The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1922-03-29
LIFTS NY. BAN ON
WOMEN SMOKERS
After Night Of Indignation Learn
Il Was a Mistake.
CLERK BLAMED FOR ERROR
Ordinance Making it Crime For Wo-
men to Smoke in Public Caused
CONSERVATION in Cafes.

New York, March 29.-POlice Com
missioner Enright lifted the ban on
smoking by women in public as sud
denly as he clamped it down, when he
learned Alderman McGuinness' anti
smoking ordinance had never been
passed by the board of aldermen or
signed by Mayor Hylan.
Daniel w. F. Mccoy, an employee
in the city clerk office, was led forth,
caparisOned in sackcloth and ashes as
official goat" for an error that had
set pro and even anti-smoking women
on the war path from the Battery /"
the far reaches of Harlem.
Mccoy, it was explained, was charg-
ed with clipping the official City Rec
ord for resolutions and ordinances
thai have been adopted and approved
bv the MAYOR, and sending them along
to the proper officials for enforcement.
Mccoy still was too much overcome
bv the wrath that had descended upo1
his head to explain just how he hap
pened to include the anti-smoking bill
in his list of ordinances adopted and
approved.
Cruise. city clerk, rallied to McCoy'S
defense and intimated broadly the
clerks office boy by no means had Il
corner on ivory
News it was all mistake came like
a reprieye from the gallOWs to pro
prietors of scores Of places where
qualification of miladyS passion for
the soothing weed was the chief source
of broad and butter revenues. Fash
ionable smoke shops for women HAD
sprung up in Fifth avenue, Broadway
and other centers, while Greenwich
Village had come to depend almost
exclusively on smoke rings to produce
an atmosphere of OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
the passing of the cup that cheers.
But the ordinance making it a crime
for proprietors of public places te-let
women smOke-lOOSed upon thunder
struck town Monday night by squads
of Commissioner Enright's tinest-did
not stop with spreading gloom in al
vanced places.
1t even had its effect on downtown
cafeterias, where StenographerS anG
women clerks fOrgather for luncheon
For the smoking evil" the ordinance
was designed to check has spread to
New York women in many walks of
life
Taxicab drivers were beginning tC
worry. too, for fear their conveyanceS
might be ruled public places anu
banned as smokeries for fair fares on
the way home from the theatre-thu>
causing a switch to the subway route
Alderman McGuinness, father of the
ordinance that had a hectic life from
shutdown to sunrise, was almost the
only New Yorker discOverable who
seemed to regret its passing.
1t was his pet. He had introduced
it twice, scarcely hoping it would see
even twelve hours of life. And wher
the tidings were borne to him the
ordinance was actually being enforced
by the police he worked himself grad
ually from incredulity to delight.
Aside from Alderman McGuinness
Commissioner Enright's bluecoated en-.
forcers of the anti-smOking fOunC
scarcely a friend. Flappers and ex.
tlappers who were caught in the acl
by enforcement squads and ordered
to throw away their Tags, told the un
comfortable policemen every thing
they thought they could say and still
keep out of durance vile.
Res+auteurs and cabaret keepers,
when served with notices against the
new crime" spluttered and swore
and talked about going to the courts
| to knock the Outrageous" ordinance
in the head.
| Prominent women, many Of WhOm
personally abhOr the smell of a cigar.
cite, rose to champion the rights OF
| their smoking sisters, denOuncing the
measure as a terrible blow at person.
al liberty and predicting it would re
suit only in a greater wave of smok
ing by wOmen-just, they said, as the
| prohibition law had started people &c
! drinking who never drank before.