Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-09
WOMEN WHO SMOKE
INCREASED GREATLY N NUM-
Der IN LAST FEW YEARS
Smoking More Of Fad Than Habit
Some of the Injurious
Results.

From the london Daily Chronicle.
The number OF women who have adopted
the habit OF cigarette smoking has In
creased enormously Of late years. Ten or
fifteen years ago smoking among women
in this country was more or less confined
10 Isolated cases % young girls who thought
It clever or amusing and elderly females
OF the tramp class who found solace for
an uncomfortable existence in sucking an
AGED pipe OF urcleaa description.
1t is very different today. There are wo-
men smokers In every class of the commune
fly. students society women. shop girls
and Journalists. artists. girls IN business
and girls who stay al home. young girls
and married women Even the grand
mothers are not beyond suspicion, although
the very word seems Incompatible with Gig
ayettes Ii IS. perhaps. too much to assert
that most women smoke, but that 4 great
many of them appreciate the soothing in
fuence OF what man has so long considered
his pet luxury cannot be denied women
smokers are increasing, and at the same
time man is becoming more tolerant and
more accustomed to the sight OF woman
manipulating a cigarette. II seems as II
woman means to smoke. in spite of the fact
that the habit has been condemned en-
moral esthetic AID medical grounds
Women Extremists.
The chief argument against women smok-
ing e that-It Is always best to acknowl-
edge self-evident fact RICH; away-wo-
men are more prone to the extreme than
men. When smoking Is once acquired as
a habit it is a difficult matter to keep it
wi,hin strict and sensible limits. and what
may Ne very moderate smoking for a man
is dangerously near excess for young
girl. A man may smoke a dozen cigar
cites in twenty-four hours without any ap-
parent damage 20 mis- health; the girl who
habitUaly GiSQoses OF six eight cigar
cites n day is deliberately undermining Ger
constitution. one OF the first duties OF a
woman Is to preserve her health, because.
in spite Of all the assertions and indignant
denlals Of the shrleking sisterhood. 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 joke
and that the habit had grown upon them
without their cigarette case. And there IS
no more pathetic figure than the heavy
smoker Of the gentier sex. Thin. anaemic,
highly strung, irritable. with cold. clammy
hands and stained finger tips, she is one
Of the least admirable products of the wo-
man movement.
Dangers in Smoking.
Size Is either a brave woman or she is ig-
nora1t Of The dangers she runs in smoking
" i.eAs sue cans Il dl-litSSt nCINE-SOOlN4llS
cigarette. Those who argue that a woman
should smoke to soothe her domestic wor-
ries might as well say that girl should
take brandy or opium to counteract the
people IN varying degrees Two cigarettes
fair. Smoking in that sense IS drugging,
the tobacco Is to be regarded as a narcotic.
and all narcotics are TO be avoided unless
ordered by doctor
One cause OF the prevalence of dyspep-
STA nowadays is smoking. and dyspepsia
acts brake on an ambitious woman
and a blot on n 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: but what Is modera-
tion2 -Four cigarettes a day cannot possi-
bly, be the cause OF my III health plain
tiveSy asserts the martyr to palpitation and
Indigestion. but nicotine affects different
peOpla in varying degrees. Two cigarettes
u day is excess for the neurottc woman,
who should never smoke at all.
When women begin to smoke they like
70 do II thoroughly and visit to the smoh-
ing room of any Of the woInen's clubs is
sufficient to prove to the observer that the
dangerous habit of nhaling is far too COM
mon. Most people have a hazy giimmerfnS
OF the fact that much smoking. especially
accompanied by iuhalinz. Is a bad thing.
The physiological effects of tobacco are due
TO an alkaloid. nicotine which acts chiefly
and producing the condition known as
smokers heart The girl who Is an habit
ual smoker undermines her health and un-
its herself for work.
4 frequent complaint OF the smoker is
loss OF mental tone and inability 60 con-
cenTate the attention. Nervous symptoms
will he more apparent in a woman smoker
than a man. because woman's nervous
Organization IL OF a mora delicate order
and more easily upset. That smoking, even
in moderation, Is harmful TO women Is very
probable. There are many who assert that
hahituai smoking has deteroratng ei-
Icct on the race. ana IL parents of both
sexes smoke It would follow tnat the chill
drru would be physically inferior to thu
children Of uon-snckers, other things beinL
equal
This IS mainly personal consideration.
1t IS not 81 much what we do that seems
to matter. but how we do it. and this is
true OF smoking as of everything else. TO
smoke IN public place lays a woman open
to tie criticism OF strangers, and although
girl - not necessarily fast because she
enjoys an occasional cigarette, the true
gentlewonan avoids doing anything uncon-
Venti0nal in public. l. a girl Will smoke she
should only do 50 among friends, in the pri-
vGcy OF Ter own house and. preferably. In
n gathering OF women and Of women who
smoke themselves.