Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1910-02-05
WOMEN SPEND HALF
 MILLION ANNUALLY
New Y0rh's Demand for Cgarettes %,i0WS il Huge Increase in Past
 Twelve Months.

New York, Feb. f.-New York wo- men burned $500,o0o last year. From todays Indications in the business world they will burn even more-in fact, a great deal more-in the year 1912.
 Furthermore, the word burn is used literally, because these fair New Workers actually hold the fuel be- tween thumb and forefnger and set a match to it, Not that the money is in the form of bil's from the Uni ted States treasury ay, it is in the form Of cigarettes,
 Half million SIMS sum for women to send up in smoke. The figures are furnished by dealers, and conservative dealers at that. Three of them cater particularly to women One of them seeks no other trade. To this half million add money spent by women cigarettes faddists for smart accessories and one has a fair idea of what the cigarette habit costs New York women today.
 Come from Central park down Fifth avenue for a spin and sec First, smuggled among the conservative brownGtone mansions. which once echoed the gentle laughter of the old Knickerbocker aristocracy, one comes upon the atelier of a one-time social figure now an importer mo- diste. Early New Workers would have called it a dressmaker's shop. Now # is an ate1ier, and it's patrons al- ways are addressed as madame
 Today madame" is being fitted with wonderful froek of smolder- ing grayish rose silk, with amethyst lights. From a cabinet in the cor ner tactful saleswoman brings slender chain of beaten silver, from which depends a quaint case, all studded with amethysts. Madame seizes it with eager hands. Dull sil- yer and gems blend perfectly with the oddly tinted gown.
 ''How much. A Hundred? Why, the gown is only S175. Yes, I know it simply makes the costume per feet But I've half dozen cigar place for the matches is a dear. Ye-es, I'll take it.
 Ask any gown importer whose ate- Her can boast a cabinet of odd jew elery and trinkets where lie the best profits, and she will answer: ]! 'In the fads of the cigarette smok- er."
 Time was that a single gold or silver cigarette case attached to a matching chatelain sufficed for even , the most constant cigarette smoker, i but today the gold case is consid- , cred loud" and the correct thing I is a case of dull carved or filigree metal inlaid, or rather incrusted with gems to match the gown
 Sometimes they come in pairs, these cases; one for cigarettes and one for matches, and especially smart is a new design just over from Berlin showing the head of the kaisers own proud eagle, sharp beak and cleaning eye, opening at the top to display tiny compartments for small cigarettes and smaller matches.
 What is the reason for the aston ishing increase of the smoking habit among New York women? Simply this: They took it up because it looks smart in much the same way that small boy takes his first smoke. In much the same way, too. it has grown on them, until now , they are wrecl1ing their nerves with nicotine, to say nothing of squander- ing great sums of money. It is no longer a fad with women, this smok- ins-a woman must have her after breakfast pull as much as she must have her breakfast. Sometimes she can get along without the food much more easily than without her cigar cite.
 Thousands of women in New York smoke from fifteen to twenty cigar cites day. Those most alarmed by conditions do not claim that there is anything definitely immoral about the habit, but from a hygienic stand- point it has reached such a stage today that physicians have begun to look upon it as positive menace to the future of their women patients. In this fact lies the death knell of the habit, in all probability.