MODJESKA ON SMOKING.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 5236, 14 December 1883, Page 2

MODJESK A ON SMOKING.

.Many famous people smoke the cigarrette — ff or instance, Sarah Bernhardt, Mdme.Theo, Colombier, the ex-Empress Eugenic,' and '• many of the French ladies of prominence, Iv Spain all the women smoke. In Italy the "liabit is general, whilein Germany/ Austria, and other parts of the Continent it is quite the fashion to smoke cigarettes. " Inj Turkey every female has her hookah, narghileh, and chibouque, and there is less lung ' disease in Turkey, than in auy< other country, and .the women retain their teeth longer. Singers never smoke ; the music teachers "say that it "^ is bad for the voice. I suppose it is no secrejb that I occasionally indulge in a cigarette 1 . Men say that smoking acids digestion,; therefore it must .help women as well. They sky^ " ' , it' is a solace in hours of sadness or in case's of "pain— which is but another argument' in'my* fa/your.f a/your. A woman never indulges to excess ; ' J she knows more, in "this 'respect, 1 than ' the men. Many ladies indulge ia far Worse things than cigarette, .smpking-p . opium-eating, for instauce. ' Obher'a" "take morphine.; some take arsenic in small .doses , for the complexion and to make the fornV ' beautiful ; again, some women use belladonna to expand- the pupil of the eye, and make it look brilliant; "hydrate" of chloral, chloroform, and. hundreds of other horrible things in the shape of complexion washes, cosmetics, hair dyes, and "tooth paste " are consumed by thousands of women, some of whom are rendered almost insane. Compare the vice of cigarette smoking to this ! The Countess Hatzfeld some two years ago commenced taking up the defence of cigarette smoking among the " women. The German authoress-Frau Wanda .- voa Dunnajous - has made this quesquestion the subject of a book; and she has answered conclusively all the objections the „ men have been able to put forth',". Why ' should it be a sin for a woman to blow little clouds of smoke if she chooses to do so ? 1 Over-indulgence, of course, is bad j so.it is in eating meat — therefore shall meat be^ forbidden us ? Men should remember when } censuring this habit that women's lives are," to a great extent, sedentary. The very men . who criticise most are tho'sewho are open' to'" the most criticism themselves.— Study and , Stimulants.