The Henson Journals

[51]

Wednesday, April 24th, 1929, Paris.

'On grinning and bearing, or Some hints for Young Travellers' – this would form a very suitable title for a monograph on some conditions of modern travel which are not sufficiently remembered. Such a circumstance as that which was unpleasantly forced on our notice yesterday, namely, the presence and claims of fellow–travellers suggests many casuistic questions of some interest & considerable difficulty. We often resent the presence, & sometimes forget the claims of others whose title to travel is precisely identical with our own, & whose claims, however annoying & even extravagant, may easily become the measure of our own requirements. Reason therefore requires us to tolerate fellow–travellers, and prudence suggests that we should not lightly resist even their vexatious demands. 'With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again' is a working rule for intelligent travellers.

[52]

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A correspondence in the Times has recently directed public attention to the lamentable case of the 'non–smoker', who suffers horribly from the effect of the smoker's indulgence. The obvious course of allocating a sphere in which tobacco is prohibited has broken down before the aggression of the smoking public, which now includes both sexes & has become so large that non–smokers have the offensive aspect and actual inconvenience of an eccentric minority. The extent of the injury inflicted by smokers on non–smokers is very great, far greater than the victims dare affirm or the offenders easily understand. Many people – far more than is often realized – are 'bad travellers' on land, probably most are uncomfortable if not actually ill on the sea. To those who are feeling sick & giddy the reek of tobacco is unspeakably disgusting, yet it is rare indeed for any consideration at all to be [53] [symbol] shown to the sufferers. To the smoker the cigarette, or pipe, or (hatefullest of all) the cigar, has come to be so much a part of the common procedure of his (or her) life that its abandonment even for a brief space appears to be an intolerable hardship, which rankles as a gratuitous wrong. Much injury is apparently irremediable – e.g. the smoke from smokers blown into the non–smoker's face in the streets, and polluting the air so completely that every step is nauseating. For many purposes smokers and non–smokers must needs unite in such wise that the policy of allocating places cannot apply. The problem is rendered the more difficult by the impossibility of making either side realize the measure of the other's hardship. How can the ̭non–̭ smoker understand the misery inflicted on the smoker by the privation of his loved indulgence? How can the smoker understand the exceeding discomfort which the non–smoker endures when he is forced to breathe and smell the nauseating fumes of his cigar, cigarette, or pipe?

[54]

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We spent the day in sight–seeing from 10.30 a.m. to 5.15 p.m., and when we returned to the Hotel, I found on counting my money that I had lost the 1000 f. note which I possessed last night. Probably it dropped out when I paid either for the lunch or for the tea. This is annoying, and will necessitate my changing another note.

We began with Notre Dame, then la Sainte Chappelle, & the Palais de Justice. After lunching at a Restaurant, we went to the Louvre, & spent 3 hours there. Then we had tea, and looked at the Shops. After this we walked back to the Hotel.

A very respectable looking young man came up to me, & offered me photographs which were obviously indecent: and I noticed prominently displayed in a fashionable book–shop window a copy of "The Well of Loneliness", a book which has been judicially pronounced to be filthy, & ordered to be destroyed in England.

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