.

What Queen Victoria, who hated tobacco and banished it from her
presence and from her abodes as far as she could, would have thought
and said of the extent to which cigarette-smoking is indulged in now
by women, is a question quite unanswerable. Yet Queen Victoria once
received a present of pipes and tobacco. By the hands of Sir Richard
Burton the Queen had sent a damask tent, a silver pipe, and two silver
trays to the King of Dahomey. That potentate told Sir Richard that the
tent was very handsome, but too small; that the silver pipe did not
smoke so well as his old red clay with a wooden stem; and that though
he liked the trays very much, he thought them hardly large enough to
serve as shields. He hoped that the next gifts would include a
carriage and pair, and a white woman, both of which he would
appreciate very much. However, he sent gifts in return to her
Britannic Majesty, and among them were a West African state umbrella,
a selection of highly coloured clothing materials, and some native
pipes and tobacco for the Queen to smoke.

Many royal ladies of Europe, contemporaries of Queen Victoria and her
son, have had the reputation of being confirmed smokers. Among them may
be named Carmen Sylva, the poetess--Queen of Roumania, the Dowager
Tsaritsa of Russia, the late Empress of Austria, King Alfonso's mother,
formerly Queen-Regent of Spain, the Dowager Queen Margherita of Italy
and ex-Queen Amelie of Portugal. It is, of course, well known that
Austrian and Russian ladies generally are fond of cigarette-smoking. On
Russian railways it is not unusual to find a compartment labelled "For
ladies who do not smoke."

The newspapers reported not long ago from the other side of the
Atlantic that the "smart" women of Chicago had substituted cigars for
cigarettes. According to an interview with a Chicago hotel proprietor,
the fair smokers "select their cigars as men do, either black and
strong, or light, according to taste." How in the world else could
they select them? It is not likely, however, that cigar-smoking will
become popular among women. For one thing, it leaves too strong and
too clinging an odour on the clothes.

One of the latest announcements, however, in the fashion pages of the
newspapers is the advent of "Smoking Jackets" for ladies! We are
informed in the usual style of such pages, that "the well-dressed
woman has begun to consider the little smoking-jacket indispensable."
This jacket, we are told "is