The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-11-23
The After.plnner CLEAR

UC fNlbCi-G'HbNl O'Soi
The war on tobacco is reaching an
acute stage. The president OF the
nonsmokers' protective league, DR..
Charles G.. Pease, has declined to at
tend the dinner of the academy of
political science to be given at the
Hotel Aston in New York tomorrow
evening, because the officers could
not guarantee that there would be
no smoking. In his letter he declar-
ed
Public opinion. so-called will never
be changed so long as all men pros
trate themselves before It. OF
course it is understood that my sense
of Justice, to say nothing of my idea
of chivalry, will prevent my atten-
dance at the dinner. What ! gain
by being true to my sense of man
hood would lose by giving assent
by my presence to wrong against
womanhood, and consequently
against manhood
This raises, it will be seen, very
complicated issue indeed. To be
true to manhood he should attend
and conceal his dislike for tobacco
with Spartan fortitude. But to be
true to womanhood, he should be
absent thus registering his protest
against the practice of smoking. Yet
this is not the final twist For by
being untrue to womanhood he
would be untrue to his manhood. II
sounds like a dilemma in a Shakes
pearean comedy-"As You Dislike
It." perhaps. The natural solution
would be to wait till the cigars were
passed and then retire like man
with the ladies, but on such occas
ions as this women are often privil
eyed to sit through the speaking II
their fortitude land loyalty to man
hood, hold out. How could the pre-
sident OF the nonsmokers' protective
league make his example more i'm
pressve than by attending as many
banquets as possible and retiring al
the psychological moment, thereby
rebuking both the manhood and the
womanhood present?
The case presented by the presi-
dent of the academy is much sim
pier. II am afraid" he regretfully
told DIR. Pease, that in the present
state of public opinion it would not
be feasible to pass rule prohibiting
smoking" He did not of course re.
fer TO the present state of public
opinion in regard to after-dinner ora
tory, yet the two things are not
wholly disconnected. Possibly mem.
bers OF nonsmokers' protective leag.
ues endure oratory better than the
average man. But 1t is TO be feared
that on the low intellectual plane on
which the world at large lives spec
ches without smoke would seem
cherries. Smokers are good or at
any rate patient. listeners while the
fumes last, as the popularity of the
smoke-talk shows; deprived of this
solace they are apt to be restless. II
seems TO be an irreconcilable conflict
unless some mechanical solution can
be found. Why not have banquet
halls divided by a plate glass partit
ion into two sections, one for men,
and the other for women and the
nonsmokers' protective league who
could thus be true to both manhood
and womanhood The gestures OF
the speakers would be perfectly Wis
ibIe on one side and not wholly OBJ
fuscated on the other and the speech.
es could be made distinctly audible
in both compartments by the tele-
megaphone. just as the announce.
ments OF the departure OF trains is
made in an up-to-date railway stat.
ion simultaneously. by means of the
electric annunciator, in the general
waiting room and in the den of in
iquity reserved for smokers. In
some such way as this both oratory
and morals may be saved, and all
may be true to their sex or sexes.
But this still leaves the demon rum
to be dealt with. not to speak of the
demon coffee, which is OF almost the
same age as the demon tobacco. And
perhaps there should be a separate
coop for the Fletcherites and the
nonuric acid dietists. There are peo.
pie, II must be remembered, to whom
the gorging incident to banquet
seems a worse vice than the after.
dinner cigar.-Springheld Republican