SOCIAL AND .ESTHETIC VIEW. 143 



greedily and strongly, as long as ever they are able 

 to hold their Breath, and seeming to bless them- 

 selves, as it were, with the Refreshment it gives 

 them." 



In a letter bearing on this point, John G. Whit- 

 tier writes : " The vile practice is increasing — the 

 blessed air of heaven is foul with it. Our novel- 

 writers, women especially, on both sides of the 

 water, make their heroes announce their coming to 

 their fair ones by the smell of tobacco-smoke, and 

 take their cigars from their mouths only when they 

 stop puffing to kiss ! It is a shameful and filth}' 

 habit, indecent and unmanly." 



Now I have faith enough in my own sex to be- 

 lieve that anything of this on the part of a true 

 woman must be from ignorance or inconsideration. 

 How otherwise, dear sister, would it be possible 

 for you or for me to speak lightly of such a prac- 

 tice? How could we give our seeming approval 

 to it by accepting an invitation to walk or to ride 

 with a gentleman who has a cigar in his mouth ; 

 or by voluntarily putting ourselves in the way of 

 inhaling cigar-smoke, no matter how delicately 

 scented it may be ? Is a poisoned chalice any the 

 less fatal for being wreathed with roses? How can 

 we dare to countenance that which not only has 

 been proved perilous, but which our Quaker-poet 

 pronounces "a shameful and filthy habit, indecent 

 and unmanly V Could we ask a higher aesthetic 

 authority ? 



Let me introduce other testimony from a 



