Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-04
CIGAR AND SOCIETY
SHALL MEN SMOKE IN THE DRAW
ING RooMP
Attempt to Introduce Into New York .
Practice Favored by Some
People In London.


They were talking over the cups about
statement recently made by an English
writer that the custom Of smoking in the
drawing room after dinner was now en-
couraged by the smartest London hostesses.
Among the reasons given for booming the
custom was this:
The time between the end of a formal
dinner and the hour of departure Is at the
best brief. altogether too brief. some guests
have found. to waste any OF it in solitude
apart from the men. Again, the cleverest
takers, 1t has been pointed out, can't al
ways manage to indulge in tete-a-tete con-
fdences at a dinner table. even suppOsng
the persons who want to exchange con-
fidences happen to sit next each other.
which doesn't often happen.
Thus many a pair have sat through
solemn banquet-English formal dinners in
cline to solemnity-in anticipation of half
hour or quarter hour together in quiet
nook of the drawing rooms only to be dis
appointed because of the lingering of the
men at the dinner table. AS result of
these and other Inconvenience of the sew
eral prevailing systems the more famous
hostesses began to ask, why not have the
men bring their cigars into the drawing
room? and then they went ahead to inaugu-
rate the fashion.
According to the English writer the fash
ION took from the start. the men in most
way. A few of the older men, those more
addicted to story telling and a glass of good
wine than to Irritation with the farest of
women, continue to spread their feet COM
fortably beneath the mahogany and remain
deaf to all hints to exchange a good old
custom for an untried new one.
Long Story Tellers.
II have found that when men get to story
telling over the wine there Is no possible
VA nP ocsfn xx,ho hay xu,ilI LOT
said a visiting Englishman, accepting dubi-
ousy cup Of American-brewed tea. "Es-
pecially is this true when their host leads
off and is Indifferent as to whether the
women guests sit twenty minutes one
hour alone in the drawing room chatting
forlornly about nothing In particular:
IAN unwritten law puts twenty minutes
as the outside limit of time apportioned
to an after-dinner smoker In the dining
room. but, dear me, l have known the
twenty minutes to be stretched to double
the length on occasions, with the result that
when finally the delinquents did present
themselves in the drawing room the hour
was too late to do anything but cali car
riageS and get into wraps. For that rea-
son the new custom is a good one, think.
Some of us have been trying to popular
lie the same custom over here, remarked
New Yorker who entertainS lavishly in
her home all winter long when she is on
this side of the Atlantic, and Is classed
among the American social leaders, but
1t Is slow work. American men who have
travelled a good deal and visiting foreigners
who think they must do always what their
host or hostess suggests fall readily enough
into the custom. but not so the others.
thine and time again have said to my
husband:
do get the men out as soon as you
can into the middle drawing room; tell
them to take their cigars along
Then 1 would await results. which were,
generally that one man. possibly two,
would come struggling in holding his cigar
almost behind him. and that he would give
it a half-hearted pull once in while, just
enough to keep it from going out. He never
really smoked it. even though several OF
the women. including myself, were smoking
cigarettes.
Women Smokers.
'aThe American man, I imagine, never
takes woman's smoking seriously. He looks
upon it as a fad of the moment. and re-
CARDS a perfumed cigarette much as he
does stick of candy. Consequently. even
though women are smoking. to come into
their presence in drawing room, wearing
evening clothes, and then to begin puff1ng
at a big cigar. goes against his idea Of
what is good manners.
my husband told me of one very good
fellow of his acquaintance who confided
that he could just as easily penetrate into
a drawing room company of elegantly at
tired women in his shirt-sleeves as he could
smoking cigar. That was his way of
looking at the custom. But he was not ex-
actly what one would call man of the
world
During the last winter the few New
York drawing rooms where one found men
and women sitting together smoking after
formal dinner were those belonging to
persons who entertain all the time and in
the most elegant fashion, who are not
obliged when they give a formal dinner to
have caterers from outside come In and
cook and serve 1t. They are persons who
keep high-priced French chef in their
employ all winter long. and to whom din
ner giving is much a matter Of course
as attending an opera performance
Naturally they constantly receive guests
who, like themselves, have visited nearly
every country on the earth. and are as
much at home with royalty as among
are prepared to fall into the newest social
usages with an ease which makes the man
or woman to whom one formal dinner a
year Is event omen his har a,,o-