The Rights of the Non-Smoker
THE city council of Chicago has under consideration an ordinance to prohibit smoking on street-cars and in crowded public places. Concerning this proposed action, the Christian Evangelist has the following very pertinent things to say: "This is a salutary reform. A man may have a right to fill his own lungs and saturate his own clothing with tobacco smoke, but he has no right to impose his polluted smoke upon people who do not smoke and who do not like the fumes of the nicotinized weed. It is high time to protest the rights of the non-smoker. Heretofore, all the rights have been given the smoker. He is given the right to smoke in public places, council meetings, at banquets, and on street-cars. "Let him either consume his own smoke or be compelled to put out his pipe when with people who do not care for it. Men who are otherwise gentlemen will in the most nonchalant manner blow tobacco fumes into the faces of strange ladies, and pollute halls for all who do not indulge. It is time to protest the rights of the non-smoker."