WHY SHOULD NOT WOMEN SMOKE?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 117, 25 August 1910, Page 4

WHY SHOULD NOT WOMEN SMOKE?

Not very long ago a small boy accosted a dignified stranger in the streets of one of our cities and asked him for a match. The small boy desired to light his cigarette. He did not, of course, know that'the dignified stranger was a Judge of the Supreme Court. A few years since a member of Parliament was moved to draft a Bill for the suppression of smoking tobacco by juveniles. The Bill became Jaw,..but the boys did not cease smoking. A few weeks ago a lady in the South was observed in public indulging in a cigarette. It was considered that as the lady was not a Maori that there was novelty in the incident. It has been stated that Queen Alexandra prefers Egyptian cigarettes, that the present Queen is partial to a weaker variety, that various Continental lady royalties are much addicted to the habit, and that, in fact, the habit among ladies ( is common'generally. City tobacconists in New Zealand, recently interviewed on the- subject, state that lady customers are harder to please than men customers. The New York Christian Endeavor Societies have lately made some ado about the increase of the habit among women, and have begged ■Mrs. 'N. Longworth, daughter of the exPresident, to discontinue smoking as an example to her less prominent sisters. That women are less given to what are generally understood to be harmful habits is true, ibut no good reason has ever been advanced .why women should not be as "wicked" as men. H men are alaimed at the prevalence of "manly" i bad habits in women, their obvious course ' ia to discontinue the habits themselves. Nothing would cure men of the "shouting" habit so quickly as the growth of it J among women. If the wives of the good fellows who always have a shilling for their friends were to suddenly develop the "shouting" habits men would fight it on the grounds of domestic economy. It will be admitted: that women have as great a right to "treat" their friends as they 'have to vote, and certainly if they can play ihockey and wear men's collars and otherwise enter' into the field of men's sports and amusements, there seems to'be nothing"" to prevent them smoking cigarettes or even pipes. If our mothers took to large pipes for public use and were frequently seen "shouting" for their friends, no doubt the sons woiiid be less likely to indulge in either variation of the monotony of life.