The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-06
WOMEN SMOKERS ABROAD.
Americans Are Beginning to Follow
n ReprehensibIe Custom.


The women of the seaboard cities of the
United States are following the very rep
rehensible custom set them by the sex in
| Europe-that of indulgence in tobacco
smoking. In the capitals Of the Old World
| any suggestion that smoking was i'm
proper for women would be received with
amazement, says a writer in the East.
1t might be thought unhealthful and ex-
pensive, but its impropriety would not be
| discussed.
There could be no room for such an
opinion where smoking is so common
among the highly placed as it is in most
Of the European nations. The Princess of
/ Wales set the seal of highest approval in
Great Britain on the fashion of smoking
nearly score of years ago. when she
had her servants hand about at a dinner
for women small cigarettes of a kind
she had smoked for years before that.
/ This made the habit permissible to all
women in Great Britain, if it had, in
deed. needed any such countenance.
Queen Victoria's well-known opposition
to the practice was not enough to dis
courage its votaries after the Princess
had given it her frank approval Only
one of Queen Victoria's daughters ever
showed how Tttle she cared for the royal
ever she wanted to. This was the Prin-
cess Louise. The Princess Alice, On the
ether hand, shared so fully her mothers
prejudice and transmitted it to her daugh-
tiers so fully that the present CZarina OF
Russia has asked the ladies of the Rus
sian court not to smoke in her presence.
This was naturally an unpopular pro-
hibition in country that offers the as
tonishing sight of women driving through
the streets in open carriages and enjoy
ing cigarettes as freely as in the quiet of
their own boudoirs Middle-aged, plainly
dressed women do not hesitate to ride
through the streets OF St. Petersburg and
Moscow smoking cigarettes as unceremo-
niously as 4 messenger boy on the rear
seat of a cable car. The Russian women
throughout Europe make very little al
lowance for the prejudice OF other coun-
tries in respect to their favorite habit.
They even smoke cigars in restaurants
and hotels as unconscious of anything
unusual in the proceedings as the men
seated about them.
Smoking is much commoner among the
Austrian women than among the Ger
mans, probably because the late Empress
made no concealmert of her taste for
cigarettes. which is said to have led her
to smoke daily number that would have
upset the nerves and stomach of almost
any man. Queen Margherita is another
popular sovereign VINO is frank user OF
tobacco in the form of mild and small
cigarettes and so is the Queen of Spain,
who as an Austrian. might have been ex-
pected 10 enjoy the habit if 1t had not been
her fate to rule over a country In which
the cigarette is almost as popular with
the women as it is with the men. The
Queens of Greece and Wurtemburg were
both Russian grand duchesses. and their |
weakness is for tobacco in the form OF |
rather strong Russian cigarettes that are |
made after the custom in St Petersburg, |
according to the formula they have al |
ways used. |
Following the example set them by for |
eign ladies Of quality" the women OF |
New York Boston, and Baltimore are not |
infreGuently seen with cigarettes between |
their lips AS yet they rarely appear on |
the streets while smoking, but as the vogue |
has been set. the day is probably not far
distant when woman smoking will be no |
uncommon sight in American cities.