The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-14
SMOKERS AND SMOKED.

In another place we copy from The Richmond Dispatch some comments on the recent action of Mrs. Russell Sage in withdrawing from the Mayfiower So- ciety because the male members persisted In smoking during the meetings. The comments of The Dispatch are all right enough. but we must be permitted to ex- press our surprise that the conduct of the men who attend the meetings of the society should have made the withdrawal of Mrs. Sage necessary. In an assemblags of that kind which is supposed to be pat ronized only by ladies and gentlemen. is 1t customary for the latter to smoke? It occurs to us that an apology from the male Mayfiowerers Is due not only to Mrs. Sage but to all the other women who at- tend the meetings.
 As The Dispatch observes there are many women who can hardly endure to- bacco-smoke at all. and who are often forced to endure 1t because they are un- able to escape the proximity of the male smokers. In many cases. too. the male members of their own families are con- frmed smokers and the women have no choice but to put up with it. No doubt there are many who become fully accus- toned to it and do not mind 1t. How ever this may be there can be nc 5usti- fcation for the men who smoke Tn mixed assemblage, where, women who, are nauseated by tobacco fumes have no all formative but to endure it or leave $ a company which they would otherwise en- joy. If all the male members Of the May flower Society who smoke during the meetings were requested or required to resign. 1t would serve them right.
 It Is really singular what hold to- bacco has on the American people. It was one of the dissipatons that the white man learned from the Indian and the pupil has long since distanced his teach CT. Why men should take such delight In smoking and chewing that they become slaves to the habit and are unable to quit 1t is one of the strange things about hu- man nature, but 1t is a fact all the same. And that the habit should have spread over the habitable globe is another strange but true circumstance. Smoking and drinking are two habits which are almost universal, and from which the victim finds 1t exceedingly hard to get free.
 The Dispatch Is in error in its belief that the practice of smoking by women has gone out. It is practically confined to the country and to the elderly women but there are yet many of them to whom the pipe is as great a solace as is the cigar or pipe to the men. Is it injurious to them7 We doubt it very capitally. It may not be looked on as a nice habit and 1t may not be pleasant to others. but that it injures the smokers is not an es- tablished fact. And we may add that these good old women would not smoke in church, or in 6 crowded assembly where they might nauseate others. In this respect they are better than the men of the Mayfiowsr Society who drove Mrs. Sage from among them because they didn't have enough regard for the com fort and enjoyment of others to refrain from smoking till they left the public hall. And 1t ali resolves itself into this: that a man has a right to smoke if he chooses but he has no right to annoy others by smoking in any. hall or assembly room or other place where women are gathered together.