bit
smoking altogether or put smokers to some considerable inconvenience.
The trouble involved in going to places where smoking is permitted
tends gradually to irritate the nerves beyond the power of tobacco to
soothe. Again, many men would rather not soothe their excited nerves
after five, than have their nerves excited all day waiting for freedom
to smoke. Restrictions as to time or place make possible and expedite
still further restrictions. Thus gradually the army of occasional
smokers or nonsmokers is being recruited from the army of regular
smokers.

The anti-nuisance motive follows closely upon the drawing of sharp
lines of time and place for the use of tobacco. Like treason, smoking
in the presence of nonsmokers can be considered respectable only when
the numbers who profess and practice it are numerous. If the two
first-mentioned weapons are effectively used, there will be an
increasing proportion of nonsmokers and not-yet-smokers who will give
attentive ear to proof that nicotinism is a nuisance. The physical
evidences of the cigarette habit can easily be made distasteful to all
nonsmokers if frankly pointed out,--the yellow fingers, the yellow
teeth, the nasty breath, the offensive excretions from the pores that
saturate the garments of all who cannot afford a daily change of
underwear. The anti-nuisance argument is always insidious and abiding.
In the presence of nonsmokers accustomed to regard tobacco using as a
nuisance, smokers become self-conscious and sensitive. Men and women
alike would prefer a reputation for cleanliness to the pleasures of
tobacco. The educational possibility of fighting tobacco with the name
"nuisance" was recognized the other day by an editorial that protested
against a law to prevent women from using cigarettes in restaurants.
"The way for any man who has the desire to reform some woman addicted
to the cigarette habit is insidiously and gently to point out the
injurious effects on her appearance. Cigarette smoking stains a woman's
fingers and discolors her teeth. It also tends to make her complexion
sallow and to detract from the rubiness of her lips. It bedims the
sparkle of her eyes. It makes her less attractive mornings." Chewing
has practically disappeared, not because it ceased to soothe excited
nerves but because it was seen to be a nasty nuisance.

Finally, the selfishness of the smoker is a nuisance that continues
only because it has not been called by its right name. "D