The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-06-02

| saw haif a dozen women sitting
 smoking in the palm room with their | coffee. But they all looked half
 scared to death and none of them smoked with the ease of habit" Asked what she thought of women drinking in public places Lady Dug gan added: Ladies do not drink '
 was the retort. At least they do not
 sit and drink cocktails and vhfskey as I have seen them do in many ho- tels in New York and San Francisco and Chicago. Wine with the dinner certainly, but not ostentatiously in a.
 public tea room. Some of the dow ager peeresses of England and Scot land will not enter a hotel in London
 where smoking is allowed, and the
 Queen has set a decided ban upon
 smoking. She has said she would
 not receive a woman whom she knew
 to be an habituaI smoker of cigarettes. The suffragettes. poor things. rep
 resent the same unrest and thirst for novelty that makes the society
 woman take up cigarette snokfnz
 They want excitement and they ceT-
 ta1nly have it, but no one takes them very seriously. hope your New
 York women will not carry this fool
 fsh cry for equality as far as some
 Of our poor creatures. It seems so
 much wasted energy.'
 Few of the friends of Bessie Claw ton. the dancer have been able fo
 make out the sudden change of hesrf
 she suffered this week when on re-
 turning from London, she refused fo
 go to the bedside of Julian Mitchell
 her husband the creator of some of
 the greatest of stage pictures in re-
 cent years. The pretty little artist
 gave up her engagement in the Eng
 fish capitol when cabled that he was
 dying and when told on her arrival
 hvT ryp,ffN -l-.
 that he was dead, wept copfous1y
 Quickly corrected of this mfsappre- hension and told that he was out of danger she stamped her pretty toe on the steamship pier and declared she would entertain no suggestion of any reconciliation with him. The couple have been separated for several years and recently the wife who has been playing in London instituted an action for divorce against him but, never pushed it to trial Why she was willing to reconcile herself to man who was dying and unwilling to for give and forget when there was a chance of him living is hard to d. vine, unless out of sentiment for their daughter. Although she said she would return Immediately to England, friends will try to persuade her to go and see Mitchell. who while ra1Iying from the present attack is in bad way physically and subject to a re- turn of the malady which has it's grip on him.
 Notwithstanding the strenuous ef- forts that are being made by the re- form interests of the state. there ap- pears to be strong likelihood that racing will be re-established here as an institution after two years of sus- pension. Backed by the "socfety e1- ement' that has been foremost in the game for many years, led by August Belmont, James R. Keene and others who in the past ran expensive sta bles, the bill to amend the anti-gan1- bling laws enacted during the admin istration of former Governor Hughes, now a Justice of the United States Su- preme Court appears to have a good chance of going through at this ses- sion of the state legislature. If ft is approved most of the big tracks about the city which have been clos ed since the law went into effect msk- ing the stewards and directors of the clubs criminally liable for betting on the tracks, will be re-opened and most England will probably be brought back for the summer and fall meet ings Ever since the present law has been in force it has failed to fulfil the hopes of those who had looked for a decrease in the number of pool rooms in the city, where bets are ac- cepted on the races at Pensacola. Ju- arez and elsewhere. If anything there has been a marked increase in the number of these places, fndfcat- ing that in spite of the hostile legfs- lation, public interest In the sport, has suffered no abatement.