HOW WOMEN TRAVEL BY RAIL IN RUSSIA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5549, 22 February 1886, Page 1

HOW WOMEN TRAVEL BY RAIL IN RUSSIA.

* A lady smoker in a railway train iv j England, we can thankfully say, ia a curiosity. But in Kussia, feminine smokers I Beem to rule the day on railways, as the I following story will show : — " The other j day," says a correspondent to a German newspaper*, " I accompanied a lady relative ! to tho Nicholas Eailway Depot, Sb Petersj burg, Eussil, from which place sho wanted ; to take the evening express for Moscow, i and on showing her iirst-class ticket, she ■ applied to the conductor for aseatin a ladies,' coupd or compartment, which generally . seats from eight to ten persona. To our great surprise we found this coupiJ, the ouly , apartment * for Ladies ' on the train, wa_ : occupied by lady smokers, and was so '. thoroughly filled with smoke that even a , tobacco-using man would have felt miserable in ic. When I asked whether smoking : was permitted the conductor gave me an ' answor in the affirmative; thereupon I ; went to tho chief agent at the depot and politely asked him whether he could not furnish 1110 with a seat in a ladies' conch, where smoking was prohibited, but 1 '■ reoeived this answer : ' There are gentlemen's coaches for those who do not smoke iv which women may sit, but apartments expressly for ladies where smoking is prohibited do not exist on our trains." ' Well, how is a lady travelling alone to do when she cannot 3tand much smoke ? ' * Why let her go in tho car for gentlemen marked ' No Smoking.' "