The young American woman who has just been expelled from college because she insisted on smoking is only one instance of* the attitude the great American public towards this all-important. subject. Kecently the appointment teacher was held in abeyance for, the same reason, Another teacher, bought a motor in order to get far enough away from her school to be able to smoke. In the men's clubs the well-known restriction still holds that women may not smoke there, Hotel managers take it upon themselves to inter" fore if women smoke in public, and at one hotel all smoking. is prohibited on the ground that "Vermont does not Tike it, and what is good enough for Vermont good enough for everybody else." In the trains tie conductor practi= cally refuses to let_women sit. the smoking-cars. This is partly, no doubt, to prevent the men from being overcrowded, but it is algo considered not quite the thing for, ladies to sit in smoking-ears. Smoking, in short, is still a grave moral Guestion the country which first provided conseiene Europe. with tobacco, "And being Jo grave moral question, it, is applied with greater rigidity women than to men, in order to make it even graver and even more moral, The result is, of course, that it still either very daring, very, smart to smoke, or it is very re= prehensible, It makes for a good deal of exaggeration either way. 'American women insist oh smoking in public, where they would probably not' smoke otherwise, if only to register a protest against male prejudice, And smoking un~ der protest undoubtedly tends to attract too much attention, and therefore to: become either' very, smart or very fast. It is still possible to be fast in America, and there is mo doubt that being fast, cither vin smoke or via drink, assesses considerable attractions for the youngest of all generations, In some ways, of course, a country of prohibitions ly much more amusing to live in than one in which individual, liberty obtains, remains young for one thing, the prohibitionists themselves tak ing up the burden of age and sponsibility. Tt provides the sensi of adventure which used to come from defying nurse in the nursery. And as smoking does not matter ery much ale way or another, it ig given a zest which the older countries have completely forgot fen, and which is only to be recaptured in the Jand of liberty and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.