The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-07-01
WOMEN SMOKERS IN ENGLAND.
M0REASEB GREATLY IN NUMBER
IN LAST FEW YEARS.

---ll- 8I
Smoking More er q Fad Than q Hahit-Somo
OF the Injurious Results -Women, IRENE
To E1tremes- Views Held by Mea
Tho Ethiea Of Cigarette Smoking.
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
to isolated cases Of young girls who Thought
1t clever or amusing and elderly females
OF the tramp class who found solace for
an uncomfortable existence in sucking
an aged pipe OF unclsan description.
It 10 very different to-day. There are
women smokers In every class OF the conn
munity, students, society womei,- shop
giris and journalists, artists, girls In bust-
ness a gir6 who stay at homo, young
girls and married women, says Elizabeth
Sloan Chosser inthe London Daily Chronicle.
Even the grandmothers are not beyond
suspicion, although the very word seems
incompatible with cigarettes. 1t Is, perhapsh
too much to assert that most women smokei
but that a great many Of them appreciate
the soothing influence Of what man hae
so long considered his pet luxury CANNOT
be denied. Women smokers are inoreas-
ing, and at the same time man is becoms
Ing more tolerant and more accustomed
to the sight OF a woman manipulating q
cigarette. 1t seems as II 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 smoke
ing Ia that-it is always best to aoknows
ledge q self evident fact right away
women are more prone to the extreme
than men. When smoking is once acquired
as a habit 1t is a difficult matter to keep
it within strict and sensible limits, and
what may be very modera se smoking for
a man is dangerously near excess for o
young girl. A man may smoke a dozen
cigarettes In t~wenty-four hours without
any apparent damage to his health; the
girl who habitually disposes of six or eight
cigarettes a day is deliberately UNDER
mining her constitution. One Of the firsa
du ties Of a woman is to preserve her healthp
because. in spite Of all the assertions and
indignant denials Of the shrieiing sisters
hood, the chief reason Of our very existenca
is to provide the mothers OF future genera~
tions.
/ have often been told by women that
they had started smoking more as q joke
and that the habit had grown upon them
until they could not imagine stl listen
no more pathetic figure than the heavy
smoker Of the gentler ser. Thin, anRmioI
highly strung, irritable, with Gold, 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 Ii ignor
rant Of the dangers she. runs in smoking
what she calls a harmless. nerve soothing
cigarette. Those who argue that a woma
might az well say that q girl should take
brandy or opium to oounteract the de-
pressing effects of an unfortunate Q v
affair. Smoking in that eenee is druggingl
the tobacco is to be regarded as g nafootiot
and all narcotics are to be avoided unlees
ordered by a doctor.
One cause Of the prevalence Of dyspepsia
nowadays is smoking, and dyspepsia acta
ss a brake on an ambitious woman ano =
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 moderation9 -Four
ciga rettes O day cannot possibly be tho
cause Of my Ill health plaintively aseerts
the martyr to palpftation and indigestionS
but nicotine affects different people In
varying degrees. Two cigarettes @ day
Is excess for the n6urotic woman, VINO should
When women begin to smoke they like
to do it thoroughly, and a visit to the smok-
ing room Of any Of the women's clubs 10
sufficient to prSye to the observer thas fn no
ommon Most people have 9 hasy GUM.
especially accompanied by inhaling, 10
bad thing. The physiological effects OF
which acts chiefly upon the heart. causing
irregular action and producing the CON:
dition known as smokers heart. The girl
who Ia an habitual smoker undermines
her health and units herself for work.
A frequent complaint OF the smoker 10
loss OF mental tone and inability to cons
centrate the attention. Nervous symphonic
will be more apparent in a woman smoker
than a man, because wonan's nervous
and more easily upset. That smoking, even
in moderation, is harmful to women Is very
probable. There are many who assert thae
hahitual smoking has a deteriorating effect
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 consideration.
1t Is not so much what we do mai seems
to matter, but how we do it, and this is true
Of smoking as of everything else. To
smoke In a public place lays a woman open
to the criticism Of strangers, and although
q girl is not necessarily fast because she
enjoys an occasional cigarette, the true
kSItleW fld uNNbhp u'i'ih
conventional in public. II a girl will smoke
she should only do so among friends, In
the privacy Of her own house and, prefer
ably, in a gathering Of women and OF women
who smoke themselves.
There are people who consider a girl
peculiar IL she emokes n cigarette. Then
WHY shock their susceptibili'ies by what isI
in their opinion, the brazen display Of an
unwomanly act? Others are RS much sur
priaed at the women who don't smoke.
hOnly the middle class British atron Ea
nop-smokcr nowadays" J have been toldt
and ran only reply tina the oninion OF the
average middle Cars lritish n a'ron 10
GENERALLY a verv sound ono. Ths modern
young mother and her cigarettes Is some~
thing OF a novelty even vet. she payd
proper attention TO her house and her
nursery she will not lave much time 10
waste in smoking.
Whatever he' NAV cav ~ the subject, In
his heart Of hearts the a'erage ni~i 5:s-
approves Of women sno'in~. II may no
inherent selfshreas. il rar Ire association
and a sensitive regard add desire to keep
his womenfolk unspottea from the world;
the fact remains that o. per cent. OF mon
prefer women not to srnopc. The few who
do not mind have generally a sister, wife
fs-1 H. -. .IEw