CIGARETTE-SMOKING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10110, 4 October 1910, Page 5

CIGARETTE-SMOKING.

A MASTERTON WOMAN'S APPEAL.

"A Woman" writes to the editor of the Wairarapa Age as follows: "I feel that the time has come when one of the most degrading evils of the day should bo shown in its proper light. I am very sorry to say it has become quite a fashion for cigarette-smoking amongst a certain class of women in our town. It is ,a well-known fact that women have a great influence in the world. Is it not high time we used this influence for good, and not for 'evil? I believe a great many men are what women make them. Oh,, let us rise up and do what we can for them. Men have a lot to contend with in life; they need all the sympathy and help a. woman can give. It is our privilege to help them, and not drag them down to the very lowest. I believe, in a great many cases, cigarette-smoking has led many a good young, man to indulge in other evils, such as drinking and gambling. Let it not be said of us that we were the cause of anyone's downfall. I often think we have far more to answer for than men. What did the greatest statesman of the day say? "What I am, I have become through my wife." What did another great man say of women? ''l have the greatest respect for women who elevate us men, teach us

religion and morality, preserve our ideals, and scatter roses along the path of our early life." Ah, if this could only be always said of all of us, how much better the world would be to-day. You say, how can we do this? It is quite easy—try to be unselfish ; try to live for others; try to make those happy around us; and, above all, try to live a good and pure life, as God would' have us live. This is one of the saddest things I should have to write about my own sex. If this letter will only lead some women to think of the dreadful influence of smoking, I shall feel fully repaid."