LADY SMOKER QUARANTINED.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 227, 30 October 1909, Page 4

LADY SMOKER QUARANTINED.

NEW YOlUv OFFICIALS SHOCKED. Deeause she smoked cigarettes on ihe tlttk of the liner Philadelphia, which arrived Irom Southampton on 2!)tn August, an Englishwoman named Alias Hefsy llill was forbidden to set foot in llie" home of the bravo and the land ol tlie' free." Next day she was a prisoner at Ellis Island, awaiting the verdict of I lie ollicials' enquiry into her case. - Aged about sixty, Miss llill is, according to the testimony of her fellow-pas-sengfa, "a woman of reiinement and cul ture, much interested in antiquarian research." During the voyage, she daily sought a comfortable armchair anil smoked. She was smoking when the Philadelphia reached quarantine. The shocked oflilials immediately searched ier cabin and eoniiseaU'd four packages ol cigarettes. N "iVe du not consider it proper for won;en to go about in public smoking cigarettes," they informed her. •'J'lml is no reason for confiscating my property," Miss Hill indignantly, retorted. ''l have been a resident of Southampton for years, and have travelled on the Continent, where 1 smoked in the finest hotels. 11l no place have I met 'with impertinence and insult before this because of my smoking." "America is not Europe," the officials told her, reprovingly. 'lhc excuse given by the immigration 1 authorities for the detention of Miss Hill ; is that "a woman who thus smokes is 1 ( probably insane, and therefore must b<\ ■ deported to Ellis Island." The day after Miss Hill had the satis- ; faction of reading illustrated accounts ' in the Sunday newspapers of how Anion. > can ladies who are forbidden lo smoke in 3 their own hotels become "fhampion c smokers" in European society.

"Quite sane" was the verdict of the surgeon at Ellis Island in tiie case oi Mias llill.

The fact that Miss llill politely offered her cigarette-case 'to fricmlly passengers convinced the shocked olliciais that s«c was insane. They .promptly caused her ,to be locked in the psychopathic ward ai 'Ellis Island, where siie was kept under medical examination for forty - eight I hours. Miss Hill took her incarceration ! philosophically, observing sarcastically | that the "view from the hospital was magnificent." She was released on the [second day, and immediately rejoined her I friends at their hotel. I Miss llill, when 1 saw her at the Hotel St Denis (says the London Daily Mail's correspondent), took a humorous view of the situation, showing me three beautiful cigarette-cases -one gold, the *econd silver, and tile third gumnctal—a.nd assuring me that the cigarettes thev eon taincd were excellent. "The action of the immigration oflicials is ineomprehdi: sihlc to me," she fiaid. "When I indignantly declared I would not go to Ellis Island, the oflicials informed me that if I. persisted in my refusal they would strap me to a board and carry me there. '•'l was packed in a with a nines of immigrants and subjected 4 to the roughest treatment'by ignorant officials,] whose language was coarse. I On Ellis Island, after I had been without food for the greater part of the day,' a nurse flung a piece of dry bread on fne table 'Don't you have pktes here?* I asked.- There was no reply. Is U bread,, then, or nothing?* I enquired. Tos/iftid the nurse. 'Then itls nothing for me, J I declared, <c Lftter ft doctor came and allowed me' to order weak at my own expense." Widespread indignation is expressed at the action of the immigration authori- ! tie*