In The Smoke Room

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XIII, 27 March 1897, Page 372

In The Smoke Room

Al TOMATIC lunch counters are coming into fashion in the cafe and restaurants of Berlin and other German cities. The ‘ counter ’ is really a row of ornamental cabinets set along the wall. Each has a shelf with cups and glasses, and above these are spouts for the different beverages in demand, with slots for the money. They are warmed or cooled in winter or summer, and pass through silver tubes to the spouts. A clockwork controls the supply, and a spraying nozzle washes the dishes. Sandwiches, etc., are kept under a bell jar on a tray, which revolves when a coin frees it and brings the food to an opening, from which the purchaser can take it Some fashionable ladies who smoke cigarettes keep them in air-tight jars with a bottle of attar of roses until they are heavy with the perfume. A pharmaceutical student named Dufay started from Paris on Sunday afternoon to travel round the world in three years, walking wherever possible. His object seems to be to prove the weather-resisting qualities of paper, for he has undertaken to wear no other suits than those made of that material. A man who has gone through all the grades of the drapery business, tells this anecdote of a mean employer. Having reasons to believe that one of his assistants contemplated a change, the master advertised for an assistant in the vacancy column of the local newspaper. The unsuspecting salesman fell headlong into the trap thus laid, and, in consequence, was summarily’ dismissed, without even the usual caution or the option of refusal. Apropos of the fuss Americans make over criminals a member of the Minnesota Legislature has introduced a Bill which aims to deprive the gentler sex of one of its

privileges—that of sending flowers and other tokens of sympathy to gaolbirds It provides that any one, except a husband, wife, child, parent, brother or sister, who indulges in this practice shall be guilty of misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be punished by imprisonment for from fifteen to ninety days, or by a fine of from £t, to Z2O. ‘ In France,’ says Les Annales, ‘ the association of men and women in all kinds of sports has been the cause of a greater degree of intimacy, and has brought us to accept the cigarette, which use is extending among young women of the most exclusive circles. Even the most critical no longer protests when two rosy lips send out a few puffs of smoke between a couple of games of tennis. Besides, our grandmothers loved tobacco. The Duchess of Chartres and the Duchess of Bourbon under Louis XIV even went so far as to smoke pipes, yes, pipes, my dears ! And in the “ Letters of a Traveller ” we read that George Sand always kept tobacco on hand for her own personal use. General Booth, of the Salvation Army, says there are 5,000 homeless women in London above the age of fifty years. They subsist by cleaning doorsteps, selling watercresses, picking rags and collecting refuse, and find shelter at night where they can. The Army intends opening a home for this class in the aristocratic West End. It is told of King George 11. that when he was not allowed to have his own way, he would get into a terrible temper and kick his hat all round the room. He had the good sense, however, not to ‘ let himself go ’ in this way until he was safe within the privacy of the royal apartments. The newspaper men who went to Moscow to report the coronation festivities have received from the Czar the medal of St. Andrew, but they are not particularly proud of the decoration. Free Russia, the organ of the Friends of Russian Freedom (the society which introduced George Kennan to the English people), says that the medal of St. Andrew is bestowed in Russia on a well-conducted footman, a tradesman who has given satisfaction, a forester who has managed a successful hunt, or any person of analogous position whom it is desired to reward.