Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-11

Inc number Of women who have
adopted the habit of cigarette smoking
has increased enormously Of late years
Ten or fifteen years ago smoking among
women In this country was more or less
confined to isolated cases Of young girls
who thought It clever or amusing and
| elderly females Of the tramp class who
! found solace for an uncomfortable ex-
istence In sucking an aged pipe Of un-
clean description
1t Is very different today. There are
woman smokers in every class Of the
community, students society women
shop girls and journalists, artists, girls
III business and girls who stay at home,
! Young girls and married women. says
Elizabeth Sloan Chosser i'm the London
Daily Chronicle. Even the grand
mothers are not beyond suspicion, al
though the very word seems incom-
patible with cigarettes 1t Is, perhaps,
too much to assert that most women
smoke, but that a great many of them
appreciate the soothing influence of
what man has so long considered his
pet luxury cannot be denied. Woman
smokers are increasing. and at the same
time man is becoming more tolerant
and more accustomed to the sight of a
N'iiltill llldlIlHuldllllB a. NiBdItNNts II
seems as If woman means to smoke, in
spite of the fact that the habit has been
condemned on moral aesthetic and
medical grounds
The chief argument against women
smoking is that-it is always best to
acknowledge a self-eVident fact right
away-women are more prone to the eX-
treme than men. When smoking is
once acquired as a habit 1t is a difficult
matter to keep 1t within strict and
sensible limits, and what may be very
moderate smoking for a man is danger
ously near excess for a young girl.
man may smoke a dozen cigarettes in
twenty-four hours without any apparent
damage to his health; the girl who
habitually disposes of six or eight cigar
cites a day Is deliberately undermining
her constitution One of the first duties
of woman is to preserve her health,
because, in spite of all the assertions of
indignant denals of the shrieking sis
terhood the chief reason of our very
existence is to provide the mothers of
future generations
have often been told by women that
they had started smoking more as a
joke and that the habit had grown upon
them until they could not imagine eX
istence without their cigarette case.
And there is no more pathetic figure
than the heavy smoker of the gentler
sex. Thin, anaemic, highly strung, ir-
ritable, with cold clammy hands and
stained finger tips, she is one of the
least admirable products of the woman
She is either a brave woman or she is
ignorant of the dangers she runs in
smoking what she calls a harmless, |
nerve soothing cigarette. Those who
argue that a woman should smoke to
soothe her domestic worries might rs
well say that a girl should take brandy
or opium to counteract the depressing
effects of an unfortunate love affair. !
in that sense is drugging, the
is to be regarded as a narcotic,
and all narcotics are to be avoided un- |
less ordered by doctor.
One cause of the prevalence of dys- |
pepsia nowadays is smoking, and dys- !
pepsia acts as a brake on an ambitious |
woman and blot on a pretty one. And |
yet few women will believe that the red |
nose of dyspepsia is secondary to their !
habit of smoking. In strict moderation
smoking is apparently harmless; bu.
what is moderation? -Four cigarettes
a day cannot possibly be the cause
of my i'll health" plaintively asserts the
martyr to palpitation and indigestion,
but nicotine affects different people in
varying degrees. Two cigarettes a day
is excess for the neurotic woman, who |
should never smoke at all.
When women begin to smoke they like |
to do it thoroughly, and a visit to the |
room of any of the womens |
clubs is sufficient to prove to the OBJ
server that the dangerous habit of in
1aling is by far too common. Most peo
pie have hazy glimmering of the fact !
that much smoking, especially accom-
panied by inhaling, is a bad thing. The |
effects of tobacco are due
o an alkaloid, nicotine, which acts
,hiefly upon the heart, causing irregular
action and producing the condition
Known as smokers heart. The girl who |
s an habitual smoker undermnes her !
health and unfits herself for work.
A frequent complaint of the smoker |