Cigarettes 203 



cigarette it would be intolerable. An Englishman 

 will face unmoved the armies of France or the bowl- 

 ings of her mobs, but from her cigarette he flies 

 apace. In the Paris Figaro, a year ago, ' Nestor ' 

 recounted his success with this horrible weapon : 

 ' There are still too many Englishmen in Monte 

 Carlo. Still, during my trip I had the pleasure of 

 making one old Englishman's life a misery to him by 

 smoking him out, with my strong French cigarettes, 

 from the railway compartment in which he sat with 

 me. He left the carriage half asphyxiated at Lyons, 

 and I felt that Fashoda was, at any rate, partially 

 avenged. Childish, no doubt, but one must do what 

 one can.' 



Childish it was not, most certainly : France has no 

 more terrible weapon than her cigarette. 



It is rare to find an Englishman really adept at 

 making cigarettes. He usually blunders, and makes 

 them so clumsily that he buys ready-made ones. 

 Italians, Spaniards, and Brazilians make them as 

 they are needed without ceasing their conversation 

 — a pinch of tobacco, a paper, a twist, and the 

 cigarette is made. In Russia the consumption is 

 2,600,000,000, and in Austria 2,000,000,000 per 

 annum. 



Twenty years ago the cigarette was almost unknown 

 outside France, Spain, Italy, and Turkey. To-day 

 it is the most popular smoke among all classes in 

 England and America. Then it was considered 

 infra dignitatem for a gentleman to smoke a cigarette 

 in public as to-day the pipe is publicly banned by the 

 rules of good society. 



