The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-10-22

dangerously near excess for a young
girl. A man may smoke dozen Gig
arettes in twenty-four hours without
any apparent damage to his health;
because, in spite of all the assertions
and indignant denials OF the Shrek
Ing. sisterhood, the chief reason Of
our very existence is to provide the
mothers of future generations.
have often been told by women that
they have started smoking more as
joke and that the habit had grown up
on them until they could not imagine
existence without their cigarette case.
And there is no more pathetic figure
than the heavy smoker OF the gentler
sex. Thin, anaemic, highly strung,
irritable, with cold, clammy hands and
stained finger tips, she is one of the
least admirable products of the woman
movement
She is either a brave woman or she
is ignorant of the dangers she runs
in smoking what she calls harmless,
nerve-soothing cigarette. Those who
argue that a woman should smoke to
soothe her domestic worries might as
well say that girl should take bran.
dy or opium to counteract the de-
pressing effects Of an unfortunate love
affair. Smoking in that sense Is drug
ging, the tobacco is to be regarded as
narcotic, and all narcotics are to
be avoided unless ordered by q doc
tor.
One cause Of the prevalence of dys-
pepsia nowadays is smoking, and dys-
pepsia acts as brake on an ambitious
woman and blot on a pretty one.
And let few women will believe that
the red nose Of dyspepsia is secondary
to their habit of smoking. In strict
moderation smoking is apparently
harmless; but what is moderation:
-Four cigarettes a day cannot posi-.
bly, be the cause of my i'll health"
plaintively asserts the martyr of pal
pitation and indigestion, but nicotine
affects different people in varying de-
grees. Two cigarettes day is excess
for the neurotic woman, who should
: never smoke at all.
like to do it thoroughly, and a visit
to the smoking room Of any Of the wo-
mems clubs is sufficient to prove to
the observer that the dangerous habit
Of inhaling Is far too common. Most
pCOpAO now q macy 6lAuMCElu6 VI kuc
fact that much smoking, especially ac-
companied by inhaling, is bad thing.
The physiological effects Of tobacco are
due to an alkaloid, nicotine, which
acts chiefly upon the heart, causing
irregular action and producing the
condition known as smokers heart.
The girl who is an habitual smoker
undermines her health and units her
self for work.
A frequent complaint Of the smoker
Is loss OF mental tone and inability to
concentrate the attention. Nervous
symptoms will be more apparent in a
woman smoker than in man, because
Woman's nervous organization is of
more delicate order and more easily
upset. That smoking, even in moiera-
ton. is harmful to women is very
probable. There are many who assert
that habitual smoking has deter
iorating effect on the race, and if
parents Of both sexes smoke it would
follow that the children would be
physically inferior to the children OF
non-smokers, other things being equal.
This is mainly a personal consid-
Grafton. 1t Is not SO much what we do
that seems to matter. but how We do it,
and this is true of smoking as Of every
thing else. To smoke in public place
lays a woman open to the criticism OF
strangers, and although girl is not
necessarily fast" because she enjoys
an occasional cigarette, the true gen.
tlewoman avoids anything unconven-
tional in public. If girl will smoke
she should do so only among friends,
and in the privacy of her own house
;,, ~
men and of women who smoke them
selves
There are people who consider girl
peculiar ii she smokes Il cigarette.
Then why shock their susceptibilities
by what is, in their opinion, the brazen
display of an unwomanly act? Others
are as much surprised at the women
who don't smoke. Only the middle
nowadays" | have been told. and can
age middle class British matron is
generally very sound one. The mod
ern young mother and her cigarette
is something of IL novelty even yet
Ii she pays proper attention to her
house and her nursery she will not
have much time to waste in smoking.
Whatever he may say on the subject,
in his heart of hearts the average man
disapproves of women smoking. 1t |
may be inherent selfishness. 1t may be |
association and sensitive regard and
desire to keep his womenfolk unspot-
ted from the world: the fact remains
that 80 per cent of men prefer women |
not to smoke. The few who do not |
mind have generally sister, wife or
woman friend whom they particularly |
respect and who has succumbed to the |
OF smoking. How often |
We hear a man declare. II do not mind !
girls smoking at all. but should not
like my wife to smoke cigarettes" 4
reason behind II!
There are women who smoke not be- |
cause they care for it. but under the