of
this awfully degrading habit to insinuate
that he falls into the pernicious custom
for want of something better to do.
The count has been a smoker himself,
and he knows better than that. The
cigarette crank cannoS hoodwink the
new inqu,sitor with a careless smile and
the declaration that he is laboring I'M
der the idea that he finds some pleasure
in the practice. That is a mere freak
of imagination, an utter delusion. The
pessimistic author Of the "kreutzer
Sonata" has delved more deeply into the
true inwardness of the matter, and he
roundly asserts his conclusion that the
smoker smokes to "drown the warning
voice of conscience" Fired with this
new revelation, the count has girded up
his loins, and, with the strength and
clamor Of a four-thousand power Saliva
ton army band, he is beating the drum
and blowing the cornet in a new crusade
against tobacco.
1t is a terrible indictment against the
smoker-the Russian smoker, the Tolstoi
type on which he rests his case. The
victim of the habit is an utterly selfish
being, riding r%ough-shod over some OF
the most elementary rules of social life.
For the qualification of his personal de-
sires, he allows himself to be guilty of
"unseemly, il%l-mannered and churlish"
conduct. His conscience, silenced by
tobacco, permits him not only to inter
fere with the peace and comfort OF
others, but even to lnjure their health.
"Out of a thousand smokers scarcely
one will hesitate to fill with noxious
fumes a room, the atmosphere of which
is being breathed by women and chill
dren who do not smoke" Well, il that
statement is true, the Russian smoker
is a terrible fellow, a kind of social out
rage, end we cordially congratulate the
count on his emancipation from such
degrading bondage. We should scarcely
believe, except On the strength of his
own word, that he could ever have fallen
so low. But after all it is possible he
may be guilty of a little unconscious
exaggeration in his Indictment of his
countrymen. He is peculiarly a man of
violent prejudices, prone to rush to ex-
tremes. 1t is the old, old story of the
difference between use and abuse. Ouida
attacks Christianity because of faults
and vices which it's founder Ok
pressly disclaimed and repudiated.
Some reverend gentlemen put on their
widest war paint to attack the habit of
dancing, and confound the associations
of a home with those of a bagnio. We
cannot wonder that little good comes Of
all these indiscriminate attacks. They
may serve now and then to provoke a
smile, and even a smile has a distinct
and appreciate value in a pessimistic
era.