The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-08-21
SHE BANISHES NICOTINE
RUSSIA'S ROYAL LADY TAKES
ADVANCED ACTION

ADVANCED ACTION
Grand Danes of Her Court Beg to
Be Allowed to Retain the Luxury
of Cigarette smokine-Their Pc
tition a Remarkable Document
That Is Intended to Convince Her
Majesty. ~
Correspondence The St. Paul Globe.
ST. PETERSBURG, Aug. 2.-As I'M
expectedly as bolt from the blue"
came the sad tidings, promulgated q
rev days ago in court circles at St.
Petersburg, that the gentle and gra-
c1ous Tsaritsa would be greatly obliged
to the ladies of her household if, for
the future, they would forbear from
smoking cigarettes in her presence.
This unlooked-for intinlation, reaching
the Russian DANES ct demoiselles
o'honneur' from so exalted a quarter,
was unavoidably accepted by them as
command, and they have summoned
up courage to address a humble petit
ton to her majesty, entreating her to
revoke a request that is practically
decree. In this prayerfm document
they nave ventured to remind Alexap-
ara Feodofovna that ladies are per
mftted to smoke cigarettes at ell the
continental courts; that among the au-
gust female votaries of the narcotic
herb, born in the purple, are the dow
aser tsarltsa and her sister, the Prin-
cess Thyra, Duchess Of Cumberland,
as we'll as the Princess Henry Of Prus-
STA, born Princess Irene of Hesse and
the Rhine, own sister to the reigning
empress of all the Russias. The petit
ton also deferentially points out that
the Austrian kaiserin and queen of
Hungary, Maria Christina, queen re-
gent Of Spain: Carmen SYLVIA" queen
OF Roumania, and the queen Of Portu-
gal, as we'll as many grand uucheSses.
archduchesses and prinoesses Of the
blood, are 1nveterate smokers.
no this category, moreover, belonged
though the Russian court ladies may
not be aware of the fact-the lovely
and intrepid ex-queen of Naples,
Marie Won Wittelsbach, who took an
active part in the defense Of Gaeta,
wearing the undress uniform Of one
OF her husbands crack Infantry regi-
ments. and-especially when under fire
cigar between her lips Her younger
sister, the Countess Of TRAM, was a
no less habitual cigar smoker than she,
and so was the Countess Of Girdenti,
by birth an infanta of Spain.
THEIR MAMIE LEGION.
AS for the society leaders" and
"grandes DANES de par la monde" in
Russia, Germany Austria-Hungary,
Italy, Spain and even in the realm ct
Britannia Grundy, their name is Ie-
glon. In the Turkish f1arem smoking
LIS even more "de rigueur'' than in the
SGiQn11ik for tho yxyixyo oy,H Aor o1,f
OF the wel-to-do faithful have few
recreations besides inhalimg the fumes
OF yellow "jenddje," or "kiritschillar,'
and nibbling what, in the States, is
termed candy"
AS far as Christendom Is concerned,
the ladies of Russia are themselves
mainly responsible for the popularity
which cigarette smoking has lately ob-
tadned among English and German
women of the upper middle class The
cigarette was first introduced into
Britain alt the close of the Crimean
war by British officers, who had found
themselves under compulsion to adopt
Turkish fashions of consuming tobac-
co, seeing that there was not a decent
cigar to be obtained for love or money
Throughout the length and breadth of
the Ottoman empire. Pipe smoking was
strongly discouraged at regimental
messeS forty-odd years ago; indeed. 1t
Is scarcely tolerated at the present
day in some of the ne-giving" mil
itary and mobile" clubs in Germany.
Moreover chdboulks and narghil,ehs
were not altogether adapted to camp
life and trench work, being cumber-
some in themselves and requiring more
skillful and intelligent prepara-
tino than they could possibly undergo
at the hands of the average soldier
servant.
TOOK TO THE CIGARETTE
So the Crimean troops, having
speedily discovered that Turkish to-
bacco was excellent in quality and
moderate in price-it has lost the latter
attraction, unfortunately, of late years
took to the cigarette with characteri-
site steadfasteness, and took it back
to their native land when the fighting
was over and the l'fhurly-burly DONE
1t soon caught on. in mess rooms and
club 'Stabagies," but took along time to
effect secure Judgment in such strong
holds of the fair as Conservatives and
boudiors.
Forty years ago few English ladies,
unless for the time being under the
thraldom of Dan Cupid, could be in
duced to tolerate tobacco smoke in
any apartment upon which they were
accustomed to shed the light of their
presence. Tt was their pleasure to
taboo the cigarette no less vigorously
than the cigar and pipe, from dining
room and drawing room alike. In Rus
STA, on the other hand, it was even
the custom, sanctioned and encour-
aged by the great Boyarfns, "qui fai-
gaient la Dluie ct lie beau temps" In
Muecovite fashionable society, that the
golden filaments of I.evantine tobacco.
heaped up in costly Tuba bowls, or
delicately encased in slender paper
tubes bearing the then unrivaled brand
of "Lafenme," should be served with
the after dinner coffee Often the host
esq, desiring to confer special dist;nc-
ton upon some favored guest, would
roll a cigarette for him with her own
deft fingers, and even light 1t before
handing it to him.
1t seems a little hard, in the year Of
grace 1898, that the use of this harm
less sedative or stimuIant-for tobacco
Is gifted with the duplex faculty OF
soothing and exciting-should be pre-
scrbed to the ladies of the Tsaritsa's
household who represent the fine
fieur" of Russian female society.