The St. Johns herald., 1894-09-27
FEMININE SMOKERS.
4 Practice That Is Growing in Fa-
 vor with tho Fair Sex.
Royal Russian Women Who are Very Fond ot Their CiSarettes-A Peculiar
 I Custom of I1alsnuck Mothers Smoking Iafants.
A brisk controversy has been going

i Review and Otl1ec periodicals, and i those who broke lances for and against were women. Mrs. Lynn Lynton, whose novels are read here as feuille- tons so extensively and with so much 1 gnsto, is quoted as leading the assault against the lady smokers. Is it true that she calls the cigarette when in I ladys mouth tie emblem of revolt? l If so, she is not up to date, so far as continental practices go. The cigar 1 cite has not yet found it's way with after-dinner coffee into the official drawing-room. but it soon will. At all the houses setting I'D to style it is served at intimate dejeuners and small but lively dinners.
 Nobody is shocked at ladies smoking not merely onc'cigarette apiece but two or three. A minister Of Queen Christina says that highly respectable and respec- tedroyal lady is aninvetcrate aEda vet eran smoker. She got in the habit of smoking a cigarette when she was ;-b- Jess Of tbe iiradschin, $s sinecure she lost on getting married. Her cousin, Arohduchess Mathilde, who was en- gagged to King Humbert when he was prince Of Savoy, lost her life owing to her fcndness for cigarettes. She was forbidden by her father, Archduke Albert, to smoke, but none the less went on doing so. One summers day, preventing. .as she was standing smoking on the balcony she saw him enter the ] courtyard On which she was looking down. The archduchess, who was wearing muslin dress, whipped the cigarette out of her mouth and hid it behind her back. It came in contact with the muslin. and she was in a mo- Inent cnvclcped in flames, there being a strong draUght where she stood.
 Most of the Russian grand duch- esses are smokers. Grand Duchess Wlade,nir thinks husband and wife who smoke are less likely to fall out than if the former alone smoked. It is not known whether the queen of italy smokes, but some of her ladies cer- tainly do. When was at Stresa saw them enjoying cigarettes when boating on the lake, and in the grounds of the duchess of Genoa's villa, where the queen was staying. The crown prin-
 
 without her cigarette. l [ neither tales from hcc good looks, nor spells her teeth, nor diminishes her activity. She is nearly thirty-four, but appears scarcely twcnty-six. The Infanta Eulalia spoke when she was last on the Riviera of the cOmtesse de Paris as having set her 2n example as smoker. As the French say, the infanta beau coup dimagination, and saw in the cigarette CT cigar of the comtessc Q pipe which she believed that royal lady smoked in the streets of Seville. Span ish ladies are gratuitou3ly credited or discreditea wish being great smokers. They Eay ao 50 in Cuba, though they are there xncrc conservative and greater stic!.lers for the propriotic5 than at Madr:1. Tho |. lies who best patronize to5acconist3 orc, next to the KGlmuclzs, the nussia1ls. The ruling passions of Kal1l.1ci1 women are ribbons to twist round their long tresses, tea, tobaeco, and bright haEdl1erchicfs. But if they have to choose between tobacco and tea their option is for the former.
 When little kalmucll comes into the world-an event that happens rarely twice in the same Ecnage, the mamma is given . wcll-Glled pipe to smoke before she nurses the baby. The little one talse5 to smoking before it is wearcd. The pipe is the great cure fer nervous headache. Frcdens borg, where the Czar and czarina sum- mer, is the dullcst place in the world. The queen of Denmark is exacting of respect for the proprietics. The last charge that anyone could think of bringing against her court is that of fast behavior. Yet<Iro5t of the young and youngish ladies there are smokers. There i5 no better way of showing off pretty hands and rinG5 than toying with cicarettc. A court party from FredensbCrg one evening was dining at the Copenhagen Trivoli in the col onnade of the restaurant. There was a large theatrical party near them; the actresses did net smoke, but the ladies in attendance and those whom they attended did. Some of the fair smokers were Russians, and not in the least inclined to unfUrl the flag of re- volt. That evening it was learned that the crown princess of Saxe-AIein- ingen is not the only granddaughter of Queen Victoria who finds a solace in the cigarette. Why should not a princess use it, as an old Irish woman uses the pipe to take the edge eff ner- vousneas? The only harm is in the abuse. But there is TO good thing under the sun that is not rnischievous if taizon in excess. There is TO more harm in mild sIQolIing than in mild tea drinking. George Sand, who lived to the age Of scvcnty-three and was so active and hard-worlzing to the end, smoked cigarettes and cigars-and in excess. The smoke curling before her eyes reused up her imagination. Victor Hugo hated smoking.
 Fir Stronger Than Oak.
 It would be difficult, says the St. Louis Republic, to convince the aver age man that fir is a stronger wood