MAUDE ROYDEN AND TOBACCO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19963, 4 June 1928, Page 12

MAUDE ROYDEN AND TOBACCO.

Sir, —Miss Roy den told us that it was a most evil thing to set a good example—meaning, of course, in the sense of the Pharisee, who clid his good deeds to be seen of men. Bi.it surely it is a severe straining of words and ideas to tell an ordinary audience that one should not try to set others a good example. But if Miss Royden insists on this view of the matter, I would ask her if it does not therefore follow that it is a very proper thing to set a bad example ? Indeed, that really seems to be her point, in that she is defending the cigarette habit, which she has unfortunately acquired. We (most of ns?) do not wish to see our wives and daughters and friends smoking and we therefore regard Miss Royden's example as a bad one. The Methodist Episcopal Church in America is not particularly narrow or bigoted, yet they cancelled ail Miss Royden's fixtures If Miss Royden had claimed our indulgence for her cigarette as a human weakness, we could the more readily have overlooked it. E. S. Dukes.