The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-21
WOMEN WHO SMOKE.
They Are Very Numerous in Russia
and Not Rare in England.
From the Queen

From the Queen.
Not so long ago it was considered a risky
and frisky thing for a woman to smoke a
cigarette in the seclusion of the family
circle, but to-day well brought-up mar
ried ladies, without the least approach
to fastness in behavior, smoke their three
or four cigarettes a day, with the ap-
prevail of their husbands, and in the pres
ence of their servants. The ladies in Rus
sian society, one and all, smoke cigarettes
as matter of course, in private and In
public,
At an afternoon call in st. Petersburg
at 3 O'Clock in the day a Russian lady
offers a cigarette-case and a matchbox
in the most natural manner to her visitors
ana without any demur cigarettes are
accepted and smoked. In principal Rus
sian hotels the ladies smoke their cigar
cites after dinner in the presence of the
assembled company, even to a burning
end on the point of a penknife. In Lon
don such a custom would not be allowed
and a fair smoker would be at once re-
quested not to smoke
American ladies appear, from all that
is said, to be going side by side with their
English sisters-some smoking con amore,
others for the fun Of the thing. Still il
is apparent to all in society that smoking
among ladies' is immensely on the in
crease. Husbands, men friends and even
brothers., say nothing against the prac-
tice, and, oftener, than not, encourage
1t, unless extravagant indulgence is the
result Inen tney put limit 10 the num-
Der of cigarettes to be smoked by the
wife during the day, if she has not suffi-
cient strength of mind to do so for her
self; and indeed, most lady smokers make
point OF limiting themselves to three
cigarettes a day on an average.
Ladies in these days are nurtured in an
atmosphere of tobacco smoke; how can
it be otherwise than that they should ac-
quire taste for it? In milder form it
is true, than that of the pine or cigar
which their male relatives 50 keenIv en-
joy, but that of the dainty cigarette. The
days have gone by when the smell of to-
bacco smoke made a woman faint Among
q few married ladies an antipathy to it
does still exist, and these ladies' 1T must
be confessed make their husbands rather
uncomfortable with their restrictions
against smoking here or smoking there
and render them a little envious of the
freedom enjoyed by other men in this re-
Spect whose wives are not so sensible
to this pungent scent.
1t may be the ENCOURAGEMENT men give
to the ladies of their families and to their
charming friends to smoke by Offering an
occasional cigarette has a SusDicion of
seltiShness about it in thus subtly cult
waiting a liking for what they might other
wise consider obnoxious. So easily fat
tered are women-even the most strong
minded among them-that not seldom they
profess an inclination for smoking when
they do not actually care for it rather
than appear churlish in the eyes of the
sterner sex. Smoking cigarettes after
dinner mas become so general that even
in the most orthodox and highly conven-
tional families cigarettes are smoked AT
infrequently smoke also. This is more
particularly the case in country houses
but IN town the fashion is followed to a
great degree in smart society