The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1897-01-04


why shouldn't one smoke down town in
cafe?
Well. one may, right here in Washington.
And more than one has. The fad is be-
coming quite popular. 1t had its rise in
Boston, where nothing but culture is sup
posed TO flourish. And il culture includes
cigarette parlors, we shall have cigarette
parlors. Washington probably will not be
outdone by Boston.
DO take US to the smoking parlor,"
clamor the fair girls one meets down town
on an afternoon this winter.
| "Where?" demands the amazed man.
Cigarettes for Women.
"Oh, we know; wen show you where
it is and they do. Trust a woman for
| finding out all the things she ought not
/ to know.
She searches the out-of-the-way corners
Of the newspapers for Just such scraps of
| information and then she trots them out
and insists upon being astoundingly sophis-
ticated in what she thinks are the ways OF
the world. The diagram of the world, al
| the new woman has it, is a fearful and
| wonderful thing.
| When the girls come to see the interior
| Of this wonderfully wicked and jolly place
they are a trifle disappointed. 1t hasn't
| half as much dreadfulness about it as they
suppos ed, and il is rather shabby and vul-
! gar, although bizarre enough TO be pictur-
esque.
II is a long room made into several
| apartments by hangings of gaily striped
cotton, said to be hand-woven, and made
in Damascus. The front end of the shop
is a cigar stand. Here arc sold all the
| brands of villainous tobacco known as
| Egyptian, Turkish, Bokja and so on.
Tiny cigarettes with gilded mouth
pieces are made for the especial use Of
women and are put up in oriental looking
| boxes and sold for five times what the
ordinary Virginia tobacco cigarette costs.
| They are five times worse, and so it may
be well to have bigger price on them
to prevent their popularity swelling TO
too great proportions.
In both Of the rear corners Of the first
| apartment are dens. They are supposed to
| be lounging corners Of idealisuc beauty.
Wen, they are rather pretty, If one could
not do better, but there would be more solid
comfort in big lounge and big leather
chair; and, too for the same price.
But tile ladies like the barbaric, and they
| really believe that luxurious orientalists take
their evening siestas in such environment.
If they do, they are not as sophisticated
as Western gentlemen, and an occidental
corner would no doubt suit 1.-THE dear boy
a great deal better.
These corners have canopies Of cotton
drapery and lounges as hard as a board
| covered with the same flinlsy stuff, with
| few pillows to crowd one off the seat.
Then there is an old bronze lantern, with
colored glass stuck in tile sides, for a
lamp. One calls il jeweled Moorish lamp,
and gets pleasure in his idea Of it.
Little Tabarettes.
But the ladies' cafe is father back. There
| is nothing private about these apartments:
any one can walk in and lounge down on
the long, cushioned seats that line the
wall, and stare at the womenwhoare up-to-
date enough to care to gothere and smoke.
The walls are done off in neutral shades,
and hung with a rug or drapery of Arabian
or Egyptian origin. The lounging seats
are covered with the Roman striped fabric,
and cushions are literally supplied. There
are a number OF tabarettes Of dark wood
inlaid with mother-of pearl, that are
really beauties, scattered about the rooms.
The visitor may order coffee, Persian
tea, chocolate with lecoom, which is a
pasty CONNECTION with nuts in it, on the
side. These are served on the little
tabarettes. and then cigarettes are brought
in. The swartby, melting-eyed Egyptian
youth will also bring in sin-sin pastels,
which he places on tiny dishes on the tray
of hammered brass, and burns to perfume
the apartment. 1t has the additional ef-
feet OF neutrahzing the wretched odor of
the tobacco.
When a couple of girls are seated thus,
with a miserably uncomfortable man, they
become transcendantly happy. The Egyp-
tan waters smile as though they We're
pleased, too, and finger around until the
fellow roped into this adventure feels like
doing them personal damage. The girls
| puff and chatter and giggle, and think how
mad mamma would be IL she knew and
what wicked things they are learning.
Then man comes in who has acquired
the taste for the nargiIlah, or water pipe.
and he slowly divests himself of his outer
coat and strokes his gray mustache and
stares unpleasantly, while his eyes twinkle.
He settles himself in an opposite corner
and gives his order, and continues to stare,
while Susanna and Helen get an uneasy
idea that he may know dad
They announce their readiness to depart
at this juncture, and the escort who has
not been at all jolly, and who has smoked
one Of their cigarettes with grim look
on his face and his hands showed deep into
his trousers pockets, gets up with alacrity
at the first suggestion.
No, it isn't so very much fun after all, for
really nice girls TO enjoy. There are those
who make it agreeable for themselves.
Whole companies OF comic opera people
go there some nights and lie around on the
lounges and tell yarns. But they are differ
ent They could get fun out of most anything
that took them away from third-class hotel
quarters. But tile washington young woman
has other fields more worthy of cultiya-