The age-herald., 1898-03-25
The Smoking Habit
 On the Increase With Women
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On the Increase With Women Perhaps there is nothing that has shocked well-bred men and women with the same force as the recent conspleuousness given to the statement that certain respee- table (and in some instances) fashionable women are becoming addicted to the use of cigarettes and pipes.
 The growth of this offensive habit among women has increased at such startling ratio in England and in portions of this country that the public journals are gv- ing much attention to the subject
 Recently Mrs. Annie Chambers Ketchum, the well known lecturer of New York, wrote H. H. Vreeland, president of the Metropolitan Traction company, requesting him to set aside comfortable on his lines in which women can enjoy smoking, on their various trips to and from their business duties undisturbed by the intru- sion of the curious, prying masses. In all seriousness, in writing to MT. Vreeland, Mrs Ketchum said:
 At the instance of several ladies, and in the interests of many more, l address this line to you, modesty and seriously re- questing you to extend to your women passengers-largely the greater number the same courtesy which is accorded to the men, to whom separate cars for smok- ing are set apart In the summer season.
 The custom of smoking, common with women of all classes in the orient and In the Latin countries of Europe and Amer lea, is becoming fixed also in the United States. The women who work as the men do with brain and hand and at the same driving pace feel that the pipe is as necessary for them as for their brothers; that 1t is as suitable for them as the bi- cycle, the row boat, or any other recreation or remedy which has hitherto been allowed to men alone.
 In cars for men only, who elderly Ar,1 r-tr. CTS, no prying gazers, but the quiet, order ly behavior of serious women, whose object in life is not only self-support but self protection, especially in the small things that help to cheer us on the road, which is never too smooth for the most of
 In all other countries women of the high est birth and breeding use and have used for centuries the pipe, cigar and cigarette in one form or another; in public, too, as our own lovely, distinguished grandmoth- CTS used them hundred years ago. We are not, therefore, going astray, but re- turning to an established custom. We trust then, that you will have the friend liness to listen to us and the generosity to grant our request.
 In London the cause of the female ci- garette fiends, is championed by Miss Edith Vance, who demands that the railways shall provide smoking cars for the women.
 These facts, taken in conjunction with the sad, pitiful mental state of young Mrs. Jack Wilmerding, granddaughter of w. H. Vanderbilt, who has lately been consigned to a sanitarium a hopeless wreck from ci- garette smoking, have inspired Edgar Sal- tus and other forceful writers to discuss the subject exhaustivey. Physicians of prominence are giving testimony to the fearful effect of tobacco upon the nervous systems of women. It ds pronounced a more insidfous, more dangerous habit than even the use of alcohol, and 1t grows upon xx-ith al rppin a the effect produced is a grateful stimula- tion to jaded, irritated nerves, and by many over taxed women the cigarette is regarded as boon, because of the sooth- ing relief it brings to highly strung temper aments. It is almost impossible to credit the following statements made by Saltus relative to this matter in a late article. He says:
 Coincidental it is reported that the Duch- ess of Roxburghe has been tooling about South Kensington with pipe between her teeth. The Duchess, an aunt of the Duke of Marlborough, is what the French call a great lady, in addition to being a great friend of the queen.
 Coincidentally as well, the London Tele- graph announces that in England the con- sumption of tobacco by women of all classes is increasing day by day. The Telegraph, the best informed and most widely clrcu- lated of all the cockney sheets, is in a position to know what it Is talking about. The TeeSfapn S1duS IHdL d BOlu anu pS- jeweled cigarette case has become com- mon gift to a bride, and that West End tobacconists ater largely to feminine de- mands. Incidental investigations along Broadway show that the phenomenon is mol confined to Piccadilly.
 In the Sunday Journal a week ago rep resentatives of the Gorham company, of the Whitney company and of Tiffany furnished testimony to that effect Mir. R. M. Hyde the Tiffany superintendent, said that his firm sold great number of pipes to ladies MT w. D. Carrow, of the Whiting com pany, said the same; 50, too, did the Cor ham gentleman.
 This testimony, of course, proves noth- Ing. Because a woman buys pipe 1t does not follow that she smokes it. Yet. taker fin connection with other data, the circum stance suggests many things, among others that perhaps sine may In any event, Il leaves plenty of room for the imagination As consequence, the question naturally arises, Will the scent of the cigarette and the odor of the brierwood displace from the garments of fashionable women the smel of orris, which hitherto they have exhaledi
 It was in a manner, not similar, per haps, but cognate. that the custom spread Long in vogue in Russia, 1t has been longer fin vogue In Spain. But modes don't come from St. Petersburg any more than they dc from Madrid. In the ornater circles o1 Europe, things Russian are regarded as stil barbaric; things Spanish, as mediaevall1 crude. A fashion to be followed must come from higher courts than theirs As a con- sequence, it was not until this particular practice had been adopted In the semi royal sets of England and France that il became observable here.
 Eoeh;on- No4oc