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BLLULINGS: WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY POPULAR ARTISTS. ‘“‘ My Lord, this sacred herbe which never offendit, Is forced to crave your favor to defend it.” BARCLAY. “But oh, what witchereft of a stronger kind, Or cause too deep for hnmian search to find, Makes earth-born weeds imperial man enslave,— Not little souls, but e’en the wise and brave!” ARBUCKLE. HARTFORD, CONN:: AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY, 1875. he, ENTERED according to act of Congress, in the year 1875, by the AMERICAN PUBLISHING CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. TO CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER, Whose rare, good gifts have endeared him to all lovers of the Linglish tongue, this volume, histori- cally and practically treating of one of the greatest of plants, as well as the rarest of luxuries, is re- spectfully dedicated by THe AUTHOR. vk ; Nk PREE-A CE. —_————~+ 6 9——_@______ Ever since the discovery of tobacco it has been the favorite theme of many writers, who have endeavored to shed new light on the origin and early history of this singular plant. Upwards of three hundred volumes have been written, embracing works in nearly all of the languages of Europe, concerning the herb and the various methods of using it. Most writers have confined them- selves to the commercial history of the plant; while others have written upon its medicinal properties and the various modes of preparing it for use. For this volume the Author only claims that it is at least a more comprehensive treatise on the varieties and cultivation of the plant than any work now extant. A full account of its cultivation is given, not only in America, but also in nearly all of the great tobacco-producing countries of the world. The history of the plant has been carefully and faithfully compiled from the earliest authorities, that portion which relates to its early culture in Virginia being drawn from hitherto unpub- lished sources. Materials for such a work have not been found lacking. European authors abound with allusions to tobacco; more especially is it true of English writers, who have celebrated its virtues in poetry and song. All along the highways and by- paths of our literature we encounter much that pertains to this “‘ queen of plants.” Considered in what light it may, tobacco must be regarded as the most astonishing of the productions of nature, since it has, in the short period of nearly four centuries, viii PREFACE. dominated not one particular nation, but the whole world, both Christian and Pagan. Ushered into the Old World from the New by the great colonizers—Spain, England, and France—it attracted at once the attention of the authors of the period as a fit subject for their marvel-loving pens. It has been the aim of the writer to give as much as possible of the existing material to be had concerning the early persecution waged against it, whether by Church or State. These accounts, while they invest with additional interest its early use and introduction, serve as well to show its triumph over all its foes and its vast importance to the commerce of the world. This work has been prepared and arranged, not only for the instruction and entertainment of the users of tobacco, but for the benefit of the cultivators and manufacturers as well. As such it is now presented to the public for whatever meed of praise or censure it is found to deserve. Hartrorp, Conn., 1875. ILLUSTRATIONS. ~ PAGE 1. FRONTISPIFOF...........- sigataiesieee - AL OER COOSA /K:S sihc)a tloicis ciajelcierstale clvietslale o'slarais\a/elsla'siaistgletetateferata'cTefstelers Yotctera carers aust ratiep astele tielas (ate 22 3. TOBACCO LEAVEsS...... eSite piclorate atatote ciareinte dictatelciatctctalaleletstainiclsistaialoicivter hateini tae aiceiatonetanteeietelare aehectna 24 4. BUD AND FLOWERS........ccecceeess bigocdedddsacacidodd: Mae RE uae um binicin clejeleniaimetststere|sinieniemastaiete 25 5. CAPSULES. (FRUIT BUD.)...........0 aisle afelotelalefatets atelololetutetelwofeleyeine’are aie lmsisiny alam piele ateisietele ers a7 BiegSS TS ORGS Stale sicicte o\¢: ciara aanldnree tots ioe sickt Hebe al (Sie wiere ters oy kt 86. AD WAR EIPES. «0.0005 sialacilucleig uieiatelaieisie wists vlercloiatel shitetetotcteleleveve’e'e\s\e vie eine civic sauibidecauedstbtelslentes . 189 Ss EAR REE Sererereiciaeisiclatrsersielaaie case cone cic eleituidaicleine|eaiveleeistd-cis ede b patel alee mettes eeialcote siete a siewyLLAL x ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE es eA NORA SOSH E AESEBES 4 a isteisio'a cial hdssaauatelsiaib elelole « siete sisieialc Seeteteieimaa eprade tad antomasee aac vice cane coun 143 paw RDG MORIN Gy: .\0's.clo'cie'c c'se.s/s 00 vic.e Balteistare’sceteie Sedona claiaie’e niaeiiapntals oiisiga hie misieieis(eistelsinle saat 40. OLD ENGLISH PIPES........... Galseh susie cet dalle slenreveia siestatd crane Rilesieieidieinete mate ICRU ON OE PE UP IEA = cilsictcinccitela sles cable vie eeictieiselsisewisiceaete AL MEIPE(COLORER: :\.\seccterc unsaved ace talteiatisiaeiseie etawa 48. GEBMAN PORCELAIN PIPES AA ASE R SLA Ns WATERS SPE Sorc cwae sciciscesicizs hone peislasehoiee saneninecieste mec eete he oeea care eens MESH ASE EDLN GEES CDHE ACMTER ELEN, 4 Ue creieeiascta/a‘cie ciate siete sieccieietere ain’a eine ota cteleie re sere eisicione cients Destine ; DT aR ACCS ELE INOS cea cl tein oteraletasicis ain eioia cisiaiciorw a e's ne piacaisiemicie sig bie aineisie oatsiainials BOTAN AND REOED ETP USS2 ccclsuiec vex viclee s'e\c'scanbbirep sey apiecaisee sicicciesies Leteivieteae le eaiie Gu MES ATES AE TPG A ones branin Waleed Sale wine ynle'c'c holpul afeinndiasia mebivigpiisicsiecicis eaiae neinvie sivielalesioleie}eiricisee animale 166 AQ. MEMALH SMOKING IN ALGIERBS.. ...c6sccccccecsenacccccscvccecee aieieseiatd eisinis ie a als eeietsiciortese stots 168 ett MPIC ES AUNT SESE g. ie UL che cicielcls'sis vinisieia'a sieis sie mis sie dis iele ove eb c's avelv_clole vin eralnieers ee isiaie aie sacs ei ene E 170 . aA Grek! Gh AP NTA CN gE MLNS os in/atulstole le otal lalblalole/siclals\eia(aia ais estate pe yials alaipinjereletsinjeinisisiateieivicteteielete eierelets eer error 172 Bi APANEOR GEE PEGs 44 ctl: visi vicwciclaeeGeslcasiceis vvacieiciese wiateie idle ale'e aun sicininloalsle nic (alereare eeteiaibie eietteeaee 173 RIE ESN CET AAW AGED BEAU) ZORUEM yrs toip vieivis;sis/alaiviais mlsiaa’ofeisisiaisie eis,6ie.n'e\s'slefslsiblete'via(eletamie/oeeieletee CRORE 177 56. LoRD AND LACKEY...... nies eiowadnin his siatels'stW nets aici cls s(n olan wicloie/e'e sie’ ptosis siniaisicicisia.c oe eine ean 185 Se ATHY SCAN GE DOU Das acres eslonye cit crue 8 Mes: c! tie lwicivieis viviv aielwisieicle'c's giecicinie ee ceicin cwiom sie Sele side enete 190 PI SMOK HES RRADLN CG PHIPIGCRAM Beis seis cincivedslesiesicececslee sc sciecnisce eaicosadestelboe ena seasons 193 DE Eee SP LOSLONG .cisiaeiselsine we nitinis ems iersleran's sielcjsipisialsiarvealslelcle es oaciatencs So's Velbials(ejei elvieleciniciwieh iecreete 195 ROW MEROR T TACAINS'T JM RIPE REHNOH sci cht osu asoccsuundeons sake dtesa cclekcuseeeioec He trainee 199 Be eGR AVON GAN) FITS, ALEPH Ss ito c\nivin eis ioe aisjesaisieicie.eccisie’s sin sisiaie bSnoageDadereaas TES ELEN TDR ASSL O EEN Chea ic npuices nis cisiti ec o'c'ealn ia je.nin eg aisles cle on(esio niin bine o busiaisiaicta Pee CME T RYT) Fu IT Pa NECORCID Ses ciniaratsivisversieis.« ele iein nic ein c/o 6/8 o\a im is lojeia matsracae wore pin ie sie main ale aipie i ereth a ncal ett oeRRenetE eR RET WACESUL DES vcls\stawialaicinelaisincia sie 66. THE YANKEE SMOKER 70. Fops TakIne SNUFF. (FROM aR MEL OREN CON Ra BO XE Saati clccis c celnlelsterelecisteraisioisialc icine he's biv'se'cjs\sioieie/eislatere/w'e wirietere(steieicls aiaialere/ataipta Taian PRO MOLL ON UE MILL LiSes creicinisalelaaietsasiaie/cisisia.siajsrnia'e s cisiass sistaisisiea'eis piaia's nie inivie is nsecelalsia atele istestaeetaate 43. SWEEPING FROM THE PULPIT..........eeeceeee 74. SNUFF-MILL, A CENTURY AGO.........0eeeeee PEGE RRSAT EN GH SSNTIIYR' «s:cisisiele eo mecieie/oteiaisseince ni ciaie elniemlale sie coaiweleinieleiste’dieiaelele'eisls'pin a sthicts niereters elcleiaereeiete He PU RGTAN GMUBE LAKERS: < srsisisjsisiece ce 6cicis ois \sie00,e ois.eisie'ae8.eialelsinielpisleiaiesicleisicwivis sis clviele a soit A ARIES ETO DTLETES TENT Gi so cia leis fetclelo baka Meine ieirln ie siaisiapieieeee elctercinlsleloniwte/siacclestleis eiseidiatela selalainin eisieleis\a toners 247 Poa OVERGHEE A ISMEGICENGG © 5 osu via cic anie case siovareieie einalaveicieitie wimfeln o|se misteloipasNls'dieiatais sin sia mioniaiatste labs ela ieee 274 RS) VAN G NTT HED PUI IURIES, LIN WEDASVAIVA.c. © nis'cisivib's 5 ,0'sie(eis 01e oie 0'e om cicisib s/eiviels opieipisielslcibiv-sisiereme ciate 275 RO Pier PERI UPUD SCR Ue ae 2 heinic gO arm “EARLY four hundred years have passed away since the tobacco plant and its use was introduced to the civilized world. It was in the month of November, 1492, that the sailors of Columbus in exploring the island of Cuba first noted the mode of using tobacco. They found the Indians carrying lighted firebrands (as they at first supposed) and puffed the smoke inhaled from their mouths and nostrils. The Spaniards concluded that this was a method common with them of perfuming themselves; but its frequent use soon taught them that it was the dried leaves of a plant which they burned inhaling and exhaling the smoke. It attracted the attention of the Spaniards no less from its novelty than from the effect produced by the indulgence. The use of tobacco by the Indians was entirely new to the | Spanish discoverers and when in 1503 they landed in-various | parts of South America they found that both chewing and smoking the herb was a common custom with the natives. But while the Indians and their habits attracted the attention of the Spanish sailors Columbus was more deeply interested in the great continent and the luxuriant tropical growth to be seen on every hand. Columbus himself says of it :— “Everything invited me to settle here. The beauty of » the streams, the clearness of the water, through which I could see the sandy bottom; the multitude of palm-trees of different kinds, the tallest and finest I had ever seen; and an infinite number of other large and flourishing trees; the EARLY USE. $3 birds, and the verdure of the plains, are so amazingly beauti- ful, that this country excelles all others as far as the day sur- passes the night in splendor.” Lowe, gives the following account of the discovery of tobacco and its uses :— “The discovery of this plant is supposed to have been made by Fernando Cortez in Yucatan in the Gulf of Mexico, where he found it used universally, and held in a species of veneration by the simple natives. / He made himself ac- quainted with the uses and supposed virtues of the plant and the manner of cultivating it, and sent plants to Spain, as part of the spoils and treasures of his new-found World.” Oviedo* is the first author who gives a clear account of smoking among the Indians of Hispaniolat+. He alludes to it as one of their evil customs and used by them to produce insensibility. Their mode of using it was by inhalation and expelling |= fy the smoke through the nostrils by means of a hollow forked cane or hollow reed. Oviedo describes them as “about a span long; and when used the forked ends are inserted in the nostrils, the other end being ap- plied to the burning leaves of the herb, using the herb in thismanner Us stupefied them producing a kind of PRIMITIVE PIPE. intoxication.” Of the early accounts of the plant and its use, Beckman a German writer says :— “Tn 1496, Romanus Pane, a Spanish monk, whom Colum- bus, on his second departure from America, had left in that country, published the first account of tobacco with which he became acquainted in St. Domingo. He gave it the name of . Cohoba Cohobba, Gioia. In 1535, the negroes had already _ habituated themselves to the use of tobacco, and cultivated it in the plantations of their masters. Europeans likewise al- ready smoked it.” An early writer thus alludes to the use of tobacco among the East Indians :— * Historia General de los Inciog 1526. +St. Domingo, 834 ORIGIN OF ITS NAME. “The East Indians do use to make little balls of the juice of the hearbe tobaco and the ashes of cockle-shells wrought up together, and dryed in the shadow, and in their travaile they place one of the balls between their neather lip and their teeth, sucking the same continually, and letting down the moysture, and it keepeth them both from hunger and thirst for the space of three or four days.” Oviedo says of the implements used by the Indians in smoking :— “The hollow cane used by them is called tobaco and that that name is not given to the plant or to the stupor caused by its use.” A writer alluding to the same subject says :— “The name tobacco is supposed to be derived from the In- dian tobaccos, given by the Caribs to the pipe in which they smoked the plant.” Others derive it from Tabasco, a province of Mexico; others from the island of Tobago one of the Caribbees; and others from Tobasco in the gulf of Florida. Tomilson says :— “The word tobacco appears to have been applied by the caribbees to the pipe in which they smoked the herb while the Spaniards distinguished the herb itself by that name. The more probable derivation of the word is from a place called Tobaco in Yucatan from which the herb was first sent to the New World.” Humboldt says concerning the name :— “The word Tobacco like maize, savannah, cacique, maguey (agave) and manato, belong to the ancient language of Hayti, or St. Domingo. It did not properly denote the herb, but the tube through which the smoke was inhaled. It seems surprising that a vegetable production so universally spread should have different names among neighboring people. The pete-ma of the Omaguas is, no doubt, the pety of the Gua- ranos; but the analogy between the Cabre and Algonkin (or Lenni-Lennope) words which denote tobacco may be merely accidental. The following are the synonymes in five lan- guages: Aztec or Mexican, yetl; Huron, oyngona; Peruvian, sayri,; Brazil, piecelt; Moxo, sabare.” Roman Pane who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage alludes to another method of using the herb. They EARLY SNUFF-TAKING. 35 make a powder of the leaves, which “they take through a cane half a cubit long; one end of this they place in the nose, and the other upon the powder, and so draw it up, which purges them very much.” This is doubtless the first account that we have of snuff- taking; Fairholt says concerning its use :— “Tts effects upon the Indians in both instances seem to have been more violent and peculiar than upon Europeans since.” This may be accounted for from the fact of the imperfect method of curing tobacco adopted by them and all of the natives up to the period of the settlement of Virginia by the English. {| As nearly all of the early voyagers allude to the plant and especially to its use it would seem probable that it had been cultivated from time immemorial by all the native people of the Orinoco ; and at the period of the conquest the habit of smoking was found to be alike spread over both North and South America. The Tamanacs and the May- pures of Guiana wrap maize leaves round their cigars as the \ Mexicans did at the time of the arrival of Cortez. The Spaniards since have substituted paper for the leaves of maize, in imitation of them. “The poor Indians of the forests of the Orinoco know as well as did the great nobles at the court of Montezuma, that the smoke of tobacco is an ex- = cellent narcotic; and they use egg it not only to procure their “2 afternoon nap, but also to put fs i cet themselves in that state of qui- Nie escence which they call dream- ing with the eyes open or day s¢4y dreaming.” a= Tobacco at this period was 7. also rolled up in the leaves of ¢ the Palm and smoked. Colum- bus found the natives of San Salvador smoking after this manner. Lobel in his History of Plants* gives an engraving NATIVE SMOKING. * History of Plants, 1576. 36 TOBACCO IN MEXICO. of a native smoking one of these rolls or primitive cigars. and speaks of their general use by Captains of ships trading to the West Indies. But not only was snuff taking and the use of tobacco rolls or cigars noted by European voyagers, but the use of the pipe - also in some parts of America, seemed to be a common cus- tom especially among the chiefs. Be Bry in his History of Brazil (1590) describes its use and also some interesting particulars concerning the plant. Their method of curing the leaves was to air-dry them and then packing them until wanted for use. In smoking he says :— “When the leaves are well dried they place in the open part of a pipe of which on burning, the smoke is inhaled into the mouth by the more narrow part of the pipe, and so strongly that it flows out of the mouth and nostrils, and by that means effectually drives out humours.” Fairholt in alluding to the various uses of the herb among the Indians says :— “We can thus trace to South America, at the period when the New World was first discovered, every mode of using the tobacco plant which the Old World has indulged in ever since.” “This statement is not entirely correct—the mode of using tobacco in Norway by plugging the nostrils with small pieces _of tobacco seems to have been unknown among the Indians of America as it is now with all other nationalities, excepting the Norwegians. When Cortez made conquest of Mexico in 1519 smoking seemed to be a common as well as an ancient custom among the natives. Benzoni in his History of the New World* describing his travels in America gives a detailed account of the plant and their method of curing and using it. In both North and South America the use of tobacco seemed to be universal among all the tribes and beyond all question the custom of using the herb had its origin among them. The traditions of the Indians all confirm its ancient source ; they considered the plant as a gift from the Great Spirit for their 4Jrrom 1541 to 1556. — COMPARATIVE QUALITIES OF TOBACCO. 37 comfort and enjoyment and one which the Great Spirit also indulged in, consequently with them smoking partook of the character of a moral if nota religiousact. The use of tobacco in sufficient quantities to produce intoxication seemed to be a favorite remedy for most diseases among them and was administered by their doctors or medicine-men in large quan- tities. Benzoni gives an engraving of their mode of inhaling the smoke and says of its use :— | “In La Espanola, when their doctors wanted to cure a sick man, they went to the place where they were to ad- minister the smoke, and when he was thoroughly intoxicated by it, the cure was mostly effected. On returning to his senses he told a thousand stories of his having been at the eouncil of the gods, and other high visions.” It can hardly be supposed that while the custom of using tobacco among the Indians in both North and South America was very general and the mode of use the same, that the plant grown was of the same quality in one part asin another. While the rude culture of the natives would hardly tend to an improvement in quality; the climate being varied would no doubt have much to do with the size and quality of the plant. This would seem the more probable for as soon as its cultivation’began in Virginia by the English colonists it had successful rivals in the tobacco of the West Indies and South America. Robertson says :— “Virginia tobacco was greatly inferior to that raised by the , Spaniards in the West Indies and which sold for six times as | much as Virginia tobacco.” * But not only has the name tobacco and the implements employed in its use caused much discussion but also the origin of the plant. Some writers affirm that it came from Asia and that it was first grown in China having been used by the Chinese long before the narcotic properties of opium were known. Tatham in his work on Tobacco says of its origin in substantial agreement with La Bott :— “Tt is generally understood that the tobacco plant of * West India tobacco sold for 18 shillings per pound and Virginia for 3 8. bee OL SNOW 88 ORIGIN OF THE PLANT. Virginia is a native production of the country; but whether it was found in a state of natural growth there, or a plant cultivated by the Indian natives, is a point of which we are not informed, nor which ever can be farther elucidated than by the corroboration of historical facts and conjectures. I have been thirty years ago, and the greatest part of my time during that period, intimately acquainted with the interior parts of America; and have been much in the unsettled parts, of the country, among those kinds of soil which are favora- ble to the cultivation of tobacco; but I do not recollect one single instance where I have met with tobacco growing wild in the woods, although I have often found a few spontaneous plants about the arable and trodden grounds of deserted habitations. This circumstance, as well as that of its being now, and having been, cultivated by the natives at the period of European discoveries, inclines towards a supposition that this plant is not anative of North America, but may possibly have found its way thither with the earliest migrations from some distant land. This might, indeed, have easily been the case from South America, by way of the Isthmus of Panama; and the foundation of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations (who we have reasons to consider as descendants from the Tloseolians, and to have migrated to the eastward of the river Mississippi, about the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico by Cortez), seems to have afforded one fair oppor- tunity for its dissemination.” The first knowledge which the English discoverers had of the plant was in 1565 when they found it growing in Florida, one hundred and seventy-three years after it was first dis- covered by Columbus on the island of Cuba. Sir John Hawkins says of its use in Florida :— “The Floridians, when they travel, have a kind of herb dried, which with a cane and an earthen cup in the end, with fire and the dried herbs put together, do suke through the cane the smoke thereof, which smoke satisfieth their hunger, and therewith they live four or five dayes without meat or drinke, and this all the Frenchmen used for this purpose: yet do they holde opinion withall, that it causeth water and steame to void from their stomacks.” This preparation might not have been tobacco as the Indians smoke a kind of bark which they scrape from the killiconick, an aromatic shrub, in form resembling the willow; eter gym eee EARLY MAMMOTH CIGARS. 39 they use also a preparation made with this and sumach leaves, or sometimes with the latter mixed with tobacco. Lionel Wafer in his travels upon the Isthmus of Darien in 1699 saw the plant growing and cultivated by the natives. He says :— “These Indians have tobacco amongst them. It grows as the tobacco in Virginia, but is not so strong, perhaps for want of transplanting and manuring, which the Indians do not well understand, for they only raise it from the seed in their plantations. When it is dried and cured they strip it from the stalks, and laying two or three leaves upon one another, they roll up all together sideways into a long roll, yet leaving a little hollow. Round this they roll other leaves one after another, in the same manner, but close and hard, till the roll be as big as one’s wrist, and two or three feet in length. Their way of smoking when they are in company is thus: a boy lights one end of a roll and burns it to a coal, wetting the part next it to keep it from wasting too fast. The end so lighted he puts into his mouth, and blows the smoke through the whole length of the roll into the face of every one of the company or council, though there be two or three hundred of them. Then they, sitting in their usual posture upon forms, make with their hands held together a kind of funnel round their mouths and noses. Into this they receive the smoke as it is blown upon them, snuffing it up greedily and strongly as long as ever they are able to hold their breath, and seeming to bless themselves, as it were, with the refreshment it gives them.” In the year 1534 James Cartier a Frenchman was com- missioned to explore the coast of North America, with a view to find a place for a colony. He observed that the natives of Canada used the leaves of an herb which they preserved in pouches made of skins and smoked in stone pipes. It being offensive to the French, they took none of it with them on their return. But writing more particularly con- cerning the plant he says :— “In Hochelaga, up the river in Canada there groweth a certain kind of herb whereof in Summer they make a great provision for all the year, making great account of it, and only men use of it, and first they cause it to be dried in the Sune, then wear it about their necks wrapped in a little beast’s skine madevlike a bagge, with a hollow piece of stone 40 SACREDNESS OF THE PIPE. or wood like a pipe, then when they please they make powder of it, and then put it in one of the ends of the said Cornet or pipe, and laying a cole of fire upon it, at the other end and suck so long, that they fill their bodides full of smoke, till that it commeth out of their mouth and nostrils, even as out of the Tonnel of achimney. They say that this doth keepe them warme and in health, they never goe with- out some of this about them.” of Brazil 1590 gives an engraving of anative smoking a pipe and a female offering him a handful of tobacco leaves. ‘The pipe has a modern look and is altogether un- like those found by the English in use among the Indians in Virginia. An English writer says of the Tobacco using races :— OLD ENGRAVING. “From the evidence collected by travellers and archeologists, as to the native arts and relics connected with the use of Tobacco by the Red Indians, it would appear that not one tribe has been found which was unacquainted with the custom,” its use being as well known to the tribes of the North-west and the denizens of the snowy wilds of Canada, as to the races inhabiting Central America and the West India Islands.” Father Francisco Creuxio states that the Jesuit mission- aries found the weed extensively used by the Indians of the Seventeenth Century. In 1629 he found the Hurons smoking the dried leaves and stalks of the Tobacco plant or petune. Many tribes of Indians consider that Tobacco is a gift bestowed by the Great Spirit as a means of enjoyment. In consequence of this belief the pipe became sacred, and smoking became a moral if not a religious act, amongst the North American Indians. The Iroquois are of opinion that by burning Tobacco they could send up their prayers to the Great Spirit with the ascending incense, thus maintaining * Arnold in his History of Rhode Island refers no ie pianking of tobacco by the Indians when the State was first settled. Elliot also saysin his History of the same State :—* Tobacco was universal, every man carrying his pipe and bag; and in its cultivation only, did the men condescend to labor; but occasionally all would join, the whole neighborhood, men, women, and children, when some one’s field was to be broken up, and they made a loving, sociable, speedy time of it.” « y EARLY CULTIVATION. 41 communication with the spirit world; and Dr. Daniel Wilson suggests that “the practice of smoking originated in the use of the intoxicating fumes for purposes of divination, and other superstitious rites.” When an Indian goes on an expedition, whether of peace or war, his pipe is his constant companion; it is to him what salt is among Arabs: the pledge of fidelity and the seal of treaties. In the words of a Review: “Tobacco supplies one of the few comforts by which men who live by their hands, solace themselves under incessant hardship.” While the presence, and use of tobacco by the natives of ‘/ America are among the most interesting features connected with its history, it can hardly be more so than is its early cultivation by the Spaniards, English and Dutch, and after- ward by the French. The cultivation of the plant began in the West India Islands and South America early in the Six- teenth Century. In Cuba its culture commenced in 1580, and from this and the other islands large quantities were shipped to Europe. /It was also cultivated near Varina in Columbia, while Amazonian tobacco had acquired an enviable reputation as well as Varinian, long before its cultivation began in Vir- ginia by the English. At this period of its culture in America the entire product was sent to Spain and Portugal, and from thence to France and Great Britain and other countries of Europe. The plant and its use attracted at once the attention as well as aroused the cupidity of the Spaniards, who prized it as one of their greatest discoveries. As soon as Tobacco was introduced into Europe by the Spaniards, and its use became a general custom, its sale increased as extensively as its cultivation. At this period it brought enormous prices, the finest selling at from fifteen to eighteen shillings per pound. Its cultivation by the Spaniards in various portions of the New World proved to them not only its real value as an article of commerce, but | also that several varieties of the plant existed; as on removal from one island or province to another it changed in size and quality of leaf. Varinas tobacco at this time was ane. a AI, PROPORTIONS OF THE TOBACCO TRADE. one of the finest tobaccos known,* and large quantities were shipped to Spain and Portugal. The early voyagers little dreamed, however, of the vast proportions to be assumed by the trade in the plant which they had dis- covered, and which in time proved a source of the greatest profit not only to the European colonies, but to the dealers in the Old World. Helps, treating on this same subject, says : “Tt is interesting to observe the way in which a new pro- duct is introduced to the notice of the Old World—a product that was hereafter to become, not only an unfailing source of pleasure to a large section of the whole part of mankind, from the highest to the lowest, but was also to distinguish itself as one of those commodities for revenue, which are the delight of statesmen, the great financial resource of modern nations, and which afford a means of indirect taxation that has perhaps nourished many a war, and prevented many a revolution. The importance, financi- ally and commercially speaking, of this discovery of tobacco—a discovery which in the end proved more produc- tive to the Spanish crown than that of the gold mines of the Indies.” Spain and Portugal in all their colonies fostered and encouraged its cultivation and then at once ranked as the best producers and dealers in tobacco. The varieties grown by them in the West Indies and South America were highly esteemed and commanded much higher prices than that grown by the English and Dutch colonies. In 1620, however, the Dutch merchants were the largest wholesale tobacconists in Europe, and the people of Holland, generally, the greatest consumers of the weed. The expedition of 1584, under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh, which resulted in the discovery of Virginia, also introduced the tobacco plant, among other novelties, to the attention of the English. Hariot,t who sailed with this expedition, says of the plant: “There is an herb which is sowed apart by itselfe, and is *Trinidad tobacco was then considered the finest. fA brief and true Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (London, 1588), QUAINT DESCRIPTION. 43 called by the inhabitants uppowoe. In the West Indies it hath divers names, according to the severall places and coun- tries where it groweth and is used; the Spaniards generally call it Tobacco. The leaves thereof being dried and brought into powder, they use to take the fume or smoke thereof by sucking it through pipes made of clay into their stomacke and heade, from whence it purgeth ¢uperfluous fleame and other grosse humors; openeth all the pores and passages of the body; by which means the use thereof not only preserv- eth the body from obstructions, but also if any be so that they have not beene of too long continuance, in short time breaketh them; whereby their bodies are notably preserved in health, and know not many grievous diseases wherewithall we in England are oftentimes affected. This uppowoc is of so precious estimation amongest them that they thinke their gods are marvellously delighted therewith ; whereupon some- time they make halowed fires, and cast some of the powder therein for a sacrifise. Being in a storme uppon the waters, to pacifie their gods, they cast some up into the aire and into the water: so a weave for fish being newly set up, they cast some therein and into the aire; also after an escape of danger they cast some into the aire likewise; but all done with strange gestures, stamping, sometimes dancing, clapping of hands, holding up of hands, and staring up into the heavens, uttering there withal and chattering strange wordes, and — noises. “We ourselves during the time we were there used to suck it after their manner, as also since our returne, and have found many rare and wonderful experiments of the virtues thereof; of which the relation would require a volume of itselfe; the use of it by so manie of late, men and women, of great calling as else, and some learned phisitions also is sufficient witnes.” The natives also when Drake* landed in Virginia, “brought a little basket made of rushes, and filled with an herbe which they called Tobah;?’ they “came also the second time to us bringing with them as before had been done, feathers and bags of Tobah for presents, or rather indeed for sacrifices, upon this persuasion that we were gods.” William Strachey+ says of tobacco and its cultivation by the Indians: *The World Encompassed. London, 1628. +‘ The Historie of Trayaile into Virginia Britannica.” 44 VARIETY OF KINDS. “Here is great store of tobacco, which the salvages call apooke: howbeit it is not of the best kynd, it is but poor and weake, and of a byting taste; it grows not fully a yard above ground, bearing a little yellow flower like to henbane ; the leaves are short and thick, somewhat round at the upper end; whereas the best tobacco of Trynidado and the Oro- noque, is large, sharpey and growing two or three yardes from the ground, bearing a flower of the breadth of our bell- flower, in England; the salvages here dry the leaves of this apooke over the fier, and sometymes in the sun, and crumble yt into poudre, stalk, leaves, and all, taking the same in pipes of earth, which very ingeniously they can make.” It would seem then, if the account given by Strachey be correct, that the tobacco cultivated by the Indians of North America was of inferior growth and quality to that grown in many por- tions of South America, and more particularly in the West India islands. As there are still many varie- Zz ties of the plant grown in BEE BUS ae America, so there doubtless was when cultivated by the Indians. While most probably the quality of leaf remained the same from generation to generation, still in some portions of America, owing more to the soil and climate than the mode of cultivating by them, they cured very good tobacco. We can readily see how this - might have been, from numerous experiments made with both American and European varieties. Nearly all of the early Spanish, French and English voyagers who landed in America were attracted by the beauty of the country. Ponce De Leon, who sailed from Spain to the Floridas, was charmed by the plants and flowers, and doubtless the first sight of them strengthened his belief in the existence somewhere in this tropical region of the fountain of youth. | The discovery of tobacco proved of the greatest advantage TOBACCO AND COMMERCE. 45 to the nations who fostered its growth,—and increased | the commerce of both England and Spain, doing much to | make the latter what it once was, one of the most powerful nations of Europe and possessor of the largest and richest | colonies, while it greatly helped the former, already unsur-— passed in intelligence and civilization, to reach its present position at the commercial head of the nations of the world. As Spain, however, has fallen from the high place she once held, her colonial system has also gone down. And while England, thanks to her more liberal policy, still retains a large share of the territory which she possessed at first, Spain, which once held sway over a vast portion of America, has been deprived of nearly all of her colonies, and ere long may lose control of the island on which the discoverer of America first saw the plant.* It is an historical fact that wherever in the English and Spanish colonies civilization has taken the deepest root, so has also the plant which has become as famous as any of the great tropical products of the earth. The relation existing between the balmy plant and the commerce of the world is of the strongest kind. Fairholt has well said, that “the revenue brought to our present Sovereign Lady from this source alone is greater than that Queen Elizabeth received from the entire customs of the country.” The narrow view of commercial policy held by her successors, the Stuarts, induced them to hamper the colonists of America with restrictions; because they were alarmed lest the ground should be entirely devoted to tobacco. Had not this Indian plant been discovered, the whole history of some portions of America would have been far different. In the West Indies three great products—Coffee, Sugar- | Cane, and Tobacco,—have proved sources of the greatest wealth—and wherever introduced, have developed to a great extent the resources of the islands. Thus it may be seen that while the Spaniards by the discovery and colonization *“ Spain has doubtless conquered more of the Earth’s surface than any other modern nation ; and her peculiar national character has also caused her to make the worst use of them. It was always easier for the Moor to conquer than to make a good use of his con- | quests; and £0 it has always been with Spain.” | 46 ORIGINAL CULTURE. of large portions of America strengthened the currency of the world, the English alike, by the cultivation of the plant, gave an impetus to commerce still felt and continued throughout all parts of the globe. An English writer has truthfully observed that “ Tobacco is like Elias’ cloud, which was no bigger than a man’s hand, that hath suddenly covered the face of the earth; the low countries, Germany, Poland, Arabia, Persia, Turkey, almost all countries, drive a trade of it; and there is no commodity that hath advanced so many from small fortunes to gain great estates in the world. Sailors will be supplied with it for their long voyages. Soldiers cannot (but) want it when they keep guard all night, or upon other hard duties in cold and tempestuous weather. Farmers, ploughmen, and almost all labouring men, plead for it. If we reflect upon our forefathers, and that within the time of less than one hundred years, before the use of tobacco came to be known amongst us, we cannot but wonder how they did to subsist without it; for were the planting or traffick of tobacco now hindered, millions of this nation in all probability must perish for the want of food, their whole livelihood almost depending upon it.” When first discovered in America, and particularly by the English in Virginia, the plant was cultivated only by the females of the tribes, the chiefs and warriors engaging only in the chase or following the war- path. They cultivated a few plants around their wig- wams, and cured a few pounds for their own use. The smoke, as it ascended from their pipes and circled around their rude huts and out into the air, seemed typical of the race—the original cultivators and smokers of the plant. But, unlike the great herb which they cherished and gave to civilization, they have gradually grown weak in numbers and faded away, while the great plant has gone on its way, ever assuming more and more sway over the commercial and social world, until it now takes high rank among the leading elements of mercantile and agricultural greatness. CHAPTER III. TOBACCO IN AMERICA. Wer ~ECE do not find in any accounts of the English #44 voyagers made previous to 1584, any mention of the = discovery of tobacco, or its use among the Indians. This may appear a little strange, as Captains Amidas and Barlow, who sailed from England under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584, on returning from Virginia, had brought home with them pearls and tobacco among other curiosities. But while we have no account of those who returned from the voyage made in 1602 taking any tobacco with them, it is altogether probable that those who remained took a lively interest in the plant and the Indian mode of use; for we find that in nine years after they landed at Jamestown tobacco had become quite an article of culture and commerce. Hamo in alluding to the early cultivation of tobacco by the colony, says, that John Rolfe was the pioneer tobacco planter. In his words: “T may not forget the gentleman worthie of much com- mendations, which first took the pains to make triall thereof, his name Mr. John Rolfe, Anno Domini 1612, partly for the love he hath a long time borne unto it, and partly to raise commodities to the adventurers, in whose behalfe I intercede and vouchsafe to hold my testimony in beleefe that during the time of his aboade there, which draweth neere sixe years 48 FIRST GENERAL PLANTING. no man hath laboured to his power there, and worthy incour- agement unto England, by his letters than he hath done, DNS Vous ZZ JOHN ROLFE. witness his marriage with Powhatan’s daughter one of rude education, manners barbarous, and cursed generation merely for the good and honor of the plantation.” The first general planting of tobacco by the colony began according to this writer—“at West and Sherley Hundred (seated on the north side of the river, lower than the Ber- mudas three or four myles) where are twenty-five commanded ‘by capten Maddeson—who are imployed onely in planting and curing tobacco.” This was in 1616, when the colony numbered only three hundred and fifty-one persons. Rolfe, in his relation of the state of Virginia, written and addressed to the King, gives the following description of the condition of the colony in 1616: STATE OF THE COLONY. 49 “ Now that your highness may with the more ease under- stand in what condition the colony standeth, I have briefly sett downe the manner of all men’s several imployments, the number of them, and the several places of their aboad, which places or seates are all our owne ground, not so much b conquest, which the Indians hold a just and lawfull title, but purchased of them freely, and they verie willingly selling it. The places which are now possessed and inhabited are sixe :— Henrico and the lymitts, Bermuda Nether hundred, West and Sherley hundred, James Towne, Kequoughtan, and Dales-Gift. The generall mayne body of the planters are divided into Officers, Laborers, Farmors. “The officers have the charge and care as well over the farmors as laborers generallie—that they watch and ward for their preservacions; and that both the one and the other’s busines may be daily followed to the performance of those imployments, which from the one are required, and the other by covenant are bound unto. These officers are bound to maintayne themselves and families with food and rayment by their owne and their servant’s industrie. The laborers are of two sorts. Some employed onely in the generall » works, who are fedd and clothed out of the store—others, * specially artificers as smiths, carpenters, shoemakers, taylors, tanners, &c., doe worke in their professions for the colony, and maintayne themselves with food ann apparrell, having time lymitted them to till and manure their ground. “The farmors live at most ease—yet by their good endeavy- ors bring yearlie much plentie to the plantation. They are bound by covenant, both for themselves and servants, to maintaine your Ma’ties right and title in that kingdom, against all foreigne and domestique enemies. To watch and ward in the townes where they are resident. To do thirty- one dayes service for the colony, when they shalbe called thereunto—yet not at all tymes, but when their owne busines can best spare them. To maintayne themselves and families with food and rayment—and every farmor to pay yearlie into the magazine for himself and every man servant, two barrells and a halfe of English measure. “Thus briefly have I sett downe every man’s particular imployment and manner of living; albeit, lest the people— who generallie are bent to covett after gaine, especially hay- ing tasted of the sweete of their labors—should spend too much of their tyme and labor in planting tobacco, known to them to be verie vendible in England, and so neglect their tillage of corne, and fall into want thereof, it is provided for 4 50 CONDITIONS OF RAISING TOBACCO. —by the providence and care of Sir Thomas Dale—that no farmor or other, who must maintayne themselves—shall plant any tobacco, unless he shall yearely manure, set and main- tayne for himself and every man servant two acres of ground with corne, which doing they may plant as much tobacco as they will, els all their tobacco shalbe forfeite to the colony— by which meanes the magazine shall yearely be sure to receave their rent of corne ; to maintayne those who are fedd thereout, being but a few, and manie others, if need be; they themselves will be well stored to keepe their families with overplus, and reape tobacco enough to buy clothes and such other necessaries as are needful for themselves and household. For an easie laborer will keepe and tend two acres of corne, and cure a good store of tobacco—being yet the principall commoditie the colony for the present yieldeth. “For which as for other commodities, the councell and company for Virginia have already sent a ship thither, fur- nished with all manner of clothing, household stuff and such necessaries, to establish a magazine there, which the people shall buy at easie rates for their commodities—they selling them at such prices that the adventurers may be no loosers. This magazine shalbe yearelie supplied to furnish them, if they will endeavor, by their labor, to maintayne it—which wilbe much beneficiall to the planters and adventurers, by interchanging their commodities, and will add much encour- agement to them and others to preserve and follow the action with a constant resolution to uphold the same.” The colony at this time was engaged in planting corn and tobacco, ‘making pitch and tarr, potashes, charcole, salt,” and in fishing. Of Jamestown he says: “ At James Toune (seated on the north side of the river, from West and Sherley Hundred lower down about thirty- seven miles) are fifty, under the command of lieutenant Sharpe, in the absence of capten Francis West, Esq., brother to the right ho’ble the L. Lawarre,—whereof thirty-one are farmors; all theis maintayne themselves with food and ray- ment. Mr. Richard Buck minister there—a verie good preacher.” Rey. Hugh Jones “ Chaplain to the Honourable Assembly, and lately Minister of James-Towne and in Virginia,” in a work entitled—“ The Present State of Virginia,” gives the following account of the cultivation of tobacco: “When a tract of land is seated, they clear it by felling TOBACCO FIELDS, 1620. 51 the trees about a yard from the ground, lest they should shoot again. What wood they have occasion for they carry off, and burn the rest, or let it lie and rot upon the ground. The land between the logs and stumps they hoe up, planting NG ~ NN ieadt a NY AY ee . VIRGINIA TOBACCO FIELD, 1620. tobacco there in the spring, inclosing it with a slight fence of cleft rails. This will last for tobacco some years, if the land be good; as it is where fine timber, or grape vines grow. Land when hired is forced to bear tobacco by penning their cattle upon it; but cowpen tobacco tastes strong, and that planted in wet marshy land is called nonburning tobacco, which smoaks in the pipe like leather, unless it be of a good age. When land is tired of tobacco, it will bear Indian Corn or English Wheat, or any other European grain or seed with wonderful increase. “Tobacco and Indian Corne are planted in hills as hops, and secured by worm fences, which are made of rails sup- poate one another very firmly in a particular manner. obacco requires a great deal of skill and trouble in the right management of it. They raise the plants in beds, as we do Cabbage plants; which they transplant and replant upon occasion after a shower of rain, which they call a season. When it is grown up they top it, or nip off the head, succour 52, INCREASE OF TOBACCO GROWING. it, or cut off the ground leaves, weed it, hill it; and when ripe, they cut it down about six or eight leaves on a stalk, which they carry into airy tobacco houses, after it is withered a little in the sun, there it is hung to dry on sticks, as paper at the paper-mills; when it is in proper case, (as they call it) and the air neither too moist, nor too dry, they strike it, or ~ take it down, then cover it up in bulk, or a great heap, where it lies till they have leisure or occasion to strip it (that is pull the leaves from the stalk) or stem it (that is to take out the great fibres) and tie it up in hands, or streight lay it; and so by degrees prize or press it with proper engines into great Hogsheads, containing from about six to eleven hundred pounds; fourof which Hogsheads make a tun by dimention, not by weight; then it is ready for sale or shipping. There are two sorts of tobacco, viz., Oroonoko the stronger, and sweet-scented the milder; the first with a sharper leaf like a Fox’s ear, and the other rounder and with finer fibres : But each of these are varied into several sorts, much as Apples and Pears are; and I have been informed by the Indian traders, that the Inland Indians have sorts of tobacco much differing from any planted or used by the Europeans. The Indian Corn is planted in hills and weeded much as tobacco. This grain is of great increase and most general use; for with this is made good bread, cakes, mush, and hommony for the negroes, which with good pork and potatoes (red and white, very nice and different from ours) with other roots and pulse, are their general food.” The cultivation of tobacco increased with the growth of the colony and the increase of price which at this time was sufficient to induce most of the planters to neglect the cul- ture of Corn and Wheat, devoting their time to growing their “darling tobacco.” The first thirty years after the colonization of Virginia by the English, the colony made but little progress owing in part to private factions and Indian wars. The horrid massacres by the Indians threatened the extermination of the colony, and for a time the plantations were neglected and even tobacco became more of an article of import than of export, which is substantiated by an early writer of the colony who says:—“A vast quantity of tobacco is consumed in the country in smoking, chewing, and snuff.” Frequent complaints were made by the colony of want of strength and danger of imminent famine, owing in RESTRICTIONS ON TOBACCO-RAISING. 58 part to the presence of a greater number of adventurers than of actual settlers,—such being the case the resources of the country were in a measure limited. The demand for tobacco in England increasing each year, together with the high price paid for that from Virginia (3 s. per lb.), stimulated the planters to hazard all their time and labor upon one crop, neglecting the cultivation of the smaller grains, intent only upon curing “a good store of tobacco.” The company of adventurers at length found it necessary to check the excessive planting of the weed, and by the consent of the “ Generall Assemblie” restraining the plantations to “one hundred plants* ye headd, uppon each of wich plantes there are to bee left butt onely nyne leaves weh portions as neare as could be guessed, was generally conceaved would be agreable with the hundred waight you have allowed.” In 1639 the “Grand Assembly ” (summoned the sixth of January) passed a law restricting the growth of the colony to 1,500,000 lbs., and to 1,200,000 in the two years next ensuing. The exporting of the poorer qualities of tobacco by the colony caused much dissatisfaction as will be seen by a letter of the Company dated 11th September, 1621: “We are assured from our Factor in Holland that except the tobacco that shall next come thence prove to be of more perfection and goodnesse than that was sent home last, there is no hope that it vend att all, for albeit itt passed once yett the wary buyer will not be againe taken, so that we heartily wish that youe would make some provision for the burninge of all base and rotten stuff, and not suffer any but very good to be cured at least sent home, whereby these would certainly be more advanced in the price upon lesse in the quantity ; howsoever we hope that no bad nor ill conditioned tobacco shall be by compelling authoritie (abusing its power given for public good to private benefit) putt wppon or Factor, and very earnestly desire that he may have the helpe of justice to constraine men to pay their debts unto him both remain- ing of the last yeares accompt and what shall this yearse growth deue, and that in Comodities of the same vallew and goodness as shalbe by him contracted for.” “Another account is sixty pounds per head. 5A TOBACCO USED AS MONEY. At this period it appears that tobacco was used as money, and as the measure of price and value. The taxes whether public, county, or parish, were payable in tobacco. Tatham says, “ Even the tavern keepers were compelled to exchange a dinner for a few pounds of tobacco.” The law for the regulation of payments in tobacco was passed in the year 1640. From these facts and incidents connected with the culture and commerce of the plant we see how intimately it was connected with both Church and State. Jones well | said “the Establishment is indeed tobacco ;” the salary of ministers was payable in it according to the wealth of the parish. In most parishes 16000 lbs. was the yearly amount, “and in some 20,000 Ibs. of Tobacco ; out of which there is a deduction for Cask, prizing, collecting, and about which allowance there are sometimes disputes, as are also differences often about the place, time, and manner of delivering it ; but all these things might easily be regulated. Tobacco is more commonly at 20s. per cent. than at 10; so that certainly it will bring 12 s. 8 d. a hundred, which will make 16000 (the least salary) amount to 100£ per Ann. which it must cer- tainly clear, allowing for all petty charges, out of the lowness of the price stated which is less than the medium between ten and twenty shillings; whereas it might be stated above the medium, since it is oftener at twenty than ten shillings. Besides the payment of the salary, the surplice fees want a better regulation in the payments; for though the allowance be sufficient, yet differences often and illwill arise about these fees, whether they are to be paid in money or tobacco, and when; whereas by a small alteration and addition of a few laws in these and the like respects, the clergy might live more happy, peaceable, and better beloved; and the people would be more easy, and pay never the more dues. “Some parts of the country make but mean and poor tobacco so that Clergymen don’t care to live in such parishes; but there the payment might be made in money, or in the produce of those places, which might be equivalent to the tobacco payments ; better for the minister, and as pleasing to the people.” We find further complaints from the London Company of the poor quality of the tobacco “sent home,” in a letter addressed to the Governor, bearing date 10th June, 1622 :— “The tobacco sent home by the George for the company BUYING WIVES WITH TOBACCO. 55 proved very meane and is yett unsold although it hath been offered at 3s. the pound. This we thought fitt to advise you concerning the quantity and the manner how it is raised, in both wich being done contrarie to their directors and extreamly to theire prejudice, the Companie is very ill sattis- fied, will write by the next, more largely.” In the year 1620 the difficulties seem first to have been publicly avowed, (though perhaps before felt,) arising from attaching men as permanent settlers to the colony without an adequate supply of women, to furnish the comforts of domestic life; and to overcome the difficulty “a hundred young women” of agreeable persons and respectable char- acters, were selected in England and sent out, at the expense of the Company, as wives for the settlers. They were very speedily appropriated by the young men of the colony, who paid for the privilege of choice considerable sums as purchase money, which went to replenish the treasury of the Company, from whence the cost of their outfit and passage had been defrayed. This speculation proved so advantageous to that body, in » a pecuniary sense, that it was soon followed up by sending out sixty more, for whom larger prices were paid than for the first consignment; the amount paid on the average for the first one hundred being 120 pounds of tobacco apiece for each, then valued at 3s. per Ib., and for the second supply of sixty, the average price paid was 150 lbs. of tobacco, this being the legal currency of the colony, and the standard value by which all contracts, salaries, and prices were paid. In one of the Companies letters dated in London this 12th of August, 1621, we find this account of a portion of the goods sent over in the ship Marmaduke :— “We send you in this ship one widdow and eleven maids for wives for the people in Virginia; there hath been especiall care had in the choise of them for their hath not any one of them beene received but upon good comendations, as by a note herewith sent you may perceive: we pray you all there- fore in generall to take them into your care, and most espe- cially we recommend them to you, Mr. Pountes, that at their first landing they may be housed, lodged and provided for of diet till they be marryed for such was the haste of sending 56 CARGOES OF WOMEN. them away, as that straightned with time, we had no meanes to putt provisions aboard, which defect shalbe supplied by the magazine shipp; and in case they cannot be presently marryed we desire they may be putt to several householders that have wives till they can be provided of husbands. There are neare fifty more which are shortly to come, we sent by our most honoble Lord William the Earle of Southampton and certain worthy gentlemen who taking into these consid- erations, that the Plantation can never flourish till families be planted and the respect of wives and children fix the people in the soil; therefore have given this fair beginning for the reimbursing of whose charges, itt is ordered that every man that marries them give 120 lb. waight of best leafe tobacco for each of them, and in case any of them dye that proportion must be advanced to make it upp to those that survive; and this certainly is sett down for that the price sett upon the bages sent last yeare being 20 lb. which was so much money out of purse here, there was returned 66 lb. of tobacco only, and that of the worst and basest, so that fraight and shrinkage reconed together with the baseness of the comoditie there was not one half returned, which injury the company is sensible of as they demand restitution, which accordingly must be had of them that took uppon them the dispose of them the rather that no man may mistake himself, in accomptinge tobacco to be currant 3s. sterling contrary to express orders. “And though we are desirous that marriadge be free accord- ing to the law of nature, yett undervow not to have these maids deterred and married to servants, but only to such freemen or tenants as have means to maintaine them; we pray you therefore to be fathers to them in this business, not enforcing them to marrie against their wills; neither send we them to be servants, but in case of extremitie, for we would have their condition so much better as multitudes may be allured thereby to come unto you; and you may assure such men as marry those women that the first servants sent over by the company shall be consigned to them, it being our intent to preserve families and proper married men before single persons, The tobacco that shall be due uppon the marriadge of these maids we desire Mr. Pountes to receive and returne by the first, as also the little quantities of Pitzarn Rock and Piece of Oare, the copie of whose bill is here returned. To conclude, the company for some weighty reasons too long to relate, have ordered that no man marrying these VALUABLE CONSIGNMENTS. 57 women expect the proportion of land usually allotted for each head, which to avoid clamor or other trouble hereafter you shall do well to give them notice of.” In another letter written by the company and dated Lon- don, September 11th, 1621, they write :— \ “By this Shipp and Pinace called the Tyger, we also send as many maids and young women as will make up the num- ber of fifty, with those twelve formerly sent in the Marma- duke, which we hope shalbe received with the same Christian pietie and charitie as they were sent from hence ;/the pro- viding for them at their first landing and disposing’ of them in marriage (which is our chief intent), we leave to your care BUYING WIVES. and wisdom, to take that order as may most conduce to their good, and satisfaction of the Adventurers, for the charges disbursed in setting them forth, which coming to twelve pounds and upwards, they require one hundred and fiftie of the best leafe tobacco for each of them; and if any of them dye there must be a proportionable addition uppon the rest ; this increase of thirty pounds is weight since those sent in 58 EXCELLENT INSTRUCTIONS. the Marmaduke, they have resolved to make, finding the great shrinkage and other losses uppon the tobacco from Vir- ginia will not leave lesse, which tobacco as it shalbe received, we desire may be delivered to Mr. Ed. Blany, who is to keep thereof a particular account. We have used extraordinary care and dilligence in the choice of them, and have received none of whom we have not had good testimony of their honest life and cariadge, which together with their names, we send them inclosed for the satisfaction of such as shall marry them ; for whose further encouragement we desire you to give public notice that the next spring we purpose to send over as many youths for apprentices to those that shall now marry any of them and make us due satisfaction. “This and theire owne good deserts together with your favor and care, will we hope, marry them all unto honest and sufi- cient men, whose means will reach to present repayment ; but if any of them shall unwarily or fondly bestow herself (for the liberty of marriadge we dare not infrindge) uppon such as shall not be able to give present sattisfaction, we desire that at least ag soon as ability shalbe, they be compelled to pay the true quantity of tobacco proportioned, and that this debt may have precedence of all other to be recovered. ~, “ For the rest, which we hope will not be many, we desire your best furtherance for providing them fitting services till they may happen uppon good matches, and are here per- suaded by many old planters that there will be good maisters now found there, who will readily lay down what charges shall be required, uppon assurance of repayment at their marriadges, which as just and reasonable we desire may be given them. But this and many other things in this busi- ness we must refer to your good considerations and fruitful endeavors in opening a work begun here out of pity, and tending so much to the benefitt of the plantation, shall not miscarry for any want of good will or care on your part.” In 1622 a monopoly of the importation of tobacco was granted to the Virginia and Somers Island companies. “ But now at last it hath pleased God for the confirmation no doubt of our hopes and redoubling of our and your cour- age, to incline His Majestie’s Royall heart to grant the sole importation of Tobacco (a thing long and earnestly desired), to the Virginia and Somers Island Companies, and that upon such conditions as the private profit of each man is likely to be much improved and the general state of the plantation strongly secured, while his Majestie’s revenue is so closely \ | { KING JAMES OPPOSES TOBACCO-RAISING. 59 joyned as together with the colonie it must rise and faile, grow and impair, and that not a small matter neither, but of twenty thousand pounds per annum. (for the offer of so much in certainty hath his majestie been pleased to refuse in favor of the Plantations.” On Friday the 22d of March 1622 the Indians attacked the plantations ‘“‘and attempted in most places under the color of unsuspected amytie, and by surprise to have cut us all off and to have swept us all away at once throughout the whole lande had itt not pleased God of his abundant mercy to prevent them in many places, for which we can never sufii- cient magnifie his blessed name.” But notwithstanding this terrible massacre in which nearly four hundred persons were slain the colony increased in wealth and numbers as plantations were laid out and the colonists developed the various resources of the country. From the first planting of tobacco in Virginia by the colony it seemed to meet the royal displeasure of King James the First who falsely and frivolously sought to establish a connection between the balmy plant, and the influences of the Evil One. In 1622 King James still opposing the cultivation of tobacco sought by every means in his power to discourage its growth and culture. He urged the growing of mulberry trees and the propagation of silk worms, as being of more value than tobacco. In a letter dated 10th) June 1622, addressed to the Governor and Council of Virginia by the London Company we find this reproof for neglecting the cultivation of “ mulberrie trees”: “ His Mat (Majesty) above all things requires from us @ proof of silke ; sharply reproving the neglect thereof, where- fore we pray you lett that little stock you have be carefully improved, the mulberrie trees preserved and increased, and all other fitt preparations made for, God willing before Christmas you shall receive from us one hundred ounces of Silkworme seed at least, which coming too late from Valen- tia we have been forced to hatch it here.” In 1623 a letter was prepared for the colony by order of privy council of the king and addressed to Sir Francis Wyatt Knight and Captain General of Virginia and to the 60 THE COLONIES ADMONISHED. rest ot the Council of State in which the colony is admon- ished to pay more attention to “Staple Commodities.” That part relating to it reads: “The carefull and diligent prosecution of Staple Commo- dities which we promist; we above all things pray you to performe so as we may have speedily the real proot of your cares and endeavors therein, especially in that of Iron, of Vines and Silk the neglect and delay whereof so long is to us here cause of infinit grief and discontent, especially in regard of his Majesties just resentment therein that his Royall grace and love to the Plantation, which after so long a time and long a supply of his Majesties favor hath brought forth no better fruit than Tobacco. “Yett by the goodness of God inclyning his princely heart, we have received not only from the Lords of his Privy Counsell, but from his Royal mouth such assurance not only of his tender love and care but also of his Royal intentions for the advancement of the Plantation; that we cannot but exceedingly rejoice therein and persuade you with much more comfort and encouragement to go on in the building up of his Royal worke with all sincerity, care and diligence, and that with that perfect love and union amongst yourselves as may really demonstrate that your intentions are all one, the advancement of God’s glorie and the service of his Royall Majestie: for the particularities of his Majesties gratious intentions for the future good, you may in part understand them by the courses appointed by the Lords, whereof we here inclosed send the orders. “And we are further to signifie unto you that the Lords of his Majesties Privy Counsell, having by his Majesties order taken into their considerations the contract made last Som- mer by the Company have dissolved the same; and signified that his Majestie out of his gracious and Royall intention and princely favor to the Plantation hath resolved to grant a sole Importion of Tobacco to the two Plantations, with an exception only of 40,000 weight of ye best Spanish Tobacco to be yearly brought in. “ And it hath also pleased his Majesty in fayor of the Plantation to reduce ye custom and importing of tobacco to . 9d. per pound: And last of all we are to signifie unto you that their Lordships have ordered that all the Tobacco shall be brought in from both Plantations as by their Lordship order whereof we send you a copy, you may perceive.” FOREIGN TOBACCO PROHIBITED. 61 In 1624 King James prohibited the importation of foreign tobacco as well as the planting of tobacco in England or Ireland. The following is a portion of the proclamation :— “Whereas our commons, in their last sessions of parlia- ment became humble petitioners to us, that, for many weighty reasons, much concerning the interest of our kingdom, and the trade thereof, we would by our royal power utterly pro- hibit the use of all foreign tobacco, which is not of the growth of our own dominions: And whereas we have upon all occa- sions made known our dislike we have ever had of the use of tobacco in general, as tending to the corruption both of the health and manners of our people. “Nevertheless because we have been often and earnestly importuned by many of our loving subjects, planters, and adventurers in Virginia and the Somer isles; that, as those colonies are yet but in their infancy, and cannot be brought to maturity, unless we be pleased, for a time, to tolerate unto them the planting and vending of their own growth; we have condescended to their desires: and do therefore hereby strictly prohibit the importation of any tobacco from beyond sea, or from Scotland, into England or Ireland other than from our colonies before named; moreover we strictly pro- hibit the planting of any tobacco either in England or Ireland.” Thus King James by Proclamation and Prohibition set his face sternly against the growth and traffic in the plant, which opposition knew no alteration and continued till his death, which occurred in 1625. James was succeeded by his son Charles I. On ascending the throne Charles manifested the same hostility towards the plant which his father had. He prohibited the importation of all tobacco excepting that grown by the colony, and throughout his reign made no change in the restrictive laws against its growth and sale. He continued its sale, however, as a kingly monopoly, allow- ing only those to engage in it who paid him for the privilege. The Company had now raised a capital of two hundred thousand pounds, but falling into dispute and disagreeing one with another, Charles thought best to establish a royal government. Accordingly he dissolved the Company in 1626, “reduc- ing the Country and Government into his own immediate 62 KING CHARLES ON TOBACCO. ordering all patents and processes to issue in his own name, reserving to himself a quit-rent of two shillings for every hundred acres of land.” The first act was by proclamation as follows :— “That whereas, in his royal father’s time, the charter of the Virginia Company was by a quo warranto annulled; and whereas his said father was, and he himself also is, of opinion, that the government of that Colony by a company incorpo- rated, consisting of a multitude of persons of various dispo- sitions, amongst whom affairs of the greatest moment are ruled by a majority of votes, was not so proper, for carrying on, prosperously, the affairs of the colony; wherefore, to reduce the government thereof to such a course as might best agree with that form which was held in his royal mon- archy ; and considering also, that we hold those territories of Virginia and Somer isles, as also that of New England, lately planted, with the limits thereof, to be a part of our royal empire; we ordain that the government of Virginia shall immediately depend on ourself, and not be committed to any company or corporation, to whom it may be proper to trust matters of trade and commerce, but cannot be fit to commit the ordering of state affairs. “¢ Wherefore our commissioners for those affairs shall pro- ceed as directed, till we establish a council here for that colony; to be subordinate to out council here for that colony. And at our charge we will maintain those public officers and ministers and that strength of men, munition, and fortifica- tion, which shall be necessary for the defence of that planta- tion. And we will also settle and assure the particular rights and interests of every planter and adventurer. Lastly, whereas the tobacco of those plantations (the only present means of their subsisting) cannot be managed for the good of the plantations, unless it be brought into one hand, whereby the foreign tobacco of those plantations may yield a certain and ready price to the owners thereof : to avoid all differences between the planters and adventurers themselves, we resolve to take the same into our own hands, and to give such prices for the same as may give reasonable satisfaction, whereof we will determine at better leisure.” From this time forward the Plantation seemed to prosper, Charles granted lands to all the planters and adventurers who would till them, upon paying the annual sum of two shillings payable to the crown for each hundred acres. Ga es en Tere ee ey oe OR MA ouly S17 107 WOLVTTa KING CHARLES AS A TOBACCO MERCHANT. 63 direction, appointing the Governor and Council himself, and Before the death of King James, however, the cultivation of tobacco had become so extensive that every other product seemed of but little value in comparison with it, and the price realized from its sale being so much greater than that obtained for “ Corne,” the latter was neglected and its culture almost entirely abandoned. Arthur and Carpenter, in their History of Virginia, give a graphic and truthful picture of its cultivation during the reign of King James :— . “The first articles of commerce to the production of which the early settlers almost exclusively devoted themselves, were potash, soap, glass and tar. Distance, however, and a want of the proper facilities to enable them to manufacture cheaply, rendered the cost of these commodities so great, that exports of a similar character from Russia and Sweden were still enabled to maintain their old ascendency in the markets of Europe. After many fruitless and costly experiments in the cultivation of the vine, the growing demand for tobacco enabled the planters to turn their labor into a profitable channel. As the demand increased the profits became corre- spondingly great, and every other species of labor was aban- doned for the cultivation of tobacco. “The houses were neglected, the palisades suffered to rot down, the fields, gardens and public squares, even the very streets of Jamestown were planted with tobacco. The towns- people, more greedy of gain than mindful of their own security, scattered abroad into the wilderness, where they broke up small pieces of rich ground and made their crop regardless of their proximity to the Indians, in whose good faith so little reliance could be placed.” During the reign of Charles I. many families of respect- able connection joined the colony, and from this time forward thé colony increased in wealth as well as numbers. King Charles, to use the language of another, had now com- menced “as a tobacco merchant and monopolist,” and in 1627 issued a proclamation renewing his already strong monopoly more effectually, by appointing certain officers of London “to seize all foreign tobacco, not of the growth of Virginia or Bermudas, for his benefit, agreeable to a former commis- sion: also to buy up for his use all the tobacco coming from 64. TOBACCO TAXED. our said plantations, and to sell the same again for his benefit.” Again in 1630 King Charles issued another proclamation, - = BS PIPE COLORER. ‘“‘A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.” For, your meerschaum is a fragile thing, and eminently fran- gible. This present writer once did see four beauties break within a single moon. And when they break, what previous joy of coloring can over-top the sorrow of their dire destruc- tion? Itisa singular difficulty in the way of those who most desire to beautify utility or utilize the beautiful, or THE CITY OF SMOKERS. 153 show that beauty is most lovely when made practical, that these artistic colorers of pipes are always those who make least use of Tobacco, save for the immediate purpose of obtaining the clay in which it is smoked. Ask such an artist why he smokes, and he will scarcely tell you. His best rea- son certainly will be, that others smoke, and, as a custom, it becomes him. And when you find an ardent smoker—one who smokes because he likes Tobacco for itself, or finds it useful—who spends his time in tinting pipes, you will have found a rara avis, or a monstrosity. Apart from taste, there are some practical objections to this custom of coloring pipes. Smoking, to be worthy, should be free and unrestrained; while he who colors his pipe is tied by system and confined to rule. “A pipe to be enjoyable, should be its master’s slave; but he who keeps a ‘ well-colored’ pipe is slave thereto. He can- not smoke it as, or when, or where he will. He must not smoke it in a draught, or near a fire; he must mot lay it down, or finger it; he must not puff too fast, nor yet too slow. In short, he is the creature of this ‘Joss ’—this home- made deity—to which he bows down and worships. The pipe-colorers are the Sabbatarians of smoking. Whereas, the pipe was made for man, they treat man as made for the pipe. And thus, as in all cases where the cart is expected to draw the horse, the economy of nature is reversed, and mischief is evolved.” Dibdin, in his “Tour in France and Germany,” says of Vienna, that it is a city of smokers,—“a good Austrian thinks he can never pay too much for a good pipe.” Many of the Germans use a kind of pipe carved from the root of the dwarf oak; wooden pipes of a similar kind are made of brier root, and are very common, as are also those made from maple and sweet-brier. One of the favorite pipes used by Germans is the porcelain pipe, which consists of a double bowl—the upper one containing the to- bacco, which fits into another portion of the _u«d pipe, allowing the oil to GERMAN PORCELAIN PIPES. drain into the lower bow], which may be removed and the pipe cleaned. The bowls are 154 “MY GREAT GRANDFATHER.” sometimes painted beautifully, representing a variety of sub- jects, and in no way inferior to the painted porcelain for the table. The Dutch are famous smokers and are constantly “ pull- ing at the pipe.” They use those with long, straight stems, and both their clay and porcelain pipes are of the finest form and finish. Irving, in “ The History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty,” has given a good description of the smoking powers of the Dutch. Speaking of his grandfather’s love for the weed, he says: “My great-grandfather, by the mother’s side, Hermanns Van Clattercop, when employed to build the large stone church at Rotterdam, which stands about three hundred yards to your left, after your turn from the Boomkeys; and which is so conveniently constructed that all the zealous Christians of Rotterdam prefer sleeping through a sermon there to any other church in the city. My great-grandfather, I say, when employed to build that famous church, did, in the first place, send to Delft for a box of long pipes; then, having purchased a new spitting-box and a hundred weight of the best Virginia, he sat himself down and did nothing for the space of three months but smoke most laboriously. “Then did he spend full three months more in trudging on foot, and voyaging in the Trekschuit, from Rotterdam to Amsterdam—to Delft—to Herlem—to Leyden—to the Hague—knocking his head and breaking his pipe against every church in his road. Then did he advance gradually nearer and nearer to Rotterdam, until he came in full sight of the identical spot whereon the church was to be built. Then did he spend three months longer in walking round it and round it, contemplating it, first from one point of view, and then from another,—now would he be paddled by it on the canal—now would he peep at it through a telescope from the other side of the Meuse, and now would he take a bird’s- eye glance at it from the top of one of those gigantic wind- mills which protect the gates of the city. “The good folks of the place were on the tip-toe of expec- tation and impatience. Notwithstanding all the turmoil of my great-grandfather, not a symptom of the church was yet to be seen; they even began to fear it would never be brought into the world, but that its great projector would lie HUDSON AS A SMOKER. 155 down and die in labor of the mighty plan he had conceived. At length, having occupied twelve good months in puffing and paddling, and talking and walking,—having traveled over all Holland, and even taken a peep into France and Germany,—having smoked five hundred and ninety-nine pipes and three hundred weight of the best Virginia tobacco,—my great-grandfather gathered together all that knowing and industrious class of citizens who prefer attend- ing to anybody’s business sooner than their own, and having pulled off his coat and five pair of breeches he advanced sturdily up and laid the corner-stone of the church, in the presence of the whole multitude,—just at the commence- ment of the thirteenth month.” He also alludes to Hudson whom he says was: “ A seafaring man of renown, who had learned to smoke tobacco under Sir Walter Raleigh, and is said to have been the first to introduce it into Holland, which gained him much popularity in that country, and caused him to find great favor in their High Mightinesses, the lords and states general, and also of the honorable West India Company. He was a short, square, brawny old gentleman, with a double chin, a mastiff mouth, and a broad copper nose, which was supposed in those days to have acquired its fiery hue from the constant neighborhood of his tobacco pipe. * * * As chiet mate and favorite companion, the commander chose Master Robert Juet, of Limehouse, in England. By some his name has been spelled Chewit, ascribed to the circum- stance of his having been the first man that ever chewed tobacco. * * * * Under every misfortune he comforted himself with a quid of tobacco, and the truly philosophical maxim, ‘ that it will be all the same a hundred years hence!’” Further on he alludes to the attempt to subjugate New Amsterdam to the British crown and the effect produced by the burghers lighting their pipes. “When” he says “ Cap- tain Argol’s vessel hove in sight, the worthy burghers were seized with such a panic, that they fell to smoking their pipes with astonishing vehemence, insomuch that they quickly raised a cloud, which, combining with the surrounding woods and marshes, completely enveloped and concealed their beloved village; and overhung the fair regions of Pavonia :— so that the terrible Captain Argol passed on, totally unsus- picious that a sturdy little Dutch settlement lay snugly couched in the mud, under cover of all this pestilent vapor.” 156 PERSIAN WATER PIPES. The Persians* are said to be the first to invent the mode of drawing tobacco smoke through water thereby cooling it before inhaling it. Fair- holt says “it is to smoking what ice is to Champagne.” The London Leview gives the following description of pipes and smoking apparatus : “The hookah of India is the most splendid and glit- tering of all pipes; it is a large affair, on account of the arrangements for caus- ing the smoke to pass through water before it ites reaches the lips of the A PERSIAN WATER PIPE. smoker, as a means of ren- dering it cooler and of ex- tracting from it much of its rank and disagreeable flavor. “On the top of an air-tight vessel, half filled with water, is a bowl] containing tobacco; a smal] tube descends from the bowl into the water, and a flexible pipe, one end of which is between the lips of the smoker, is inserted at the other end into the vessel, above the level of the water. Such being the adjustment, the philosophy of the inhalation may be easily understood. The smoke sucks the air out of the vessel, and makes a partial vacuum; the external air, pressing on the burning tobacco, drives the smoke through the small tube into the water beneath ; purified from some of its rank qualities, the smoke bubbles up into the vacant part of the vessel above the water, and passes through the flexible pipe to the smoker’s mouth. Sometimes the affair is made still more luxurious by substituting rose-water for water pur et simple. ‘The tube is so long and flexible that the smoker may sit (or squat) at a small or great distance from the vessel containing the water. In the courts of princes and wealthy natives the vessels and tubes are lavishly adorned with precious metals. One mode of showing hospitality in the *Sandys, writing in 1610 narrates a Persian legend to the effect that Shiraz tobacco was given by a holy man to a virtuous youth, disconsolate at the loss of his loving wife. ‘Go to thy wife’s tomb,” said the anchorite, ‘and there thou wilt find a weed. Pluck it, place it in a reed, and inhale the smoke, as you put fire toit. This will be to you wife, mother, father and brother,” continued the holy man, in Homeric strain, ‘“‘and abeve all, will be a wise counsellor, and teach thy soul wisdom and thy spirit joy.” TURKISH PIPES. 157 East is to place a hookah in the center of the apartment, range the guests around, and let all have a whiff of the pipe in turn; but in more luxurious establishments a separate hookah is placed before each guest. Some of the Egyptians use a form of hookah called the narghile or nargeeleh—so named because the water is contained in the shell of a cocoa- nut of which the Arabic name is nargeeleh. Another kind, having a glass vessel, is called the sheshee—having, like the other, a very long tube. Only the choicest tobacco is used with the hookah and nargeeleh ; it is grown in Persia. “ Before it is used, the tobacco is washed several times, and put damp into the pipe-bowl, two or three pieces of live charcoal are put on the top. The moisture gives mildness to the tobacco, but renders inhalation so difficult that weak lungs are unfitted to bear it. The dry tobacco preferred by the Persians does not involve so much difficulty in ‘ blowing a cloud.’” TURKISH CHIBOUQUES AND WOOD PIPES. “The stiffstemmed Turkish pipes, quite different from the flexible tube of the hookah and narghile, are of two kinds, the kablioun or long pipe, and the chibouque or short pipe. Some of the stems of the kablioun, made of cherry tree, jas- mine, wild plum, and ebony, are five feet in length, and are bored with a kind of, gimlet. The workman, placing the gimlet above the long, slender branchlet of wood, bores half the length, and then reverses the position to operate upon the other half. The wild cherry tree wood, which is the most frequently employed, is seldom free from defects in the bark,and some skill is exercised in so repairing these defective places that the mending shall be invisible.” The tubes or pipe-bowls used with these stems are mostly a combination of two substances—the red clay of Nish and the white earth of Rustchuk; they are graceful in form and sometimes decorated with gilding. It is characteristic of some of the Turks that they estimate the duration of a journey, and with it the distance traveled, by the number of pipes smoked, a particular size of pipe-bow! being understood. Dodwell, in his ‘“ Tour through Greece,” says that “a Turk is generally very clean in his smoking apparatus, having a small tin dish laid on the carpet of his apartment, on which the bowl of the pipe can rest, to prevent the tobacco from 158 PIPE STEMS. burning or soiling the carpet. The tubes of the kabliouns are often as much as seven or eight feet long. Some of the gardens of Turkey and Greece contain jasmine trees pur- posely cultivated to produce straight stems for these pipes.” Of those Turkish pipes which are used in Egypt, Mr. Lane, after mentioning the narghile and the chibouque or “ shibuk,” says :— “The most common kind used in Egypt is made of wood called garmashak (I believe it is maple). The greater part of the stick, from the mouth-piece to three-fourths of its length, is covered with silk, which is confined at each extremity by gold thread, often intertwined with colored silks, or by a tube of gilt or silver; and at the lower extremity of the cover- ing is a tassel of silk. The covering was originally designed to be moistened with water in order to cool the pipe, and consequently the smoke by evaporation ; but this is only done when the pipe is old or not handsome. These stick pipes are used by many persons, particularly in winter; in summer the smoke is not so cool from them as from the kind before mentioned. The bowl is of baked earth, colored red or brown.” AUSTRIAN AND HUNGARIAN PIPE STEMS. Before passing to the subject of the costly mouth-pieces of Oriental pipes, we must say a few words concerning the extraordinary care bestowed on some kinds of plain wood sticks for stems or tubes. Cherry-tree stems, under the name of agriots, constitute a specialty of Austrian manufacture. The fragrant cherry (prunus makaleb) is a native of that country ; and the young trees are cultivated with special ref- erence to this application. They are all raised from seed. The seedlings, when two years old, are planted in small pots, one in each; as they grow, every tendency to branching is choked by removing the bud; and as they increase in size from year to year, they are shifted into larger pots or into boxes. Great care is taken to turn them round daily, so that every part shall be equally exposed to sunshine. When the plants have attained a sufficient height they are allowed to form a small bushy head; but the daily care is continued until the stems grow to a proper thickness. They are then AMBER MOUTH-PIECES. 159 taken out of the ground, the roots and branches removed, and the stem bored through after being seasoned for some time. The care shown in rearing insures a perfect straight- ness of stem, and an equable diameter of about an inch or an inch and a half. The last specimens, when cut from the tree, are as much as eight feet in length, dark purple-brown in color, and highly fragrant. At Pesth are made pipes about eighteen inches in length, of the shoots of the mock orange, remarkable for their quality in absorbing the oil of tobacco, they are flexible without being weak. The French make elegant pipe-bowls of the root of the tree-heath, but their chief attention is directed, as far as concerns wood pipes, to those of brier-root, which are made by them in large quanti- ties. The bowl and the short stems are carried out of one piece, and the wood is credited with absorbing some of the rank oil of tobacco. Amber—the only kind of resin that rises to the dignity of a gem—is unfitted for the bowl of a tobacco-pipe, because it cannot well bear the heat; but it is largely used for mouth- pieces, especially by wealthy Oriental smokers. The Turks have a belief that amber wards off infection; an opinion which, whether right or wrong, tells well for the amber workers. There has always been a mystery connected with this remarkable substance. So far back as the Phenicians, amber was picked up on the Baltic shore of what is now called Prussia; and the same region has ever since been the chief store-house for it. Tacitus was not far wrong when he conjectured that amber is a gum or resin exuded from certain trees, although other authorities have preferred a theory that it is a kind of wax or fat which has undergone slow petrifac- tion. At any rate, it must at one time have been liquid or semi-liquid ; for insects, flies, detached wings and legs, and small fragments of various kinds, are often found imbedded in it—those odds and ends of which Pope said :— ‘* The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare; The wonder’s how the devil they got there!” 160 OBTAINING AMBER. Whether new stores of amber are now being formed, or whether, like coal, it was the result of causes not now in operation, is an unsolved problem. The specimens obtained differ considerably ; some are pale as primrose, some deep orange or almost brown; some nearly as transparent as crys- tal, some nearly opaque. Large pieces, uniform in color and translucency, fetch high prices; and there are fashions in this matter for which it is not easy to account,—seeing that the Turks and other Orientals buy up, at prices which Euro- peans are unwilling to give, all the specimens presenting a straw-yellow color and a sort of cloudy translucency. The Russians, on the contrary, prefer orange-yellow transparent specimens. The amber is seldom obtained by actual mining. It is usually found on sea-coasts, after storms, in rounded nodules; or, if scarce on shore, it is sought for by men clad in leather garments, who wade up to their necks in the sea, and scrape the sea-bottom with hooped nets attached to the end of long poles; a ee 4 or (rather danger- BE be Et ous work) men go sap ae bly out in boats, and examine the faces of precipitous cliffs, picking off, by means of iron hooks, the lumps of amber which they may see here and there. Some- times a piece weighing nearly a pound is found, and a weight of even ten pounds is recorded. As small pieces can easily be joined by smoothing the surfaces, moistening them with linseed oil, and pressing them together over a charcoal fire, and as gum copal is sometimes very like amber, there is much sophistica- tion indulged in, which none but an expert can guard against. In fashioning the nodules of amber, whether genuine or SEARCHING FOR AMBER, ITS VALUE. 161 fictitious, into pipe mouth-pieces, they are split on a leaden plate in a turning lathe, smoothed into shape by whet-stones, rubbed with chalk and water, and polished with a piece of flannel. It is an especially difficult kind of work; for unless the amber is allowed frequent intervals for cooling, it becomes electrically excited by the friction and shivers into fragments; the men, too, are put into nervous tremors if kept too long at work at one time. Amber is one of the most electrically excitable of all known substances; in fact, the name electricity itself was derived from electron, the Greek name for amber. Hookahs, chibouques, narghiles, meerschaums, all are largely adorned with amber mouth- pieces. The mouth-piece often consists of two or three pieces of amber, interjoined with ornaments of gold and gems; it is in such case the most costly part of the pipe. At one of the greater industrial exhibitions four Turkish amames, or amber mouth-pieces, were shown, illustrating clearly enough the value attached to choice specimens; two of them were worth £350 each, two £200 each, diamond studded. The Turkish and Persian pipes have often a small wooden tube inside the amber mouth-piece. They require frequent cleaning with a long wire and a bit of tow, and in some large towns there are professional pipe-cleaners. The natives of British Guiana have a curious kind of pipe, made of the rind of the fruit of the areca-palm, coiled up into a kind of cheroot, with an internal hollow to hold the tobacco. The poorer Hindoos make a simple pipe of two pieces of bamboo,—one cut close to a knot for the bowl, and a more slender piece for the tube. A lower class of natives in India make two holes of unequal length, with a piece of stick, in a clay soil; the holes are unequally inclined so as to meet at the bottom; the tobacco is placed in the shorter hole, and the smoker, applying his mouth to the longer, inhales the fumes in this primitive fashion. The pipes used for opium-smoking in various parts of the East have small bowls; the drug is too costly to be used otherwise than in small portions at a time, and too powerful to need more than 162 VARIETY OF PIPES. a few whiffs to produce the opium-smoker’s dreary delirium. The Tunisians use reeds for pipes. Stone pipes are tound among the natives of Vancouver; while Strong Bow, the North American Indian chief, has his long wooden pipe of peace, decked out with tassels and fringes, but with an ominous-looking sharp steel cutting instrument near the end most remote from the bowl. | Chinese, Japanese, Phillipine Islanders, Madagascans, Cen- tral Africans, Algerine Arabs, Mexicans, Paraguayans, Siamese, Tahitians, South American Indians, Mongols, Malays, Tartars, Turcomans, as well as the nations of Europe and the chief nations of Southern Asia, all have their smok- ing-pipes, plain or ornate, as the case may be, and made of wood, reeds, bamboo, bone, ivory, stone, earthenware, glass, porcelain, amber, agate, jade, precious metals and common metals, according to the civilization of the country and the pecuniary means of the smoker. “The French clay pipes have quite a special character; Wigs hi they are well made, and Ca “say ah great ingenuity is shown : 3 in the preparation of the moulds in which they are pressed ; but being mostly intended for a class of purchasers who prefer grotesque ideas to refined taste, the bowls are often ornamented with queer shaped heads, having bead-like eyes; sometimes imaginary beings, sometimes caricature portraits of eminent persons. Where - more than the head is represented, license is given to a certain grossness of idea; but this is not a general charac- teristic. The clay of which these French pipes are made is admitted to be superior to that of England, due to the careful mixture of different kinds, and to skilful manipulation. “We need not say much about Dutch pipes as distinct articles of mauufacture, because the process adopted in their roduction are pretty much like those in use elsewhere. he Dutch are famous clay-pipe smokers, not countenancing the cigar so much as their neighbors the Belgians, nor the meerschaum so largely as their German neighbors on the Rhine frontier. A notable bit of sharp practice is on record FANCY PIPES. HISTORY OF PIPES. 163 in connexion with the pipe-smokers of Holland—a dodge only to be justified on the equivocal maxim that all is fair in trade provided it just keeps within the margin we need not speak. A pipe manufactory was established in Flanders about the middle of the last century. “The Dutch makers, alarmed at the competition which this threatened, cunningly devised a stratagem for nipping it in the bud. They freighted a large worn-out ship with an enormous quantity of pipes of their own make, sent it to Ostend, and wrecked it there. By the municipal laws of that city the wreck became public property ; the pipes were sold at prices so ridiculously low that the town was glutted with the commodity ; the new Flemish factory was thereby paralyzed, ruined, and closed. The Turks (especially those of the lower orders) use a kind of clay pipe made of red earth decorated with gilding. The stem of the pipe is made from a branch of jasmine, cherry tree or maple and is sufficiently long to rest on the floor when used by the smoker. A writer in the Zobacco Plant says of Old English Clay pipes: “Of all the various branches of the subject of tobacco, that of the history of pipes is one of the most interesting, and one that deserves every attention that can possibly be given. Whether considered ethnographically, historically, geographically, or archzeologically, pipes present food for speculation and research of at least equal importance to any other set of objects that can be brought forward. Some branches of the subject have already been treated in these columns, and others, in what is intended shall follow, will hereafter be discussed. The present article will be devoted to ‘ Fairy Pipes’ and the history of the earliest pipes of this country. Smoking is an old and venerable institution in this kingdom of ours, and dates far back beyond the intro- duction of tobacco to our shores. Long before Sir Walter Raleigh was thought of, there is reason to believe herbs and leaves of one kind or other—coltsfoot, yarrow, mouse-lax, sword-grass, dandelion, and other plants, and even dried cow-dung—were smoked for one ailment or other, and in some instances for relaxation and pleasure, and thus, no doubt, became habitually used. These are still, in some of our rural districts, smoked by people as cures for various ailments, and are considered not only highly efficacious but very pleasant. I have known these or other herbs smoked 164 ANCIENT HABIT OF SMOKING. through a stick from which the pith had been removed, the bowl being formed of a lump of clay moulded by the fingers AY at the time, and y baked in the house: hold fire. “The small branch es of the elder tree, 02 sometimes the stem of the briar and bramble, are what I have seen used, but CLAY AND REED PIPES. even the stem of the hemlock and keckse are sometimes brought into requisiton for the purpose. ‘“‘T believe that long before the time Dr. Wilson states on the authority of Sharpe, that it was common within memory, for the old wives of Annandale to smoke a dried white moss gathered on the neighboring moors, which they declared to be much sweeter than tobacco, and to have been in use long before the American weed was heard of; before Sir Walter Raleigh wooed and won Elizabeth Throgmorton, or Sir Richard Granville voyaged to Virginia with Masters Ralph Layne, Thomas Candish, John Arundell, Master Stukely, Bremize, Vincent, Heryot, and John Clarke; before Sir Francis Drake made his first voyage, or the Spanish Armada was dreamed of ; before Sir John Hawkins, Captain Price, Coft, Keat or others for whom the honor of the introduction of tobacco has been claimed, drew breath— smoking: was to some extent indulged in by our forefathers and (still medicinally, of course) in this country. In medie- val times, when the Ceramic art was but little practiced, and when all the domestic vessels that were produced were of the rudest and coarsest character both in material, form, and decoration, it is not to be expected that pipes for the smok- ing of herbs would be manufactured as a matter of sale, and those of the people who wished for such an indulgence would naturally be thrown on their own primitive resources such as I have described, for instruments for the purpose. “A portion of a very rude pipe-head, formed of common red clay—a lump of clay moulded by hand, and ornamented with small circles pressed into it as from the end of a stick— has come under my notice, as have also others of an equally rimitive character, found in different parts of this kingdom. hese I have no hesitation in ascribing to a pre-Raleigh FAIRY PIPES. 165 period. It is not to these, however, but to the small pipes formerly used in this kingdom for smoking tobacco, and tobacco alone, that I wish to draw attention. Most people, especially in the Midland and Northern counties of England, as well as in Scotland and Ireland, will have heard the name of Fairy Pipes applied to the small, old-fashioned, and some- times oddly-shaped tobacco pipes which are not infrequently turned up in digging and plowing and other operations. To these and the general forms of old English pipes, I purpose confining myself in the present article. Many years ago I collected together a large number of these ‘Fairy Pipes’ from all parts of the kingdom. Since then, my own researches have, with the aid of inquiries carried on for me, enabled me to bring forward many interesting points, so as to verify dates of manufacture and more fully to carry out their classi- fication. Like their Irish brethren and sisters, English people were formerly apt to ascribe everything unusually small to the fairies, and anything out of the common way to the people of very remote ages. “ Thus, these small pipes are commonly in England called ‘fairy pipes,’ or ‘Carl’s pipes,’ or ‘old man’s pipes; in Ire- jand, where they are likewise known as ‘fairy pipes,’ they are also called ‘ Dane’s pipes ;’ and in Scotland, where their common name is ‘elf pipes,’ or ‘elfin pipes,’ they are, in like manner, known as ‘ Celtic pipes.’ They are also sometimes named ‘ Mab pipes,’ or ‘Queen’s pipes,’ from the same fairy majesty, Queen Mab. ‘Thus, while in each country they are ascribed to the elfin race—the ‘small people’ of Cornish folk-lore—their secondary names attach to them a popular belief in their extreme antiquity. Anything apparently old is at once, by the Irish, set down to the ‘ Danes;’ by the Scots to the ‘ Celts ;’ and by people in the rural districts of our own country to the ‘carls,’ or ‘old men ’—carl being indicative of extreme antiquity. In Ireland, the pipes are believed to have belonged to the clwricawnes—a kind of wild, ungovern- able, mischievous fairy-demon—who were held in awe by the ‘pisantry ;? and whenever found, these pipes were, with much superstitious feeling, immediately broken up, so as to destroy and break up the spell their finding might have cast around the finder. But it was not only among the peasantry that this belief in the extreme antiquity of tobacco pipes existed. “Serious essays were written to prove their pre-historic origin, and to claim for them a history that in our day reads as arrant nonsense. In 1784, a short pipe was asserted to 166 BURIED PIPES. have been found between the jaws of the skull of an ancient Milesian exhumed at Bannockstown, county Kildare. Upon this discovery, an elaborate and learned paper was written in the ‘Authologia Hibernica,’ setting forth this pipe as a proof of the use of tobacco in Ireland long before that coun- try was invaded by the Danes. This pipe has been proved by comparison to be probably quite late in the reign of Elizabeth. They also have a more modern pipe, the stem of which describes one or more circles, while another is tied in ' aknot, yet allows a free passage of air. At another time, 5 in opening an Anglo-Saxon ™ grave mound, some of the #, men employed came across a fairy pipe which evidently had rolled down from among the surface-soil, and, being turned out in juxtaposition with undoubted Anglo-Saxon remains, was immediately set down by the learned director of the proceedings as a relic of that period. At another time I had brought to me, as a great curiosity, two ‘Roman pipes,’ as I was informed—the finders jumping to the conclusion that because they had dug them up at little Chester (the Roman station Derventio), they must be Roman pipes! I believe they expected to receive a large sum from these relics: how grievously they were dis- appointed I need not tell. Instances of this kind are far from rare. “T remember a man once bringing me some fragments of Roman pottery and other things of the same period, which he had turned up in the course of excavations, and among them was a Tobacco stopper formed of a Sacheverell medal! and a George II. half-penny, all of which he was ready to swear he had found “all of a heap together,” inside a hypo- caust tile, which, on examination, certainly had remained in situ from Romano-British times! The cupidity of a man had evidently led him to collect together these odds and ends, and try to turn them to profitable account. Some twenty years ago, a large number of “elfin pipes” were dug up at Bomington, near Edinburgh, along with a quantity of placks or bodles of James VI., which thus gave trustworthy evidence of their true date. Others were found in the ancient cemetery at North Berwick, adjoining to which is a small Romanesque building of the Twelfth Century, close upon the shore. Within the last half-century, the sea has FAIRY PIPES. JASMINE PIPES. 167 made very great inroads upon this ancient burial-place, carrying off a considerable ruin, and exposing the skeletons, and bringing to light many interesting relics at almost every spring-tide. Among these, many pipes have been washed down. A similar circumstance has occurred on the seashore at Hoy Lake, Cheshire, where several “fairy pipes” have been found. “‘ Notices of several discoveries occur. Dr. Wilson says, in the statistical accounts of Scotland, many of which are sug- gestive of a pre-Raleigh period. Thus, ‘in an ancient British encampment in the parish of Kirk Michael, Dumfriesshire, on the farm of Gilrig, a number of pipes of burnt clay were dug up, with heads smaller than the modern tobacco-pipes, swelled at the middle and straighter at the top. Again, in the vicinity of a group of standing stones at Cairney Mount, in the parish of Carluke Lanarkshire, a celt or stone hatchet, elfin bolts (flint and bone arrow-heads), elfin pipes, numerous coins of the Edwards and of later date, and other things are all stated to have been found.’ An example is also recorded of the discovery of a tobacco-pipe in sinking a pit for coal, at Misk, in Ayrshire, after digging through many feet of sand. All these notes are pregnant with significant warn- ings of the necessity for cautious discrimination in determin- ing the antiquity of such buried relies.” In Turkey the jasmine is cultivated for the purpose of pipe smoking. Jarillet describes the growing of the com- mon jasmine near Constantinople. He says: “The object sought is a long straight stem, free from leaves and side branches. For this purpose the plants are grown quickly in a rich soil, and drawn up by being grown in a sheltered situation, to which the sun has little access at the sides, but only at the top. Pinching is resorted to, and during the second year’s growth one end of a thread is attached to the top of the jasmine stem. This thread passes over a pulley attached to the post to which this jasmine is trained, and from it is suspended a weight, the effect of which is to keep the stem always in a vertical direction. When the jasmine stem is about two centimeters (say three quarters of an inch) in diameter a cloth is wrapped around it to prevent access of dust and of the sun’s rays. Twice or thrice in the year the stem is washed with citron-water, which is said to give the clear color so much esteemed. When the stem has acquired a length of some fifteen feet, it 168 SMOKING IN ALGIERS. is cut down and perforated by the workmen, and fitted with a terra-cotta bow and an amber mouth-piece.” Blackburn, in his work entitled “ Artists and Arabs,” gives the following picture of life and manners in Algiers :— “There is one difficulty here, however, for the artist—that of finding satisfactory models. You can get one at last, and here is her portrait. Her costume, when she throws off her haik (and with it a tradition of the Mohammedan faith, that forbids her to show her face to an unbeliever), is a rich, loose, crimson jacket embroidered with gold, a thin white bodice, loose silk trousers reaching to the knee and fastened | round the waist by a magnificent sash of various colors, red morocco slippers, a profusion of rings on her little fingers, and bracelets and anklets of gold filagree work. Through FEMALE SMOKING IN ALGIERS. her waving black hair are twined strings of coins and the folds of a silk handkerchief, the hair falling at the back in plaits below the waist. She is not beautiful, she is scarcely interesting in expression, and she is decidedly unsteady. She seems to have no more power of keeping herself in one posi- tion or of remaining in one part of the room, or even of being quiet, than a humming-top. The whole thing is an unutter- able bore to her, for she does not even reap the reward—her father, or husband, or other male attendant always taking the money. She is petite, constitutionally phlegmatic, and as fat as her parents can manage to make her; she has small SMOKING IN AFRICA. 169 hands and feet, large rolling eyes—the latter made to appear artificially large by the application of henna or antimony black; her attitudes are not ungraceful, but there is a want of character about her, and an utter abandonment to the situation, peculiar to all her race. In short, her movements are more suggestive of a little caged animal that had better be petted and caressed, or kept at a safe distance, according to her humor. She does one thing—she smokes incessantly, and makes cigarettes with a skill and rapidity which are wonderful. Her age is thirteen, and she has been married six months; her ideas appear to be limited to three or four, and her pleasures, poor creature, are equally circumscribed. She had scarcely ever left her father’s house, and had never spoken toa man until her marriage. There seems to be in the Moorish nature a wonderful sense of harmony and con- trasts of color. Two Orientals will hardly walk down a street side by side unless the colors of their costumes har- monize. You find a negress selling oranges or citrons; an Arab boy with red fez and white turban, carrying purple fruit in a basket of leaves-—always the right juxtaposition of colors. The sky furnishes them a superb background of deep blue, and the repose of these solemn Orientals, who sit here like bronze statues, save that they smoke incessantly, inspires you with a curious respect. They are men who believe in fate—what need that they should make haste ?” In Africa the pipes are made of clay and horn, and are mostly rude affairs, but well suited to their ideas of imple- ments used for holding tobacco. King gives the following description of smoking among them :— “A party of headmen and older warriors, seated cross- legged in their tents, ceremoniously smoked the daghapipe, a kind of hookah, made of bullock’s horn, its downward point filled with water, and a reed stem let into the side, surmounted by a rough bowl of stone, which is filled with the dagha, a species of hemp, very nearly, if not the same, as the Indian bang. Each individual receives it in turn, opens his jaws to their full extent, and placing his lips to the wide mouth of the horn, takes a few pulls and passes it on. Retaining the last draught of smoke in his mouth, which he fills with a decoction of bark and water from a calabash, he squirts it on the ground by his side through a long ornamented tube in his left hand, performing thereon, by the aid of a reserved portion of the liquid, a sort of boatswain’s whistle, 170 DEFENCE OF SMOKING. complacently regarding the soap-like bubbles, the joint pro- duction of himself and neighbor. It appeared to be a sign of special friendliness and kindly feeling to squirt into the same hole.” We give an engraving of a kind of pipe used by the natives of interior Africa. It is made of clay, and holds but asmall portion of the weed. The natives are great smokers and indulge in it almost constantly, but their love for it can hardly exceed that of the more hardy Laplanders, who are described as ‘“ passion- ately fond of the plant.” Nothing is so indispensable as tobacco to their existence. A Laplander who cannot get Tobacco sucks chips of a barrel or pieces of anything else which has contained it. Tobacco gives the Laplanders a pleasure which often rises to ecstacy. They both chew and smoke, and they are certainly the dirti- est chewers in the world. When they chew they spit in their hands, then raise them to their nose that they may inhale from the saliva the irritating principles of the plant. Thus they satisfy two senses at the same time. They regu- larly smoke after their meals. If their supply of Tobacco falls short, they sit down in a circle and pass the pipe round, so that every one in his turn may have a whiff.* “ A Painter’s Camp in the Highlands” defends the custom of smoking in the following well chosen words: “People who don’t smoke—especially ladies—are exceed- ingly unfair and unjust to those who do. The reader has, I daresay, amongst his acquaintances ladies who, on hearing any habitual cigar-smoker spoken of, are always ready to exclaim against the enormity of such an expensive and use- less indulgence; and the cost of Tobacco-smoking is generally cited by its enemies as one of the strongest reasons for its general discontinuance. One would imagine, to hear these AFRICAN PIPE, *Reynard, in his “Travels in Lapland,” says of the use of tobacco: “We interrogated our Laplander upon many subjects. e asked him what he had given his wife at their marriage. He told us that she had been very expensive to him during his courtship, having cost him two pounds weight of tobacco and four or five pints of brandy.” TEA AND TOBACCO. 171 people talk, that smoking was the only selfish indulgence in the world. When people argue in this strain, I immediately assume the offensive. I roll back the tide of war right into the enemy’s intrenched camp of comfortable customs; E attack the expensive and unnecessary indulgences of ladies and gentlemen who do not smoke. I take cigar-smoking as an expense of, say, half-a-crown a-day, and pipe-smoking at threepence. “T then compare the cost of these indulgences with the cost of other indulgences not a whit more necessary, which no one ever questions a man’s right to if he can pay for them. There is luxurious eating, for instance. A woman who has got the habit of delicate eating will easily consume dainties to the amount of half-a-crown a-day, which cannot possibly do her any good beyond the mere gratification of the palate. And there is the luxury of carriage-keeping, in many instances very detrimental to the health of women, by entirely depriving them of the use of their legs. Now, you cannot keep a carriage a-going quite as cheaply as a pipe. Many a fine meerschaum keeps up its cheerful fire on a shilling a-week. Iam not advocating a sumptuary law to put down carriages and cookery; I desire only to say that people who indulge in these expensive and wholly superflu- ous luxuries, have no right to be so hard on smokers for their indulgence. “ Nearly every gentleman who drinks good wine at all will drink the value of half-a-crown a-day. The ladies do not blame him for this. Half-a-dozen glasses of good wine are not thought an extravagance in any man of fair means, but women exclaim when a man spends the same amount in smoking cigars. The French habit of coffee-drinking and the English habit of tea-drinking are also cases in point. They are quite as expensive as ordinary Tobacco-smoking, and, like it, defensible only on the ground of the pleasurable sensation they communicate to the nervous system. But these habits are so universal that no one thinks of attacking them, unless now and then some persecuted smoker in self- defence. ‘‘Tea and tobacco are alike seductive, delicious, and dele- terious. The two indulgences will, perhaps, become equally necessary to the English world. It is high treason to the English national feeling to say a word against tea, which is now so universally recognized as a national beverage that people forget it comes from China, and that it is both alien 172 CHINESE PIPES. and heathen. Still, I mean no offence when I put tea in the same category with Tobacco. Now, who thinks of lecturing us on the costliness of tea? And yet it is a mere superfluity. The habit of taking it as we do is unknown across the Channel, and was quite unknown amongst ourselves a very little time ago, when English people were no less proud of themselves and their customs than they are now, and perhaps with equally good reason. A friend of mine tells me that he smokes every day, at a cost of about sixpence a-week. Now, I would like to know in what other way so much enjoyment is to be bought for sixpence. Fancy the satisfac- tion of spending sixpence a-week in wine! It is well enough to preach about the selfishness of this expenditure; but we all spend more selfishly, and we all love pleasure, and I should very much like to see that cynic whose pleasures cost less than sixpence a-week.” The Egyptian pipes, especially those of modern date are EGYPTIAN PIPES. exceedingly fanciful in shape and resemble somewhat the pipes used by the Persians. Many of them are made of clay and are sold very cheap.* The Chinese use a variety of pipes but all of them have small bowls for the tobacco. Some of their pipes are made of brass and attached to the pipe is a receptacle for water, so as to cool the smoke before it passes into the mouth. The Japanese use both copper and silver pipes, most of them similar in shape and size to those used by the Chinese. A writer says of smoking among the Japanese: *Watlin says of smoking in Egypt: Tobacco is tolerated, and seems to become more common again, though a smoker is generaily disliked and not allowed to perform the part of Imam or rehearse, of the prayers, before acongregation. The greater part of the people, however, detest and condemn still the use of tobacco, and I remember a Shaumar Bedawr: who assured me that he would not carry that abominable herb on his Camel, even if a loa of gold were given him.” SMOKING IN JAPAN. 1738 “Tet us sit down to a good Japanese dinner—down on the floor. Food on the floor. Fire and cigars or pipes on the floor. Sit on your heels, waiting. Enter first course—Fish- skin soup. Smoke. Third—Fish, cake and bean-cheese. Smoke. Fourth—Row fish and _ horse-radish. Smoke. Fifth—Broiled fish. Smoke again, Sixth—Custard soup. Me Smoke. Seventh—Chicken stew, turnips and onions. Smoke a little. Eighth—Cuttle-fish, wafer cakes, Nipon tea. Here, if tired you can stop at the end of about two hours’ ankle-ache. All is cleanly, well spiced with talk, and served with the utmost politeness. Sip- ping tea may be’substituted for the infinitesimal whiffs of polite smok- ing. A grand dinner is much more elaborate; at least, so far as the variety of smokes is con- cerned. After dinner, rest and smoke.” An English writer could very appropriately call this a cloud of smoke as he has another scene herein described. “°Tis all smoke, possibly, but what cannot we discern, through a cloud of smoke? Objects dim, but ‘Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks In Vallambrosa.’ Be the medium of the smoke an honest ‘ churchwarden,’ a short clay, or a costly meerschaum ; does the smoke emanate from a refined Havana, a neat Manilla, or a dainty cigarette, such as we are at this moment enjoying as a sequel to a mod- est breakfast, ’tis all smoke.” We have thus given a somewhat lengthy description of the custom and implements used in smoking, from the first dis- covery of the plant until now, and turn to other implements used in connection with the pipe. We, however, give the following from Cop’s “Tobacco Plant,” descriptive of the part played by tobacco on the stage two centuries ago: “The ‘Return from Parnassus’ was published anony- mously, and the copy I have used is dateless. It was ‘ publicly acted by the students of St. John’s College in Cambridge.’ In Act I., Scene 2d, characters are given of Spenser, Ben Jonson, Marlow, Drayton, Marston and Shakespeare, together with some other of the known poets and dramatists JAPANESE PIPES, 174 THE DEVIL AND TOBACCO. of the Elizabethan age. It contains many references to tobacco. In ‘ Act IV., Scene Ist,’ the characters are thus placed: ‘Sir Rodericke and Prodigo at one corner of the stage, Recorder and Amaretto at the other. Two pages scouring of Tobacco pipes.’ Actual: smoking from tobacco- pipes was introduced on the stage afterwards; and instances from the early dramas have been given by the writers on tobacco history. In the second scene of Act III. smoking is alluded to as one of the marks of the current inan of fashion, and is coupled with that of wearing love-locks, which was to prove such a scandal to the Puritans. ‘He gins to follow fashions. He wore thin sireduelt in a smooky roofe, must take tobacco and must weare a locke.’ ‘Work for Chimney Sweepers, or a Warning against Tobacconists, by J. H.,’ was published in quarto in the year 1602. “Tt was answered in the same year by the anonymous ‘Defence of Tobacco,’ a quarto of seventy pages. The author of the attack followed the line of King James, or, I should rather say, showed him the line to take, for the King’s ‘ Counterblast’ did not appear until he had been King of England for some years. The book is divided into sec- tions, each section being called ‘A Reason.’ The seventh ‘ Reason’ against the use of tobacco is, that the devil is the discoverer and suggester of smoking. ‘It was first used and practised,’ says J. H., ‘by devils, priests, and, therefore, not to be used by us Christians. That the devil was the first author hereof. Monardus, in his ‘ Treatise of Tabaco,’ dooth sufliciently witnesse, saying: The Indian priests, who, no doubt, were instruments of the devil, whom they serve, even before they answer to questions propounded to them by their princes, drinke of this tobacco-fume, with the vigour and strength whereof they fall suddenly to the ground as dead men, remaining so according to the quantity of smoke that they had taken. And when the hearbe hath done his worke, they revive and wake, giving answers according to the vissions and illusions which they saw while they were wrapt in that order.” It is not unlikely that J. H.’s authority had con- fused opium with tobacco. ‘Tt was the opinion of the age that every Pagan deity had a real existence in the world of evil spirits. After further quotations of Monardus, to prove that the devil is ‘the author of Tobacco, and of the knowledge thereof,” J. H. concludes his seventh reason by declaring, ‘ Wherefore in mine opinion this practice is more to be excluded of us TOBACCO ON THE STAGE. 175 Christians, who follow Veritie and Truth, and detest and abhor the devil as a lyar and deceiver of mankind.’ In the first year of this century, pipes were not only exhibited, but were used upon the stage. They seem at first to have been smoked, not during ‘the induction.’ In the induction to Ben Jonson’s ‘Cynthia’s Revels’ (1601), the Third Child says: ‘Now, sir, suppose I am one of your genteel auditors, that am come in, having paid my money at the door, with much ado; and here take my place, and sit down, I have my three sorts of tobacco in my pocket, my light by me, and thus I begin.’ The Third Child thereupon smokes; but it seems as if the smoking on the stage was a kind of protest against a prior smoking in the pit. In John Webster’s ‘Malcontent,’ as augmented by John Marston in 1604, Sly says in the introduction : ‘Come, coose, (coz or goose!) let’s take some tobacco.’ “In ‘The Puritan, or the Widow of Watling Street,’ published in 1607, and attributed by some to Shakespeare, tobacco-taking or tobacco-drinking (as smoking was then usually called) appears no longer in the induction, but in the play itself, Idle, the highwayman, says to the old soldier, Skirmish, ‘Have you any tobacco about you? Idle being supplied, smokes a pipe on the stage. These extracts, how- ever, may have been cited before, together with others of like character in the great days of the English Drama. Pipes continued to appear upon the stage until its abolition (in company with the Prayer Book) by the Puritan rulers. They reappeared on the stage of the Restoration. In Thomas Shadwell’s ‘ Virtuos’ (1676),—to take one instance,— Mirando and Clarinda fling away Snarl’s cane, hat and peri- wig, and break his pipes, because he ‘ takes nasty tobacco before ladies.’” There is printed evidence, however, in this same period to show not only that all the English ladies of the time were not enemies to tobacco, but that some of them were them- selves smokers. In 1674 an anonymous quarto appeared under the title of “The Women’s Petition against Coffee.” It was a protest against the growing influence of the coffee- houses in seducing men away from their homes to sit together making mischief and drinking “this boiled soot.” It was answered in the same year by “The Men’s Answer to the Women’s Petition.” After speaking of the providential 176 TOBACCO BOXES. introduction of coffee into England in the midst of the Puritan epoch, when Englishmen wanted some kind of drink which would “at once make them sober and merry,” the writer glorifies the coffee-house. John Taylor, “the Water Poet,” made a kind of compro- mise when he attributed the introduction of tobacco, not to the devil, but to Pluto,—* Pluto’s Proclamation concerning his Infernal Pleasure for the Propagation of Tobacco.” It appears in the folio collection of his works of the year 1628. The confusion of tobacco with opium and such destructive drugs seems to have been common with the travelers of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries. Camerarius, in his “Historical Meditations,” translated into English by John Malle (folio, 1621), speaks of tobacco as to be seen growing in many gardens throughout Europe. He quotes Jerome Benzo as saying that in Hispaniola “there be among them some that take so much of it, as their senses being all over- come and made drunke with the same, they fell down flat to the ground as if they were dead, and there lie without sense or feeling most part of the day or of the night.” The tobacco-box, during the reign of Elizabeth, was no unimportant part of a dandy’s outfit; sometimes a pouch or bag was used. Tobacco-boxes came into general use in England soon after the introduction of tobacco, and were much sought after by all who “drank” tobacco. Marston, the Duke of New Castle, and other dramatists, alluded to the tobacco-box as a part of the smoker’s outfit; thus in the play of “The Man in the Moone” (1609), one character, in answer to an inquiry who one of the company is, answers: “JT know not certainly, but I think he cometh to play you a fit of mirth, for I behelde pipes in his pocket; now he draweth forth his tinder-box and his touchwood, and falleth to his tacklings; sure his throate is on fire, the smoke flyeth go fast from his mouth; blesse his beard with a bason of water, lest he burn it; some terrible thing he taketh, it maketh him pant and look pale, and hath an odious taste, he spitteth so after it. TOBACCO BOXES. 10% The tobacco boxes of the Seventeenth Century were much larger than those of the present. Some of them held a pound of tobacco besides space for a number of pipes. Many of them were made of brass while others were fash- ioned from horn: “There is also a simple and ingenious tobacco-box used frequently in ale-houses, ‘ which keeps its own account,’ with each smoker and acts also as a money-box. It is kept on parlor tables for the use of all comers; but none can obtain a pipe-full, till the money is deposited through a hole in the lid. A penny dropped in, causes a bolt to unfasten, and allow the smoker to help himself from a drawer full of tobacco. His honor is trusted so far as not to take more than his pipe-full, and he is reminded of it by a verse engraved on the lid :— ‘The custom is, before you fill, ‘To put a penny in the till.’” Some of the tobacco boxes were made of silver and beau- tifully engraved with fancy sketches, historical scenes, or ENGRAVED BOXES, representations of personages, landscapes, flowers, etc. The late Duke of Sussex had a large collection of pipes and tobacco boxes. A journal describing them says of the collection: ‘The Duke of Sussex had a wonderful collection of these, the values attached to some of them being almost fabulous. One example from the work-shop of Vienna—long celebrated for this description of art,—represented the combat of Hector and Achilles, the cover of the pipe being a golden hemlet cristatus of the Grecian type.’ Swiss and Tyrolean artists 12 178 A SONG. also produce exquisite carving, but use wood as a material ; and in the famous collection of Baron de Watteville will be found a marvelous piece of carving representing Bellero- phon overturning the Chimera. But French pipes are the most interesting of all to collectors, from the fact that tobacco was introduced into that country long before it was known in England, and also from the ingenuity of a people who can give interest of various kinds to what might seem a simple and prosaic branch of manufacture. In the sentiment of the following lines on “A pipe of Tobacco” by John Usher, all lovers of the plant will heartily join: <‘ Let the toper regale in his tankard of ale, Or with alcohol moisten his thropple, Only give me I pray, a good pipe of soft clay, Nicely tapered, and thin in the stopple; And I shall puff, puff, let who will say enough, No luxury else I’m in lack 0’, No malice I hoard, ’gainst Queen, Prince, Duke or Lord, While I pull at my pipe of Tobacco. <« When I feel the hot strife of the battle of life, And the prospect is aught but enticin’, Mayhap some real ill like a protested bill, Dims the sunshine that tinged the horizon; Only let me puff, puff,—be they ever so rough, All the sorrows of life I lose track 0’, The mists disappear, and the vista is clear, With a soothing mild pipe of Tobacco. “«¢ And when joy after pain, like the sun after rain, Stills the waters, long turbid and troubled, That life’s current may flow, with a ruddier glow, And the sense of enjoyment be doubled,— Oh! let me puff, puff, till I feel quantum suff, Such luxury still I’m in lack o’, Be joy ever so sweet, it would be incomplete, Without a good pipe of tobacco. ‘‘ Should my recreant muse,—Sometimes apt to refuse The guidance of bit and of bridle, ’ Still blankly demur, spite of whip and of spur, Unimpassioned, inconstant, or idle; Only let me puff, puff, till the brain cries enough, TOBACCO JARS. 179 Such excitement is all I’m in lack 0’, And the poetic vein soon to fancy gives reign, Inspired by a pipe of Tobacco. ‘* And when with one accord, round the jovial board, In friendship our bosoms are glowing; While with toast and with song we the evening prolong, And with nectar the goblets are flowing; Still let us puff, puff—be life smooth, be it rough, Such enjoyment we're ever in lack 0°; The more peace and goodwill will abound as we fill A jolly good pipe of Tobacco.” The tobacco jar is another accessory of more recent date than tobacco pipes but interesting from the varieties of style TOBACCO JARS, and shapes. The finest are made of porcelain and are lavish in design and enrichment. Of all the articles of the smokers’ paraphernalia none however exhibit more fanciful designs than Tobacco-stoppers used by smokers for crowding the tobacco into the pipe while smoking. The author of “A Paper of Tobacco” says: “ This was the only article on which the English smoker prided himself. It was made of various materials—wood, bone, ivory, mother-of-pearl, and silver: and the forms which it assumed were exceedingly diversified. Out of a collection of upwards of thirty tobacco-stoppers of different ages, from 1688 to the present time, the following are the most remark- able: a bear’s tooth tipped with silver at the bottom, and inscribed with the name of Captain James Rogers of the 180 TOBACCO STOPPERS. Happy Return whaler, 1688; Dr. Henry Sacheverel in full eanonicals, carved in ivory, 1710; a boat, a horse’s hind leg, Punch, and another character in the same Drama, to wit: his Satanic majesty ; a countryman with a flail; a milkmaid; an emblem of Priopus; Hope and Anchor; the Marquis of Granby ; a greyhound’s head and neck ; a paviour’s rammer; Lord Nelson; the Duke of Wellington; and Bonaparte. The tobaceo-stopper was carried in the pocket or attached to @ ring worn on the finger.” In Butler’s Hudibras it is alluded to in connection with the astronomer’s sign. «ce Bless us! quoth he, It is a planet now I see; And if I err not, by his proper Figure that’s like tobacco-stopper, It should be Saturn!” In James Boswell’s “ Shrubs of Parnassus” (1760) @ description in verse of the various kinds of tobacco-stoppers is given: *€Q! let me grasp thy waist, be thou of wood Or levigated steel, for well ’tis known Thy habit is disease. In iron clad Sometimes thy feature roughen to the sight, And oft transparent art thou seen in glass, Portending frangibility. The son Of laboring mechanism here displays Exuberance of skill. The curious knot, The motley flourish winding down the sides, And freaks of fancy pour upon the view Their complicated charms, and as they please, Astonish. While with glee thy touch I feel, No harm my fingers dread. No fractured pipe I ask, or splinters aid, wherewith to press The rising ashes down. Oh! bless my hand, Chief when thou com’st with hollow circle crowned With sculptured signet, bearing in thy womb The treasured Cork-screw. Thus a triple service In firm alliance may’st thou boast.” ; Tobacco-stoppers were often made of wood from some relic like a celebrated trec or mansion which gave additional “WHAT A PIPE!” 181 value by its historic associations. Taylor alludes to several made from the well known Glastonbury thorn. He says :— “ T saw the sayd branch, I oC? did take a dead sprigge from it, (Ge > TOBACCO STOPPERS. wherewith I made two or three tobacco-stoppers, which I brought to London.” Pipes and tobacco-stoppers have often been favorite testi- monials of friendship and reward. Ff airholt says :— “Tt was the custom during the last century to present country churchwardens with tobacco-boxes, after the faithful discharge of their duties.” The following lines from ‘‘ The Tobacco Leaf,” penned by some favored one on receiving a rare pipe, are no doubt as neat as the object that called them forth :— “‘T lifted off the lid with anxious care, Removed the wrappages, strip after strip, And when the hidden contents were laid bare, My first remark was: ‘‘ Mercy, what a pipe!” A pipe of symmetry that matched its size, Mounted with metal bright—a sight to see— With the rich umber hue that smokers prize, Attesting both its age and pedigree. A pipe to make the royal Freidrich jealous, Or the great 'Teufelsdrockh with envy gripe! A man should hold some rank above his fellows To justify his smoking such a pipe! 182 MUSINGS OVER A PIPE. What country gave it birth? What blest of cities Saw it first kindle at the glowing coal? What happy artist murmured ‘* Nunc dimittis,” When he had fashioned this transcendent bowl! Has it been hoarded in a monarch’s treasures? Was it a gift of peace, or price of war? Did the great Khalif in his ‘‘ Houre of Pleasures,” Wager and lose it to the good Zaafar? It may have soothed mild Spenser’s melancholy, While musing o’er traditions of the past, Or graced the lips of brave Sir Walter Raleigh, Ere sage King Jamie blew his ‘‘ Counterblast.” Did it, safe hidden in some secret cavern, Escape that monarch’s pipoclastic ken? Has Shakespeare smoked it at the Mermaid Tavern, Quaffing a cup of sack with rare old Ben? Ay, Shakespeare might have watched his vast creation Loom through its smoke—the spectre-haunted Thane, The Sisters at their ghostly invocations, The jealous Moor and melancholy Dane. Round its orbed haze and through its mazy ringlets, Titania may have led her elfin rout, Or Ariel fanned it with his gauzy winglets, Or Puck danced in the bowl to put it out. Vain are all fancies—questions bring no answer; The smokers vanish, but the pipe remains ; He were indeed a subtle necromancer, Could read their records in its cloudy stains. Nor this alone: its destiny may doom it To outlive e’en its use and history— Some ploughman of the future may exhume it by From soil now deep beneath the eastern sea. = And, treasured by some antiquarian Stulius, It may to gaping visitors be shown, Labelled: ‘‘ The symbol of some ancient Cultus, Conjecturally Phallic, but unknown.” Why do I thus recall the ancient quarrel *Twixt Man and Time, that marks all earthly things? “PUFFS FROM A PIPE.” 183 Why labor to re-word the hackneyed moral, Qe odAAwvyever, as Homer sings? For this: Some links we forge are never broken: Some feelings claim exemption from decay ; And Love, of which this pipe was but the token, Shall last, though pipes and smokers pass away.” The verse that has been written in praise as well as dis- praise of the “ Indian Novelty” would of itself fill a volume of no “mean pretentions.” The following clever lines from The Tobacco Plant entitled “‘ Puffs from a Pipe,” convey much advice to all smokers of tobacco. Sage old friend! with judgment ripe; Come and join me in a pipe. Brother student! brother joker, Thee I greet, O! brother smoker. Smoke, O! men of every station, Every climate, every nation. East and West, and South and North, Recognize Tobacco’s worth. Red man! let thy warfare cease: Smoke the calumet of peace. Chinaman! shun opium-grief: Use the pure Tobacco leaf. Frenchmen! no more foes provoke: Follow arts of peace—and smoke! German victors! crowned with laurel, Smoke, content; and seek no quarrel. Americans no one needs bid To blow a cloud, or take a quid. Though rows shake Dame Europa’s sehool, Johnny Bull smokes, calm and cool. Toffy, it will ease thy brain, man! Smoke and snuff, and smoke again, man! 184 A GOOD THING. Paddy, light of heart and gay, Smoke thy dhudeen: short black clay. Sawney, on thy Hielen’ hill, Tak’ thy sneishin’; tak’ thy gill! Tourist, thou hast journey’d far; Rest, and light a mild cigar. Sailor, from the stormy seas, Take a quid, and take thine ease.. ** Soldier tired,” put off thy shako; Prepare to fire, and burn tobacco. Workman, prize thine honest labor; Burn thy weed, and love thy neighbor! Evil-doers, when ye burn The weed; think how soon ’twill be your turn. Artist, let thy ‘‘ coloring ” be Of a pipe; thy ‘‘ drawing,” free! Miser, moderate thy greed! Mend thy life, and take a weed. Lawyer, loose thy bitter gripe! Burn thy writ—to light a pipe. Statesman, harassed night and day, Blow a cloud; puff care away! Hardy tiller of the soil! Light a pipe; “twill lighten toil. Usurer, we surely know Thou wilt have thy guid pro quo. Merchant, smoke thy pipe; hang care! Draughts are always honored there. Gentle friend, whom troubles fret! Smoke a soothing cigarette. Preacher! take a pinch with me: Snuff is dust, and so are we. A WARNING. 185 Hence with moralizings musty! I say life is ‘‘ not so dusty.” Smoke in gladness; smoke in trouble; Soothe the last, the former double! Teach the Fiji Indians, then, To chew their quids, instead of men. Pain from heart and brain to wipe, Pass the weed, and fill your pipe! LORD AND LACKEY. Prince and peasant, lord and lackey, All in some form take their ’Baccy.” The evil effects occasioned by man’s indulging too fre- quently in tobacco have been the subject of many a fierce debate between the friends and foes of the “ great plant.” Many, however, are not aware of the fatality attending its use by the brute creation. A modern Englisn poet on hear- ing of the result produced on a cow from chewing tobacco, penned the following sad lines which he entitles—“An elegy on somebody’s Cow.” Weep! weep, ye chewers! lLowly bend, and bow; Here lieth what was once a happy cow. No more her voice she’ll raise, now low, now high, In amber fields, beneath an autumn sky; 186 SAD FATE OF A “CHEWER.” No more she'll wander to the milking-pail, While swine stand by to see her chew ‘ pig-tail;” No more round her the bees, a busy crew, Shall linger, eager after ‘‘ honey-dew;” No more for her shall smoking grains be spread: All bellowless remains her empty shed. Sad was her fate. Refiect, all ye who read: Life’s flower destroyed by the accursed weed. When first the yellow juice streamed o’er her lip, One might have said, ‘‘ This is a sad cow-slip.” To chew the peaceful cud by nature bid, Degraded man taught her to chew a quid. Sad the effect on body and on mind: Her coat grew ‘‘ shaggy,” her milk nicotined; Over her head shall naught but clover grow, While o’er her peaceful grave the clouds shall blow. No invalid shall ask for her cow-heel, . To heal his ailments with the simple meal; Her whiskful tail into no soup shall go; Mother of ‘‘ weal” that would but bring us woe. Her tripe shall honor not the festive meal. Where smoking onions all their joys reveal; Nor shall those shins that oft lagged on the road, Be sold in cheap cook-shops as ‘‘ a la mode,” Her tongue must soon be sandwiched under ground, Nor at pic-nics with cheap champagne go round; Yea, even her poor bones are past all hope— Not fit to be boiled down for scented soap. Ah! hide her hide, poor beast. Her stomachs five Dyed with the chewing she could not survive; The very worms from her will turn away, To seek some anti-chewer for their prey. Ye chewers! be ye pilgrims to her tomb; Lament with us o’er her untimely doom. Awhile she stood the anti-chewer’s butt, Till scythe-arm’d Time gave her an ‘‘ugly cut.” She stagger’d to her death, and feebly cried, And sneezed, ‘‘ Achew! achew!” and chewing died. There are many parodies of popular poems written in praise of the weed; of which the following in imitation of Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade,” entitled “The Charge of the Tobacco Jar Brigade,” is one of the best. ? A FAMOUS CHARGE. 184 “ Epigrams, epigrams, Pour’d in, and numbered— Good, bad, indifferent— More than Six Hundred. ‘¢ Epigrams potters want,” Quoth The Tobacco Plant: Write! you for fame who pant; Write! we’ll three prizes grant.” Wrote for Tobacco-Jars, Over Six Hundred. Postmen, ere morning’s light; Postmen, whilst day was bright; Postmen, as closed in night, Ran—tan’d and thunder’d Loud at our office door; Brought letters, many score— Contents of bags—to pour . Table and desk all o’er: Handfuls and armfuls bore, Casting them on the floor. Then through the town they tore, Hastening back for more— More than Six Hundred. Letters to right of us, Letters to left of us, Letters in front of us, Seeming unnumbered! Envelopes every size Met our astonish’d eyes. Writer with writer vies! Which wins the chiefest prize Out of Six Hundred. How did each writer strain After a happy vein! Pegasus, spurning rein, Shied, jibb’d, and blunder’d. Reverend writers, then Took up the winged pen; Suff’rers on beds of pain Sought the bright muse again; Lawyer and barrister Courted and harassed her; M. D.s and editors; Debtors and creditors ; Artists and artisans, Nicotine’s partisans ; Nurses and gentle dames Call’d it endearing names; Poets, ship-masters, too; Ay! poetasters, too; Wooing fair Nicotine, Six hundred scribes were seen. Anti-Tobacco cant, Bigoted, bilious rant, Bursting to vent their spleen, Joined the Six Hundred. Flash’d many fancies rare; Flash’d like Aurora’s glare; Quick jotted down with care; Some the reverse of fair; Some that we well could spare; Some that were made to bear Blunders unnumbered. Plunging in metaphor, Not a bit better for— Pardon the Cockney rhyme !— Similies plunder’d. Praising Tobacco smoke, Heeding not grammar’s yoke, Prosody’s rules they broke. Many a rhyming moke, Sense from rhyme sundered: Many wrote well, but not— Not the Six Hundred. Honour Tobacco! roll’d, Cut, press’d, however sold. Alpha and Beta, bold, Ye shall be tipp’d with gold. Omega shall be sold, Others in type behold Nearly Six Hundred.” The following poem entitled “Weedless,” after Byron’s “Darkness,” gives a vivid description of the world without tobacco. 188 A BAD DREAM. ¢¢ T had a dream, and it was all a dream: Tobacco was abolish’d, and cigars Were flung by ‘‘ Antis” fearsome space— The foreign and the British fared alike— And the blue smoke was blown beyond the moon. Night came and went and came, and brought no ‘‘ weed,” And men forgot their suppers, in the dread Of the dire desolation; and all tongues Were tingling with the taste of empty pipes; And they did live all wretched; old hay bands, And street-door mats, and clover brown and dry; Carpets, rope-yarn, and such things as men sell, Were burnt for ’bacca; haystacks were consumed, And men were gathered round each blazing mass, To have another makeshift sniff. Happy were those who smoked, with smould’ring logs, The harmless Yarmouth bloater after death— Another pipe not all the world contain’d; The furze was set on fire, but, hour by hour, The stock diminish’d; all the prickly points Quivered to death, and soon it all was gone. The lips of men by the expiring stuff Drew in and out, and all the world had fits. The cinders fell upon them; some sprang up, And blew their noses loud, and some did stand Upon their heads, and sway’d despairing feet; And others madly up and down the world With ‘‘ two-pence ” hurried, shouting out for ‘‘ Shag; ” And wink’d and blink’d at th’ unclouded sky, The ‘‘ Anti’s ” smokeless banner—then again Flung all their halfpence down into the dust, And chewed their tainted pockets; snuffers wept, And, flatt’ning noses on the dreary ground, Inhaled the useless dust; the biggest ‘‘ rough” Came mild, tobacco-begging; p’licement came, And mix’d themselves among the multitude, Run in” forgotten; uniforms were chew’d, And teeth which for a moment had had rest, Did move themselves again; old beaver hats Fetch'd little fortunes ; they were torn in bits, And smok'd or chew'd at will; no bits were left. All earth was but one thought, and that was smoke, Immediate and glorious; and a pang Of horror came at intervals, and men Cried; and the boys were restless as themselves, Till by degrees their stockings were devour'd; ’ TRIUMPH OF THE ANTI’S. 189 E’en pipes were dropp'd despairing—all, save one, One man was faithful to his pipe, and kept Despair and deeper misery at bay, By seeking ever for a ‘“‘ topper,” dropped From some spurned pipe, but that he could not find; _ So, with a piteous and perpetual glare, And a quick dissolute word, sucking the pipe, Which answer’d never with a whiff, he slept; The crowd dispersed by slow degrees, but two Of all the dreary company remain’d, And they kept ’bacca shops; they sat upon The scented lid of a tobacco tub, Wherein was heap’d a mass of coined bronze— Profits of *bacca sold—they were sold out; They, grinning, scraped with their warm, eager hands The little halfpence and the bigger pence, Counted a little time, and cried ‘‘ Haw! haw! ” Like a whole rookery; then lifted up The tub as it grew lighter, and beheld Each other's profits; saw, and smiled, and winked, Uncaring that the world was poor indeed, So they were rich in pence. The world was mad, The populace and peerage both alike “Birds—Eyeless, Shagless, and returnless, too— Oh! day of death, oh! chaos of hard times !— And princes, dukes, and lords, they all stood still, Feeling within their pockets’ silent depths; And sailors went a-moaning out to sea, And chew’d their cables piecemeal: then they wept, And slept on the abyss without a quid. All quids were gone, cigars were in their graves; The plant, their mother, had been rooted up; Pawnbrokers had a ton of pipes apiece, And “ Antis” triumph’d. Then they had no need To keep a “‘ Sec.,” so Reynolds got the ‘‘ sack.” One of the best of all parodies is one in imitation of Long- fellow’s “ Excelsior,” entitled “Tobacco.” It is from “Copis? Tobacco Plant.” “The summer blight was falling fast, ‘When straight through dirty London passed A youth, who bore, through road and street, A packet, thereon written neat; ““Tobaceo!” 190 THE TRAVELER. His brow was glad, his laughing eye Flashed like a gooseberry in a pie; And like a penny whistle rung The piping notes of that strange tongue— ** Tobacco!” In dusty homes he saw the light Of supper fires gleam warm and bright; THE STRANGE YOUTH. Above, the ruddy chimneys smoked: He from his lips the word evoked— “< Tobacco!” “Try not the weed,” good Reynolds said; “¢ I’ve smoked it ’till I’m nearly dead: Take not the juice in thy inside; ” But loud the jovial voice replied— ‘* Tobacco!” ‘“¢Oh! stay,” the maiden said, ‘‘ and rest; I have got on my Sunday best: ” A wink stood in his bright blue eye, And answered he, without a sigh— **Tobacco!” ‘¢ Beware the briar’s poison’d root; Beware the birds-eye put into ’t.” THE SMOKER’S CALENDAR. 191 This was the Anti’s latest greet. A voice replied, far up the street— “* Tobacco!” At break of day, on Clapham Rise. A pot-boy opened both his eyes, And to himself did gently swear, To hear a voice call through the air— ** Tobacco!” A traveler up a tree he found, Who smoked and spat upon the ground; And then among the blossoms ripe He cried, while pufting at his pipe— “Tobacco!” There in the grayish twilight, ‘‘ What’s That you say? ” cried eager Pots, And from the branch so green and far, A voice fell like a broken jar— ** Tobacco.” The following lines from the same source have been very appropriately called ‘The Smoker’s Calendar.” When January’s cold appears, A glowing pipe my spirit cheers; And still it glads the length’ning day, *Neath February’s milder sway. When March’s keener winds succeed, What charms me like the burning weed? When April mounts the solar car, I join him, puffing a cigar; And May, so beautiful and bright, Still finds the pleasing weed a-light. To balmy zephyrs it gives zest, When June in gayest livery’s drest. Through July Flora’s offspring smile, But still Nicotia’s can beguile; And August, when its fruits are ripe, © Matures my pleasure in a pipe. September finds me in the garden, Communing with a long churchwarden. Ey'n in the wane of dull October, I smoke my pipe and sip my ‘‘ robur,” November's soaking show’rs require The smoking pipe and blazing fire: 192 HOLLAND AND FRENCH. The darkest day in drear December’s— That’s lighted by their glowing embers. The Hon. “Sunset” Cox in his lecture on American Humor alluded to the national characteristics of the French, Spanish, German, and other nationalities, says :— “The highest enjoyment of a Frenchman is to hear the last cantatrice, the Spaniard enjoys the most skillful thrust of the matador in the bull arena, the Neapolitan the taste of the maccaroni, the German his beer and metaphysics, the darkey his banjo, and the American— ‘To the American there’s nothing so sweet As to sit in his chair and tilt up his feet, Enjoy the Cuba, whose flavor just suits, And gaze at the world through the toes of his boots.’” This would seem to be a feature of the Dutch according to a late traveler, who says :— “T like Holland—it is the antidote of France. No one is ever in a hurry here. Life moves on in a slow, majestic stream, a little muddy and stagnant, perhaps, like one of their own canals ; but you see no waves, no breakers ; not an eddy, nor even a froth bubble, breaks the surface. Even a Dutch child, as he steals along to school, smoking his short pipe, has a mock air of thought about him.” The following epigrams for tobacco jars from “The Tobacco Plant” evince much “ taste, wit, and ingenuity.” Fill the bow], you jolly soul, And burn all sorrow to a coal. Henry Clay. That man is frugal and content indeed, Who finds food, solace, pleasure in a weed. The 26 Weed. Behold! this vessel hath a moral got, Tobacco-smokers all must go to pot. Epigrammatic. A weed you call me, but you'll own No rose was c’er more fully blown. Sic Itur ad Nostra. Great Jove, Pandora’s box with jars did fill This Jar alone has power those jars to still. In Nubilus. EPIGRAMS. 193 Tobacco some say, is a potent narcotic, That rules half the world in a way quite despotic; So to punish him well for his wicked and merry tricks, We'll burn him forthwith, as they used to do heretics. Zed. SMOKER READING EPIGRAMS, No use to draw upon a bank if no effects are there, But a draw of this Tobacco is quite a safe affair ; And a pipe with fragrant weed (such as I hold) neatly stuffed, Is just the only thing on earth that ought to be well puffed. Vigien VG Ie Poor woman ‘‘ pipes her eye,” When in affliction’s gripe; But man, far wiser grown, Just eyes his pipe. In Nubilus. Sir Walter Raleigh! name of worth, How sweet for thee to know King James, who never smoked on earth, Is smoking down below. Ex Fumo dare Lucem. Travelers say Tobacco springs From the graves of Indian kings: Fill your pipe, then—smoke will be 13 194 EPIGRAMS. Incense to their memory. Though the weed’s nor rich nor rare, "Tis a balm for every care. Peter Piper. Give me the weed, the fragrant weed, My wearied brain to calm; In a wreath of smoke, while I crack my joke, Tl find a healing balm. Day after day, let come what may, The pipe of peace I'll fill; I readily pay for briar or clay, To save a doctor’s bill. Pompone. Great men need no pompous marble To perpetuate their name ; Household gear and common trinkets Best remind us of their fame. Raleigh’s glory rests immortal On ten thousand thousand urns, Every jar is in memoriam, Every fragrant pipe tat burns. At an Ash. There are jars of jelly, jars of jam, Jars of potted-beef and ham; But welcome most to me, by far, Is my dear old Tobacco-Jar. There are pipes producing sounds divine, Pipes producing luscious wine ; But when I consolation need, I take the pipe that burns the weed. Jars. Friend of my youth, companion of my later days, What needs my muse to sing thy various praise? In country or in town, on land or sea, The weed is still delightful company. In joy or sorrow, grief or racking pain, We fly to thee for solace once again. Delicious plant, by all the world consumed, ’Tis pity thou, like man, to ashes too art doom’d. Erutxim. EPIGRAMS. Hail plant of power, more than king’s renown, Beloved alike in country and in town; In hotter climes oft mingled with the jet Of falling fountains; whilst the cigarette Kisses the fair one’s lips, and by thy breath Redeems the wearied heart from ennui’s death. Theta. If e’er in social jars you join, Seek this, and let them cease: Let all your quarrels end in smoke, And pass the pipe of peace. Fumigator. Many a jar of old outbroke Into fire and riot; 195 THE EXPLOSION. This will yield, with fragrant smoke, Happy thought, and quiet. 41,911. The moralist, philosopher, and sage. Have sought by every means, in every age, That which should cause the strife of men to cease, , And steep the world in fellowship and peace ; 196 EPIGRAMS. But all their toil and diligence were vain, *Till Raleigh, noble Raleigh! crossed the main, And brought to Britain’s shores the wish’d-for prize, The sovereign balm of life—within it lies. Dum Spiro Fumigo. To rich men a pastime, to poor men a treat, To all a true tonic most bracing and sweet, To talent a pleasure, to genius a joy, To workmen a comfort, to none an alloy, The tyrant it softens; it soothes him if mad, The king who may rule if he smokes not, is sad. Kit. Sacred substance! sweet, serene; Soothing sorrow’s saddest scene: Scent-suffusing, silv’ry smoke, Softly smoothing suffering’s stroke ;— Solacing so silently— Still so swift, so sure, so sly: Smoke sublimated soars supreme, Sweetest soul-sustaining stream! Similia Similibus. Why should men reek, like chimneys, with foul smoke, Their neighbors and themselves to nearly choke? Avoid it, ye John Bulls, and eke ye Paddies! Avoid it, sons of Cambria, and Scottish laddies! Let reason convince you that it very sad is, And far too bad is, And enough to make one mad is To be smoked like a red herring or rank Finedon haddies. J. S. No punishment save hanging’s too severe For those who’d rob the poor man of his beers But for the wretch who’d take away his pipe, - I think he’s fully execution ripe! Pipe Clay. Weeds are but cares! Well, what of that! There’s one weed bears a goodly crop; And this exception, then, ’tis flat, Doth give that rule a firmer prop. Tobacco brings the genial mood, Warm heart, shrewd thought, and while we reap From this poor weed such harvest good, We'll hold more boasted harvests cheap. Festus. EPIGRAMS. 197 To poets give the laurel wreath, let heroes have their lay, Of roses twine for lovely youth the garland fresh and gay; But we poor mortals, quite content, life’s fev'rish way pursue, Can we but crown our foolish pates with wreaths of fragrant blue, Convinced that all terrestrial things which please us or provoke, Of ashes come, to ashes go, and only end in smoke. Pocosmipo, Whilst cannon’s smoke o’erwhelms with deadly cloud The soldier’s comrades in a common shroud, And whilst the conflagration in the street, With crushing roar the ruin makes complete, Tobacco’s smoke like incense seeks the skies— Blesses the giver, and in silence dies! Theta. Use me well, and you shall see An excellent servant I will be; Let me once become your master, And you shall rue the great disaster ! As coin does to he who borrows, Pll soothe your cares and ease your sorrows; Abuse me, and your nerves I'll shatter, Your heart I'll break, your cash I’ll scatter, Use, not Abuse. The savage in his wild estate, When feuds and discords cease, Soothes with the fragrant weed his hate, And smokes the pipe of peace. Long may the plant good-will create, And banish strife afar : Our only cloud its incense sweet, And this our only jar. Scire Facias. Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said; T’'ll have to smoke, or I’ll be dead? If so, then let the caitiff dread! My wrath shall fall upon his head. *Tis plain he ne’er the Plant hath read; But ‘‘ goody ” trash, perchance, instead. Dear Cope, good night !—Yours, Master Fred. ® 198 DOCTOR PARR AS A SMOKER. That tobacco in one form or another has been patronized from the cottage to the throne, no one will deny who is at all acquainted with the history of the plant. And while it has had many a royal hater, it can also boast of having many a kingly user. A favorite of king and courtier, its use was alike common in the palaceand the courtyard. It can claim, also, many celebrated physicians who have been its patrons, and among them the noted Dr. Parr. We give an anecdote of him showing his love of weed and wit. The partiality this worthy Grecian always manifested for smoking is well known. Whenever he dined he was always indulged with a pipe. Even His Majesty, when Dr. Parr was his guest at Carlton Palace, condescended to give him a smoking-room and the company of Colonel C———, in order that he might suffer no inconvenience. “I don’t like to be smoked myself, doctor,” said the royal wit, “but I am anxious that your pipe should not be put out.” One day, Dr. Parr was to dine at the house of Mr. » who informed his lady of the circumstance, and of the doctor’s passion for the pipe. The lady was much mortified by this intimation, and with warmth said, “I tell you what, Mr. , I don’t care a fig for Dr. P.’s Greek ; he shan’t smoke here.” ‘My dear,” replied the husband, “he must smoke; he is allowed to do so everywhere.” ‘Excuse me, Mr. , he shall not smoke here; leave it to me, my dear, I'll manage it.” The doctor came; a splendid dinner ensued; the Grecian was very brilliant. After dinner, the doctor called for his pipes. ‘ Pipes!” screamed the lady. Pipes! For what purpose?’ “Why, to smoke, madam!” “Oh! my dear doctor, I can’t have pipes here. You'll spoil my room; my curtains will smell of tobacco for a week.” “Not smoke!” exclaimed the astonished and offended Grecian. ‘ Why, madam, I have smoked in better houses.” “Perhaps so, sir,’ replied the lady, with dignity; and she added with firmness, “I shall be most happy, doctor, to show you the rights (rites?) of hospitality; but you cannot be allowed to smoke.” “Then, madam,” said Dr. Parr, looking <= ———— == SSS ) ONIVAIXA LSNIVOV ANOWHL Wi NN NW Hf 900 FIELD MARSHAL BLUCHER. at her ample person; “then, madam,—I must say, madam,—” “Sir, sir, are you going to be rude?” “I must say, madam,” he continued, “you are the greatest tobacco-stopper in all England.” Of the clergy, Whatley was one of the greatest in intellect, and, as a smoker was devotedly attached to tobacco; his pipes, when out, served him for a book-marker. In summer-time he might be seen, of an evening, sitting on the chains of Stephen’s Green, thinking of “that,” as the song says, and of much more, while he was “smoking tobacco.” In winter he walked and smoked, vigorously in both cases, on the Donny- brook road ; or he would be out with his dogs, climbing up the trees to hide amid the branches a key or a knife, which, after walking some distance, he would tell the dogs he had lost, and bid them look for it and bring it to him. Of many warriors, none have been more devoted to the plant than Napoleon, Frederick of Prussia and Bliicher the Bold. The following anecdote of the latter is one of the best of its kind: ‘“ As is well-known, Field-Marshal Bliicher, in addition to his brave young ‘fellows’ (as he called his horsemen), loved three things above all, namely, wine, gambling, and a pipe of Tobacco. With his pipe he would not dispense, and he always took two or three pufis, at least, before undertaking anything. ‘ Without Tobacco, I am not worth a farthing,’ he often said. Though so passionately fond of Tobacco, yet old ‘ Forwards’ was no friend of costly smoking apparatus; and he liked best to smoke long, Dutch clay pipes, which, as everybody knows, very readily break. Therefore, from among his ‘young fellows’ he had chosen for himself a Pipe-master, who had charge of a chest well packed with clay pipes; and this chest was the most precious jewel in Bliicher’s field baggage. If one of the pipes broke, it was, for our hero, an event of the greatest importance. On its occurrence, the ‘wounded’ pipe was narrowly examined, and if the stem was not broken off too near the head, it was sent to join the corps of Invalids, and was called ‘Stummel’ (Stump, or Stumpy). One of these Stumpies the SMOKING ON THE BATTLE-FIELD. 201 Field-Marsha] usually smoked when he was on horseback, and when the troops were marching along or engaged in a reconnoissance, and eye-witnesses record that many a Stumpy was shot from his mouth by the balls of the enemy—nothing but a piece of the stem then remaining between his lips. Bliicher’s Pipe-master, at the time of the Liberation War, was Christian Hennemann, a Mecklenburg and Rostock man, like Bliicher himself, and most devotedly attached to the Field-Marshal. He knew all the characteristic peculiarities of the old hero, even the smallest, and no one could so skill- fully adapt himself to them as he. His duties as Pipe- master, Hennemann discharged with great fidelity ; yea, even with genuine fanatical zeal. The contents of the pipe-chest he thoroughly knew, for often he counted the pipes. Before every fierce fight, Prince Blicher usually ordered a long pipe to be filled. After smoking for a short time, he gave back the lighted pipe to Hennemann, placed himself right in the saddle, drew his sabre, and with the vigorous cry, ‘Forward, my lads!’ he threw himself into the fierce onset on the foe. On the ever-memorable morning of the battle of Belle- Alliance (Waterloo), Hennemann had just handed a pipe to his master, when a cannon-ball struck the ground near, so that earth and sand covered Bliicher and his gray horse. The horse made a spring to one side, and the beautiful new pipe was broken before the old hero had taken a single puff. ‘Fill another pipe for me,’ said Blicher; ‘keep it lighted, and wait for me here a moment, till I drive away the French rascals. Forwards, lads! Thereupon there was a rush for- wards; but the chase lasted not only ‘a moment,’ but a whole hot day. At the Belle-Alliance Inn, which was demolished by shot,—the battle having at last been gained,—the vic- torious friends, Bliicher and Wellington, met and congratu- lated each other on the grand and nobly achieved work, each praising the bravery of the other’s troops. ‘Your fellows slash in like the very devil himself! cried Wellington. Bliicher replied, ‘Yes; you see, that is their business. But 202 OBEYING ORDERS. brave as they are, I know not whether one of them would stand as firmly and calmly in the midst of the shower of balls and bullets as your English” Then Wellington asked Bliicher about his previous position on the field of battle, which had enabled him to execute an attack so fatal to the enemy. Blicher, who could strike tremendous blows, but was by no means a consummate orator, and could not paint his deeds in words, conducted Wellington to the place itself. They found it completely deserted; but on the very spot where Bliicher had that morning halted, and from which’ he had galloped away, stood a man with his head bound up, and with his arm wrapped in a handkerchief. He smoked a long, dazzling white clay pipe. ‘Good God! exclaimed Bliicher, ‘that is my servant, Christian Hennemann. What a strange look you have,man! What are you doing here? ‘Have you come at last? answered Christian Hennemann, in a grum- bling tone; ‘here I have stood the whole day, waiting for you. One pipe after another have the cursed French shot away from my mouth. Once even a blue bean (a bullet) made sad work with my head, and my fist has got a deuce of asmashing. That is the last whole pipe, and it is a good thing that the firing has ceased; otherwise, the French would have knocked this pipe to pieces, and you must have stood there with a dry mouth.’ He then handed the lighted pipe to his master, who took it, and after a few eagerly-enjoyed whiffs, said to his faithful servant, ‘It is true, I have kept you waiting a long time; but to-day the French fellows could not be forced to run all at once.’ With astonishment, Wellington listened to the conversation. Amazed, he looked now at the Field-Marshal, now at the ‘ Pipe-master,’ and now at the branches of trees and the balls scattered all round, which made it only too evident what a dangerous post this spot must have been during the battle. The wound in Hen- nemann’s head proved to be somewhat serious; his hand was completely shattered; and yet, in the midst of the tempest 204 LITERARY SMOKERS. of shot, he had stood there waiting for his beloved master.”* Tobacco smoking, however, can boast of many patrons besides warriors, physicians and statesmen, some of the finest writers of the last three centuries have indulged in the weed. The following extract from the “ Australasian” entitled, “Tobacco Smoking” refers to many literary smokers. “Burke felt himself precluded from ‘drawing an indict- ment against a whole community.’ The critical moralist pauses before the formidable array of the entire social world, civilized and savage. The Cockney, leaving behind him the regalias and meerschaums of the Strand, finds the wax-tipped clay-pipe in the parlors of Yorkshire: finds dhudeen and cutty in the wilds of Galway and on the rugged shores of Skye and Mull. The Frenchman he finds enveloped in clouds of Virginia, and the Swede, Dane, and Norwegian, of every grade or class, makes the pipe his travelling compan- ion and his domestic solace. The Magyar, the Pole and the Russian rival the Englishman in gusto, perhaps excel him in refinement ; the Dutch boor smokes finer Tobacco than many English gentlemen can command, and more of it than many of our hardened votaries could endure; but all must yield, or rather, all must accumulate, ere our conceptions can approach to the German. America and the British colonies round off the picture, adding Cherokees, Redmen and Mon- golians ad libitum. The Jew whether in Hounds ditch, Paris Hamburgh, or Constantinople, ever inhales the choicest growths, and the Mussulman’s ‘keyf’ is proverbial. India and Persia dispute with us the palm of refinement and intensity, but the philosopher of Australia is embarrassed when he asks himself to whom shall I award that of zealous devotion ? “ Dr. Adam Clarke, who could never reconcile himself to the practice, deemed it due to his piety to find a useful pur- pose in the creation of tobacco by all-seeing Wisdom, and as that discovered by the instincts of all the nations of the planet, and practiced by mankind for three centuries, is wrong, the benevolent Wesleyan of Heydon, applied himself diligently and generously to correct the world, and to vindi- cate its Author. “In some rare cases of internal injury tobacco may be used but not in the customary way.’ Be it *During the conquest of Holland, Louvais paid more attention to furnishing tobacco than rovisions; and even at this dey a8 well as in former times, more care is taken to procure tobacco than bread to the soldier. Every soldier was obliged to have his pipe and his atches. DOCTOR CLARKE ON TOBACCO. 205 known, then, that the Creator has not created it in vain. Dr. Clarke must have been a very good-natured man. He tortured his brains to find a hope of pardon for Judas Iscariot, and held that the creature (Nachash) who tempted Eve was not a serpent but a monkey cursed by the forfeiture of patella and podex ; therefore doomed to crawl! But I fear, if the present form of using tobacco be not the true one, we must despair of ever finding it, and people will go on smok- ing and ‘hearing reason’ as long as the world goes round. Robert Hall received a pamphlet denouncing the pipe. He read it, and returned it. ‘I cannot, sir, confute your argu- ments, and I cannot give up smoking,’ was his comment. It is loosely asserted that smoking is more prevalent among scholars, intellectualists, and men who live by their brains, than among artisans and subduers of the soil. This is an error. Tobacco is less a fosterer of thought than a solace of mental vacuity. The thinker smokes in the intervals of work, impatient of ennuz as well as of lassitude, and the peuanaien, the digger, the blacksmith or the teamster, lights is cutty for the same reason. No true worker, be he digger, or divine, blends real work with either smoking or drinking. Whenever you see a fellow drink or smoke during work, spot him for a gone coon; he will come to grief, and that right soon. Sleep stimulates thought, and sometimes a pipe will bring sleep, but trust it not of itself for either thought or strength. It combats ennui, lassitude, and intolerable vacuity, soothing the nerves and diverting attention from self. Sam Johnson came very near the mark: ‘I wonder why a thing that costs so little trouble, yet has just sufficient semblance of doing something to break utter idleness, should - go out of fashion. To be sure, it is a horrible thing blow- ing smoke out; but every man needs something to quiet him—as, beating with his feet.’ “Life is really too short for moralists and medici who have read Don Quixote, to attack a verdict arrived at and acted upon by the combined nations of the entire world, during the experience of three centuries, and apparently deepened by their advancing civilization. Give us rules and modifications, give us guides and correctives, give us warnings against excess, precipitancy, and neglect of other enjoyments, or of important duties, if you will. The urbane estheticism that regulates pleasure also limits it; and true refinement ever modifies the indulgence it pervades. But it is emulating Mrs. Partington and her mop to attempt to preach down a 206 NOTED SMOKERS. world. When they do agree, their unanimity is irresistible. Prohibition may give zest to enjoyment, and provocation to curiosity, but can never overcome the instincts of nature or cravings of nervous irritability, and he who rises in rebellion against her absolute decree will respect the limits and study the laws of a recognized and regulated enjoyment. “Tet, then, the moralist point out what social duties may be imperilled ; let the physician apprise us of the disorders to be guarded against; and let the lover of elegance see that no neglect or slight awaits her. Of abstract arguments we have seen the futility, of moral and medical crusades even the most patient are weary, and we gladly turn to something real in the suffrages of a by-gone great man of acknowledged fame—Ben Jonson. Ben Jonson loved the ‘durne weed,’ and describes its every accident with the gusto of a con- noisseur. Hobbes smoked, after his early dinner, pipes innumerable. Milton never went to bed without a pipe and a glass of water, which I cannot help associating with his : ¢ Adam waked, So custom’d, for his sleep was xry light, of pure digestion bred And temperate vapors bland!’ “Sir Isaac Newton was smoking in his garden at Wools- thorpe when the apple fell. Addison had a pipe in his mouth at all hours, at ‘Buttons.’ Fielding both smoked and chewed. About 1740 it became unfashionable, and was ban- ished from St. James’ to the country squires and parsons. Squire Western, in Jom Jones, arriving in town, sends off Parson Supple to Basingstoke, where he had left his Tobacco- box! The snuff-box was substituted. Lord Mark Kerr, a brave officer who affected the petit maztre (a la Pelham, in Lord Lytton’s second novel), invented the invisible hinges, and it was this ‘going out of fashion’ that Jonson alluded to in 1774. “We next find Tobacco rearing its head under the auspices of Paley and Parr. Paley had one of the most orderly minds ever given to man. A vein of shrewd and humorous sarcasm, together with an under-current of quiet selfishness, made him a very pleasant companion. ‘I cannot afford to keep a conscience any more than a carriage,’ was worthy of Erasmus, perhaps of Robelais. ‘Our delight was,’ said an old Jonsonian to the writer, ‘to get old Paley, on a cold winter’s night, to put up his legs, wrap them well up, stir the fire, and fill him a long Dutch pipe; he would talk away, sir, NEWTON AND BIS PIPE. 208 NOTED SMOKERS. like a being of a higher sphere. He declined any punch, but drank it up as fast as we replenished his glass. He would smoke any given quantity of Tobacco, and drink any given quantity of punch.’ “Parr smoked ostentatiously and vainly, as he did every- thing. He used only the finest Tobacco, half-filling his pipe with salt. He wrote and read, and smoked and wrote, rising early, and talking fustian. He was a sort of miniature Brummagem Johnson. Except his preface to Bellendenus, you might burn all he has written. His ‘Life of Fox’ is beneath contempt. His letters are simply laughable, especially his characters of contemporaries. He, however, was an amiable and good-natured man, and had sufficient humanity to regard dissent as an impediment to his recogni- tion of intellectual or moral worth. Parr was an arrogant old coxcomb, who abused the respectful kindness he received, and took his pipe into drawing-rooms. I pass over the Duke of Bridgewater, because he was early crossed in love by a most beautiful girl, could not bear the sight of a flower even growing, and passed life in a pot-house with a pipe, listening to Brindley, whose intellect and dialect must have been alike incomprehensible to him. “The cigar appeared about 1812; it received the counte- nance of the Regent, who had hitherto confined himself to macobau snuff, scented with lavender and the tonquin bean. Porson smoked many bundles of cheroots, which nabobs began to import. After 1815 the continental visits were resumed, and the practice of smoking began steadily to increase. The German china bowl with globular receiver of the essential oil, the absorbent meerschaum, the red Turkish bell-shaped clay, the elaborate hookah,—a really elegant ornament, and perhaps the most healthful and rational form of smoking,—pipes of all shapes, began to fill the shops of London. Coleridge, when cured of opium, took to snuff. Byron wrote dashingly about ‘sublime Tobacco,’ but I do not think he carried the practice to excess. Shelley never smoked, nor Wordsworth, nor Keats. Campbell loved a pipe. John Gibson Lockhart was seldom without a cigar. Sir Walter Scott smoked in his carriage, and regularly after dinner, loving both pipes and cigars. Professor Wilson smoked steadily, as did Charles Lamb. Carlyle, now some- what past seventy, has been a sturdy smoker for years. Goethe did not smoke, neither did Shakespeare. I cannot recall a single allusion to Tobacco in all his plays; even Sir Toby Belch does not add the pipe to his burnt sack. But NOTED SMOKERS, 209 Shakespeare hated every form of debauchery. The peni- tence of Cassio is more prominent than was hisfun. ‘ What! drunk? and talk fustian and speak parrot, and discourse with one’s shadow? Shakespeare held drunkenness in disgust. Even Falstaff is more an intellectual man than a sot. What actor could play Falstaff after riding forty miles and being well thrashed? Yet, when Falstaff sustains the evening at the Boar’s Head, he has ridden to Gadshill and back, forty- four miles! No palsied sot, he. Hamlet’s disgust at his countrymen is well known. ‘Grim death, how foul and loathsome is thine image! is the comment on the drunken Kit Sly. In short, when you look at the smooth, happy, half-feminine face of Shakespeare, you see one to whom all forms of debauchery were ungenial. A courtier certainly, and a lover of money. The king had written against Tobacco, and Will Shakespeare set his watch to the time. Raleigh and Coliban Jonson might smoke at the Mermaid— Will kept his head clear and his doublet sweet. “Alfred Tennyson is a persistent smoker of some forty years. Dickens, Jerrold and Thackeray all puffed. Lord Lytton loves a long pipe at night and cigars by day. Lord Houghton smokes moderately. The late J. M. Kemble, author of 3 ‘The Seasons in England,’ 1 was a tremendous smoker. ), Moore cared not for it; indeed, I think that Irish gentlemen smoke much less than English. Well- ington shunned it; so did Peel. D’Israeli loved the long pipe in his youth, but in middle age pro- nounced it ‘the tomb of love.” While I am writ- ing, it is not too much to aver that 99 persons out of 100, taken at random, under forty years of age, smoke habitually every day of their lives. How many in Melbourne injure health and brain, I leave to more skilled and morose critics. But my mind misgives me. Paralysis is becoming very frequent. “T have seen stone pipes from Gambia, shaped like the letter U consisting each of one solid flint, hollowed through, 14 210 PLEASANT PIPES. also hookahs made by sailors with cocoanut shells. All, however, now agree that it is impossible to have either com- fortable, cool, or safe smoking, unless through a substance like clay, porous and absorbent, especially as portable pipes are the mode. Those of black charcoal are not handsome; indeed, I always feel like a mute at a funeral while smoking one, but they are delightfully cool, absorbing more essential oil of nicotine, and more quickly than any meerschaum. [ caution the smoker to have an old glove on; as these pipes ‘sweat,’ the oil comes through, and nothing is more pertina- cious than oil of tobacco when it sinks into your pores, or floats about hair or clothes. My own taste inclines to the German receiver, long cherry tube and amber, and to my own garden, for all street smoking is unesthetic, and the traveller by coach, boat, or rail has the tastes of others to consult. Surely it is not urbane to throw on another the burden of saying that he likes not the smell or the inhaling of burning tobacco. Better postpone your solace to more fitting time and place—the close of day and your own veranda. Indoor smoking is detestable. Life has few direr disenchanters than the morning smells of obsolete tobacco, relics though they be of hesternal beatitude. Give me, in robe or jacket, a hookah, or German arrangement, Chinese recumbency in matted and moistened veranda, and the odors of fresh growing beds of flowers wafted by the southern breeze. Nor be wanting the fragrant perfume of coffee. ‘Meat without salt,’ says Hafiz, ‘is even as tobacco without coffee” The tannin of the coffee corrects the nicotine. And it may not be amiss to learn that a plate of watercress, salt, and a large glass of cold water should be at hand to the smoker by day; the watercress corrects any excess, and is at hand in a garden. Smoke not before breaktast, nor till an hour has elapsed after a good meal. Smoke not with or before wine, you destroy the wine-palate. If you love tea, postpone pipe till after it; no man can enjoy fine tea who has smoked. In short, smoke not till the day is done, with all its tasks and duties. “‘T have seen men of pretension and position treat carpets most contumeliously, trampling on the pride of Plato with a recklessness that would bring a blush to the cheek of Diogenes himself. Can they forget the absorbent powers of carpet tissues, and the horrors of next morning to non-smokers, perhaps to ladies? Surely this is uneesthetic and illiberal: it is in an old man most pitiable, in a young one intolerable, in RULES FOR SMOKING. 211 a scholar inexcusable, from an uncleanness that seems willful. Let the young philosopher avoid such practice, and give a wide berth to those who follow them. Take the following Tules, tyro, meo periculo :— 1, Never smoke when the pores are open: they absorb, and you are unfit for decent society. Be it your study ever to escape the noses of strangers. First impressions are sometimes permanent, and you may lose a useful acquaintance. 2. Learn to smoke slowly. Cultivate ‘calm and intermit- tent pufts.’— Walter Scott. 3. On the first symptom of expectoration lay down the pipe, or throw away the cigar; long-continued expectoration is destructive to yourself and revolting to every spectator. 4. Let an interval elapse between the filling of succeeding ipes. : a Clean your tube regularly, and your amber mouthpiece with a feather dipped in spirits of lavender. Never suffer the conduit to remain discolored or stuffed. 6. A German receiver can be washed out like a teacup, and the oil collected is of value, but a meerschaum should never be wetted. A small sponge at the end of a wire dipped in sweet oil should be used carefully and persistently round and round, coaxing out any hard concretions, till the inside be smooth in its dark polished grain, of a rich mahogany tint. The outside, also, well polished with sweet oil and stale milk, then enveloped in chamois leather. The rich dark coloring is the pledge of your safety—better there than darkening your own brains. . “The pale gold c’noster and Turkey have now given way to the splendid varieties of America, and my knowledge halts behind the age. The black sticks resembling lollipops are said to be compounds of rum, bullocks’ blood and tobacco lees. A taste for them, when once contracted, is abiding. Fine volatile tobacco, with aromatic delicacy, requires a long tube; used in a short pipe of modern fashion, they parch and shrivel the tongue. In short, what is true of all other pleasures is also true of tobacco-smoking. Fruition is some- times too rapid for enjoyment, as the dram-drinker is less wise than the calm imbiber of the fragrant vintage of the Garonne. With Burke’s common sense I began, and with it I end. Depurate vice of all her offensiveness, and you prune her of half her evil. Let not your love of indulgence be so.inordinate as to purchase short pleasure by impairing health, neglecting duty, or, while promoting your own self complacency, allow yourself to become permanently 912 A TOBACCO WORLD. revolting to society, by offending more senses as well as more principles than one.’ ” Mantegazza, one of the most brilliant of all writers on tobacco, in alluding to the enchantment of the “weed,” says :— “Tf a winged inhabitant of some remote world felt the impulse to traverse space, and, with an astronomical map, to fly round our planetary system, he would at once recognize the earth by the odor of tobacco which it exhales, forasmuch MODERN SMOKERS. as all known nations smoke the nicotian herb. And thou- sands and thousands of men, if compelled to limit themselves to a single nervous aliment, would relinquish wine and coffee, opium and brandy, and cling fondly to the precious narcotic leaf. Before Columbus, tobacco was not smoked except in America; and now, after a lapse of a few centuries in the furthest part of China and in Japan, in the island of Oceanica as in Lapland and Siberia, rises from the hut of the savage and from the palace of the prince, along with the smoke of the fireplace, where man bakes his bread and warms his heart, another odorous smoke, which man inhales and CRUELTY TO SMOKERS. 213 breathes forth again to soothe his pain and to vanquish fatigue and anxiety. “Tn the early times of the introduction of tobacco, smokers in many countries were condemned to infamous and cruel punishments; had their noses and their lips cut off, and with blackened faces and mounted on an ass, exposed to the coarse jests of the vilest vagabonds and the insults of the multitude. But now the hangman smokes, and the criminal condemned to death smokes before being hanged. The king in his gilt coach smokes ; and the assassin smokes who lies in wait to throw down before the feet of the horses the murder- ous bomb. The human family spends every year two thou- sand six hundred and seventy millions of frances (about a hundred millions in English money) on tobacco, which is not food, which is not drink, and without which it contrived to live for a long succession of ages. “Tn the discomfitures and disasters which befell the Army of Lavalle, in the civil wars of the Argentine Republic, the poor fugitives had to suffer the most horrible privations, which can be imagined. By degrees the tobacco came to an end, and the Argentines smoked dry leaves. One man, more fortunate than his comrades, continued to use with much economy the most precious of all his stores—tobacco. A fel- low soldier begged to be allowed to put the economist’s pipe in his own mouth, and thus to inhale at second-hand the adored smoke, paying two dollars for the privilege. What is more striking still, when, in 1843, the convicts in the prison of Epinal, France, who had for some time been deprived of tobacco, rose in revolt, their cry’ was ‘tobacco or death!’ When Col. Seybourg was marching in the interior of Suri- nam against negro rebels, and the soldiers had to bear the most awful hardships, they smoked paper, they chewed leaves and leather, and found the lack of tobacco the greatest of all their trials and torments.” Elsewhere, inquiring what nervous aliments harmonize the one with the other, he says :— “The only, the true, the legitimate companion of coffee is the nicotian plant; and wisely and well the Turkish epicures declare that for coffee—the drink of Heaven—tobacco is the salt. The smoke of a puro, of a manilla, or of real Turkish tobacco, which passes amorously through the voluptuous tip of amber, blends magnificently with the austere aroma of the coffee, and the inebriated palate is agitated between a caress and a rebuke.” 914 QUAINT WHIMS. - From a Southern paper we extract these whimsical lines. “On the Great Fall in the Price of Tobacco in 1801,” by Hugh Montgomery, Lynchburgh, Va., ‘¢ Lately a planter chanced to pop His head into a barber’s shop— Begged to be shaved; it soon was done, When Strap (inclined oft-times to fun,) Doubling the price he’d asked before, Instead of two pence made it four. The planter said, ‘ You sure must grant, Your charge is most exhorbitant.’ ‘Not so,’ quoth Strap, ‘I’m right and you are wrong, For since tobacco fell, your face is twice as long.’” Another quaint whim in the form of an advertisement for a lost meerschaum is from an Australian paper: “To Honest men and others,—Driving from Hale Town to Bridgetown, on Sunday, last, the advertiser lost a cigar holder with the face of a pretty girl on it. The intrinsic value of the missing article is small, but as the owner has been for the last’ few months converting the young lady from a blonde into a brunette, he would be glad to get it back again. If it was picked up by a gentleman, on reading this notice, he will, of ccurse, send it to the address below. If it was picked up by a poor man, who could get a few shil- lings by selling it, on his bringing it to the address below, he shall be paid the full amount of its intrinsic value. If it was picked up by a thief, let him deliver it, and he shall be paid a like amount, and thus for once can do an honest action, without being a penny the worse for it.” A humorous writer thus discourses on man, who he denominates as “common clays”: ‘ Yet we are all common clays! There are long clays and short clays, coarse clays and refined clays, and the latter are pretty scarce, that’s a fact. To follow out the simile, life is the tobacco with which we are loaded, and when the vital spark is applied we live; when that tobacco is exhausted we die, the essence of our life ascending from the lukewarm clay when the last fibre burns out, as a curl of smoke from the ashes in the bowl of the pipe, and mingling with the perfumed breeze of heaven, or the hot breath of —well, never mind; we hope not. Then the clay is cold, and glows no more from the fire within; the pipe is broken, and ceases to comfort and console. We say, MEN LIKE PIPES. 215 ‘A friend has left us,’ or ‘Poor old Joe; his pipe is out.’ We have all a certain supply of life, or, if we would pursue the comparison, a share of tobacco. Some young men smoke too rapidly, even voraciously, and thus exhaust their share before their proper time,—then we say they have ‘lived too fast,” or ‘ pulled at their pipes too hard.’ Others, on the contrary, make their limited supply go a long way, and when they are taking their last pufis of life’s perfumed plant their energy is unimpaired ; they can run a race, walk a mile with any one, and show few wrinkles upon their brow, “ A delicate person is like a pipe with a crack in the bow], THE ARTIST. for it takes continued and careful pulling to keep his light in; and to take life is like willfully dashing a lighted pipe from the mouth into fragments, and scattering the sparks to the four winds of heaven. An artist is a good coloring pipe; 216 UNIVERSAL USE. an attractive orator is a pipe that draws well; a communist is a foul pipe; a well-educated woman whose conversation is attractive is a pipe with a nice mouthpiece; a girl of the period is a fancy pipe, the ornament of which is liable to chip ; a female orator on woman’s rights is invariably a plain pipe; an old toper is a well-seasoned pipe; an escaped thief is a cutty pipe, and the policeman in pursuit is a shilling pipe, for is he not a Bob?” From these ingenious “ conceits ” we turn to a few thoughts on the present condition and history of the plant. The calumet or pipe of peace, decorated with all the splen- dor of savage taste, is smoked by the red man to ratify good feeling or confirm some treaty of peace. The energetic Yankee bent upon the accomplishment of his ends, puffs vigorously at his cigar and with scarcely a passing notice, strides over obstacles that lie in his path of whatever nature they may be. The dancing Spaniard with his eternal casta- nets whispers but a _word to his dark-eyed senorita as he hands her another perfumed cigarette. The loung- ing Italian hissing ————— ==> intrigues under the : shadow of an ancient portico, smokes on as he stalks over the proud place where the blood of Cesar dyed the stones of the Capitol, or where the knife of Virginius flashed in the summer sun. The Turk comes forth from the Mosque only to smoke. The priest of Nicaragua with solemn mien strides up the aisle and lights the altar candles with the fire struck from his cigar. The hardy Laplander invites the stranger to his hut and offers him his pipe while he inquires, = NEO) rg iit THE YANKEE SMOKER. DEVELOPMENT OF TOBACCO, 217 if he comes from the land of tobacco. The indigent Jakut exchanges his most valuable furs and skins for a few ounces of the “ Circassian. weed.” Its charms are recognized by the gondolier of Venice and the Muleteer of Spain. The Switzer lights his pipe amid Alpine heights. The tourist climbing A‘tna or Vesuvius’ rugged side, puffs on though they perchance have long since ceased to smoke. Tobacco, soothed the hardships of Cromwell’s soldiers and gave novelty to the court life of the daughters of Louis XIV, delighted the courtiers of Queen Elizabeth and bidding defiance to the ire of her successors, the Stuarts, has never ceased to hold sway over court and camp, as well as over the masses of the people. In nothing cultivated has there been so remarkable a development. Originally limited to the natives of America, it attracted the attention of Europeans who by cultivation increased the size and quality of the plant. But not alone has the plant improved in form and quality, the rude implements once used by the Indians have given away (even among them- selves) to those of improved form and modern style. These facts are without a doubt among the most curious that com- merce presents. ‘That a plant primarily used only by savages, should succeed in spite of the greatest opposition in becom- ing one of the greatest luxuries of the civilized world, is a fact without parallel. It can almost be said, so universally is it used, that its claims are recognized by all. Though hated by kings and popes it was highly esteemed by their subjects. Their delight in the new found novelty was unbounded and doubtless they could sing in praise as Byron did in later times of: ‘¢ Sublime tobacco which from East to West Cheers the tar’s labor and the Turkman’s rest.” CHAPTER VIII. SNUFF, SNUFF-BOXES AND SNUFF-TAKERS. * HE custom of snuff-taking is as old at least as the discovery of the tobacco plant. The first account we have of it is given by Roman Pane, the friar who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage of discovery (1494), and who alludes to its use among the Indians by means of a cane half a cubit long. Ewhbank says: “Much has been written on a revolution so unique in its origin, unsurpassed in incidents and results, and constituting one of the most singular episodes in human history; but next to nothing is recorded of whence the various processes of manufacture and uses were derived. Some imagine the popular pabulum*® for the nose of translantic origin. No such thing! Columbus first beheld smokers in the Antilles. Pizarro found chewers in Peru, but it was in the country dis- covered by Cabral that the great sternutatory was originally found. Brazilian Indians were the Fathers of snuff, and its best fabricators. Though counted among the least refined of aborigines, their taste in this matter was as pure as that of the fashionable world of the East. Their snuff has never been surpassed, nor their apparatus for making it.” Soon after the introduction and cultivation of tobacco in Spain and Portugal its use in the form of snuff came in vogue and from these notions it spread rapidly over Europe, par- ticularly in France and Italy. It is said to have been used * Dr. John Hillin his tract ‘* Cautions against the immoderate use of snuff’ gives the following definition of it. ‘‘ The dried leaves of tobacco, rasped, beaten, or otherwise reduced to powder, make what we call snuff.” This tract was published in 1761. The author, afterwards Sir John Hill, was equally celebrated a8 a physician and a writer of ferces, a8 denoted by the following epigram by Garrick: “ For physic and farces his equal there scarce is ; His farces are physic, his physic a farce is.” 218 ITS INTRODUCTION. 219 first in France* by the wife of Henry II., Catherine de Medici, and that it was first used at court during the latter part of the Sixteenth Century. The Queen seemed to give it a good standing in society and it soon became the fashion to use the powder by placing a little on the back of the hand and inhaling it. The use of snuff greatly increased from the fact of its supposed medicinal properties and its curative powers in all diseases, particularly those affecting the head, hence the wide introduction of snuff-taking in Europe. Fairholt says of its early use: “Though thus originally recommended for adoption as a medicine, it soon became better known as a luxury and the gratification of a pinch was generally indulged in Spain, Italy and France, during the early part of the Seventeenth Century. It was the grandees of the French Court who “set the fashion’ of snuff, with all its luxurious additions of scents and expensive boxes. It became common in the Court of Louis le Grand, although that monarch had a decided antipathy to tobacco in any form.” Says an English writer “Between 1660 and 1700, the custom of taking snuff, though it was disliked by Louis XIV., was almost as prevalent in France as it is at the present time. In this instance, the example of the monarch was disregarded 5 tobac en poudre or tobac rapet as snuff was sometimes called found favor in the noses of the French people; and all men of fashion prided themselves on carrying a handsome snuff-box. Ladies also took snuff; and the belle whose grace and propriety of demeanour were themes of general admiration, thought it not unbecoming to take a pinch at dinner, or to blow her pretty nose in her embroidered mou- choir with the sound of a trombone. Louis endeavored to discourage the use of snuff and his valets-de-chambre were obliged to renounce it when they were appointed to their office. One of these gentlemen, the Duc d’ Harcourt, was supposed to have died of apoplexy in consequence of having, in order to please the king, totally discontinued the habit which he had before indulged to excess.” Other grandees were less accommodating: thus we are * An English writer gives a different account—“The custom of taking snuff as a nasal eratiientton does not ap ear to be of earlier date than 1620, though the powdered leaves of obacco were occasionally prescribed as a medicine lon before that time. It appears to have first become prevalent in Spain, and from thence to have passed into Italy and France. t+ Grated tobacco. 220 BOXES AND GRATERS. told that Marechal d’ Huxelles used to cover his cravat and dress with it. The Royal Physician, Monsieur Fagon, is reported to have devoted his best energies to a public oration of a very violent kind against snuff, which unfortunately failed to convince his auditory, as the excited lecturer in his most enthusiastic moments refreshed his nose with a pinch. Although disliked by the most polished prince of Europe, the use of snuff increased and soon spread outside the limits of the court of France and in a short time became a favorite mode of using tobacco as it continues to be with many at this day.* The snuff-boxes of this period were very elegant and were decorated with elaborate paintings or set with gems. It was the custom to carry both a snuff-box and a tobacco -grater, which was often as expensive and elegant as the snuff- box itself. Many of them were richly carved and ornamented in the most superb manner. Others bore the titles and arms of the owner and it was considered as part of a courtier’s outfit to sport a magnificent box and grater. The French mode of manufacturing snuff was to satu- rate the leaves in water, then dry them and color according to the shade desired. The perfume was then added and the snuff was pre- pared for use. The kind of tobacco used was “ Tobac de Virginie.” Spanish snuff was perfumed in the same manner with the additional use of orange-flower water. Carver gives the mode of manufacturing snuff in America (1779). “Being possessed of a tobacco wheel, which is a very simple machine, they spin the leaves, after they are properly cured, into a twist of any size they think fit; and having A TOBACCO GRATER. * The Rev. S. Wesley speaking of the abuses of tobacco, intimates that the human ear, will not long, remain exempted from its affliction. “ To such a height with some is fashion grown They feed they very nostrils with a spoon, One, and but one degree is wanting yet. To make their senseless luxury complete; Some choice regale, useless as snuff and dear, To feed the mazy windings of the ear. MODE OF PREPARATION. 291 folded it into rolls of about twenty pounds weight each, they lay it by for use. In this state it will keep for several years, and be continually improving, as it every hour grows milder. When they have occasion to use it, they take off such a length as they think necessary, which, if designed for smoking, they cut into small pieces, for chewing into larger, as choice directs; if they intend to make snuff of it they take a quan- tity from the roll, and laying it in a room where a fire is kept, in a day or two it will become dry, and being rubbed on a grater will produce a genuine snuff. Those in more improved regions who like their snuff scented, apply to it such odoriferous waters as they can procure, or think most pleasing.” Dutch snuff was only partially ground, and was therefore coarse and harsh in its effects when inhaled into the nostrils. The Irish, according to Everards, used large quantities of snuff “to purge their brains.” Snuff-taking became general in England* at the commencement of the Seventeenth Cen- tury, and scented snuffs were used in preference to the plain. Frequent mention is made in the plays of this time of its use and varieties. In Congreve’s “Love for Love,” one of the characters presents a young lady with a box of snuff, on receipt of which she says, “Look you here what Mr. Tattle has given me! Look you here, cousin, here’s a snuff-box; nay, there’s snuff in’t: here, will you have any? Oh, good! how sweet it is!” Portuguese snuff seemed to be in favor and was delicately perfumed. It was made from the fibres of the leaves, and was considered among many to be the finest kind of the “pungent dust.” Some varieties of snuff were named after the scents employed in flavoring them. In France many kinds became popular from the fact of their use at court, and by the courtiers throughout the kingdom. Pope notes the use of the snuff-box by the fops and courtiers of his time in this manner :— *‘The custom of taking snuff was probably brought into England by some of the followers of Charles II., about the time of the Restoration. During his reign, and that of his brother, it does not appear to have gained much ground; but towards the end of the Seventeenth Century it had become auite the’ rage" with beaux. who at that period, as well as in the reign of Queen Anne. sometimes Carried their snuff in the hollow ivory head of their canes.’” =A Paper of Tobacco. 992 SNUFF -BOXES. “Sir Plume of amber snuff-box justly vain, And the nice conduct of a clouded cane; With earnest eyes, and round, unthinking face, He first the snuff-box open’d, then the case.” The mode of “ tapping the box” before opening was char- acteristic of the beaux and fops of this period, and is com- mented on in a poem on snuff :— “The lawyer so grave, when he opens his case, In obscurity finds it is hid, Till the bright glass of knowledge illumines his face, As he gives the three taps on the lid.” Spain, Portugal, and France early in the Seventeenth Century became noted as the producers of the finest kinds of snuff. In Spain and Portugal it was the favorite mode of using tobacco, and rare kinds were compounded and sold at enormous prices. Its use in France by the fair sex is thus commented on by a French writer :— “Everything in France depends upon 7a mode ; and it has DEMI-JOURNEES. pleased la mode to patronize this disgusting custom, and carry about with them small boxes which they term demz- journées.” The most expensive materials were employed in the manu- facture of snuff-boxes, such as agate, mosaics, and all kinds of rare wood, while many were of gold, studded with diamonds. Some kinds were made of China mounted in metal, and were very fanciful. In “ Pandora’s Box,” a “Satyr against Snuff,” 1719, may be found the following description of the snuff-boxes then in vogue: FAMOUS SNUFFS. 223 “For females fair, and formal fops to please, The mines are robb’d of ore, of shells the seas, With all that mother-earth and beast afford To man, unworthy now, tho’ once their lord: Which wrought into a box, with all the show Of art the greatest artist can bestow; Charming in shape, with polished rays of light, A joint so fine it shuns the sharpest sight ; Must still be graced with all the radiant gems And precious stones that e’er arrived in Thames. Within the lid the painter plays his part, And with his pencil proves his matchless art ; There drawn to life some spark or mistress dwells, Like hermits chaste and constant to their cells.” Some of the more highly perfumed snufis sold for thirty shillings a pound, while the cheaper kinds, such as English Rappee and John’s Lane, could be bought for two or three shillings per pound. There are at least two hundred kinds of snuff well known in commerce. The Scotch and Irish snufts are for the most part made from the midribs; the Strasburgh, French, Spanish, and Russian snuffs from the soft parts of the leaves. An English writer gives the follow- ing account of some of the well-known snuffs and the method of manufacturing :-— “For the famous fancy snuff known as Maroco, the recipe is to take forty parts of French or St. Omer tobacco, with twenty parts of fermented Virginia stalks in powder; the whole to be ground and sifted. To this powder must be added two pounds and a half of rose leaves in fine powder; and the whole must be moistened with salt and water and thoroughly incorporated. After that it must be ‘worked up’ with cream and salts of tartar, and packed in lead to ee its delicate aroma. The celebrated ‘gros grain aris snuff’ is composed of equal parts of Amersfoort and James River tobacco, and the scent is imported by a ‘sauce,’ among the ingredients of which are salt, soda, tamarinds, red wine, syrup, cognac, and cream of tartar.” The mode of manufacture of snuff now is far different than that employed in the Seventeenth Century. Then the leaves were simply dried and made fine by rubbing them together in the hands, or ground in some rude mill; still later the 294 A CELEBRATED MANUFACTURER. tobacco was washed or cleansed in water, dried, and then ground. Now, however, the tobacco undergoes quite a process, and must be kept packed several months before it is ground intosnuff. One of the most celebrated manufacturers of snuff was James Gillespie, of Edinburgh, who compounded the famous variety bearing hisname. The following account of him we take from “ The Tobacco Plant :”— “In the High Street of Edinburgh, a little east from the place where formerly stood the Cross,— “Dun-Edin’s Cross, a pillar’d stone, Rose on a turret octagon,’ was situated the shop of James Gillespie, the celebrated snuff manufacturer. The shop is still occupied by a tobacconist, whose sign is the head of atypical negro, and in one of the windows is exhibited the effigy of a High- lander, who is evidently a compe- tent judge of ‘sneeshin.’ Not much is known regarding the personal history of James Gilles. pie, but it is understood that he was born shortly after the Jacobite rebellion of 1715, at Roslin, a pic- \ turesque village about six miles K\\\\, from Edinburgh. He became a S i \ tobacconist in Edinburgh, along \ A with his brother John, and by the IiNexercise of steady industry and see : frugality, he was enabled to pur- chase Spylaw, a small estate in the parish of Colinton, about four miles from Edinburgh, where he erected a snuff-mill on the banks of the Water of Leith, a small stream which flows through the finely-wooded grounds of Spylaw. The younger brother, John, attended to the shop, while the subject of our notice resided at Spylaw, where he superintended the snuff- mill. Mr. Gillespie was able to continue his industrious habits through a long life, and having made some successful speculations in tobacco during the war of American Independ- ence, when the ‘weed’ advanced considerably in price, he was enabled to increase his Spylaw estate from time to time JAMES GILLESPIE. HABITS AND LIFE. 295 by making additional purchases of property in the parish. “Mr. Gillespie remained through life a bachelor. His establishment at Spylaw was of the simplest description. It is said that he invariably sat at the same table with his serv- ants, indulging in familiar conversation, and entering with much spirit into their amusements. Newspapers were not so widely circulated at that period as they are now, and on the return of any of his domestics from the city, which one of them daily visited, he listened with great attention to the ‘news, and enjoyed with much zest the narration of any jocular incident that had occurred. Mr. Gillespie had a penchant for animals, and their wants were carefully attended to. His poultry, equally with his horses, could have testified to the judicious attention which he bestowed upon them. A story is told of the familiarity between the laird and his riding horse, which was well-fed and full of spirit. “The animal frequently indulged in a little restive curvet- ting with its master, especially when the latter was about to get into the saddle. ‘Come, come,’ he would say, on such occasions, addressing the animal in his usual quiet way, ‘hae dune, noo, for ye’ll no like if I come across your lugs (ears) wi’ the stick.’ “Even in his old age Mr. Gillespie regularly superintended the operations in the mill, which was situated in the rear of his house. On these occasions he was wrapped in an old blanket ingrained with snuff. Though he kept a carriage he very seldom used it, until shortly before his death, when increasing infirmities caused him occasionally to take a drive. It was of this carriage, plain and neat in its design, with nothing on its panel but the initials ‘J. G. that the witty Henry Erskine proposed the couplet— ‘Who would have thought it That noses had bought it ?” as an appropriate motto. In those days snuff was much more extensively used than at present, and Mr. Gillespie was in the habit of gratuitously filling the ‘mulls’ of many of the Edinburgh characters of the last century. Colinton appears to have been a great snuff-making centre. About thirty years ago there were five snuff mills in operation in the parish, the produce of which was sold in Edinburgh. Even now a considerable quantity of snuff is made in the district, chiefly by grinders to the trade. Murray, alluding to the popularity of the custom in 15 226 THE SNUFFING PERIOD. England during the reign of the House of Brunswick, says :— “The reigns of the four Georges may be entitled the snufting period of English history. The practice became an appanage of fashion before 1714, as it has continued after 1830, to be the comfort -. of priests, literary men, ‘= highlanders, tailors, fac- “Y-,, tory hands, and old peo- Z/>, ple of both — sexes. CF, ge eee =, so enamoured of the 42= delectation, that in each <== of his palaces he kept a i. = jar chamber, containing == a choice assortment of = = tobacco powder, pre- GE a sided over by a critical FOPS TAKING sNuFr. (Krom an old print). superintendent. His fa- vorite stimulant in the morning was violet Strasburgh, the same which had pre- viously helped Queen Charlotte to ‘ kill the day ’—after din- ner Carrotte — named from his penchant for it. King’s Carrotte, Martinique, Etrenne, Old Paris, Bureau, Cologne, Bordeaux, Havre, Princeza, Rouen, and Rappee, were placed on the table, in as many rich and curious boxes.” Sterne, in his “Sentimental Journey,” gives a pleasing description of snuff-taking with the poor monk. He writes: “The good old monk was within six paces of us, as the idea of him crossed my mind; and was advancing towards us a little out of the line, as if uncertain whether he should break in upon us or no. He stoop’d, however, as s00n as he came up to us with a world of frankness; and having a horn snuff-box in his hand, he presented it open to me. “¢ You shall taste mine,’ said I, pulling ont my box (which was a small tortoise one), and putting it into his hand. “Tis most excellent,’ said the monk. “<«Then do me the favor,’ I replied ‘to accept of the box and all, and when you take a pinch out of it, sometimes recollect it was the peace-offering of a man who once used you unkindly, but not from his heart.’ “The poor monk blushed as red as scarlet, ‘Mon Dieu? said he, pressing his hands together, * you never used me unkindly.’ THE MONK AND HIS SNUFF-BOX. 297 “¢T should think,’ said the lady, ‘he is not likely.’ I blushed in my turn; but from what motives, I leave to the few who feel to analyze. ‘Excuse me, madam,’ replied I, ‘I treated him most unkindly, and from no provocations.’ « 4 ye just as vile trash can there be pur- chased asany where; and it appeared to me that in buying, from time to time in different fabricos, a few cigars it was rarely I found a really good one. --It behooves, then, every lover of a good cigar to make himself familiar with the best makers and brands, and to purchase CUBAN CIGAR SHOP. CIGAR FACTORIES. 269 those, and those only, that suit his taste.// To the traveler in Havana, this is easy enough, as he Gan there buy sample boxes from any of the factories and of any of the brands. There are, in addition to these hundreds of other cigar factories, some of which, such as Cabargos, Figaros, Luetanos, Vic- torias, etc., are first-class, three or four at least in whose cigars every smoker may have perfect confidence, the brands of which are known all over the world. These are: Cabaiios, Uppmann and Partagas; for whose brands, perhaps, one pays something more, but has always the satisfaction of find- ing then good. To the kindness of the gentlemen connected with some of these factories I am indebted for most of the information in this article, and particularly to Sefior Don Avulmo G. del Valle, the present proprietor of the Cabafios Factory, who was good enough to show me through his establishment, carefully explaining to me its peculiarities. As the process of manufacture and description of grades and qualities are the same with all the best makers, I give here a detailed history of this factory and its products. “The factory for Cabafios cigars has been established seventy-two years the founder of it being Don Francisco Cabafios, his son, Don de P. Cabaiios, succeeding him, to whom has succeeded his son-in-law, Senor del Valle, the present proprietor and director of the factory. When it was founded, the cigars were sold to the public in bundles of twenty, only amounting to a total number per year, of four or five hun- dred thousand cigars, the sales of which kept constantly increasing until 1826, when there were sold two millions. At this period the demand for exportation commenced, increasing each year until 1848, when the number sold amounted to three and a half millions. At this time, the present director came in charge, and increased the sale to eight millions per year, until, in 1866, the total sales by this one house only, amounted to the enormous number of six- teen million cigars, which went to different parts.of the world. The tobacco manipulated in this factory is, with some few exceptions, that grown upon plantations in the Vuelta Abojo, with the proprietors of which Sefior del Valle has a special contract for their product, The most noted of these places are known as ‘ La Lena,’ ‘San Juan aj Martin,’ ‘ Los Pilotos, ‘ Rio Hondo.” The firm also own three vegas, as do also Partagas, Uppmann, and others, in a greater or less degree. The amount raised upon these vegas in connec- tion with the Cabanos Factory, amounts to five thousand 270 PREPARATION OF THE TOBACCO. bales, of from first to eighth quality, leaving the most inferior qualities, which amount to about one thousand bales, for exportation, the factory not using such common grades. It is a custom of the manufacturers to keep a supply of the best qualities always on hand from year to year, in order that, should the tobacco crop, in any one year, be bad, the reputation of the house can be maintained by using the good tobacco in the store. The factory is a large stone building, opposite the Canipo de Moste, in which all the operations connected with cigar making are carried on (excepting the manufacture of boxes) by over five hundred operatives, all males. The following is the process of manufacture: “‘ Arrived at the factory, the tobacco bales, carefully packed and wrapped in palm leaves, are kept in a cool, dark, place on the first floor, being divided off into classes according to quality and value, which latter varies from twenty to four hundred dollars per bale of two hundred pounds. When wanted, the bales are opened, the manojas and gabillos are separated, and the latter carried in their dry state to the moistening room. Here are a number of men whose busi- ness it is to place the leaves, for the purpose of moistening and softening them, into large barrels in which is a solution of saltpetre in water; this done, the water is poured off, and other workmen spread out the leaves with their hands upon the edges of the barrels, ridding them as much as possible, of any surplus water; after which, the leaves, from being moistened, unfold very easily, and, with care, without tear- ing. The stem is then taken out, the process being known as disbalillar. These stems, with the refuse of other tobacco, are sometime used as filling for the commonest kind of cigars. The filling is known as ¢ripa, the very best being selected, like the leaf, for the best cigars. Now comes the maker, and supplying himself with a handful of leaf (copa) for wrappers, and a lot of the ¢ripa for filling or really making the body of the cigar itself he carries it to a little table, and spreading the wrapper upon the table, cuts with a short knife the different portions of the leaf, This is a very nice operation, requiring skill, knowledge, and experience ; for it is in this operation that the different qualities of tobacco are separated, the outside of the leaf being generally the best; next that, another quality ; and that portion adjoining the stem the worst. “The general sorting of the tobacco is done by hands of great experience and judgment, who are the highest in SORTING OF LEAVES. O71 consideration in the factories, some of them receiving large pay; thus for instance, the official escqjedor, or chooser, gets from five to seven dollars (gold) per day, and the torcedores, or twisters, from two to four, the workmen being paid so much per thousand cigars, generally from two to four dollars. To show how very careful the maker must be in cutting out the leaf to make the most of it: Mr. del Valle was explaining to me the process of manufacture, and directed the maker to cut the leaf. This the man did drawing his knife in the manner denoted by the dotted lines in the engraving. This it appears was not making the most => of the fine part of the leaf, for Mr. del Valle, annoyed, took the knife himself, and after rating the maker soundly for his carelessness, showed him how to cut it properly, as defined by the black line, the difference being, as far as I could judge, a slight TOBACCO LEAF. inequality of color between the two parts. The manufacture of the cigar is very simple. The cigar maker, being seated before a low work table, which has raised ledges on every side except that nearest him, takes a leaf of tobacco, spreads it out smoothly before him, and cuts it as in the drawing. He then lays a few fragments of tobacco (¢ripa) in the centre or a leaf strip and rolls the whole into the shape of a cigar, and taking then a wrapper, rolls it spirally around the cigar. If the workman is skillful, he makes it of just the right length and size, without any trimming of the knife. The cigars are assorted, counted, and done up in bundles of generally twenty-five each, and then packed in the boxes, ready for market, under their different names of Londres, Legalias, etc. These names are generally understood to have the same meaning throughout the trade, the ‘ Vegueros, for instance, being the plantation cigars, made at the vegas, and much esteemed by smokers, though they are rarely to be met with for sale, or, if so, at an exhorbitant price. The ‘Regalia Imperial, the finest and best, is nearly seven inches long, the price varying from one hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars per thousand (gold). The ‘ Regalia’ is not so large but fine, the ‘ Z7abuco, short and thick; the ‘ Londres, the most convenient in shape, and most smoked in this country and England; the ‘ Dama’ the small sized one used by ladies(?) or by men between acts of the opera (ent7” 272 SALES, &c. operas). There are also other names which each factory has for some particular kinds. Artificial flavors are given to cigars, when some particular taste is to be satisfied, by the use of flavoring extracts. Each of the above names has different qualities, as: Londres ‘ superfine’ the very best of that size (delicious). fe ‘fino, not quite so fine. si ‘flor, finest, or firsts. ES ‘superior, next, or seconds. - ‘buenos, next, or thirds. Again, these different qualities have different colors, known as: ‘maduro, strongest ; ‘oscuro, strong (dark) ; ‘ colorado,’ medium; ‘claro, mild; ‘ Brevors, means pressed. Thus, supposing one wanted a good cigar to suit his taste, he would perhaps order: ‘Partagas’ (maker), ‘londres’ (size), ‘flor’ (quality), ‘Colorado’ or ‘oscuro’ (strength), and he would get a good cigar, nice size, best quality, not too strong, or too mild. “T must confess to a weakness for the Uppmann cigars, which I have found, without exception, to be good, and which have a fine reputation throughout the West Indies. A millionaire need not want a better cigar to smoke than their ‘ Londres superfine, at sixty dollars (gold) per thousand, in Havana, or their ‘ Cazadores, at fifty dollars. Partagas cigars of course, every one knows are good; and he keeps generally pretty well sold up, but fills orders as they come in. For a new experience, one of his ‘ tegalio Leyno flor, is something to try, even if they do cost out there eighty- five dollars, gold. “Tn all the factories they make about the following rates: For every order of ten thousand, costing fifty dollars per thousand, five per cent. discount is allowed. Less than five thousand will pay five dollars extra. I should, perhaps, mention that no distinction is made to dealers, the only advantage they have over the private buyer is, that they are enabled to get the discount for large lots. The absurd notion so prevalent with us, that the Cubans only smoke their cigars green, is an error, since the leaf is entirely dried in the sun before being touched by the manufacturer. The Cubans are very particular indeed to preserve the aroma and fragrance of the cigars, by keeping them in wrappers of oiled and soft silks; it is, in fact, quite a sight to see with what ceremony some of these are produced at gentlemen’s tables, with much unction, like the ushering in of old wine. LARGE FACTORIES. 273 My chapter on cigars would be incomplete did I fail to note the beautiful and courteous way in which all Cubans no matter of what position, whether the exquisite at the club, or the portero at the door, ask you for a light. ‘Do me the favor Sefior?’ and you present your cigar, the lighted end towards the speaker. He takes the cigar delicately between his thumb and fore-finger, lights his own, and then, with a quick, graceful motion, turns yours in his fingers, presenting you, with another wave, the mouth end, makes you a hand salute, utters his graczos, and leaves you studying out the ‘motions’ and thinking what a charming thing is national politeness.” In the selection of leaves for the manufacture of cigars in the factories only the large fine ones are used for Regalias, Imperiales, or Medios Regalias; and also for Cazadores, Pametelos, Imperiales, Caballeros, and so on; the smaller fine leaves for Panetelos and Londres; the dark inferior leaves for Canones. The commonest tobacco goes to form the Milores Communes ; the worst is converted into cigars which are generally pressed flat, and known as Prinsados. For the smallest kind of Londres and for Damos, a propor- tionally small leaf is employed. In Cuba and Luzon, one of the Philippine Islands, is found one of the largest factories for cigars in the world. In Manilla there are three factories where 7,000 families and 1,200 males are employed: one in Cavite, in which 5,000 operatives, mostly females, are engaged ; and one in Malabar, which gives employment to about 2,000 more, also females. The tobacco is worked into both cigars and cheroots both of which have a variety of shapes. In both Manilla and Havana the custom of smoking is universal and one rarely meets with any of the male sex without a cigar between his lips. A writer speaking of the universality of the custom says: “In Havana, the custom of smoking is a universal one. There, young and old indulge freely in the use of the weed, dividing their attention pretty equally between the cigar. and the cigarette. Even the ladies of the better class in many instances indulge; though not to so great an extent as is commonly reported.” “Smoking in Cuba” says an American writer, “is like the 18 274 UNIVERSAL SMOKING. habit of making shoes in Lynn, Massachusetts, everybody smokes!—in the house, and by the way; in the cars, and on horseback ; everywhere, and at all times. You meet whole regiments of youngsters, from six to eight years of age, with black beaver hats, tail-coats, and canes, each with a cigar, nearly his own size, in his mouth. You feel like putting the miniature dandies into the water of the next fountain basin, which shallow as it is, would fully, suffice to drown the largest of them.” You have a right to accost any one smoking in the street, however much may be his superiority or inferiority to your- self, and to ask a light for your cigar; even negroes hatless and shirtless, thus address well-dickied gentlemen, and vice versa. Refuse to take a cigar with a Cuban, and you refuse his friendship. The negroes cannot work at all without their quota of cigars ; “and looking out of the windows of a room in that magnificent hotel ‘#7 Telegrafo, the writer remembers to have caught a glimpse more than once of the negro women at work in the laundry, every one of whom held a long cigar in her mouth, and puffed incessantly asthe , clothes were manipu- lated upon the wash- * boards.” In Havana, as throughout Cuba, there is a cigar eti- ~ quette, to infringe any of the rules of which is construed as an in- sult. Itis, for instance considered a breach of etiquette when you are asked for a light to hand your cigar without first knocking off the ashes. A greater breach, however, is to pass the cigar handed for you to obtain a light from, to a third party for a similar purpose ; the rule is to hand back the cigar with as graceful a wave as WENCHES SMOKING. CIGAR ETIQUETTE. 275 you can command, and then if necessary, pass your own cigar to the third party. The insult direct in cigar etiquette is for the party to whom you apply for a light, to pass on and leave you with the remains of his cigar, or to intimate to you, by word or action, that he has no further use for it, and that you can throw it away. In Cuba, where cigars are plentiful, the usual custom is, when you ask for a light, even if the party be a stranger, to pull out your case and offer him a cigar, by way of recognizing the civility in stopping to accommodate you. The Spaniards are naturally a polite people, and the stranger stepping into the Louvre and other public places of resort in Havana, is struck at once with the marked contrast in this respect to familiar gatherings elsewhere. In no place: is a cigar more enjoyable than in Havana. Seated upon the roof of one of the large hotels in that city in a bright moonlight night, within hearing of the dreamy roll on the beach: the regular throb of the sea, lulling one into quiet- ness; the sigh of the summer breeze a lullaby to the senses; while a high-flavored prime cigar, as it wastes and floats away 276 REVERIES. in air, is the fairy wand which opens the enchanted gates of Reverie and Imagination. What need of a friend under such soothing circumstances ? What need of the jolly camarade of former days to sigh back sigh for sigh, puff for puff, and wander in gentle reminis- cences over the Lesbian labyrinth of the past, when Julia was most kind, or Cynthia, darling girl, delighted in the perfume of a capital havana? Here, in this quaint old city by the sea, is the place for dreams and reveries and the utter render- ing of one’s self up—to a good cigar. Is it not a place for reverie? Has not one with this most respectable weed, this prime havana, the concomitants of a thousand reveries? Will not one puff of that narcotic breath drowse deep all watching dragons, and make for him the sleeping beauties of his will ? And, presto, there they are! and, oh! ye houris of the South, with what a smile and glance between the azure puffs! Well let me not forget myself. With a sterner morality he sees how the bending Bedouin fashions his pipe in the moistened ground ; he sees the slender Indian reed with the flat bowls of Lahore and Oude, the pipe of the Anglo-eyed celestial, the red clay of Bengal, and the glittering gilded cups in which the dark-skinned races of Siam, the Malacca Isles, and the Phillippines, love to enshrine their dreamy opium-haunted spirits of the weed. He sees how in the squatter’s hut the old squaw sits by her hunter lord, and puffs at the corn-cob sweetness, and how by lonely ways the traveler rests and thinks of home, and in the blue smoke greets once more the faces of the loved, perhaps forever gone. He sees how the Esquimaux, with his hollow Walrus-tooth, makes bearable the stifling squalor of his den; or, sterner and graver still, some item of historic lore mingles rudely with his dreams, and elbows sharply the airy spirits of his smoke-engendered thoughts. Softly tremble in the delicate blue mist and the azure spirals from his old Virginia clay—the domes of a sea- bathed city. Loftily pierce the tall white minarets into the quivering heavens, while the solemn cypress throws its shade below. Before him, silent-paced as in a dream, files the SUMMER-DAY THOUGHTS. OTT weird array of Arab camels, bowing their long necks tufted with crimson braids, and measuring the brown sands of the desert with ghost-like tread. ’Tis the moon of Egypt and the waters of the Nile; ’tis the palm-bough waves for him; and women, free-limbed, with flashing eyes, and antique water-vases on their heads, move past him from the low- rimmed shadowy wells. And he sees them there and smiles. He sees on the beach by the sea the summer idler sitting beneath the jutting rock, gazing far out upon the sea, yet ignoring the white sails that pass up and down before him, as BY THE SEA. well as the open volume upon his knee, while his thoughts float outward and upward with the graceful wreaths of smoke that encircle his head; and if of a practical turn, he listlessly_ wonders why, if his own delightful land furnishes some 278 AMERICAN SMOKERS. twentieth of the whole Tobacco produce of the world, and does honor to her native weed by being its mightiest consumer, why, in the name of all disasters, the product is so dear—ay, doubly dear? And thus as his pipe burns low, a hundred other statistics; then, knocking out his whitened ashes on the floor, he reads sedately (his pipe being out) that the “ To- bacco plant furnishes ashes to the amount of one-fourth of its bulk, being a much greater proportion than that of any other vegetable product,” and, moreover, that ‘Tobacco ex- hausts the soil at the ratio of fourteen tons of wheat to one of Tobacco!’ Oh, base insinuation! But, as herelights his pipe, and the graceful vapor circles in fresh buoyancy and grace before him, he only, in his contented mind, retains that one supreme expression— One ton of Tobacco!” Ah, “Think of it, picture it Now, if you can !” From “ A Paper of Tobacco,” *we extract the following humorous description of Yankee cigar smokers, which to a certain extent is true to life, but like most of the articles descriptive of American life by English Authors, who travel in America and write a book afterwards, it is exaggerated or overdrawn : “The Americans, who pride themselves on being the fast- est-going people on the ‘ versal globe’-—who build steamers that can out-paddle the sea-serpent and breed horses that can trot faster than an ostrich can run—are, undoubtedly, enti- tled to take precedence of all nations as consumers of the weed. The sedentary Turk, who smokes from morn to night, does not, on an average, get through so much tobacco per annum, as a right slick, active, go-ahead Yankee, who thinks nothing, ‘upon his own relation,’ of felling a wagon-load of timber before breakfast, or of cutting down a couple of acres corn before dinner. The Americans, itis to be observed, gen- erally smoke cigars; and tobacco in this form burns very fast away in the open air, more especially when the consumer is rapidly locomotive, whether upon his own legs, the back of a horse, the top of a coach, the deck of a steamboat, or in an open railway carriage. The habit of chewing tobacco is also * London, 1889 AT HOME. 279 revalent in ‘the States, nor is it, as in Great Britain and reland, almost entirely confined to the poorer classes. Mem- bers of the House of Representatives and of the Senate, doc- AN AMERICAN SMOKER. tors, judges, barristers, and attorneys chew tobacco almost as generally as the laboring classes in the old country. Evenin a court of justice, more especially in the Western States, itis no unusual thing to see judge, jury, and the gentlemen of the bar, all chewing and spitting as liberally as the crew of a homeward-bound West Indiaman. It must indeed be con- fessed that Brother Jonathan loves tobacco ‘not wisely but too well,’ and that the habits which are induced by his man- ner of using it are far from ‘elegant.’ The truth is, he neither smokes nor chews like a gentleman; he lives in a land of liberty, and takes his tobacco when and where he pleases. He spits as freely as he smokes and chews—upon the carpet or in the fire-place—for he is not particular as to where he squirts his copious saliva, and does not think with the late Dr. Samuel Parr, that a spitting-box is a necessary article of household furniture. The free-born citizen of the States laughs at the aristocratic restrictions imposed on smoking in England, where, on board of the numerous steamboats that 280 SENTIMENT. ply on the Thames, conveying the pride of the city to Grave- send and Margate, no smoking is allowed abaft the funnel, and where, in public-houses ashore, no gentleman is permitted to smoke in the parlor before two o’clock in the afternoon, A pipe of tobacco, or a cigar, after a day’s hard exercise. whether mental or bodily, and after the cravings of hunger and thirst are appeased, may be fairly ranked amongst the most delightful and most harmless of all earthly luxuries. It fills the mind with pleasing visions, and the heart with kindly feelings. A hard-working laborer, smoking by the side of his hearth at night, presents a perfect picture of quiet enjoy- ment. I see him now in my mind’s eye. Heis seated inan old high-backed, cushionless arm-chair, but an easy one, nev- ertheless, to him, who from dawn till sunset, has been en- gaged in ploughing, thrashing, ditching, or mowing. With one leg thrown over the other, he quietly reclines backward, and with an expression of perfect mental composure, he gazes on the smoke that ascends from his pipe. There is a senti- ment-exciting power* in the smoke of tobacco when perceived by the eye, as well as a pleasing sedative effect when inhaled ; and those smokers who have any doubt of the fact should take a pipe with their eyes closed. A person who smokes with his eyes shut cannot very well tell whether his cigar is lighted or not. How soothing is a pipe or a cigar to a wearied. sportsman, on his return to his inn from the moors! As he sits quietly smoking, he thinks of the absent friends whom he will gratify with presents of grouse ; and, in a state of per- fect contentment with himself and all the world, he deter- mines to give all his game away. Full of such kindly feel- ings, he retires to bed; but, alas, with day-light, when the effect of the tobacco has subsided, the old leaven of selfishness prevails, and his good intentions are abandoned. ‘ Mary,’ said an old Cumberland farmer to his daughter, when she was once asking him to buy her a new beaver, ‘why dost thou always tease me about such things when I’m quietly smoking my pipe? ‘Because ye are always best-tempered then, feyther,’ was the reply. ‘I believe, lass, thou’s reet,’ rejoined the farmer ; ‘for when I was a lad, I remember that my poor feyther was just the same; after he had smoked a ipe or twee he wad ha’ gi’en his head away if it had been oose.’ ” *The smoke ascending from the snuff of a candle could excite a sentimental feeling in the minds of Wordsworth and Sir George Beaumont, though it seems to have had no such effect on the mind of Crabbe.—Zockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott. ODE TO A CIGAR. 281 The following ode to a Cigar is no doubt familiar to many, yet will pay a re-perusal : “ And oft, mild friend, to me thou art A monitor, though still; Thou speak’st a lesson to my heart Beyond the preacher’s skill. “Thou’rt like the man of worth, who gives To goodness every day, The odor of whose virtues lives When he has passed away. “When in the lonely evening hour, Attended but by thee, O’er history’s varied page I pore, Man’s fate in thine I see. “ Oft, as thy snowy column grows, Then breaks and falls away, I trace how mighty realms thus rose, Thus trembled to decay. “ Awhile, like thee, earth’s masters burn, And smoke and fume around, And then like thee to ashes turn, And mingle with the ground. “Life’s but a leaf adroitly rolled, And time’s the wasting breath, That, late or early, we behold Gives all to dusty death. “From beggar’s frieze to monarch’s robe One common doom is passed; Sweet nature’s work, the swelling globe, Must all burn out at last. “And what is he who smokes thee now ? A little moving heap, That soon, like ‘thee, to fate must bow, With thee in dust must sleep. “But though thy ashes downward go, Thy essence rolls on high; Thus, when my body must lie low, My soul shall cleave the sky.” In Charles Butler’s “Story of Count Bismarck’s Life,” a good anecdote is told of the Count and his last cigar :— 282 CIGAR LIGHTERS. “¢The value of a good cigar, said Bismarck, as he pro- ceeded to light an excellent Havana, ‘is best understood when it is the last you possess, and there is no chance of get- ting another. At Koniggratz I had only one cigar left in my pocket, which I carefully guarded during the whole of the battle as a miser does his treasure. I did not feel justi- fied in using it. I painted in glowing colors in my mind the happy hour when I should enjoy it atter the victory. But I had miscalculated my chances.’ ‘ And what was the cause of your miscalculation?’ ‘A poor dragoon. He lay helpless, with both arms crushed, murmuring for something to refresh him. I felt in my pockets and found I had only gold, and that would be of no use to him. But, stay, I had still my treasured cigar! I lighted this for him, and placed it be- tween his teeth. You should have seen the poor fellow’s rateful smile! I never enjoyed a cigar so much as that one which I did not smoke.’” In European cities juveniles offer the smoker, at every street corner, a “pipe” or a “cigar light.” The following description, entitled “ Light, Sir,” is from an English journal, and contains much in- teresting information on the various modes of lighting pipes and cigars. “oKre y’are, sir— pipe-light, cigar-light, on’y ’ap’ny a box— ’ave a light, sir.’ Ev- ery smoker of the larger cities knows . the cry. Every ten- ? der-hearted smoker is familiar with the ap- peal, by day and by night, and remembers pangs of regret he has felt when the want of ha’ pence or the re- pletion of his match-box has prevented his much-besought response. There is no need now to enlarge upon the sufter- ings, the adventures, the dangers of these peripatetic juvenile trades folk, sparse of clothes and food, and full of the “TIGHT, SIR.” SMOKING AN ART. 7 283 material which may make or mar a nation; for all this was done, and even overdone, by the graphic sensationalists of the London penny dailies when Chancellor Lowe proposed a tax on matches. We may, upon occasion, feel for the manufacturers and venders of ‘lights,’ but more generally we find ourselves constrained to sympathize with the pur- chasers of such contrivances for the ignition of pipes and cigars. The smoking of tobacco is an art; an art which, in its proper exercise, requires much care, much prudence, and not a little skill. This is a proposition which must, from its very nature, be startling to non-smokers, and surprising to many smokers. The tobacco hater (invariably an illogical creature, who hates that which he knows not) will hold up hands in amazement, and sniff with the nose in contempt, to whom reply would be superfluous. “With the smoker the case is otherwise. A German writer recently said that the English were better smokers than the Germans; because, whereas the German smoked incessantly, without rule, system, or moderation, the English smoked with care, with slow and appreciative lovingness, and the determination not to overstep the bounds of rational enjoy- ment. Had he known more of English smokers, he would not have made so wild a statement ; and had he known Eng- lish women better, he would never have attributed to their sweet influence the fancied superiority he describes in Eng- lish as compared with German smoking. In truth, the art of tobacco using is nowhere more ignored, nowhere more contemptuously neglected than in these ‘favored isles.’ For one man who smokes with a reason, for a purpose, or by system, you shall find a thousand who smoke without either ; and the result is that those who smoke have little defense, in the general way, for their practice, while those who condemn the habit have far better grounds for their opposition than they have ever yet been able to explain. To those who do know why they use tobacco, it is well-nigh incredible that so many of their fellow-smokers should be ignorant of the properties, the uses, the abuses, of the weed they burn and the fumes in which they delight. Yet, even this is not so surprising as the fact that so few of those who smoke— smoke much, often and constantly—should be ignorant of, or indifferent to, the conditions which are necessary to their own adequate enjoyment of the weed. “You will see a man light a cigar so carelessly that one side of the roll will burn rapidly, with prodigious fumigation \ 284 SCIENCE OF LIGHTING. and giving out a dark and offensive cloud, while the other side remains untouched by the fire, only to wither and crackle and twist into uncouth shapes, until the smoker flings the cigar away, with an accompaniment of expletives which attach rather to his own stupidity than to the piece of to- bacco he has so abominably abused. You will see another with a good pipe, laden with good tobacco, well lit, blowing incessantly down the mouth-piece and the stem until the moisture introduced with his breath into the bowl of his pipe effectually prevents the tobacco from burning, and puts out the fire; and then you will hear him lament that he should have paid so good a price for a pipe so bad that it ‘fouls’ before he has smoked a single hour. You will see another who, while he talks to his friends, allows his tobacco to go out every three or four minutes, so that at length his mouth is sore and his palate nauseated with the combined fumes of lucifer matches, burnt paper and exhausted tobacco dust; and he inveighs against the ‘cabbage-leaf which that rascally tobacconist sold him for good Shag or Cavendish.’ Another knows s0 little of the art of smoking that he never ‘stops’ his pipe, and so allows the light dust of the burnt weed to fly about him in flakes and minute particles, to the ermanent damage of his own and his neighbors’ clothes. But in nothing is the inartistic character of English smoking so conspicuously exemplified as in the use of ‘lights.’ Those who form the great majority of smokers amongst the Eng- lish-speaking races seem to consider that, so long as their pipes are set alight, it matters not how or from what source the light is obtained. Thus, one will place his pipe-bow] in a flame of gas, and pull away at the stem till his tobacco is on fire; another will thrust the bow] into the midst of a coal fire, and when he sees a glow in the bowl withdraw it, and contentedly puff away; another stops an obliging policeman or railway guard, and ignites his tobacco by hard pulling at the flame of an oil-lamp; another will stick the end of a choice cigar into the bow] of a pipe filled with coarsest Shag, thus ruining the flavor of his ‘prime Havana’ forever; while yet another will light lucifer matches, and apply the blazing brimstone to his pipe or cigar, thus saturating the whole mags with sulphurous and phosphoretic fumes, to the ruin of the weed and the injury of his own health. “How much wiser the West Indian negro, who takes a burning stick from the wood fire, and tenderly lights his weed therewith, or joyfully brings a handful of the white-hot AGE OF FUSEES. 285 ashes in his thick-skinned palm, that ‘massa’ may fire his cigar! Or the travelling peddler or tinker, who, as he sits by the way-side, patiently wooes the sun with a ‘burning- glass’ till his tobacco ignites, or uses with equal prudence and skill the ancient but inimitable tinder-box. “But this is the age of Fusees. Whataname! When, in our youth, those longitudinal strips of tinder, semi-divided i ae a bi { eset Hl sl i BRINGING A LIGHT. into innumerable transverse slips, all tipped with harmless, ignitable matter, first assumed the title, we had little notion of the atrocities which would come to be dignified by their name. This was soon after the world had been delighted by the Congreves, which drove Lucifer to the wall, and before English and German ingenuity had taught us to find ‘death’ in the box, as well as ‘the pot.’ The innocent old fusee had his faults, certainly. He would not always light; he had a bad habit of turning back on your finger-nail and burning its quick when you struck him; and he would occasionally light up, all by himself, and set fire to fifty of his fellows in your waist-coast pocket, or the tail of your best dress-coat. (Those were the days when waist-coats were gorgeous and tail-coats immense.) But what were these peccadilloes compared with the sins of the modern ‘cigar-light?’ ‘Fusees,’ forsooth! More like bomb-shells, military mines, torpedoes, and nitro- glycerine trains. Who has not had them explode in his eye, 286 FLAMERS. on his cheek, down his neck, scarring his skin, burning holes in his coats and trousers, frightening passers-by, and doing all manner of deep-dyed devilment? Nor is this the worst. Those who will trust their skins, and their eyes, and their clothes to ‘ Vesuvians,’ ‘ Flamers,’ and the like, are not to be pitied; for they are more cruel to their tobacco than the fusees are to them. Our grievance is that so many engines of destructiveness and offensiveness should be so largely patronized by smokers, to their own discomfort, the ruination of their tobacco, the scandalization of gentle and simple, and the encouragement of vicious manufactures. Now, we are not going to particularize too closely, for fear of conse- quences. In these days, when a man may bring an action for libel because it has been said of him that he sells bad soup at a railway station, prudence is the better part of valor. But, just examine this heterogeneous pile of ‘cigar-lights,’ which rears its audacious head upon the table. Here are Palmers, Barbers, Farmers, Lord Lornes, Tichbornes, Bry- ants and Moys, Bells and Blacks, Alexandres, Bismarcks, King Williams, Napoleons, and scores of other varieties. Some light ‘only on the box,’ some light anywhere, some everywhere, and some nowhere. Some are on wood, some on porcelain, some on glass, some on dire deeds intent. There are vestas, safety-matches, patent flint-and-steel con- trivances, with silver tubes and marvellous screws wherewith to put them out when they have served your turn. Some are excellent, many passable, still more intolerable. One of these times it may be worth while to speak of the good ones, but at present we care only to treat of those that are bad, and that briefly. : “Here’s a ‘Flamer’—we name no names—everybod seems to make flamers; and this one deserves his title. We want to light a peaceful pipe, and he bursts out in a fury like unto nothing on earth so much as Etna in convulsion, or the Tuilleries in petroleum blaze. But, if you have any respect for your tobacco, your lips, your nostrils, or your lungs, you will let him get rid of his flames before you apply him to your cigar; and, when you do venture so far, he drops off the stick and burns a hole in the carpet. Or, if you be daring enough to take a light from the flamer while he flames, you spoil your tobacco, foul your mouth, and get a taste of sulphur-suffocation such as Asmodeus might have were he to take a whiff of a smoke-and-fire belching chimney in the Black Country as he flies across that district by night. “HOME-MADE CIGARS.” 287 Haven’t got a light? Glad of it. Try a Vesuvian-round, black and tipped with blue. There’s a pyrotechnic display for you! Now, in with it, after the approved style illus- trated by the two human hands engaged in lighting a cigar on the illuminated cover of the box. ‘Ugh! yousay. Just so; you’ve got a mouthful of choice abominations, which will cost you much waste of saliva, several shivers, and the whole piece of tobacco you were about to enjoy. Here, put that away ; take another, light it quietly with this wax-vesta, or this wooden ‘spill, or this screw of paper; smoke gently, don’t let the fire out, and you'll be all right. In future, you may be wise enough to avoid cheap cigar-lights and pipe- lights, even for use in the streets. Our word upon it—they are far dearer than those which cost more.” The following description of “Home Made Cigars” is from All the Year Round, and will doubtless be read with interest by many growers of the weed who may recall sim- ilar scenes : ““« Apropos of cigars,’ said Wilkins, lighting a second fra- grant Havana with the stump of the first, ‘let’s go and see the farmer’s establishment for making them. You see that field of tobacco over yonder? Old Standish raises his own weed, dries it in the big open sheds behind the barn, cures it—I don’t quite know the whole process—and then has it made into sixes and short fives, Conchas and Cabanas, like a Cuban sefior. I went over the establishment about a year ago, and it is worth seeing.’ “ We strolled first over to the tobacco field. The weed was then just at its full ripeness, and the long, flappy, delicately- furred green leaves bent gracefully over toward the ground, growing smaller and smaller the higher they were on the stout stalk. Few foreigners know that even as far north as New England, in the sunny valleys of Connecticut, sheltered as they are from the bleak east winds of the Atlantic and accustomed to a long and steady summer heat, to- bacco is grown in large quantities, flourishes exuberantly, and is one of the chief sources of profit to the farmers. It needs a rich warm soil and careful tending; but it gives in its growth, a sentimental reward to the cultivator; for it comes up gracefully, rapidly, and beautifully, and is with some care, one of the most satisfactory crops to ‘ handle.” Having gazed at and tasted the thick leaves, we sauntered behind the barn, and there saw the long open shed, with 288 FEMALE CIGAR-MAKERS. beams running parallel from end to end, where the gathered tobacco leaves were hung to be thoroughly dried by the sun. “Then Wilkins conducted us for some distance along the river bank; we jumped into a boat and rowed perhaps half a mile, landing by the side of a little shop-like building, where we heard the hum of voices and the commotion of many busy persons. We entered and found ourselves in a long, low room, having wide tables ranged along the walls ; here, working rapidly, were rows of chatty country = aoe MAKING CIGARS. irls, who, as they worked, laughed and talked, and now and then hummed a verse of some familiar ballad. Neatly packed piles of the dried and cured leaf lay upon the table before them. “Each was armed with knives and eutters, and we watched the quick transformation of the flat leaves into the smooth and compact cigars. The tobacco grown upon the farm was, we discovered, only used as wrappers for the cigars. The good farmer imported, for the interior filling, a fine tobacco from Havana. Strips and little pieces of this the girls placed in the centre of the cigar, wrapping the Connecticut tobacco in wide strips tightly about it, then pasting each of the last with some paste in a pot by their side. It seemed to be done almost in an instant; the Havana slips were laid A SPICY ARTICLE. 289 down, cut and trimmed, and pressed into shape in a twink- ling; the wrappers were cut as quickly; and, more rapidly than I can describe it, the cigar was made. These girls were mostly daughters of neighboring farmers, who received so much per hundred cigars made; intelligent, bright-eyed and witty; many of them comely, with rosy cheeks and ruddy health; educated at the common schools, and able, their day’s work over, to sit down at the piano and rattle away ad infinitum. “His stock of cigars thus made up, from the first sowing to the last finishing touch, the good squire (being Yankee- like, a sort of Jack-of-all-trades,) would have them put up in gorgeously labeled boxes, carry them to town, and sell them to retail dealers; not disdaining himself, twice or thrice a year, to go through the neighboring States with samples, and acting as his own commercial traveler.” : This description, however, may not convey a correct idea of the exact mode of manufacture to many growers of to- bacco in the Connecticut Valley inasmuch as many planters of the “ weed” make the entire cigar (more particularly for their own use) wrapper, binder and filler wholly of seed- leaf tobacco, such cigars do not readily sell to the trade except at inferior prices which admit cf but a small profit to the manufacturer. The following spicy article from the “London Figaro” may be interesting to all smokers as well as guide them in the selection of a good cigar. “J am an imaginative person, and ‘society’ has treated me shamefully of late—its tangible delights are absent from me. Allow me, then, to console myself by the ‘creations of smoke,’ as Lord Lytton puts it. I am scouted by society. because I am in love. Iam told I look: “As hyenas in love are supposed to look, or A something between Abelard and old Bliicher.” And, moreover, I am an ugly man, but there was only a fortnight’s difference in gaining a woman’s love between John Wilkes and the handsomest man in Eng- land, courage, Jehu! I like idleness, because it shows that one can afford it; so I am puffing idly—ah! the balmy fragrance of this mild Havana! ‘Oh! the effect of that first note from the woman one loves!’ says one; ‘Oh! the kiss on the dimpled cheek, the sound of the silver voice!’ says 19 290 HOW TO SMOKE. another; but what can compare to the dreamy exquisite luxury of a good cigar? But, heavens, what am I saying? I am in love, and Julia reads the “ /2garo!” The paleness of Flaxman’s illustrations spreads over me—please, reader, look upon the sentiment as sarcastic. I am in a fog of smoke, and am quaftfing claret from the silvered pewter. There’s plenty of it; and no soul can say : “That in drinking from that beaker I am sipping like a fly.’ How changed from the long, long days ago, when I was a connoisseur in Parparillo cigars, brown-paper cigarettes, and cane cheroots! Then I fondly adored Sir Walter Raleigh as my earthly idol, for giving me tobacco—when I had the halfpence to buy it—and delighted in the story, told by queer Oldys, of Sir Walter’s servant extinguishing the Vir- ginny smoke that issued from his master’s lips, by drenching him with ale. Alas! my idol is shattered by Hawkins. The Spaniards say, ‘ The lie that lasts for half an hour is worth telling.’ History has lied for longer, by a considerable period. Fond even as I was of my brown-papered cigarettes when _ baccy failed, I must confess I never reached the stage attained by Sir Christopher Haydon’s chaplain, William Breedon, parson of Thornton, in Bucks, who was so given to “October store and best Virginia,” that when he had no tobacco (and too much drink) he used to cut the bell-ropes and smoke them! “The Polyglot—three parts—my text ; Howbeit—likewise—now to my next.” “ On Smoke.—It isa vulgar, ludicrous, and foolish custom to bite off the nose of a cigar. Don’t be a Vandal—you are not a Sandwich Islander, about to chew your Aava. A cigar should be handled daintily; it is a fragile, graceful creature —don’t mar its beauty, Tear off the twist, and the pleasure of smoking is at anend! The outer leaf becomes untwirled. Ere it is half finished, you have a ragged end between your lips—nasty, foul, and unsightly—throngh which the smoke comes in huge clouds to your mouth, instead of slender streams on the palate. ‘How, then,’ say you; ‘prick it, or cut it, or what?” Tear it not, cut it not; nor yet puncture it. Don’t be frightened of the cigar—thrusting a half-inch alone into the mouth; but, when you begin, take a good half of it in the mouth; pull at it lustily for a few seconds, DRINKING AND SMOKING. 291 to open its pores; then draw it out, allowing but an inch to be held within the lips—believe me, you will enjoy it a hun- dred-fold more; and there are but few cigars that will not allow of their virtue being drawn though their leaves. Never bite the end off, and never use your cigar cruelly, by squeez- ing it, biting it, or re-lighting it. Cigar-holders, tubes, quills, and such like inventions, we despise. If you cannot bear the cigar in your mouth—aye, and enjoy it—you have no busi- ness with it: go back to your brown paper and cane! “What is the best beverage to imbibe whilst inhaling the precious weed? Momentous question! Coffee, or claret, says Jehu. I do not believe in bitter, as an accom- panying liquid to a cigar. The Corporation of Christ-church, years ago, smoked cigars, and drank with them that then famous concoction known as ‘Ringwood Beer” What was the result? The first toast at every civic banquet held for years in that borough was gravely given out, and bumpered with due solemnity, as follows :— *Prosperation to this Corporation.’ Brandy is a perfect antidote to inebriation from beer, so we are told. The Corporation should have known this, and been awakened from their long and pleasant dream of pros- peration. Brandy I should hardly reckon amongst the drinks that ought to be with cigars, notwithstanding that Tennyson has asked :— ‘For what delights can equal those Which stir, with spirits, inner depths? &.’ Brandy-and-water, gin, whisky, and the likes are only fit for those who nocturnally lay the foundation for matutinal “hot coppers,’ with the vilest shag in the most odorous of yards of clay. ‘Smoking leads to drinking, has been a favorite old woman’s saying for time out of mind. How I hate old women’s sayings! A grain—requiring to be picked out with a pin and microscope—of truth, with a bushel of bunkum or cant. How is it, that ever since the days of James I, of ‘hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain’ memory, there have always been carpers on the injurious effects of smok- ing? ‘Nicotine!’ they say, with a would-be-taken-for-know- all-about-it-air. Quite so; but, as recent investigations have proved that, so far as the actual ‘ poisoning’ is concerned, it would take upwards of a thousand years to kill the most inveterate of healthy smokers, we have still time to breathe — and ‘it please the pigs’ Mem. for pipers—French tobacco 292 SMOKING CHRISTIANS. contains the greatest, Turkish the least, per-centage of nico- tine. Havana, two and one-half per cent. “But an unique old woman of Jehu’s acquaintance goes further still ; boldly asserting that ‘smoking is well for mak- ing good soldiers, well for making good sailors, well for making sometimes good lawyers; not so well for making good Christians.’ Oh! ashes of Hawkins and Raleigh, shud- der for the results of ‘bacey on degraded human nature.’ There must be a rarity of good Christians, then amongst the parsons; they are all fond of it. Dean Aldrich was, per- haps, the greatest smoker of his day. His excessive attach- ment to this habit was the cause of many wagers. Here’s one :—At breakfast, one morning, at the ‘ Varsity, an under- graduate laid his companion long odds that the Dean was smoking at that instant. Away they hastened; and, being admitted to the Dean’s study, stated the occasion of their visit. The Dean replied,in perfect good humor, to the layer of the bet, ‘You see, sir, you have lost your wager; for I am not smoking, but filling my pipe.’ But-—my cigar has reached its last dying speech, and there is but a drop left in the beaker. ‘Tl not leave thee, thou lone drop! ’T would be mighty unkind, Since the rest I have swallow’d, To leave thee behind.’ “Final exhortation. Choose the small, sound, tolerably firm, and elastic cigar: the dwarf contains stuff within which the giant hath not. Don’t flatter yourself youre smoking cabbage, if not tobacco—its any odds on rhubarb! ‘For me there’s nothing new or rare, Till wine deceives my brain; And that, I think, ’s a reason fair To fill my pipe again.’ ” Charles Lamb, “the gentle Elia” was during a portion of his lifetime a famous smoker. In a letter to Hazlitt he writes, “I am so smoky with last night’s ten pipes, that I must leave off.’ It is said that he smoked only the coarsest and strongest he could procure. Dr. Parr inquired of him how he acquired his “prodigious smoking powers.” “I toiled after it, sir,’ was the reply, “as some men toil after virtue!” Lamb was constant in his use of tobacco, and among all the great luminaries of English literature we know of none more addicted to the use of the pipe. Lamb might often be seen in his chambers in Mitre Court Building, puff- ing the coarsest weed from a long clay pipe, in company with LAMB'S POEM. 293 Parr who used the finest kind of tobacco in a pipe half filled with salt. It wasno easy task to relinquish the use of tobacco and it cost him many a struggle and much determined effort. In writing to Wordsworth he says:—“I wish you may think this a handsome farewell to my‘ Friendly Traitress.’ Tobacco has been my evening comfort and my morning curse for these five years. I have had it in my head to do it (Fare- well to Tobacco) these two years; but tobacco stood in its own light when it gave me headaches that prevented my singing its praises.” Lamb’s poem is without doubt one of the finest pieces of verse ever written on tobacco, and seemingly contains both words of praise and dispraise—the latter however in some sense are insincere. “May the Babylonish curse Straight confound my stammering verse If I can a passage see In this word-perplexity, Or a fit expression find, Or a language to my mind, (Still the phrase is wide or scant,) To take leave of thee, GREAT PLANT! Or in my terms relate Half my love, or half my hate ; For I hate, yet love thee so, That whichever thing I show, The plain truth will seem to be A constrain’d hyperbole, And the passion to proceed More from a mistress than a weed. Sooty retainer to the vine, Bacchus’ black servant, negro fine ; Sorcerer, thou mak’st us dote upon Thy begrimed complexion, And for thy pernicious sake, More and greater oaths to break Than reclaimed lovers take ’Gainst women: thou thy siege do’st lay Much too in the female way, While thou suck’st the lab’ring breath Faster than kisses or than death. Thou in such a cloud do’st bind us, That our worst foes cannot find us. And ill fortune that would thwart us, 294. LAMB'S POEM. Shoots at rovers shooting at us; While each man through thy height’ning steam Does like a smoking Atna seem, And all about us does express (Fancy and wit in richest dress) A Sicilian fruitfulness. Thou though such a mist dost show us That our best friends do not know us, And for those allowed features Due to reasonable creatures, Liken’st us to feel Chimeras Monsters that, who see us, fear us; Worse than Cerberus or Geryon, Or, who first loved a cloud, Ixion. Bacchus we know, and we allow, His tipsy rites, but what art thou, That but by reflex canst show What his deity can do, As the false Egyptian spell Aped the true Hebrew miracle? Some few vapors thou may’st raise, The weak brain may serve to amaze, But to the reins and nobler heart Canst nor life nor heat impart. Brother of Bacchus, later born, The old world was sure forlorn, Wanting thee, that aidest more, The gods’ victories than before All his panthers, and the brawls, Of his piping Bacchanals. These, as stole, we disallow Or judge of thee meant: only thou His true Indian conquest art ; And, for ivy round his dart, The reformed god now weaves A finer thyrsus of thy leaves. Scent to match thy rich perfume— Chemic art did ne’er presume, Through her quaint alembic strain, None so sov’reign to the brain. Nature, that did in thee excel, Framed again no second smell. Roses, Violets but toys For the smaller sort of boys; Or for greener damsels meant; Thou art the only manly scent. LAMB’S POEM. 295 Stinking’st of the stinking kind, Filth of the mouth and fog of the mind, Africa, that brags her fois on Breeds no such prodigious poison, Henbane, nightshade, both together, Hemlock, aconite—— Nay, rather, Plant divine of rarest virtue: Blisters on the tongue would hurt you. *Twas but in a sort I blamed thee; None e’er prospered who defamed thee; Trony all, and feigned abuse, Such as perplex’d lovers use, At a need, when in despair, To paint forth their fairest fair, Or in part but to express That exceeding comeliness Which their fancies doth so strike, They borrow language of dislike ; And instead of Dearest Miss, Jewel, Honey, Sweetheart, Bliss, And those forms of old admiring, Call her Cockatrice and Siren, Basilisk, and all that’s evil, Witch, Hyena, Mermaid, devil, Ethiop, Wench, and Blackamoor, Monkey, Ape, and twenty more ; Friendly traitress, loving foe, Not that she is truly so, But no other may they know, A contentment to express, Borders so upon excess, That they do not rightly wot, Whether it be pain or not ; Or, as men constrained to part With what’s nearest to their heart, While their sorrow’s at the height Lose discrimination quite, And their hasty wrath let fall, To oppose their frantic gall, On the darling thing whatever Whence they feel it death to sever, Though it be, as they, perforce, Guiltless of the sad divorce. For I must (nor let it grieve thee, Friendliest of plants, , 296 TOBACCO COMPLIMENT. That I must) leave thee. For thy sake, TOBACCO, I Would do anything but die, And but seek to extend my days Long enough to sing thy praise, But as she who once hath been, A king’s consort, is a queen Ever after, nor will bate Any title of her state, Though a widow, or divorced, So I, from thy converse forced, The old name and style retain, A right Katherine of Spain, And a seat, too, ’mongst the joys Of the blest Tobacco Boys ; Where, though I, by sour physician, Am debarred the full fruition Of thy favors, I may catch, Some collateral sweets, and snatch, Sidelong odors, that give life Like glances from a neighbor’s wife; And still live in the by-places, And the suburbs of thy graces ; And in thy borders take delight, An unconquered Canaanite.” Thomas Jones, in the following neat little tribute to to- bacco, pays a deserved compliment, not only to the plant, but to the great English smoker, “ ye renowned Sir Walter Raleigh.” ‘‘Let poets rhyme of what they will, Youth, Beauty, Love or Glory, still My theme shall be Tobacco! Hail, weed, eclipsing every flow’r, Of thee I fain would make my bow’r When fortune frowns, or tempests low’r, Mild comforter of woe! “ They say in truth an angel’s foot First brought to life thy precious root, The source of every pleasure ! Descending from the skies he press’d With hallow’d touch Earth’s yielding breast, Forth sprang the plant, and then was bless’d, As man’s chief treasure! CIGARETTE SMOKING. 297 “ Throughout the world who knows thee not? _ Of palace and of lowly cot The universal guest ; The friend of Gentile, Turk and Jew, To all a stay—to none untrue, The balm that can our ills subdue, And soothe us into rest. “‘ With thee the poor man can abide Oppression, want, the scorn of pride, The curse of penury, Companion of his lonely state, He is no longer desolate, And still can brave an adverse fate, With honest worth and thee! “ All honor to the patriot bold, Who brought instead of promised gold, Thy leaf to Britain’s shore; It cost him life; but thou shall raise A cloud of fragrance to his praise, And bards shall hail in deathless lays The valiant knight of yore. “ Ay, Raleigh! thou wilt live till Time Shall ring his last oblivious chime, The fruitful theme of story ; And man in ages hence shall tell, How greatness, virtue, wisdom fell, When England sounded out thy knell, And dimmed her ancient glory. “ And thou, O Plant! shall keep his name Unwither’d in the scroll of fame, And teach us to remember; He gave with thee content and peace, Bestow’d on life a longer lease, And bidding ev’ry trouble cease, Made Summer of December !” The smoker of cigarettes is passionately attached to his . “little roll” and regards this mode of obtaining the flavor of tobacco the best. The finest are made in Havana and, vast quantities are used by the Cubans and Spaniards. A writer in “The Tobacco Plant” gives this pleasing effusion in regard to them :— “ Your cigarette is a sort of hybrid—half-pipe and _half- cigar; neither the one nor the other; neither the delight of 298 BREVITY AND SWEETNESS. the epicure nor the solace of the true tobacco-lover. Far be it from us to deny, or even to question, its value, its utility, or its charm. We have smoked too many to dream of treat- ing them with scorn—cigarettes of Virginia shag, strong, pungent, luscious; of light and fragrant Persian, innocuous and soothing; cigarettes rolled by ladies’ dainty fingers, compressed by elegant French machines of silk and silver, cut, stamped, and gummed by prosy, matter-of-fact, and even vulgar Titanic engines in great tobacco-factories. But the thorough-paced smoker renders to his cigarette only a sec- ondary and diluted adoration: it is nice, it is delicate, it is pretty—a thing to be toyed with, to be fondled, even to burn one’s fingers (or, perchance, one’s lips) withal; but by no means an object to call forth a passion. “ But just as the world would be a tame and an insipid institution were all men’s tastes alike, so the world of smok- ers would lose much of its romance were all the lovers of the weed of temperament too robust to love a cigarette. Brevity and sweetness are proverbially held to constitute claims upon the respect and admiration of the voluptuous, and to the cigarette these cannot be denied. There is some- thing touching in the self-abnegation of a tobaccoite who will devote five mortal minutes and the sweat of his refined intel- ligence, with the skill of his delicate fingers, to the prepara- tion of a tiny capsule of the weed, which burns itself to ashes in five minutes more. There is a butterfly-beauty about the cigarette to which the cigar and the pipe can lay no claim—a summer charm to stir the dreamy rapture of a poet, and to excite the Lotus-eating philosopher even to analogy. Just as the suns, and flowers, and balmy zephyrsof a century have gone to form the gauzy, multi-colored insect that flits across your path throughout a single summer’s day, and then returns to dust and vapor, so the harvest of West-Indian and East- Asian fields, the long voyage of the mariner, the merchant’s hours of soil, the steam-power and manual labor of the fac- tory, the thoughtful calculations of the trader, the skill of the tissue-paper maker, all have gone, and more than these, to the creation of a fairy-cylinder of Tobacco, which glows, delights, expires, and meets its end in ten or fifteen fleeting minutes.” Although the cigarette is not a favorite with us, still we admire its use as a sort of appendage to a good dinner, and as preparatory work for a “good smoke.” The Spaniards have always been great lovers of their minute rolls, and with THOMAS HOOD’S “ CIGAR.” 999 them, no other method of burning tobacco appears so delicate or refined. Especially is this true among the ladies, who prefer “Seville cigarettes” to all others. Many smokers make their own cigarettes, sometimes using Havana tobacco, and sometimes making them of two or more kinds. An excellent cigar is made by using equal parts of Virginia and Perique tobacco, or equal parts of Havana and Perique. A fine flavored cigarette is also made from Yara and Havana tobacco, equal parts of each being used. Thos. Hood has signalized his attachment to cigar in the following pleasing little poem :— THE CIGAR. ““Some sigh for this and that, My wishes don’t go far ; The world may wag at will, So I have my cigar. “Some fret themselves to death With Whig and Tory jar; I don’t care which is in, So I have my cigar. “Sir John requests my vote, And so does Mr. Marr ; I don’t care how it does, So I have my cigar. “Some want a German row, Some wish a Russian war; Icarenot. I’m at peace, So I have my cigar. “‘T never see the Post, I seldom read the Star ; The Globe I scarcely heed, So I have my cigar. “Honors have come to men My juniors at the Bar; No matter—I can wait, So I have my cigar. “ Ambition frets me not ; A cab or glory’s car Are just the same to me, So I have my cigar. 300 LORD BYRON’S OPINION. “T worship no vain gods, But serve the household Lar ; I’m sure to be at home, So I have my cigar. “T do not seek for fame, A General with a scar; A privatelet me be, So I have my cigar. “To have my choice among The toys of life’s bazar, The deuce may take them all, So Ihave my cigar. “Some minds are often tost By tempests like a tar; I always seem in port, So I have my cigar. “The ardent flame of love My bosom cannot char, ' I smoke but do not burn, SoI have my cigar. “They tell me Nancy Low Has married Mr. R. ; The jilt! but I can live, So Ihave my cigar.” Lord Byron, a “ good smoker” as well as a great poet, has immortalized his love of the cigar in the following graceful lines :— “Sublime Tobacco! which from east to west, Cheers the tars labors, and the Turkman’s rest— Which on the Moslem’s ottoman divides His hours, and rivals opium and his brides; Magnificent in Stamboul, but less grand, Though not less loved in Wapping or the Strand; Divine in hookhas, glorious in a pipe, When tipped with amber, mcllow, rich, and ripe, Like other charms, wooing the caress More dazzingly when dawning in full dress. Yet thy true lovers more admire by far Thy naked beauties—Give me a Cigar !” KINDS OF CIGARS. 301 Having given a general description of the cigar and its mode of manufacture, we come now to a more particular account of the various kinds known as the best and of world- wide reputation. Standing at the head of the various kinds of cigars, either of the Old or New World, are those known to all smokers as: HAVANA CIGARS. These are, by common consent, the finest in the world. They possess every quality desirable in a cigar, and seem- ingly to its greatest extent. Grown in the richest portion of the tropical world, the leaf has a rich, oily appearance, and, when made into cigars, possesses a flavor as rich as it is rare. Unlike most tobaccos suitable for cigars, every taste can be met in the Havana cigars, its many varieties of flavor and strength suiting it alike to both sexes, and to the making of the delicate cigarette or the largest Cabanas. These cigars are made up of all the various colors and parts of the leaf, HAVANAS, and also of all sizes common to the trade. In shape they are usually round, though sometimes pressed (flat), and in color are (according to our description) light and dark brown, light and dark red, straw colored and dark straw colored, and some other shades or strengths. It is necessary to have all the various shades of color in order to meet the demand for the various flavors desired. Without doubt a greater variety, of flavors can be found among Havana cigars than in an other kind, owing to the many shades of color, which deter- mines the strength and flavor of the cigar. The Havana neta eee 302 SELECTING CIGARS. cigar is made of a leaf tobacco well known for its good burn- _ ing qualities, when properly cured and sweated,—burning | with a clear, steady light, leaving a fine white or pearl-colored ash, according to the color chosen. ‘These cigars rarely “char” in burning; certainly not, if made of good quality of tobacco.and thoroughly sweat. If a full-flavored cigar is desired, choose the dark colors, and the lighter if a mild cigar is preferable. The lighter the color of the tobacco the lighter the ash and the milder the flavor of the cigar. Light- colored cigars usually burn freer and more evenly than dark ones. In selecting a cigar for its good burning qualities, choose those (if such are to be had) covered with white specks, or white rust; such cigars burn well, as white rust is found only on well-ripened leaves. Select a firm, well-made cigar—one that contains a good quantity of fillers—avoiding, however, in Havana cigars, one made #00 nicely, as it is some- times the case that superior external appearance is made to cover defects in the more important qualities. Such a selection will insure a cigar of good quality; one that will hold fire and last the length of time appropriate to its size. A cigar should not be chosen simply because it is made well, and neither because its outside appearance (wrapper) is fine, both in color and quality of leaf; rather depend upon the manufacture of the brand. Havana cigars have as many distinct flavors as there are colors of the leaf, ranging from very mild to very strong. The first great requisite of a cigar is its burning quality, and the second its flavor; without the first the latter is of little value. A cigar made from leaf that does not burn freely will not possess any desirable flavor, but will char and emit rank-smelling smoke, without any desirable feature whatever. When both of these qualities are in a measure perfect the cigar will prove to be good. There are two varieties, at least, known as non-burning tobacco, of which we shall speak hereafter. The flavor and burning quality of a cigar always determine its character, and are found in per- fection in those made of fine even-colored leaf. Dark cigars YARA CIGARS. 303 have a thicker leaf or more body, and consequently are stronger than light-colored cigars. When the cigar is made of fine, well-sweat tobacco, and contains the full quantity of fillers, the pellet of ashes will be firm and strong, and should possess the same color all through, if the filler, binder and wrapper are of the same shade of color. The finest-flavored cigars are those of a medium shade, between a light and a dark brown,—not so dark as to be of strong, rank taste, or so mild as to be deficient in a decided tobacco flavor, but simply possessing sufficient strength to give character to the cigar. YARA CIGARS. This variety of cigars is made from tobacco grown on the Island of Cuba, bearing the same name as the cigars. They are highly esteemed by those who smoke only this kind, but are not liked by most smokers of Havana cigars. Most of them are exported to Europe, very few of them finding their way to this country. It is somewhat difficult to compare them with Havana cigars, as the flavor is essentially different. YARA CIGARS. In comparison with other brands made upon the Island, the Yara holds an unimportant place, yet, in some parts of Cuba, it is preferred to any other kind. In London the Yara is a favorite with many old smokers, who use no others. Old smokers describe the Yara cigar as having a “sweet” flavor, but one unaccustomed to them, like Hazard and others, pro- nounce them bitter, and having a “ peculiar saline taste.” It can, doubtless, be said with truth concerning the Yara cigar, 304 MANILLA CIGARS. that unlike other varieties, such as Havana, Manilla, Para- guayan, Swiss and Brazil, the taste for them is not natural, but, when once formed, becomes very decided. As a general rule smokers of Yara cigars think other kinds are deficient in flavor, and are wanting in quality, because they lack the peculiar flavor belonging only to Yara cigars. Be this as it may, we hardly think the Yara cigar suited to the cigarist’s taste at the present time. Its aromatic flavor is not adapted to the general taste, and some little time is required to de- velop a decided love for it. We prefer the ‘“ Cubas,” made from a good quality of leaf grown near Trinidad, Puerto- Principe, and other cities east of Havana. The peculiar flavor of Yara cigars is owing to the character of the soil, rather than to any artificial process employed in manufactur- ing. In moistening Havana leaf Catalan wine is used, and other flavoring extracts. This may (and does) change the condition and quality of the tobacco, but even wth this treatment, the flavor of Yara tobacco would be unlike that of Havana leaf. ; MANILLA CIGARS. This well-known variety of cigars is manufactured from Manilla tobacco grown in Luzerne, one of the Phillippine Islands, which is known as superior leaf for cigar purposes. Manilla cigars have an extensive reputation, but principally in the East and in Europe. These cigars are made in various MANILLA CIGAR AND CHEROOT, forms and shapes, some of them are called cheroots (the term used in the East for cigars) and are principally known for their aromatic flavor, entirely distinct from that of Havana cigars. SWISS CIGARS. 305 Some smokers think that they have the same effect as varie- ties of tobacco that have been moistened with the juice of the poppy, giving the cigar a flavor like that of opium, and as a natural result, securing a light-colored ash. There are not as many colors of Manilla cigars as there are of Havana, and they are not as closely assorted. Some of them are a high-cinnamon color, and are far from being a strong cigar. Their flavor is not always uniform, and is not denoted by the color as in other varieties. The flavor is not unpleasant, but is better suited to those who prefer a mild rather than a full flavored cigar. The aroma is pleasant and mild, and to those but little acquainted with them, agreeable. Manilla tobacco usually burns well, if the leaf is of ‘good quality and well sweated, still it is known as a non-burning tobacco. As the tobacco is of good body, the cigars do not usually burn as well as other kinds. Select a light-colored rather than a dark cigar if one of good quality is desired. Both the cigars and cheroots are made of the same quality of leaf, and are of about the same size—differing, however, in shape. There are but few grades of Manilla cigars, and most of them are solid and well wrapped. They are flat rather than round, and draw well but do not hold fire like some other cigars. The leaf makes a very good wrapper for a tobacco of its thickness and strength. SWISS CIGARS. These well-known cigars have but little reputation in this country, owing to the fact of their being but little known. In Europe the cigars of Luzerne have no insignificant repu- tation, and are generally liked by smokers who prefer a mild and agreeable cigar. These cigars are usually dark-colored, but not strong, and have but little variety of flavor. Travel- ers and tourists through Switzerland speak of Swiss cigars as being of agreeable flavor, and unlike any other found in Europe. With American tobacco, those of a dark color are usually strong, but with European tobaccosthis is not always the eee possess much less strength, and can be used 306 PARAGUAY CIGARS. more freely than the tobacco of America. These cigars are usually pressed, and burn well, leaving a dark-colored ash, and emitting a fragrant odor. Most of those used in this country may be more properly termed cheroots, both ends RSS = S = SSS SSS SI S SWISS CIGARS. being cut, allowing a free passage of air, which is usually the case with all kinds of cheroots, or Eastern and European cigars. There is not that freshness of flavor to Swiss cigars peculiar to Havana’s, and they lack that essential quality which renders the latter so delicious and enjoyable. The Swiss cigar is in perfection when just made or rolled, and such should be chosen instead of those that have been made for some time and closely packed and dried. PARAGUAY CIGARS. These cigars are made of one of the finest varieties of leaf tobacco known to commerce. Although unknown to this country—both the cigars and the leaf tobacco havea deserved reputation in Europe, and it is beyond all question one of the finest tobaccos in the world for cigars. These cigars havea delicacy of flavor unapproachable in any other variety, and may justly be termed the finest at least of all South Ameri- can cigars. It is one of the finest burning tobaccos in the PARAGUAY CIGARS. world, and does not fail to suit the taste of the most fastidi- ous of smokers. The finest are of dark color and wholly free from any rank or unpleasant taste. These cigars are uniformly mild and have but little variety of flavor, the ash BRAZILIAN CIGARS. 307 is dark-colored, firm and strong, clinging with tenacity to the cigar, which is the best evidence of the quality of the leaf. In Paraguay they are considered superior to all other kinds and are smoked continuously without any seemingly ill effect. Page alludes to the custom of smoking as being universal, “Men, women, and children—delicate, refined girls, and youngsters who would not with us be promoted to the dignity of pantaloons—smoke with a gravity and gusto that is irresistibly ludicrous to a foreigner.” The Paraguayans consider excessive smoking of other tobacco as injurious but not of the delicate flavored leaf of Paraguay. These cigars are rolled firm and strong usually small and hold fire until the entire cigar has been consumed. GUATEMALA CIGARS. This variety of cigars, although of excellent flavor, is hardly known outside of Central America. They are made from Guatemala tobacco—one of the few varieties of tobacco bearing white blossoms, and possessed of a similar flavor to Mexican tobacco. Although Guatemala tobacco has not been thoroughly tested by the great manufacturers of cigars either in Europe or America, it doubtless is well suited for cigars. It is a distinct variety from those kinds bearing pink and yellow blossoms, and its growth and quality would seem to suggest some doubt as to its quality and adaptability for cigars. Stephens and other travelers seem to regard it as tobacco of excellent quality, and allude to its constant use by the ladies who smoke pwros, a cigar made of a single leaf, or formed entirely of tobacco. They also use the pape- lotes wrapped in paper and sometimes in the dried leaf of maize. It would seem probable from the climate of Cen- tral America, that Guatemala tobacco would be exactly suited for the manufacture of cigars, but so little is known concerning it, and its cultivation is so limited, that at present it is simply a matter of conjecture. BRAZILIAN CIGARS. ; The cigars of Brazil, like those made of South American 308 AMERICAN CIGARS. tobacco, are noted for their superior flavor. They are made of “ Brazilian Aromatic” one of the finest tobaccos of Brazil. Although but little known in this country, both the tobacco and the cigars are highly esteemed in Europe, where most of the leaf is sent. Both Brazilian cigars and the celebrated “Tauri Cigarettes ” possess a delicacy of flavor, described by travelers as unapproachable by any other variety of cigars and cigarettes. A late traveler says concerning them :—“ Accus- tomed to smoke only Havana cigars, I was unprepared to re- cognize any others as being worthy even of the name of cigars. I was presented with a box of Brazilian cigars of commend- able size and finish, of a dark color and of a good flavor, before trying them, I ignited one, merely to test their quality and not from any impression that they were worth even the value of the cheapest Havanas. Great was my sur- prise to find them of an agreeable flavor and very pleasant to the taste.” The leaf is very thin, and without doubt, well suited for a cigar wrapper. The flavor of all cigars made from South American tobacco is similar, especially those made from tobacco grown east of the Andes. A writer, alluding to their mode of manufacturing cigars for their own use says: “ They take the leaf after it is cured and ready for mannu- facture into cigars, and dampen it, not with pure water but with water containing the juice of the poppy so as to pro- duce the effect of opium. When prepared in this manner they are much esteemed by the Brazilians and especially by the herders.” AMERICAN CIGARS. This was the name given to cigars made some forty or fifty years ago composed of Connecticut seed-leaf, or as it was then called, American tobacco. The fillers were selected from various kinds of tobacco, including Virginia, Kentucky, and Spanish, using for a wrapper Spanish, American or Maryland leaf. At this time the tobacco was not sorted as now, and was made up into cigars after being stripped, but the cigars after being manufactured were kept for some time before they were sold. At this time but little pains compar- atively was taken in their manufacture: they were not as- sorted or shaded according to the present standard, and were CONNECTICUT SEED-LEAF AND HAVANA CIGARS. 309 packed in chestnut instead of cedar boxes containing from one to five hundred cigars each. A manufacturer of cigars nearly fifty years ago gives the following account of his method: ‘ We selected for wrappers those leaves having white specks (white rust) upon them, which greatly in- creased the sale of the cigars, and which were considered by smokers to be much better than those not wound with fancy wrappers. After the cigars were packed in the boxes a little Spanish bean was grated upon the cigars, or a single bean was placed between the cigars in the box.” At this time some little taste was evinced for colors, and cigars of a “ bright cin- namon red,” and afterwards, of a dark brown, were consid- ered the finest, while leaf that was black was considered worthless for wrappers. A kind of cigar which is distinctly American and which is made to a considerable extent, is called a seed cigar, and is made from tobacco grown in Con- necticut, New York, Pennsylvania, or Ohio. These cigars have but little reputation, and are of inferior quality and manufacture. A very good cigar, call a “sprig cigar,” is made from Havana and Connecticut seed-leaf filler wound with a seed wrapper which gives a good flavor similar to clear Havana. A full flavored cigar like a sip of rare old wine is inspir- ing to a lover of the “royal plant” and amid the sublime and companionable thoughts that its fragrance engenders, one is led oftentimes to reflect on its rare virtues and the benign effects it produces wherever known. Thus it light- ens the toil of the weary laborer plodding along the highway of life. The student poring over musty tomes sees with a clearer perception as its fragrance accompanies him along the pathway of science and of history. The poet “as those wreathes up go” sees Helicon’s fresh founts flowing clearer and purer. The musician “lord of sounds,” evokes tones from his instrument never before heard by mortal ear. The warrior, “fresh from glory’s field” is charmed by its fra- grance as he dreams of shattered battalions and sleeping hosts. The farmer nurtured amid the odors of the “ balmy 310 . THE EXILE’S COMFORT. plant” honors the “useless weed” as a promoter of happi- ness and an increaser of gains. While: “ Kings smoke when they ruminate Over grave affairs of state.” The exile too, far from home and kindred smokes on as he muses of happier hours gone never to return. And thus amid all the varied ranks and walks of life this solace of the mind and comfort of life exhales its fragrance and breathes its benedictions over all. CHAPTER X. TOBACCO PLANTERS AND PLANTATIONS. ‘ fr HE grounds selected for the cultivation of tobacco are called by various names even in the same coun- tries. Thus in the Connecticut Valley, such lands are called tobacco fields, at the South they are known as tobacco plantations,while in Cuba they are called Vegas or tobacco farms. In Cuba almost the entire tobacco farm is planted to tobacco while at the South and in New Eng- land this is rarely the case unless the plantations or tobacco farms are small and contain but afew acres. In the Connect- icut Valley and more especially along the banks of the Connecticut River, where the farms are frequently small, this is sometimes the case but farther removed from the river, where the farms are much larger but a few acres of the best land is used for this purpose. In the Connecticut Valley the tobacco fields average from one to forty acres, rarely exceeding the latter and indeed seldom including as large an area. The average size of tobacco fields is about five acres—sometimes all in one lot but oftener divided into several small pieces on various parts of the farm. The Connecticut planter is deeply interested in the plant and gives it his undivided attention from seed-sowing until it is sold to the speculator or manufacturer. All other crops in his opinion are of but little importance compared with the great New England product, one crop is frequently not off his hands before he is preparing for another. The Connecti- cut planter stands first in the rank of tobacco growers; he is oll V4 2 312 THE CONNECTICUT PLANTER. thoroughly acquainted with the nature of the plant and knows just what land to select and what kind of fertilizers to apply. He has reduced the cultivation to almost an exact science and can obtain (the season being favorable) the color most desirable. He has thoroughly tested all kinds of fertilizers, and knows just what kinds will produce the various shades of color as well as the desired texture and size of leaf. No other tobacco planter so thoroughly understands the methods of curing, sweating and doing up the crop, and he takes no little pride in showing his crop to the buyer. Itishis aim to obtain not only the best leaf for a cigar-wrap- per but also a tobacco of the finest possible flavor; hence he tries the principal varieties grown in Cuba, Brazil and other countries in order to judge of their quality and whether they can be cultivated with profit on his lands. He has the best constructed sheds for hanging and curing and the latest and most improved agricultural implements for the cultivation of the plants. The greatest pains are taken in securing the crop and harvesting and handling the plants without injur- CONNECTICUT TOBACCO FIELD, ing the leaves. The tobacco fields are kept in the best pos- sible condition, no weeds or grass is allowed to grow and INTELLIGENCE OF TOBACCO GROWERS. 3138 the entire surface is as free from stones as a lawn. He usually, if his farm is small, plants the same field year after year, securing a much finer leaf and by yearly manuring keeping the ground fertile and in good condition. When the tobacco is stripped the utmost care is taken to assort the leaves and he frequently shades or assorts the colors, obtaining fancy prices for such “selections.” The Connecticut grower is well acquainted with the differ- ent soils, and is able to judge with considerable accuracy in regard to selecting the right fields for tobacco. The warmest land is chosen—mellow and free from stones or shaded by trees and prepared as if fora garden. All of the improved methods of obtaining early plants as well as transplanting, he adopts, and in spite of early freezing, is generally able to outwit Jack Frost, and secure the plants before this great foe of the weed ravages the fields. It may safely be said of the Connecticut planter that he secures more even crops than any other grower of the plant, and obtains the finest colored leaf for cigar wrappers. The growers are thoroughly informed as regards the prices, and although the buyers may steal suddenly upon them, are generally prepared to “set” a price upon their crops. Some refuse to sell on the poles, or even after it is stripped, pre- ferring to pack their tobacco until it has passed through the sweat, when larger prices are obtained. Many growers not only pack their own crop, but buy up that of others, thus acting as both producer and buyer. During the growing of the crop, and particularly after it has been cured and stripped, the growers congregate together, and talk over the condition of the crop and the prices likely to be realized. Sometimes they form an association or club, agreeing to “hold” the tobacco for satisfactory prices, and frequently employing an agent to sell the crop. Many of the tobacco fields or farms in the Connecticut valley are very valuable, especially those near large cities and means of transportation; such lands often selling for one thousand dollars per acre. The finest tobacco lands in the Connecticut valley are 314 BEST CONNECTICUT TOBACCO LANDS. located in the vicinity of Hartford about fifty miles from Long Island Sound. These lands are near enough to the sound to get the salts in the atmosphere from the south winds that blow up the valley in the precise amount which the plant needs. Not much farther north does the atmos- phere possess this peculiar quality, while lower down the river the salt air is too strong for the plant, and the leaves in consequence are thick and harsh. Fine tobacco leaves can be manufactured as well as fine broadcloth or costly silks, These results depend in a great manner upon the proper soil and the fertilizers, applied together with the most thorough cultivation of the plants. The soil of our best Connecticut tobacco fields is alluvial, varying in composition from a heavy sandy loam to a light one containing very little clay. For the past few years light soil has been preferred for the tobacco field, on account of the demand for light colored leaf. The soil can hardly be too light when leaf of a light cinnamon color is desired ; as the color of all kinds of tobacco depends upon the soil and the fertilizers used. A quarter of a century since Havana tobacco commanded very high prices, both in this country and in Europe. It burnt freely and purely. The Cuban planters, although get- ting rich on the ordinary crops, were not satisfied with their gains, and attempted to increase their crops by the use of guano and artificial fertilizers. ‘They secured heavier crops, but the quality became poorer. The prices fell off and the planters did not realize as much for their crops as formerly, although the growth was larger. About this time Connecti- cut seed leaf became known as a cigar wrapper, and in a short time took the lead for this purpose, as it still continues to. It cured finely, burnt white and free, and in a short time brought high prices. The profit realized from its growth led some Connecticut growers into the same mistake as it did the Cuban planters, when they, by misguided culture, nearly ruined their crops and injured the reputation of Cuban tobacco. Artificial fertilizers and strong manure produce a leaf LOVE FOR THE PLANT. 315 larger and heavier, but their effect on the character of the leaf is injurious, the salts destroying its fine qualities, so that it sweats and cures poorly, and compared with the finest leaf burns dark and emits a rank and unpleasant odor. The Connecticut tobacco grower requires considerable capital when engaged extensively in the business, as ordinarily he buys large quantities of fertilizers and requires many hands to cultivate the crop. On the largest tobacco farms the sheds or “ hanging houses” are built near or in the field, and are sometimes very large, say two or three hundred feet in length, and capable of holding the crop of from five to ten acres. His broad fields of the weed can usually be seen from his house and he loves to show to visitors the plants growing in HOME OF THE CONNECTICUT PLANTER. all their luxuriance, or to sit on his piazza and call attention to their waving leaves and graceful showy tops. Few tobacco-growers can discuss the relative merits of the num- erous varieties like the Connecticut planter, and he is well 316 KNOWLEDGE OF THE PLANT. acquainted not only with the various kinds grown in his own country but also with those of others. Indeed you may often see growing in his garden specimens of Cuban, Brazil or Latakia tobacco; such is his love for all that per- tains to this great tropical plant. He considers it one of the greatest of all the vegetable products and never tires of lauding the plant and its use. He sincerely hates all anti- tobaccoites and has a supreme disgust for the memory of King James I. and all royal foes of the plant. He is, how- ever, 2 man of large and liberal views and bestows his favors witha princely hand. Iffortune frowns he may lessen his crop but never his attachment for the plant. Amid all the cares and perplexities incident to life, he puffs away and as the ashes drop from his cigar meditates upon the probable future of tobacco growers and all users of the weed. The Connecticut tobacco grower is in all respects a man of genuine refinement and nobility of soul. He is always ready to give information on his particular system of culture, and how he obtains such large and fine crops. He is a good judge of leaf tobacco, and can tell in a moment the quality of his famous variety. He is thoroughly awake to modern improvements, and always willing to try new implements, such as tobacco hangers or transplanters in his sheds or fields. He is just the person one likes to meet, jovial and good- natured; he naturally loves the plant he cultivates and uses it freely ; lighting his after-dinner cigar or evening pipe with a gusto that is peculiar to the grower of tobacco everywhere. Indeed he is hardly in a proper frame of mind to converse about tobacco until he lights a cigar. No other cultivator of the soil gains as many friends as the tobacco-grower. His table is well supplied from the choicest his larder affords and he cheerfully welcomes all to its side. He is the friend of the poor and the companion of the rich. No meanness or low chicanery is his. His attach- ment for home, friends, and country is as firm and strong as for the plant he cultivates. Olmsted in his work “The Seaboard Slave States” ; VIRGINIA PLANTERS. lag gives the following description”of a Virginia plantation: “Half an hour after this I arrived at the negro quarters— a little hamlet of ten or twelve small and dilapidated cabins. Just beyond them was a plain farm gate at which several negroes-were standing ; one of them, a well-made man, with NEGRO QUARTERS. an intelligent countenance and prompt manner, directed me how to find my way to his owner’s house. It was still nearly a mile distant; and yet, until I arrived in its immediate vicinity, I saw no cultivated field, and but one clearing. “Tn the edge of this clearing, a number of negroes, male and female, lay stretched out upon the ground near a small smoking charcoal pit. Their master afterwards informed me that they were burning charcoal for the plantation black- smith, using the time allowed them for holidays—from Christ- mas to New Years—to earn a little money for themselves in this way. He paid them by the bushel for it. When I said that I supposed he allowed them to take what wood they chose for this purpose, he replied that he had five hundred acres covered with wood, which he would be very glad to have any one burn, or clear off in any way. Cannot some Yankee contrive a method of concentrating some of the valuable properties of this old field pine, so that they may be profitably brought into use in more cultivated regions ? Charcoal is now brought from Virginia; but when made from pine it is not very valuable, and will only bear trans- portation from the banks of the navigable rivers whence it 318 HOUSE AND SURROUNDINGS. can be shipped, at one movement to New York. ‘Turpentine does not flow in sufficient quantity from this variety of the pine to be profitably collected, and for lumber it is of very small value. “Mr. W.’s house was an old family mansion, which he had himself remodeled in the Grecian style, and furnished with a large wooden portico. An oak forest had originally occupied the ground where it stood ; but this having been cleared and the soil worn out in cultivation by the previous proprietors, pine woods now surrounded it in every direction ; a square of a few acres only being kept clear immediately about it. A number of the old oaks still stood in the rear THE PLANTER’S HOME. of the house, and, until Mr. W. commenced his improvements, there had been some in its front. These, however, he had cut away, as interfering with the symmetry of his grounds, and in place of them had ailanthus trees in parallel rows. “On three sides of the outer part of the cleared square there was a row of large and comfortable-looking negro quarters, stables, tobacco-houses, and other offices, built of logs. Mr. W. was one of the few large planters, of his vicinity, who still made the culture of tobacco their principal A VIRGINIA PLANTATION. 3819 business. He said there was a general prejudice against tobacco, in all the tide water regions of the State, because it was through the culture of tobacco that the once fertile soil had been impoverished; but he did not believe that, at the present value of negroes, their labor could be applied to the culture of grain with any profit, except under peculiarly ’ favorable circumstances. Possibly the use of guano might make wheat a paying crop, but he still doubted. He had not used it, himself. Tobacco required fresh land, and was rapidly exhausting, but it returned more money, for the labor used upon it, than anything else; enough more, in his opinion to pay for the wearing out of the land. If he was well paid for it, he did not know why he should not wear out his land. His tobacco-fields were nearly all in a distant and lower part of his plantation; land which had been neglected before his time, in a great measure, because it had been sometimes flooded, and was, much of the year, too wet for cultivation. He was draining and clearing it, and it now brought good crops. He had had an Irish gang draining for him, by contract. He thought a negro could do twice as much work in a day as an Irishman. He had not stood over them and seen them at work, but judged entirely from the amount they accomplished: he thought a good gang of negroes would have got on twice as fast. He was sure they must have ‘trifled’ a great deal, or they would have accom- plished more than they had. He complained much of their sprees and quarrels. I asked why he should employ Irish- men, in preference to doing the work with his own hands. ‘It’s dangerous work, (unhealthy !) and a negro’s life is too valuable to be risked at it. If a negro dies it’s a considerable loss, you know.’ He afterwards said that his negroes never worked so hard as to tire themselves—always were lively, and ready to go: off on a frolic at night. He did not think they ever did half a fair day’s work. They could not be made to work hard: they never would lay out their strength freely, and it was impossible to make them do it. This is just what I have thought when I have seen slaves at work— they seem to go through the motions of labor without putting strength into them. They keep their powers in reserve for their own use at night, perhaps. “Mr. W. also said that he cultivated only the coarser and lower-priced sorts of tobacco, because the finer sorts required more pains-taking and discretion than it was possible to make a large gang of negroes use. ‘ You can make a nigger work,’ he said, ‘ but you cannot make him think.’ ” 320 EARLY CULTURE OF TOBACCO. In speaking of the early tobacco culture of Virginia, he says :— The light, rich mould resting on the sandy soil of Eastern Virginia was exactly suited to the cultivation of tobacco, and no better climate for this plant was to be found on the globe. This had just been sufficiently proved, and a suitable method of culture learned experimentally, when the land was offered to individual proprietors by the king, (James I.) Very little else was to be obtained from the soil which would be of value to send to Europe, without an application to it of a higher degree of art than the slaves, or stupid, careless servants of the proprietors could readily be forced to use. Although tobacco had been introduced into England but a few years, an enormous number of persons had initiated themselves in the appreciation of its mysterious value. “ The king, having taken a violent prejudice against it, though he saw no harm in the distillation of grain, had for- bidden that it should be cultivated in England. Virginia, therefore, had every advantage to supply the demand. Mer- chants and the super-cargoes of ships, arriving with slaves from Africa, or manufactured goods, spirits, or other luxuries from England, very gladly bartered them with the planters for tobacco, but for nothing else. Tobacco, therefore, stood for money, and the passion for raising it, to the exclusion of everything else, became a mania, like the ‘ California fever’ of 1849. “The culture being once established, there were many reasons growing out of the social structure of the colony, which, for more than a century, kept the industry of the Virginians confined to this one staple. These reasons were chiefly the difficulty of breaking the slaves, or training the bond-servants to new methods of labor, the want of enterprise or ingenuity of the proprietors to contrive other profitable occupations for them, and the difficulty or expense of dis- tributing the guard or oversight, without which it was impos- sible to get any work done at all, if the laborers were separated, or worked in any other way than side by side, in gangs, as in the tobacco-fields. “ Owing to these causes the planters kept on raising tobacco with hardly sufficient intermission to provide sustenance, though often, by reason of the excessive quantity raised, scarcely anything could be got for it. Tobacco is not now considered peculiarly and excessively exhaustive; in a judi- cious rotation, especially as a preparation for wheat, it is an ACTS LIMITING QUANTITY. 821 admirable fallow crop, and, under a scientific system of agri- culture, it is grown with no continued detriment to the soil. But in Virginia it was grown without interruption or alter- nation, and the plantations rapidly deteriorated in fertility, As they did so, the crops grew smaller in proportion to the labor expended upon them; yet, from the continued impor- tation of laborers, the total crops of the colony increased annually, and the market value fell proportionately to the better supply. “With smaller return for labor and lower prices, the planters soon found themselves bankrupt, instead of nabobs. How could they help themselves? Only by forcing the merchants to pay them higher prices. But how to do that, when every planter had his crop pledged in advance, and was obliged to hurry it off at any price he could get for it, in order to pay for his food, and drink, and clothing, and to keep his head above water at credit for the following year. The crop supplied more tobacco than was needed, but no one man would cease to plant it, or lessen his crop for the general good. Then it was agreed all men must be made to do s0, and the colonial legislature was called upon to make them. “ Acts were accordingly passed to prevent any planter from cultivating more than a certain number of plants to each hand he employed in labor, and prescribing the number of leaves which might be permitted to ripen upon each plant permitted to be grown. An inspection of all tobacco, after it had been prepared for market, was decreed, and the in- spectors were bound by oath, after having rejected all of inferior quality, to divide the good into two equal parts, and then to burn and destroy one of them. Thus, it was ex- pected the quantity of tobacco offered for sale would be so small that merchants would be glad to pay better prices for it, and the planters would be relieved of their embarrass- ment.” Mrs. M. P. Handy gives the following interesting sketch, entitled “On the Tobacco Plantation” :— “Riding through Southside, Virginia, any warm, bright winter’s day after Christmas, the stranger may be startled to see a dense column of smoke rising from the forest beyond. He anxiously inquires of the first person he meets—probably a negro—if the woods are on fire. COuffee shows his white teeth in a grin that is half amusement, half contempt, as he answers: ‘ No, sar, deys jis burnin’ a plant-patch.’ For this is the first step in tobacco-culture. 21 822 THE “PLANT-PATCH.” “A sunny, sheltered spot on the southern slope of a hill is selected, one protected from northern winds by the surround- “BURNING THE PATCH.” ing forest, but open to the sun in front, and here the hot-bed for the reception of the seed is prepared. All growth is felled within the area needed, large dead logs are dragged and heaped on the ground as for a holocaust, the whole ignited, and the fire kept up until nothing is left of the im- mense wood-heap but circles of the smoldering ashes. ‘These are afterward carefully plowed in; the soil, fertilized still further, if need be, is harrowed and prepared as though for a garden-bed, and the small brown seed sown, from which is to spring the most widely-used of man’s useless luxuries. Later, when the spring fairly opens, and the young plants in this primitive hot-bed are large and strong enough to bear transplanting, the Virginian draws them, as the New Eng- lander does his cabbages, and plants them in like manner, in hills from two to four feet apart each way. Lucky is he whose plant-bed has escaped the fly, the first enemy of the precious weed. Its attacks are made upon it in the first stage of its existence, and are more fatal, because less easily prevented, than those of the tobacco-worm, that scourge, par ewcellence, of the tobacco crop. Farmers often lose their entire stock of plants, and are forced to send miles to beg or buy of a more fortunate planter. Freshly-cleared land—‘new ground,’ as the negroes call it—makes the best tobacco-field, and on PLANTING, TOPPING AND PRIMING. 823 this and the rich lowlands throughout Southside is raised the staple known through the world as James River tobacco. “On this crop the planter lavishes his choicest fertilizers; for the ranker the growth, the longer and larger the leaf, the greater is the value thereof, though the manufacturers com- plain bitterly of the free use of guano, which, they say, destroys the resinous gum on which the value of the leaf depends. Once set, the young plant must contend, not only with the ordinary risk of transplanting, but the cut-worm is now to be dreaded. Working underground, it severs the stem just above the root, and the first intimation of its pres- ence is the prone and drooping plant. For this there is no remedy, except to plant and replant, until the tobacco itself kills the worm. In one instance, which came under our observation, a single field was replanted six times before the planter succeeded in getting ‘a good stand,’ as they call it on the plantations; but this was an extreme case. “When the plants are fairly started in their growth, the planter tops and primes them, processes performed, the first by pinching off the top bud, which would else run to seed, and the second by removing the lower leaves of each plant, leaving bare a space of some inches near the ground, and retaining from six to a dozen stout, well-formed leaves on each stem, according to the promise of the soil and season, and these leaves form the crop. The rejected lower leaves SS == < eZ GEE — ZZZZ SSS STRINGING THE PRIMINGS, or primings, in the days of slavery, formed one of the mistress’ perquisites and were carefully collected by the 324 SUCKERING. ‘house-gang,’ as the force was styled, strung on small sharp sticks like exaggerated meat-skewers, and cured, first in the sun, afterwards in the barn, often placing a pretty penny in her private purse. Now when all labor must be paid for in money, they are not worth collecting, and, except when some thrifty freedman has a large family which he wishes to turn to account, are left to wither where they fall. There is absolutely no rest on a large tobacco plantation, one step following another in the cultivation of the trouble- some weed—the last year’s crop is rarely shipped to market before the seed must be sown for the next—and planting and replanting, topping and priming, suckering and worming, crowd on each other through all the summer months. Withal the ground must be rigidly kept free from grass and weeds, and after the plants have attained any size this must be done by hoe; horse and plow would break and bruise the brittle leaves. “ Conservator con- sidered the prod- uce very good, and the secre- tary of the Agri- Horticultural Society pro- nounced it ‘ of a TOBACCO FIELD IN INDIA. superior kind.’ The flavor was exceedingly fine, but it had not been allowed to come to matu- rity, hence it was thin and shriveled. It had also been spoilt 366 DISTRIBUTING SEED. by rain, and consequently its market value could not be fairly tested. The experiment, it is clear, was not conducted with proper care by most of those to whom the seed was confided, but the Local Government considered that on the whole the result was satisfactory, as showing that there was every probability that Shiraz tobacco, with care and proper garden- ing, might be introduced into the Bombay Presidency. “In August, 1869, the Bombay Government again distrib- uted a small supply of seed of the Shiraz, Havana, and other varieties to the superintendents of cotton experiments, and to the collectors of Kaira, Khandesh, Dharwar, and Kurrachee, for experimental cultivation. The seeds did well in the hands of all the superintendents, who reported very favorably on the plants raised from them. In Sind only the soil in which the seed was sown proved unsuitable. In Dharwar all the five varieties germinated, though the Maryland failed to some extent, and a considerable quantity of seed of each variety was secured. Of Latakia, only twenty grains were sent to the superintendent ; and the quantity in each case increased to one pound from the produce of the plants. These two varieties of tobacco, however, were not so much admired by the cultivators as Shiraz, Havana, and Maryland, to which they gave a decided preference. The only varieties of seed which were available for experiments at Broach and Veerm- gaum were Havana and Shiraz. In both places the plants came up well, and a large quantity of seed was obtained from them. That sent to Broach arrived a little too late in the season to admit of an extensive experiment being made; this indeed appears to have been the case at all the other places. The seed, however, was of good quality, germinated freely, and produced excellent plants in a very short time. “The first transplanting was made out into a field in an open piece of land, where they commenced growing vigor- ously, but the rains being then over, swarms of small locusts made their appearance, and ate up the young plants before they had thoroughly established themselves in the ground. The second lot was transplanted into a more sheltered patch, where the progress was all that could be desired, both the varieties growing rapidly, the Havana especially producing some leaves of enormous size. The first cutting was entrusted to a potel, who managed it according to the native process of curing. The tobacco was so strong, however, that only old confirmed smokers could manage it. The most formidable diffi- culty which presented itself was the management of the midrib, CURING TOBACCO IN INDIA. 367 which in the large leaves was extremely coarse and juicy. When the leaves were made up into hands for the purpose of fermentation before the midrib was thoroughly dry, the result was invariably mould and discoloration. On the other hand, when dried sufficiently to insure freedom from mould, the lamina of the leaf became so brittle that it was crushed to powder at the slightest touch, and so wrinkled and dry that the heaps did not ferment at all. Of the varieties sup- plied, the Shiraz, Havana, and Maryland attracted most attention and promised the best results. The great draw- back was the curing part of the process. So far as the culti- vation was concerned, there was every prospect of success; but not so with regard to the curing.” Robertson says of the curing of the leaf:— “Tn my opinion, all efforts to produce good tobacco will be useless until the services of a competent curer are obtained.” He considers the fault of all Indian tobacco to lie in the curing. The leaf itself is good, and it is simply the art of curing that should be studied. “T have cured tobacco of different varieties, some of which would hold a good place in the English market, but the fault generally found with the tobacco is that it is too full flavored. Further experiments were carried on in the same districts with varying results. In Sind the experiments and their results were insignificant. In Broach they were somewhat more successful, the superintendent thus summarising his experience :—‘ Havana, Shiraz, and other varieties of exotic tobacco will, with ordinary care and attention, yield fair and certain crops on ordinary black land, and presumably on every other kind to be met with in Guzerat. By the skillful application of manure, leaf of any desired quality or pecul- iarity of flavor and texture may be obtained. The quantity of produce is so great that, should it be found practicable to cure the leaf well enough to make it a salable article in the European market, a source of profit by no means insignificant would be opened up to the Guzerat ryot. For the native market the country plant is more suitable, and its cultivation consequently the more profitable. In Dharwar the super- intendent was enabled to distribute seed in sufficient quanti- ties to those applying for it, but found the ryots would not cultivate it on a large scale, being apprehensive of loss. Native tobacco he considers less liable to injury than the 868 QUALITY OF INDIAN TOBACCO. exotic varieties during the squally weather prevalent about the time the leaf is approaching maturity.” Robertson, in replying to the assertion that the tobacco of India contains little if any nicotine, says: “Tt appears to me that there must be some mistake as to the tobacco containing little or no nicotine. Very many have tried the tobacco, and pronounce it to be good, with, however, the fault of being exceedingly strong. Now, the strength of tobacco comes from its nicotine, and if the specimens I sent contain no nicotine, whence the strength? I believe that nothing destroys tobacco so much as moistening it. How, then, are acetic acid and chloride of soda to be used in the curing? If the process of desiccation had been carried on too quickly, the tobacco would have been of either a green or greenish-yellow color. If too slowly, it would have been black, like much of the country tobacco. I perceive that the amount of nicotine in a great measure depends on the extent to which the leaf is allowed to ripen. The riper the leaf the more the nicotine. The amount of nicotine does not appear to depend on the amount of curing. The soil the tobacco was grown in is a hardish red moorum soil, containing much iron; probably that may account for the red coloring matter being so much developed. I intend to have some of each description of the tobacco leaf analyzed, and also intend to submit the soil in which it was grown to the same process. I have had some of the cigars packed up for some months to test how far they are proof against insects. None have been attacked by insects. Some Manilla cigars, some Trichinopoly cheroots, all packed up at the same time, have, however, been entirely destroyed by insects. “Tt is clear from the reports that both in Guzerat and Khandesh, Havana and Shiraz tobacco will flourish, and that they may be introduced without difficulty. The ryots, it is said, preferred the new kinds to their own, and desire their introduction, the foreign varieties commanding a_ higher rice in the market. The chief drawback is the want of Leow iease and appliances for the proper curing of the leaf. This, indeed, is the great drawback throughout India. In the district of Kaira the seed is always sown in nursery beds in the month of July, and transplanting commences about the end of August, the operation continuing for about two months. The tobacco planted on the dry soil called ‘koor- mit’ ripens and is fit for cutting in January and February} that which is grown on irrigated land during March and TURKS CULTIVATING TOBACCO. 369 April. In Canara, tobacco is generally grown in elevated situations. The seed is sown in August, and the seedlings are transplanted in November, the crop arriving at maturity in three or four months. North Canara derives its supply chiefly from Mysore, the leaf produced in that province being said to be less liable to affect the head than that of the Canara plant.” The Turk and his family love to cultivate tobacco as well as to smoke it; and give it their attention from seed-sowing until it is sold to the merchant. The Turk is very particular in cultivating it, as on its color depends in a great measure its value. He commences work on his plant-bed in March, sowing the seed about the same time as the Virginia planters. After the leaves are gathered the same scrupulous care is taken with them; especially in drying and baling, that the Teaf may be in just the right condition to ferment properly, and be ready to be assorted by the “tobacco pickers.” The Turk presses his whole family into the cultivation of the plants. The children are engaged in weeding while he waters the beds or prepares the tobacco field for the planting of the tobacco. -In pruning and picking the leaves he removes only those that are small—the removal of which will still further advance the growth of the plants, and is careful to gather only those leaves that are turning yellow, giving evidence of their maturity. Says one in regard to the culti- vation of tobacco in Turkey: “The Turk and his family, it will seem, have now been occupied upon their tobacco crop for nearly a whole year. The leaf is just becoming a bright light yellow when it falls into the hands of the merchant, and it is during this period that the process of fermentation or heating generally occurs, before which the tobacco can not be shipped. The bales having been placed in the merchant’s store, are left end up until a fermentation or baking has taken place, the ends being reversed every three or four days. In the course of a few weeks a bale is reduced to about two-thirds of its original size. It is then placed upon its sides to cool. When it is discovered to be cold it is broken open by the native tobacco- pickers, and every leaf sorted and classified. The patience with which this operation is carried out is truly astonishing. 24 370 PREPARING FOR MARKET. There is a good deal of difference in their rate of work. One man may pick only fifty pounds weight a day, while another does twice that quantity. It is necessary to watch them closely, or they will put a dirty brown leaf with a pale yellow. They neither know nor care about the losses that may be incurred by the merchant, whose samples may be thus spoiled. A bale of leaf purchased at five piastres per ogue, when dissected by the Greek for various markets will be found to contain varieties ranging in price from 5 to 60 piastres ; of these some are dispatched to Odessa, some to Smyrna, others to Constantinople, Alexandria, and England —the mixed and common qualities generally to the latter country, the price there obtained being the least remunerative to the Greek shippers. The bales are brought from the interior to the shipping ports upon mules, each animal carry- ing two bales; and it is a pretty sight to witness, say 150 mules at a time, crossing mountains and rugged paths with their burdens, followed by perhaps fifty camels laden with cotton, marching to the merry tinkle of the bells on their necks. When the tobacco reaches the shipping port the troubles of the exporter are intensified. The bales are first taken tothe Custom House, and there weighed. The weights thus arrived at are compared with the quantity received from the interior, and if there be any material difference the ship- per has to account for it. If any has been sold for consump- tion in Turkey, duty has to be paid upon the amount; and in order that no part of his shipment may be used in the country, he has to sign a bond that the tobacco shall not be landed in any other port of Turkey. On the arrival of JAPANESE TOBACCO. 371 the tobaceo in England, the landing certificates are forwarded to Turkey. It is in this way that the trade is retained in the hands of a few Greeks, who naturally put every obstacle in the way of the foreigner, whose sole remedy is at last found to be the payment of the universal ‘backshish, to the comptroller of customs.” The merchant who buys the tobacco of the planter at a low price, and thereby takes the profit from him of culti- vating it, is preyed upon in the same manner by the Greek buyers who have the sole monopoly of the trade. Like Shiraz tobacco, that of Turkey has to be handled frequently and pass through several stages of curing before it is ready to be manufactured. In this respect it is unlike most of the tobaccos of America, but its treatment is not unlike that of the varieties of the East. The tobacco plant is cultivated with great success in many of the provinces of Japan, and is exported in large quantities : to Europe. The leaf is excellent, and is in request by many buyers of Eastern tobaccos. Robertson 2 gives the following interesting account i “ According to a Sie ZF native eins to- “ _ eee Nn oa SE isan eae PaO EO Specs STRIPPING. dry, and some months’ exposure is necessary before they are sufficently matured for baling. Main sets in at a later period, and the tobacco becoming moist and fit for handling, is then *The inner bark of the lime-tree. STRIPPING. 457 removed from the threads, and made into bundles or “ hands ” of about sixty leaves each and tied around the stems. After the leaves are thoroughly cured they are in condition for STRIPPING. The leaves of the tobacco are easily affected by the humidity of the atmosphere and during damp weather every opportunity isimproved by the grower for taking down the tobacco prepar- atory to stripping. After taking down from the poles the plants should be packed in order to keep moist until stripped. The tobacco should not be removed from the poles when it drips or the juice exudes from either the stalk or the leaves. If stripped in this condition the leaves are apt to stain and thus become unfit for wrappers. The operation of stripping consists in taking the leaves from the stalk and tying them in bundles or hands with a leaf around the base of the hand, HANDS. Each “hand” or bunch should contain at least eight leaves and from that number to twelve. If the plants are large the leaves of-one stalk will form a hand; a poor leaf is used for binding as it can not be used for the same purpose as the leaves around which it is bound. The old planters of tobacco in Virginia called this operation ABS ASSORTING. of taking off the leaves and tying them up “stripping and bundling” which is here described. _ When the plants of tobacco which are thus hanging upon the sticks in the house have gone through the several stages of process before the time of stripping, and are deemed to be in case for the next operation, a rainy day (which is the most suitable) is an opportunity which is generally taken advantage of when the hands cannot be so well employed out of doors. The sticks containing the tobacco which may be sufficiently cured, are then taken down and drawn out of the plants. They are then taken one by one respectively, and the leaves being stripped from the stalk of the plant are rolled round the butts or thick ends of the leaves with one of the smallest leaves as a bandage, and thus made up into little bundles fit for laying into the cask for final packing.” Hazard gives the following method of assorting and strip- ping tobacco in Cuba:— “ Among the Cubans, the leaves are divided into four classes: first, desecho, desecho limpio, which are those immedi- ately at the top of the plant, and which constitute the best quality, from the fact that they get more equally the benefit of the sun’s rays by day and the dew by night ; second, desechito, which are the next to the above ; third, the dzbra, the inferior or small leaves about the top of the plant ; and fourth, the inju- riado, or those nearest the root. Of the mjuriado there are three qualities; the best is called enjurado de reposo, or ‘the picked over,’ and the other two, firsts and seconds (primeros, segundos). “Tobacco of the classes desechito and libra, of which the leaves are not perfect, is called enjwriado bueno, while all the rest, of whatever quality, that is broken in such a manner as to be unfit for wrappers‘are calledinjuriado malo. Amongst the trade in place of the above names, the different qualities are simply designated by numbers. ” Meyer, a German writer who resided several years in Cuba, gives another classification, making ten classes altogether, while Hazard mentions only four general classes. After the leaves are stripped from the stalk the process known as ASSORTING commences. Assorting tobacco is doing up in hands the vari- ous qualities and keeping them separate. In the Connecticut SHADING. 459 valley the growers make usually but two kinds or qualities excepting only when the crop is poor when three qual- ities are made, viz: Wrappers, Seconds, and Fillers. The Wrappers are the largest and finest leaves on the plant and should be free from holes and sweat as well as green and white veins. The leaves selected for this quality come from the middle and even the top leaves of the plant. The Seconds are made up of leaves not good enough for Wrappers and too good for Fillers. Such leaves sometimes are worm- eaten and of various colors on the same leaf — one part dark and another light. The fillers are the poorest quality of leaves to be found on the plants, and consist of the “sand” or ground leaves, one or two to each plant. Some of our largest growers in assorting the leaves keep each color by itself, an operation known as SHADING. This is a very delicate operation and requires a good eye for colors as well. as a correct judgment in regard to the quality of the leaf. This mode of assorting colors in stripping is similar to that of shading cigars, in which the utmost care is taken to keep the various colors and shades by themselves. In shading the wrappers only are so assorted, and may be “run into” two or three shades depending on the number of shades or colors of the leaf. The better way is to make only two qualities of the wrappers in shading—viz., light and dark cinnamon “selections.” Shading tobacco does not imply that it is carried to its fullest extent in point of color as in shading cigars, but simply keeping those general colors by themselves like light and dark brown leaves. Cutting tobaccos before being used are subjected to a process known as STEMMING. Tatham gives the following account of the process of stem- ming in Virginia a century ago :— “Stemming tobacco is the act of separating the largest stems or fibres from the web of the leaf with adroitness and facility, so that the plant may be nevertheless capable of 460 STEMMING. package, and fit for a foreign market. Itis practised in cases where the malady termed the fire, or other casual misfortune during the growth of the plant, may have rendered it doubt- ful in the opinion of the planter whether something or other which he may have observed during the growth of his crop, or in the unfavorable temperature of the seasons by which it STEMMING, hath been matured does not hazard too much in packing, the web with a stem which threatens to decay. To avoid the same species of risk, stemming is also practised in cases where the season when it becomes necessary to finish packing for a market is too unfavorable to put up the plant in leaf in the usual method ; or when the crop may be partially out of case. Besides the operation of stemming in the hands of the crop- master, there are instances where this partial process is repeated in the public warehouses; of which I shall treat under a subsequent head. “The operation of stemming is performed by taking the leaf in one hand, and the end of the stem in the other, in such a way as to cleave it with the grain; and there is an expertness to be acquired by practice, which renders it as easy as to separate the bark of a willow, although those unaccustomed to it find it difficult to stem a single plant. When the web is thus separated from the stent, it is made up PACKING. 461 into bundles in the same way as in the leaf, and is laid in bulk for farther process. The stems have been generally thrown away, or burnt with refuse tobacco for the purpose of soap-ashes; but the introduction of snuff-mills has, within a few years back, found a more economical use for them.” As soon as the tobacco has been stripped it is ready for PACKING. It is necessary to pack the “hands” after stripping in order to keep it moist, or in nearly the same condition as when stripped. Select a cool place, not too dry or too damp, but one where if properly protected, the tobacco will remain moist. It should be packed loosely or compact, according as PACKING. the hands are moist or dry. It may be packed in the center of the floor so that it may be examined from either side, or against the sides of the packing house, as may be thought best. Hand the tobacco to the packer, who presses the hands firmly with his knees and hands, laying the tobacco in two tiers and keeping the pile at about the same height until 462 MISSISSIPPI CARRETS. all is packed. If possible pack all together, that is, each kind by itself, as it is better to have the wrappers or fillers all together rather than in several places, as the moisture is retained better than when it is packed in small piles or heaps. Use in packing a plank or board, placing it against the front of the tier and bring the ends of the hands up against it. This will make the tobacco look much better and also render the process of packing firmer. The tobacco may be packed any height or length desired, according to the quantity, but usually from three to four feet high will be found to be convenient while the length may be proportioned to the height or not. Tobacco may be packed by the cord or half cord so as to be able to judge of the quantity—good large wrappers averaging a ton to the cord. Secondsand Fillers will not contain as many pounds to the cord as wrappers. After the tobacco is packed, cover first with boards—planed onesare preferable,—or even shing- les—and press firmly, especially if the tobacco is dry, then cover with blankets or any kind of covering, adding plank or pieces of timber if additional pressure is needed. It can now remain packed until sold or cased, and will hardly need — to be examined unless packed while very damp or kept packed until warm weather. Wailes says of planting by the early planters of tobacco in Mississippi :— “The larger planters packed it in the usual way in hogs- heads. Much of it, however, was put up in carrets, as they were called, resembling in size and form two small sugar- loafs united at the larger ends. The stemmed tobacco was laid smoothly together in that form coated with wrappers of the extended leaf, enveloped in a cloth, and then firmly compressed by a cord wrapped around the parcel, and which was suffered to remain until the carret acquired the necessary dryness and solidity, when together with the surrounding cloth, it was removed, and strips of lime-bark were bound around it at proper distances, in such a manner as to secure it from unwrapping and losing its proportions.” In Turkey, after the tobacco is made into bundles or hands, it is piled against the walls inside the dwelling rooms and ‘a CASING. 463 carefully graduated pressure put upon it until ready for baling. In Java, when the tobacco is ready to pack the leafis examined, and if found quite brown, it is tightly pressed and packed up either in boxes or matting for exportation, or in the bark of the tree plantain, for immediate sale. The next process on the tobacco plantation is that of PRIZING, CASING, AND BALING. The term prizing originated in Virginia, and as performed by the early planters, is thus described by an old writer on tobacco culture :— “Prizing, in the sense in which it is to be taken here is, perhaps, a local word, which the Virginians may claim the credit of creating, or at least of adopting; it is at best tech- nical, and must be defined to be the act of pressing or squeezing the article which is to be packed into any package, by means of certain levers, screws, or other mechanical powers; so that the size of the article may be reduced in stowage, and the air expressed so as to render it less pregnable by outward accident, or exterior injury, than it would be in its natural condition. “The operation of prizing, however, requires the combi- nation of judgment and experience; for the commodity may otherwise become bruised by the mechanic action, and this will have an effect similar to that of prizing in too high case, which signifies that degree of moisture which produces all the risks of fermentation, and subjects the plant to be shat- tered into rags. The ordinary apparatus for prizing consists of the prize beam, the platform, the blocks, and the cover. The prize beam is a lever formed of a young tree or sapling, of about ten inches diameter at the butt or thicker end, and about twenty or twenty-five feet in length; but in crops where many hands are employed, and a sufficient force always near for the occasional assistance of managing a more weighty leverage, this beam is often made of a larger tree, hewn on two of its sides to about six inches thick, and of the natural width, averaging twelve or fourteen inches. The thick end of this beam is so squared as to forma tenon, which is fitted into a mortise that is dug through some growing tree, or other, of those which generally abound con- venient to the tobacco house, something more than five feet above the platform. Close to the root of this tree, and 464. OLD STYLE. immediately under the most powerful point of the lever, a platform or floor of plank is constructed for the hogshead to stand upon during the operation of prizing. This must be laid upon a solid foundation, levelled, upon hewn pieces of PRIZING IN OLDEN TIMES. wood as sleepers ; and so grooved and perforated that any wet or rain which may happen to fall upon the platform may run off without injuring the tobacco. Blocks of wood are prepared about two feet in length, and about three or four inches in diameter, with a few blocks of greater dimensions, for the purpose of raising the beam to a suitable purchase; and a movable roof constructed of clap-boards nailed upon pairs of light rafters, of sufficient size to shelter the platform and hogshead, is made ready to place astride of the beam, as a saddle is put upon a horse’s back, in order to secure the tobacco from the weather while it is subjected to this tedious part of the process. “That part of the apparatus which is designed to manage and give power to the lever is variously constructed: in some instances two beams of timber about six feet long, and squared to four by six inches, are prepared; through these, by means of an auger hole, a sapling of hickory or other tough wood, is respectively passed; and the root thereof being formed like the head of a pin to prevent its slipping through the hole, the sapling is bent like a bow, and the other end is passed through the same piece of wood in a reversed direction, in which position it is wedged. These two bows are in this manner hung by the sapling loops upon RESISTANCE TO DAMPNESS. 465 the end of the prize beam or lever; and loose planks or slabs of about five or six feet long being laid b= these suspended pieces of timber, a kind of hanging floor or platform is constructed, upon which weights are designed to act as ina scale.