Diner Smoking

To smoke in the dining car was, a decade ago, to invite ejection. This immemorial prohibition the railroads enforced on the pretext that tobacco smoke, as contrasted with coal smoke, was offensive to lady diners. The roads' real reason was that after-dinner smokers would linger over their coffee, slow up service, keep other passengers waiting for seats. Such dalliance would compel the railroads to haul their diners farther than otherwise.

How thoroughly the smoking-for-women trend has swept the country is now demonstrated by the increasing number of big railroads which have felt themselves obliged to print "Smoking Permitted" on their menus. The exhalation of smoke from feminine lungs is becoming, in the aggregate, a mighty blast of fashion which railroad economists may not ignore. Railroads which have already trimmed their sails to catch this blast:

Erie

Northern Pacific

Delaware, Lackawanna & Western

Railroads which are persisting with the old rule:

New York, New Haven & Hartford (Exception: after the "last call" on the Merchant's Limited).

Missouri Pacific

Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe

Canadian National

Canadian Pacific

Bewildered railroads, betwixt and between, which connive at nullification by leaving enforcement to custom, conscience or courtesy, include:

New York Central ("rule unenforced")

Pennsylvania (A half-apologetic "suggestion" on the menu).

Baltimore & Ohio

Southern Pacific

Atlantic Coast Line ("Tolerated")

Seaboard Air Line

Illinois Central ("A purely individual point")

Union Pacific

Great Northern ("One may smoke but-")

Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific ("Optional")

St. Louis-San Francisco

Chicago & North Western ("Passenger's Choice")

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy.