Girls’ Impressions Of Pipe-Smoking Men

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30536, 3 September 1964, Page 6

Girls ’ Impressions Of Pipe-Smoking Men

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright) SOUTHAMPTON, September 1. The cigarette-smoking man is better dressed than the pipe-smoker, more cosmopolitan and sophisticated—according to non-smoking college girls.

Mr Derek Forrest, reader in psychology at Trinity College, Dublin, told the British Association for the Advancement of Science this assessment came from a survey he made at a women’s college. He said the man smoking the pipe was seen by the girls as “middle-aged, wearing tweeds—a man who sits by the fire with his dog at his side, his family in the background, his main activity being to relight his pipe with great ceremony.” Varied Reasons Mr Forrest said reasons given by the girls for not smoking were varied. Only two, for instance, mentioned cancer. Most frequent reasons for non-smoking, he said, were lack of desire, not enough money and dislike of taste or smell. Dirty Habit He said that some called smoking a dirty habit and occasionally described it as unladylike. Non-smokers described the smoking girls as “fast,” but smokers thought she was

“moderately attractive, wellgroomed and likeable.” Cigarette ends were a major cause of Britain’s record fire bill of £66.5 million last year. The Fire Protection Association said that with carelessly discarded matches and other smoking, cigarette ends started one in five of the fires costing more than £lO,OOO where the cause was established. This was an increase on 1962’s figure, but electrical apparatus and wiring remained the greatest known cause and was responsible for nearly 30 per cent of large fires. The study of Britain s “£lO,OOO plus” fires in 1962

and 1963 appears in the latest F.P.A. journal. More than 650 such fires i occurred last year and caused damage estimated at £3B mil-lion—-£6 million more than in j 1962.