SOCIAL AND AESTHETIC VIEW. 127 



" Cigar smoke puffed in a man's face by another 

 man is assault and battery" is the declaration of a 

 New York judge. "If that is the case," says one, 

 "cigarette-smoke puffed anywhere in one's neigh- 

 borhood should be considered murder in the first 

 degree." 



Now, have gentlemen the smallest idea of the 

 discomfort and annoyance occasioned by this 

 habit? It is bad enough to encounter it in 

 public, or sometimes in entering a room where 

 the sickly fumes have been caught and impris- 

 oned ; but to have it sprung suddenly upon us 

 in our most unsuspecting mood and with no possi- 

 bility of escape ! 



You are a guest in a charming household, and 

 at a late hour seek your room in the third story. 

 As the weather is blustering, and your bed stands 

 near the window, you dare not raise it; but, 

 instead, you open your door. Soon that unmis- 

 takable vapor ascends from away down-stairs. 

 Beginning to cough, you get up and shut the door. 

 Through the cracks and the keyhole it still creeps 

 in, causing a sense of faintness and suffocation. 

 There is nothing for it but to open your window. 

 Between the cold air on the one side and the 

 "choice Havana" whiffs on the other, so subtly 

 telegraphed up to you from the polished gentleman 

 and scholar, luxuriating in his paradise of smoke 

 below, you both shiver and cough. Tired out, 

 you fall, at length, into a disturbed slumber, till, 

 becoming suddenly conscious of a strong wind 



