66 A LECTURE ON TOBACCO. 



that, owing to the facihties afforded by some grocers and 

 confectioners, they drifik much more than they did. Do 

 we wish them to smoke? Those who are Hving in an 

 atmosphere narcotized by their male relatives will not find 

 it difficult. In the North you often see poor women with 

 a pipe. If it is so very soothing, their nerves need com- 

 posing as much as those of men ; and a careworn wife, 

 whose work is never done, may want the comfort as much 

 as a working-man. Then if the boys smoke, why not 

 the girls ^ and little children, just as they are taught by 

 the drinkers to drink? Women smoke opium in China, 

 and tobacco in Russia, Spanish America, and elsewhere. 

 In New Zealand the Maori woman clings to her pipe and 

 weed. Among savages in Siberia " tobacco is their first 

 and greatest luxury; women and children all smoke, 

 the latter learning the accomplishment as soon as they are 

 able to toddle.^ In Burmah they smoke in their mother's 

 arms.^ Is this what we want, or are content to drift to ? 

 This is what we may come to if we make no opposing 

 effort. Much will depend on women themselves ; many 

 have been accustomed to tolerate smoking, and even pro- 

 fess to like it, when it gives pleasure to those whom they 

 like. A poor woman would be blamed if, by her objection 

 to the pipe, she drove her husband to the public-house ; 

 but this should not be the alternative. Smokers are yet 

 to be found who find more delight in a cheerful, kindly 



1 "The Daily News," of January ii, describes the abandoned 

 girls, many of them very young, who frequent the Rogues' Walk 

 after midnight, each with a " manly cigar " in her mouth ; " the last 

 drain of ardent spirits and the fumes of tobacco seem to have com- 

 pletely taken away from them the last vestige of shame." 



2 "Monthly Letters," p. 191. ^ "Narcotism," No. 46. 



