SMOKING IN PUBLIC PLACES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18516, 29 March 1922, Page 5

SMOKING IN PUBLIC PLACES

WOMEN PROHIBITED. NEW YORK’S ORDINANCE. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. NEW YORK, March 27. (Received March 28, at 9.50 p.m.) New York awoke this morning to find a new surprise awaiting it. The Board of Aldermen passed and the Mayor signed an ordinance of which there is no record in the official Hansard, prohibiting women smoking in public places. Women themselves can in no manner be punished if they violate the ordinance, but the proprietor or manager where the women smoke is subject to a fine of from five to 25 dollars or 10 days in gaol, or a fine and gaol both. The newspapers made an attempt to communicate with various aidermen. Many of them declared that they had never heard of the ordinance. Finally one alderman admitted authorship of the ordinance. He said that he and his wife had been shocked to see women smoking in restaurants. The police, upon going on duty, were all ordered strictly to enforce the ordinance. New York’s Latin quarter, which is called Greenwich Village, is raising a violent protest. Artist leaders are communicating their views to the newspapers, which give the ordinance a great display. —A. and N.Z. Gable.