The Smoking Car

This description of the masculine, almost class-free atmosphere in the smoking car is in sharp contrast to the requirements of the "ladies' cars" expected for middle-class female travelers. Note the sense of freedom men seem to experience in the cars.

The Smoking Cars

Many men, though they may not wish to smoke, on taking a train for a short trip usually prefer a seat in the smoking car. They sa that in cases of a crowd when once they get a seat in the smoking car it is theirs until they choose to give it up. Besides, they like the company. It is free and easy, good natured and jolly. One seldom sees a sour face in a smoking car. If there is one it soon vanishes to the rear after it has finished puffing its own cigar. Most of the pleasant stories of the train are told in the smoking car and many good songs are there sung and no one objects to music or hearty laughter. Contagious diseases and insects don't like to hang around in the tobacco smelling upholstery of the old "smoker", often older and more rickety than it ought to be. The good railroad manager provides a comfortably constructed, bright, cheery coach for his cigar loving passengers, and so they bless him. The smoking car is one of the institutions of American Travel. Long may it roll. - Yonkers (N.Y.) Gazette