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The Soverane Herbe

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2015

https://archive.org/details/b23983796

A tobacconist's shop, temp. JAMES I.
From Brathwait's ' Smoaking Age,' 1617.

The

Soverane Herbe

A History of Tobacco

A Tobacco Drinker, 1623

BY

W. A. PENN

With Illustrations hv W. Hartley

London
Grant Richards

New York : E. P. Button & Co.
19OI

' Of all the weeds grown on earth, sure the nicotian is the
most soothing and salutary.' — Esmond.

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1 DATE
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PREFACE

Fifty years ago Tobacco in England was at its lowest
ebb. Snuff was declining in favour, and the increasing
practice of smoking was being opposed bitterly by
Society. * To drink tobacco ' was then far from being
considered the gentleoianly accomplishment that it
was in the reign of Elizabeth or the harmless hobby
that it is now. Smoking was regarded as a low
vulgar practice, to be indulged in by only artisans,
Bohemians, and the scum of society. Only within
the last twenty years has smoking regained the social
position that it held in the golden age of Queen Bess
and the stern times of the seventeenth century. It
is no longer scorned and sneered at, nor its practice
relegated to the stable. It has lived down calumny
and survived the satire and frown of Mrs. Grundy
and the death sentence of the medical profession. It
has come again to be regarded as one of the greatest
boons with which man has been blessed.

VI

Preface

So great has been the progress of tobacco during
the last half century that no apology is needed in
presenting this history of the ' Soverane Herb ' — its
discovery, trials and adventures, its use in various
ages, countries, and forms, and its growth and manu-
facture. Since Fairholt's ' Tobacco,' published in
1859, ^his is the first attempt to chronicle the career
of ' the plant of wondrous feature ' in a manner befit-
ting the subject. Some of the story has been par-
tially told by various pamphleteers, but this volume
contains much matter that has never been brought
together before, rendering it, as I hope and believe,
the most complete history of tobacco yet published.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER rAGl':

THF RFfllNNING OF SMOKING

I

II.

THF TRIAL OF TOBACCO - - -

24

III.

TORACro'S WORLD TRIUMPH

X ±jAW^\^\y O V f V,' Xx X^X^ X XX X W XTX X XX

IV.

J'

V.

SOCIAL PROGRESS OF TOBACCO

- 75

VI.

THE TOBACCO PLANT : ITS CULTIVATION -

- 98

VII.

THE MANUFACTURE OF TOBACCO -

- 118

VIII.

PIPES - ... -

- 138

IX.

HOW PIPES ARE MADE

- 163

X.

CIGARS -----

- 178

XI.

CIGARETTES - - - - -

- 196

XII.

SMOKE STATISTICS - - - -

- 206

XIII.

THE LITERATURE OF TOBACCO

- 217

XIV.

TOBACCO AND GENIUS

- 236

XV.

SNUFF AND SNUFF-TAKERS

- 259

XVI.

NICOTIANA - - - - .

- 278

XVII.

THE HYGIENE OF TOBACCO

- 296

XVIII.

TO SMOKE OR NOT TO SMOKE? -

- 311

INDEX - . - . .

- 321

V

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

A tobacconist's shop temp. JAMES I. - Frontispiece

ASIATIC PIPES - - - - -To face p. 50

old ENGLISH PIPES - - - . „ 80

PIPES OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS - „ 138

AFRICAN AND OTHER PIPES - - - 160

THE SOVERANE HERBE

CHAPTER I

THE BEGINNING OF SMOKING

Smoking originated as a religious rite — Its evolution from
incense — First seen by Columbus — Described by Gonzalo —
The first pipe, Tobago — Origin of word 'tobacco' — Its
names in America — Practice common in the New World —
Descriptions of its use by the early travellers — Introduced
into Europe — Was smoking practised in the Old World
before the discovery of America ? — Use of herbal fumes by
ancients— Smoking unknown until brought from America.

The first man who ate an oyster is proverbial ; the
inventor of roast pig is immortally enshrined ; but
the first smoker is unknown. He is robed in no
legend and enwreathed by no fable. Poets have
not sung him, artists have not pictured him, nor
have historians traced his rise and conquests, greater
than those of Mahomet. Yet there is no practice
so curious and universal as that of inhaling the
smoke of tobacco. We have no story of the hero
who dared the world's first smoke, of his fortitude
under its tribulations, of his constancy, and of the

I

2 The Soverane Herbe

rarest joys which fell to him, the first smoker. There
was, indeed, no such person.

And to the true smoker's sense of the eternal
fitness of things this silence accords well with the
divinity of the herb. Nicotia had no birth, and
smoking no beginning ; they know not Time. With
the other herbs of the field tobacco rose from chaos,
and smoking had its being in the earliest and deepest
feelings of man's soul.

The origin of the strange practice of inhaling the
fumes of tobacco must not be sought among the
pleasures of primitive man. It was as a religious
rite that smoking originated ; the burning of tobacco
was an expression of man's homage to the Great
Spirit. The burning of incense or spices has had
a place in the worship of all peoples from time
immemorial ; and as myrrh and frankincense were
offered in the East, so was tobacco in the West.
Among all the aboriginal peoples of the Americas,
from Cape Horn to Hudson's Bay, tobacco was
regarded as a sacred plant, as the special gift of the
gods to man. It was this fact that led European
writers, Spenser among them, to term tobacco on
its introduction the ' holy,' the ' divine ' herb. What
was local colour then is a mere euphemism now. It
was as incense that tobacco was first used by the
American Indians, the leaf being dried, powdered,
and then burnt as a sacrifice, as any aromatic herb
might be.

The sacred character and use of tobacco were
noted by all the early travellers in America. Hariot,
in the first English account of the Indian practice

The Beginning of Smoking 3

of smoking, writes, that uppoivoc, or tobacco, ' is
of so precious estimation among them that they
think that their gods are so marvellously delighted
therewith ; wherefore they make hallowed fire, and
cast some of their powder therein for a sacrifice.
Being cast in a storm upon the water, to pacify their
god they cast some up into the air and into the
water ; so a weir for fish being newly set up they
cast some therein and into the air ; also after an
escape of danger they cast some into the air like-
wise ; but all done with strange gestures, stamping,
sometime dancing, clapping of hands and staring
up into the heavens, uttering therewithal and chatter-
ing strange words and noises.'

When the Indians of North America, in Drake
and his crew, first saw white men, they took them
for gods, and so presented to them bags of their
finest tobacco. The Iroquois and Dakota Indians
still burn tobacco as incense to their gods. Catlin,
travelling among the red men seventy years ago,
was told by them that they smoked to the Great
Spirit through their red-stone pipes.

Imperceptibly the burning of tobacco passed from
a religious rite into a daily practice of pleasure. The
evolution was along the line of least resistance, the
physical and moral weaknesses of man. From burn-
ing tobacco as a sacrifice the medicine or mystery
man evolved the inspiration of the fume. By inhaling
the smoke of the holy herb he claimed to enter into
communication with the Great Spirit in the stupor
produced by the smoke. To him, as to the oracle
of Delphi and the witch-doctors of savage tribes,

I — 2

4 The Soverane Herbe

matters of great moment and perplexity were brought
for counsel. Like the priestess of the Delphic oracle,
the medicine-man brooded over the fire, inspiring
the smoke of the tobacco-sacrifice in order to obtain
the help of the divine. Awaking from the stupor, he
related what the gods had vouchsafed to tell him for
the guidance of men. This was the inspiration of
tobacco, literally and metaphorically.

The medicine-man was the physician as well as
the prophet of the tribe. To him came the sick
and injured, and for all the ills to which flesh is
heir he prescribed the smoke of the holy herb — i.e.,
the care of the gods. The sick man was set to
inhale the smoke of tobacco until he was intoxicated
with it. Benzoni, who witnessed this in Central
America, records that this was the chief method
of curing sickness. ' On returning to his senses
the sick man told a thousand stories of his having
been at the council of the gods and other high
visions.'

The primitive manner of the inspiration of the
tobacco smoke was to brood over the burning leaves
as the Delphic priestess of Apollo was inspired by
the fumes of smouldering herbs over which she sat.
This clumsy method involved the fumigation of the
whole head with the inhalation of the minimum
quantity of the prophetic smoke. The next and
most obvious step would be the use of a hollow
reed or tube which, thrust into the burning tobacco
incense, enabled the prophet or patient to inhale the
smoke without fumigating his eyes or head. Thus
came the first pipe.

The Beginning of Smoking 5

The primitive form of this was the tobago, as used
in San Domingo when the Spaniards landed there.
This was a hollow forked cane, ' about a span long,
and as thick as the little finger,' resembling a Y in
shape. The two ends were placed in the nostrils,
and the other end over a small pastille of the burn-
ing leaves, and the smoke thus drawn up into the
nose and head. ' Such of the Indians/ wrote Oviedo
in 1526, 'as cannot procure a forked stick use a
reed or hollow cane for the purpose of inhaling the
smoke.' Speedily following the introduction of the
reed would be the making of a receptacle at one
end of the reed, or tube, to hold the smouldering
tobacco, and thus remove the necessity of kindling
a fire to offer incense and to seek the inspiration of
the holy herb.

First burnt as incense, tobacco gradually became
the inspiration in times of trouble and the remedy
in disease. As imperceptibly as the youth ostenta-
tiously puffing a puerile cigarette becomes the
seasoned smoker, so the sacred rite became the
common practice. The resource on certain occi-
sions passed into the general habit. Once initiated
into the mysteries of tobacco by the priest, man
returned to it with whetted appetite. Instead of
delegating his affairs to the medicine -man, he
personally sought the inspiration and help of the
gods and tobacco. The smoke, too, that cured
disease would as surely prevent it. Moreover, the
very act of smoking was the offering of a sacrifice
to the Great Spirit. Thus gradually the smoking
and inspiration of tobacco ceased to be a purely

6 The Soverane Herbe

religious ceremony for high days, and for times of
trouble and stress, and a remedy for disease ; it
became a common and a daily custom. From a
sacred rite it passed into an ordinary practice, with
which were still associated, when Europeans dis-
covered the New World, a moral, if not a religious,
significance, and established medicinal virtues.

The invention of the cigar or cigarette — the folding
of tobacco in a strip of maize — marked strongly the
secularization of smoking and the subjection of its
religious significance. Europeans, disregarding its
pagan purport, adopted the habit for its intrinsic
merits. And the smoker of to-day, lost in the first
blue balmy wreaths that float from his choice Havana
or well-burnt briar, little dreams that he is observing
a primitive religious rite, and that between his
entrancing vapour and the smoke of the censer
there is merely the difference of a continent and a
herb. Curiously enough, indeed, during the seven-
teenth century tobacco was used in English churches
as incense. There are frequent entries in church-
wardens' accounts of sums paid ' for tobacco and
frankincense burnt in church,' a combination of
paganism, sanitation, and symbolism.

When brought within the range of history by the
voyage of Columbus, smoking was general and
common throughout America, though still regarded
as a semi-religious and medicinal practice. The
strange Indian custom of drinking smoke appealed
to the Europeans as one of the greatest marvels of
the New World. It was first noticed by the crew of
Columbus in the November of 1492. Two sailors.

The Beginning of Smoking 7

sent to explore the Isle of Guahain (christened by
him San Salvador), on their return had a wonderful
story to tell of the many strange and marvellous
things they had seen. Not least of these was the
practice the natives had of carrying lighted fire-
brands, from which they inhaled smoke, afterwards
puffing it out of their mouths and noses. This the
Spaniards thought was the native manner of per-
fuming themselves. Closer intimacy taught them
that the Indians rolled up the leaves of a certain
plant in a strip of maize, set fire to the roll and
drank in the smoke. The surprise and wonder of
the Spaniards at this curious practice can be well
imagined. Little did they dream that Europe and
the whole world would soon become devotees of the
same strange custom.

The first clear account of the practice is that given
by Gonzalo Hernandez de Oviedo in his ' Historia
General de las Indias,' published in 1526, four years
after his return from San Domingo, where he was
Viceroy from i5i6to 1522. He describes the custom
of smoking, common among the natives of all the
islands, as 'very pernicious' and 'used to produce
insensibility.' In Cuba and most of the islands the
natives smoked what we now call cigars — 'rolls of
certain herbs wrapped up in a leaf, or rather of
leaves rolled together, which they call tobaccos.
These they lighted at one end and from the other
sucked in the smoke.' On the mainland the natives
smoked through the previously described tobago, or
nose-pipe. ' They thus inhale the smoke until they
become stupefied. . . . Their smoking instrument,

8 The Soverane Herbe

whether it be forked or merely a hollow cane, is
called tabaco by the Indians, who do not give this
name to the herb, nor to the stupor into which they
fall, as some have erroneously supposed.'

On his homeward voyage Columbus had discovered
an island Y-shaped, like the Indian pipe, and he
therefore christened it with the same name — Tobago.
As the first quantities of the herb introduced into
Europe came from this island, it came, according to
one authority, to be called tobacco. But it is not so
called from the island, nor the island from the herb,
but in reality from the pipe by which the Indians
inhaled it. Oviedo's warning that tabaco did not
mean the herb but the pipe was too late. Tabaco,
the name of the pipe, became the name of the herb.
* A pipe of tobacco ' is thus, etymologically speaking,
a senseless redundancy ; it is literally a pipe of a pipe.
Before Oviedo's explanation, the doubts as to whether
tobacco is called from a place in Yucatan, from the
island of Tobago, or from Tobasco in the Gulf of
Florida fade into nothingness. Tobacco derives its
name from the first pipe.

The native name of the herb, indeed, varied in
every part of America, though its use was common
to all parts of the continent. The Carribees called
it cohiba, the natives of Virginia uppowoc, and the
Brazilians petun. In Mexico it was called piecelt,
and in other parts it was termed yoli.

In every part of the New World European ex-
plorers found that smoking was commonly practised.
Francisco Lorez de Gormara, who accompanied
Cortez to Mexico, describes smoking as general in

The Beginning of Smoking 9

that country. Montezuma had his pipe brought in
with much ceremony by the chief ladies of his court
after he had dined, and smoked it in state. Benzoni,
of Milan, in the account of his travels in America
from 1 541 to 1546, minutely describes the practice.
In Hispaniola the natives stored and dried the
tobacco-leaves. ' When they wish to use them they
take a leaf of the grain [maize], and putting one of
the others into it, they roll them round tight
together ; then they set fire to one end, and putting
the other end into the mouth, they draw their breath
up through it, wherefore the smoke goes into the
mouth, the throat, the head, and they retain it as
long as they can, for they find a pleasure in it, and
so much do they fill themselves with this cruel smoke
that they lose their reason. And there are some who
take so much of it that they fall down as if they were
dead and remain the greater part of the day and
night stupefied. Some men are found who are content
with imbibing enough of this smoke to make them
giddy and no more. See,' concludes Benzoni in a
sentence worthy of James I. — ' See what a wicked and
pestiferous poison this must be.'

Jacques Cartier, in his voyage up the St. Lawrence
I535> found tobacco as highly prized in bleak
Canada as in the warmer regions of Central America.
'The Indians,' he wrote, 'have a certain herb, of
which they lay up a store every summer, having first
dried it in the sun. It is used only by men. They
always carry some of it in a small bag hanging round
their necks. In this bag they also keep a hollow
tube of wood or stone. Before using the herb they

lo The Soverane Herbe

pound it to powder, which they cram into one end of
the tube and plug it with red-hot charcoal. They
then suck themselves so full of the smoke that it
oozes from their mouths like smoke from the flue of a
chimney. They say the habit is most wholesome :
but when we tried to use the smoke we found it bit
our tongues like pepper.'

In ' The Briefe and True Account of the New
Found Land of Virginia,' published in 1588, Hariot
gave the first account of tobacco to the English.
' There is an herb/ he wrote, * which is sowed apart
by itself, and is called by the inhabitants uppowoc.
In the West Indies it hath divers names according to
the several places and countries where it groweth
and is used. The Spaniards call it tobacco. The
leaves thereof being dried and brought to powder,
they use to take the fume or smoke thereof by
sucking it through pipes made of clay into their
stomachs and head, from whence it purgeth super-
fluous and other gross humours ; openeth all the
pores and passages of the body, by which means the
use thereof not only preserveth the body from obstruc-
tions, but also if any be so that they have not been
of too long continuance, in short time breaketh them ;
whereby their bodies are notably preserved in health
and know not many grievous diseases wherewith we
in England are oftentimes affected.'

From these and other accounts it is evident that
Europeans found smoking a universal practice in the
New World. In the West Indian islands, still the
home of the cigar, the natives smoked tobacco-leaves
simply rolled or sheathed in maize-leaf On the

The Beginning of Smoking 1 1

mainland tobacco was first powdered and then
smoked through a pipe, of which there were three
kinds — the forked tobago, a simple hollow reed, and
a pipe of stone as Cartier describes.

More than natural virtues were attributed to
tobacco. It was regarded as a gift from the Great
Spirit for man's enjoyment and benefit. Believing
that the Great Spirit smoked tobacco, the herb was
deemed sacred, and its use a laudable, if not a
religious, practice. According to the legend of the
Susquehannah Indians, in the beginning they had
only the flesh of animals to eat, failing which they
starved. One day, so ran the story, two hunters
were broiling part of a deer they had just killed,
when they saw a maiden of surpassing beauty
descend from the sky and seat herself on a hill
close by. Presuming that she was a goddess who
had smelt their venison, they offered her their
greatest delicacy, the tongue of the deer. She
accepted the dainty, and being pleased therewith,
promised to reward their kindness, telling them to
return to the place after thirteen moons. After a
year the hunters returned and found maize growing
where the goddess's right hand had touched the hill,
kidney beans where her left hand had rested, and
tobacco where she had sat.

Tobacco and smoking played a great part in the
social and religious economy of the Red Indians.
War was proclaimed by the sending round of the
pipe of war, and peace declared by the solemn
smoking of the calumet of peace. The medicine-
man administered tobacco to cure illness; and his

12 The Soverane Herbe

prophecies were literally inspired by tobacco. He
smoked himself into a state of stupefaction, and on
returning to his senses told of the knowledge he had
gained at the council of the gods. The red-stone
quarry from which they dug the material for their
pipes was sacred ground, where members of all tribes
met in peace and amity. Tobacco was the American's
constant companion, so much so that time and dis-
tance were reckoned by pipes : * I was one pipe (of
time) doing it '; or * The place is seven pipes
distant.'

And the omnipotence of tobacco was soon to
become world-wide. The herb burnt and inhaled by
the savages of America was erelong to be the solace
of all mankind, and the inspiration of the world's
greatest men. Though noticed by Columbus on his
first voyage to America, and well known to all
Europeans subsequently visiting the New World,
tobacco was not introduced into Europe until the
latter half of the sixteenth century. To Francis
Hernandez de Toledo, a physician sent by Philip 11.
of Spain to investigate the products of Mexico, is
generally awarded the honour of having brought
tobacco into Europe. The date of this is fixed as
1559. He cultivated it in Spain for medicinal
purposes and for ornament. It was, indeed, as a
drug that tobacco came into the Old World.

From Spain it was introduced into other countries.
In the same year (1559) Jean Nicot, Lord of Ville-
main, was sent as Ambassador of France to the
Court of Portugal. In Lisbon he purchased some
tobacco-leaves and seed from a Fleming, who traded

The Beginning of Smoking 13

with Florida, and sent them to the Grand Prior of
France, describing the plant as a * herb of peculiarly-
pleasant taste, good medicinally and in fevers.'
From the name of its recipient tobacco was first
known in France zs Herbe du Grand Prieur. Nicot
returned to Paris in 1 561, and presented some tobacco-
plants to Catherine de Medici. Her acceptance of
them caused the name to be changed, out of compli-
ment to the herb's royal patron, to Herbe de la Reine
and Herbe Medicie.

In France, as elsewhere, tobacco was strictly re-
garded as a medicine. Physicians described its
remedial powers as miraculous, and for a long time
in France it was cultivated as a drug in botanical
gardens only. It was prescribed by doctors in the
form of snuff, and in this guise tobacco has always
been most popular in France. Though the smoking
of it was unknown then, it possessed titles enough to
satisfy the pride of a Spaniard. It was variously
known as panacee antarctique (southern heal-all), herbe
sainte, herbe sacrie, herbe propre d tous maux, herbe de
r ambassadeur (in reference to Nicot), but its most
popular title was that of nicotaine, from its god-
father, the Lord of Villemain. The part he played
in introducing the divine weed into Europe has
invested his name with immortality in the word
nicotine.'

From Portugal, also, tobacco was introduced into
Italy. Remembering how in after years it fell under
the ban of the Church, it is curious that in Italy, as
in France, it was introduced under the sponsorship of
a Churchman. In 1589 Cardinal Prosper de Santa

14 The Soverane Herbe

Croix, returning from Portugal, whither he had been
as Papal Nuncio, took some tobacco-plants with him
to Italy, where it was called, in honour of its patron,
Erba Santa Croce. The Cardinal himself owed his
name to an ancestor's deeds in transporting a portion
of the true Cross from Palestine to Rome, and a
seventeenth century poetaster declared that this
worthy's descendant had won equal fame by carrying
tobacco into Italy. About the same time as the
Cardinal's return with tobacco, a French envoy also
took the plant into Italy, and for some time it was
called Tornabona, after him, in some districts.

Not until some years after its introduction to the
Continent did tobacco find its way to England, and
then, as an instance of our insularity and indepen-
dence of Europe, it was brought direct from America.
The exact date it is difficult to determine, and not
easier to whom rightfully to ascribe the honour of its
introduction. Popularly Raleigh is regarded as the
patron saint of smoking in England, but there is
little doubt that he did not introduce it, though he
as certainly popularized the practice, and made it
fashionable.

Taylor, the Water Poet, says that tobacco was first
brought into England in 1565 by Sir John Hawkins,
and quaintly adds : ' It is a doubtful question whether
the devil brought tobacco into England in a coach,
for both appeared about the same time.'

Stow, in his ' Annals,' states that tobacco, ' that
stinking weed so much abused to God's dishonour,'
came into England about the twentieth year (1577)
of Queen Elizabeth, Lobelius, in ' Novum Stirpium

The Beginning of Smoking 15

Adversaria,' published at Antwerp, 1576, declared
that ' within these few years ' tobacco had become an
inmate of England. Camden cautiously says that
Drake and his companions were ' the first, as far as
we know, who introduced the Indian plant called
Tabacco or Nicotia into England, having been taught
by the Indians to use it as a remedy for Indigestion.'
Drake, as we have seen, had been presented with
bags of tobacco during his voyage round the world
twelve years earlier. Dr. Cotton Mather, in 'The
Christian Philosopher,' says that 'in 1585 one Mr. Lane
carried over some tobacco, which was the first seen in
Europe.'

There is thus a difference of twenty years as to
the date of the introduction of tobacco into England.
Taylor's date of 1565 lacks confirmation, and prob-
ably his hatred of coaches, which of course injured
his trade as a waterman, and tobacco made him link
the two together. Hume awards the distinction
to Drake, and there is little doubt that during
his voyages he and his crew smoked the Indian
herb. They may have brought tobacco back with
them to England, but there is little doubt that
in any quantity it was introduced by Ralph Lane,
the Governor of Raleigh's colony of Virginia. He
returned to England in 1586, and Hariot, his chroni-
cler, concludes his description of the Indian practice
of smoking, which we have quoted above, with the
party's personal experience of tobacco : ' We our-
selves, during the time we were there, used to suck
it after their manner, as also since our return, and
have found many rare and wonderful experiments

1 6 The Soverane Herbe

of the virtues thereof, of which the relation would
require a volume by itself The use of it by so
many of late, men and women, of great calling as
else, and some learned physitions also, is sufficient
witness,'

This is the first English description of the Indian
practice of smoking, and from Harlot's language it is
evident that the use of tobacco in England was of
quite recent origin — that it had grown up in the two
years' interval between Lane's return from Virginia,
in 1586, and Harlot's account of that colony in 1588.
Camden also supports Lane's claim to be the man
who introduced tobacco into England. Aubrey,
indeed, writing in 168 1, says that Sir Walter Raleigh
' was the first that brought tobacco into England, and
into fashion ' ; but the claim of Raleigh rests upon
the last clause. He was undoubtedly the first noted
smoker in England, and gave the practice a good
standing in society and at Court.

James I., in his * Counterblaste,' wrathfully says of
the discovery of Virginia : ' With the report of a great
discovery for a conquest some two or three savage
men were brought in, together [into England] with
this savage custom [z'.e., smoking]. But the pity of
it is that the poor, wild, barbarous men died, but that
vile barbarous custom is yet alive, yea, in fresh vigour.'
This statement places the question of the introduc-
tion of tobacco into England almost beyond dispute.
James here states that the discovery of Virginia and
the introduction of tobacco into this country were
contemporary, the latter the outcome of the former
event. Virginia was discovered by Captains Amidas

The Beginning of Smoking 17

and Barlow on Raleigh's first expedition in 1584.
A year later Lane, acting under Raleigh's orders,
attempted to establish a settlement there. He was
presented with the pipe of peace by the natives, and
brought back with him to England two Indians.
One of these died, to whom Trinculo in * The
Tempest ' refers, complaining, ' When they will not
give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out
ten to see a dead Indian.'

The sailors of Hawkins', Drake's, and Grenville's
expeditions — for each of whom the introduction is
claimed — were probably the first people to smoke
tobacco in England, but inferences, as well as direct
assertions, point to Lane as being the one who
actually brought tobacco into this country. The
popular transference of the honour is easily explained.
Virginia, whence the first tobacco was brought, was
founded by Raleigh, Lane being his lieutenant or
deputy. Thus indirectly Raleigh introduced tobacco
into England, and he certainly made its use common
and fashionable.

But these questions are minor considerations ; it is
sufficient to know that tobacco was introduced into
England about 1585. The weed of wondrous feature
appeared at the psychological moment. The mind
of Europe was thrilling with the afterglow of the
Renaissance when tobacco came to soothe and to
stimulate. Truly, as Charles Lamb wrote :

* The Old World was sure forlorn
Wanting thee !'

Before proceeding to sketch the progress of tobacco

2

1 8 The Soverane Herbe

in Europe, the questions as to whether smoking was
practised in Europe before the sixteenth century,
and whether tobacco originated in the East, and
not in the West, should be considered. It has been
asserted by some writers that smoking was practised
in Europe and Asia long before the discovery of
America.

The remedial inspiration of the smoke of various
herbs and substances dates back to very ancient
times. Dioscorides states that the Greeks inhaled the
fume of dried coltsfoot through a funnel for difficulty
in breathing, and Pliny notes that the Romans in-
haled the same smoke through a reed for the relief of
old coughs. But these were as strictly remedies as
the inhalation of steam in cases of bronchitis. More
to the point are the instances of the burning and the
inhaling of the smoke of various narcotic plants.
The Thracians burnt the seeds of certain aromatic
plants and inhaled the perfume. Herodotus states
that the Scythians used to inspire the smoke of
hemp-seed for the sake of the transient intoxication
it produced. Covering their heads with a rug, they
placed hemp-seed on red-hot stones, and inhaled the
smoke which arose.

Lieutenant Walpole, the celebrated Arabian travel-
ler, declared that an ancient Arabic manuscript which
he had seen in Mosul stated that Nimrod smoked.
In confirmation he cited a picture on an Assyrian
cylinder in the British Museum. This picture subse-
quent inquiries have been unable to identify, while
the Arabic manuscript bears internal evidence of
having been written in the seventeenth century,

The Beginning of Smoking 19

reference actually being made to Dr. Everard's
treatise on tobacco, published in 1659. Similarly
Dr. Yates discovered on an ancient Egyptian tomb-
stone what he believed to represent a party of men
smoking ; in reality it is a picture of glass-blowers at
work. EuHa Effendi, the Turkish traveller, stated
that he found a pipe embedded in a building con-
structed before the time of Mahomet, it being asserted
by some that it was unlawful for true Moslems to
smoke. By this discovery, however, the conscience
of the orthodox was satisfied, Eulia proving the
authenticity of the find by the assertion that the pipe
smelt of tobacco ! Against these wild assertions it is
merely necessary to point out that in the ' Arabian
Nights,' that mirror of Eastern life, no reference is
made to smoking, and that in the seventeenth century
smoking was prohibited in Turkey, Persia and India
under penalty of death.

Many antiquaries have laboured to prove that the
smoking of herbs — grey lichen and coltsfoot — was
common in this country in the times of the Romans
and ancient Britons, as well as the later English. The
discovery of pipes of bronze, iron and clay in com-
pany with Roman remains has been cited as proof.
But subterranean deposits become strangely mixed ;
coins of the Stuarts and a tobacco-stopper of the
reign of George II, have been found with Roman
pottery and weapons. It is as absurd to suppose
that the Romans used the Merry Monarch's coins as
that they pressed down their coltsfoot-loaded pipes
with a tobacco-stopper of George II. In 1784 a
grave of great age was unearthed at Bannockstown, in

2 — 2

20 The Soverane Herbe

Kildare. The skeleton was asserted to be that of
an ancient Milesian, and in his jaw was found a
tobacco-pipe. Antiquaries at once showed to their
own satisfaction that this relic proved smoking was
practised in Ireland ages before the invasion of the
Danes. Examination of the pipe, however, proved
it to be identical with those used in the reign of
Elizabeth. Pipes of bronze are frequently found in
Irish tumuli; such pipes were largely used in the
seventeenth century, and large numbers have been
found on the battlefield of the Boyne, and at Chester,
where the troops of William III. encamped before
embarking for Ireland.

No pipe or tobacco-instrument has ever been un-
earthed which has not borne unequivocal witness,
in design or character, to its manufacture since the
reign of Elizabeth.

Sculptured evidence is equally false. The monu-
ment of Donough O'Brien, King of Thomond, who
died in 1267, in Corcumrae Abbey, County Clare,
represents him in the usual recumbent posture with a
short pipe, or dhudeen, in his mouth. On one of the
ancient chimney-pieces in Cawdor Castle there is a
stone carving of a fox smoking a tobacco-pipe. The
date of this chimney-piece and carving is confidently
declared by antiquaries to be 15 10. Granting that
the tomb and chimney-piece are over six hundred and
four hundred years old respectively, do their engrav-
ings prove the corresponding age of the smoking habit ?
Is the pipe part of the original carving or the later
addition of an idle or skilled hand ? There are not
wanting vandals who would not scruple to add a

The Beginning of Smoking 21

pipe to a picture or carving of pre-Elizabethan times.
Nothing is easier to add, and to give the whole an air
of verisimilitude. To conclude from a pipe on an
ancient Irish monument that smoking was practised
in the twelfth century is as reasonable as to argue from
the Cawdor chimney-piece that foxes smoked tobacco
in the reign of Henry VIII.

Perhaps grey lichen and coltsfoot were smoked
medicinally in England before tobacco was intro-
duced. But these were as strictly remedies and
medicinal as is the inhalation of steam in bronchitis.
They no more prove the antiquity of tobacco-
smoking in England than the ancient use of infusions
of herbs as medicines proves the use of tea in the
England of Alfred. It is true that lichen is still
smoked in Scotland and coltsfoot in England, but
peasants only resort to these herbs when they are
unable to procure tobacco.

But the most conclusive proof that smoking of
herbs, much less of tobacco, was unknown in the Old
World before the introduction of the habit from the
New is that nowhere is the practice referred to by
historians or poets. Further, the American practice
of smoking is so minutely described by writers of the
sixteenth century, and later, on it becoming common
in Europe, so strongly condemned, the use of the
foreign weed being repeatedly referred to as an inno-
vation, that it is impossible to believe that smoking
in any shape or form was a common or even an occa-
sional custom. Even the inhalation of herbal fumes
as medicine must have been much less common than
has been supposed, as the practice of the Indians

22 The Soverane Herbe

is never compared to any European custom which,
though rare, would suggest itself at once to any writer
as the best means of explaining the Indian manner
of smoking.

The laws and prohibitory penalties enacted against
smoking by European and Asiatic potentates still
further support this contention. To all parts of
Africa and Asia tobacco was introduced by Euro-
peans. There is a Chinese tradition that tobacco
was introduced into that country with the Yuen
Dynasty, about A.D. 1300. Beyond tradition there is
no support for this assertion, and it seems more likely
that tobacco was first carried there by the Dutch in
the beginning of the seventeenth century. Others
hold that the aboriginal American emigrated from
China, taking with him tobacco and the practice of
smoking it, thus regarding China as the birthplace of
smoking. This does not agree with the Chinese
traditional account of the introduction of tobacco
into the Celestial Empire, nor can the two theories
in any way be reconciled. And though there are
over forty varieties of the tobacco-plant now known,
the existence of none in the Old World can be traced
back to before 1500 A.D.

There is, indeed, no reasonable doubt that tobacco
and smoking were unknown in Europe, Asia, or
Africa until brought from the New World. From
the West came the weed of glorious feature. It is
strange that meditative, philosophic tobacco should
come from the busy, active West ; it seems far more
like the offspring of the dreamy, poetic East.

' Tobacco,' wrote Cowper, ' was not known in the

The Beginning of Smoking 23

Golden Age. So much the worse for the Golden
Age. This age of iron or lead would have been
insupportable without it, and therefore we may
reasonably suppose that the happiness of those
better days would have been much improved by
the use of it.'.

CHAPTER II

THE TRIAL OF TOBACCO

Tobacco first used by adventurers in privation — Raleigh the
godfather of smoking — Elizabeth and tobacco — Raleigh
persecuted by James I. for his introduction of tobacco —
Introduced into England as a medicine — Some prescrip-
tions— Its popularity excited opposition — Measures against
smoking — Tobacco duty raised 4,000 per cent, by James I.
— Culture in England forbidden — Tobacco discussed in
Parliament — Monopoly of sale — Prohibited in France by
Louis XIII. — Pope Urban VIII.'s Bull against it — Its per-
secution everywhere — Austria — Tobacco carried into the
East — Banned by the Greek Church — Prohibited in Russia
and Turkey on pain of death— Swiss law against smoking.

' Who,' asked Sir Kenelm Digby, in his * Observa-
tions upon Religio Medici,' * was ever delighted vi^ith
tobacco the first time he took it? And who could
willingly be without it after he was a while habituated
to the use of it ?'

In nothing is the subtle charm of smoking more
clearly shown than in its primitive repulsiveness and
subsequent delight to man. History records no other
such conquest as that obtained by tobacco over the
whole world. In less than a century the strange,
amazing practice of the inhabitants of America
became universal. The Old World discovered and

The Trial of Tobacco 2 5

conquered the New, and in turn tobacco even more
completely subjugated the Old.

As Hariot more than hints, Englishmen first took
tobacco to appease their hunger and relieve their
privations during their expeditions to the New World.
Thus, at first tobacco was confined to sailors and
travellers, who resorted to it of necessity ; they soon
found that the practice was more palatable than
those which the mother of invention usually imposes.
From his deputies in the settlement of Virginia
Raleigh acquired the habit, and smoked not of neces-
sity but of freewill, for pleasure. Perhaps heeding
the eulogies of physicians in their first flush of enthu-
siasm over tobacco, he smoked as a preventive against
the damp and fogs of Ireland, in which he was
stationed as Governor of Kilcolman, with Edmund
Spenser as companion, in 1586-1587. He cultivated
tobacco near Cork and Youghal. In the garden of
Youghal Manor House there still stand four yew-
trees, forming an arbour where Raleigh is said to
have smoked his first pipe, and many subsequent
ones.

Apart from the delight he experienced in smoking
tobacco, by making the practice known Raleigh was
creating a demand for the herb of Virginia, and thus,
in some measure, working for the success of his ill-
starred settlement. The story of Raleigh, when
smoking, being drenched with ale by a servant who
thought he was on fire was a stock jest with Eliza-
bethan and later dramatists, the anecdote being
found in numerous guises. It is certain that Raleigh
was intensely devoted to tobacco, and smoked it on

26 The Soverane Herbe

every occasion. In Sir Robert Acton's park he
' tooke a pipe of tobacco, which made the ladies quitte
him till he had done.' He also sought consolation
in his pipe when witnessing the execution of his old
friend Essex.

Before the Queen he also smoked. It is not on
record that Elizabeth ever tried a whiff of the divine
herb, but it is quite possible she did. Elizabeth was
but little feminine ; tobacco was then smoked by both
men and women, and it is easy to imagine Henry's
bold daughter indulging in a puff or two out of mere
curiosity. The Queen, at all events, did not object
to, much less condemn, the practice, for she per-
mitted Raleigh his pipe in the royal presence
Doubtless, however, she had been twitting him on
his devotion to it when he replied :

' I can assure your Majesty that I have so well
experienced the nature of it that I can tell even the
weight of the smoke in any quantity I consume.'

* I doubt it much, Sir Walter,' replied Elizabeth,
holding it was impossible to weigh smoke, ' and will
wager you twenty angels that you do not solve my
doubt'

Gallantly accepting the bet, Raleigh filled his pipe
with a weighed quantity of tobacco, smoked it out,
and then, weighing the resultant ashes, announced
the weight he had smoked away.

'Your Majesty cannot deny that the difference
hath been evaporated in smoke.'

'Truly, I cannot,' answered the Queen.

Ordering the wager to be paid, she turned to the
courtiers around her, and said :

The Trial of Tobacco 27

' Many alchemists have I heard of who turned gold
into smoke, but Raleigh is the first who has turned
smoke into gold,'

There is little doubt that Raleigh owed much of
his persecution at the hands of James I. to his love of
tobacco. In the British Solomon's famous ' Counter-
blaste,' after referring to ' the foolish and groundless
first entry thereof into this kingdome,' he says :

* This present age can very well remember both
the first author and the form of the first introduction
of it amongst us. It was neither brought in by
King, great nor learned Doctor of Physic. ... It
seems a miracle to me how a custom springing from
so vile a ground, and brought in by a father so gener-
ally hated, should be welcomed on so slender a
warrant.'

This clearly refers to Raleigh. James appears
in a far from regal, and still less divine, character in
his attitude towards Raleigh and tobacco. But
Raleigh's love for the divine herb was unaffected by
James's petty hatred and persecution. As it had
amused him during the sunny days of his favour with
Elizabeth and comforted him during his banishment in
Ireland, so in it he found consolation and solace in
the Tower. It soothed his griefs, and inspired him
to write his famous ' History.' To tobacco he was
faithful to the last. Old Aubrey records that Raleigh
soothed his soul with a pipe a short time before his
execution : ' He tooke a pipe of tobacco a little before
he went to the scaffold, which some female persons
were scandalized at ; but I think it was well and
properly done to settle his spirits.'

2 8 The Soverane Herbe

It was in the guise of a medicine that tobacco
came into England and the rest of the Old World.
Drake and his men are reported to have first used it
as a remedy for indigestion, as the Indians themselves
did. Chewing tobacco was also practised by sailors
as a cure for and preventive against scurvy. Return-
ing to England, these sailors and pioneers in the use
of tobacco did not fail to tell the story of the new
herb's virtue, and the cures wrought by the strange
and curious manner of inhaling its fumes. Hariot,
in the account quoted in the last chapter, states
that many physicians supported these reports of the
power of tobacco, and testified to its merits as a
medicine.

Many books and treatises were written setting forth
the properties and virtues of the plant. ' It cureth,'
says one, ' any griefe, dolour, imposture or obstruction
proceeding of cold or winde, especially in the head
or breast. The fume taken in a pipe is good against
Rumes, Catarrhs, hoarseness, ache in the heade,
stomake, lungs, breast : also in want of meat, drinke,
sleepe or rest.' Sir William Vaughan held that a
pipe taken fasting on a raw or rainy morning in the
months spelt without the letter ' r ' (May, June, July,
and August) was * a singular and sodaine remedie
against the Megrim, the toothache, the falling sick-
nesse, the dropsie, the gout, and against all such
diseases as are caused of windy, cold, or waterish
humours.'

In the 'Trial of Tobacco' (1610) Dr. Edmund
Gardiner gives many prescriptions for the cure of
various diseases by the American herb. Difficulty

The Trial of Tobacco 29

of breathing was cured by smoking tobacco. ' A
sirup made of the decoction of this herb with suffi-
cient sugar, and so taken in a very small quantitie,
dischargeth the breast from phlegmatic matter.' A
tobacco ointment 'taketh away all paines' of gout.
' What,' asks this enthusiastic lover of the herb, ' is a
more noble medicine or more readie at hand than
Tobacco ?'

In 1587 Everard had published a similar eulogistic
work, and in 1622 John Neander, of Bremen,
issued a massive quarto * Tabacologia,' prescrib-
ing preparations of tobacco for every disease and
ill. Dr. Butler, styled by Fuller the '^sculapius
of the age,' frequently prescribed tobacco. For a
man suffering from ' a violent defluxion of the teeth '
Butler ordered the immediate smoking of an ounce
of tobacco ; twenty-five pipes effected a cure. Up to
the present century, indeed, smoking was, and to some
extent still is, regarded as a sanitary or hygienic
measure, with remedial powers. For indigestion,
nervousness, and as a palliative for toothache,
smoking is everywhere known. It has always been
more or less remedial in character, though the British
Pharmacopaeia now contains only one preparation of
tobacco, and that is rarely used. No one would
now think of adopting Robinson Crusoe's remedy for
ague — smoking tobacco and drinking an infusion of
the leaves — or of trying Ashmole's cure for toothache.
In his diary for 1681 he notes, after suffering from
toothache for a week : * I held pills in my mouth made
of burned alum, pepper, and tobacco, which drew
from me much rheum, and so I was eased.'

30 The Soverane Herbe

Though tobacco was seized upon by the doctors as
their special property, it was not permitted by the
people to become a medical monopoly. Though
generally regarded as a remedy, Elizabethan England
smoked it without being under medical advice. It
was accounted wholesome and beneficial under all
circumstances, and taken accordingly. Hariot testi-
fies that men and women of all classes ' took tobacco '
for their health, particularly as a specific against the
effects of the damp, uncertain climate, which was
then, as now, the Englishman's scapegoat for all his
physical, social, and moral shortcomings. It may be
surmised also that the pleasure derived from the
divine herb, as Spenser had already styled it, was no
inconsiderable factor of its popularity.

Smoking spread widely and quickly, for, as a poet
said, it had

'Come to help this cold phlegmatic soyle.'

' In these dales,' said a writer of 1590, 'the taking
of the smoke of the Indian herb called tobacco by
an instrument formed like a little ladell, whereby it
passeth from the mouth into the hed and stomake, is
gretlie taken up and used in England against Rewmes,
and some other diseases ingendered in the lunges and
other parts ; and not without effect,' he quaintly
adds.

Not unfitly was smoking compared to ' Elias' cloud
which was no bigger than a man's hand that hath
suddenly covered the face of the earth.' So rapidly
did the practice spread, that before the end of the
sixteenth century it was fiercely assailed and opposed,

The Trial of Tobacco 31

its very popularity awakening attack. On tobacco
wits and satirists made merry ; against smoking divines
launched their thunders, and with the pipe moral
philosophers waxed exceeding wroth. The critics,
detractors, and enemies of tobacco soon had a leader
worthy of their cause. James I. of England hoisted
his portentous banner, and with his wisdom-whetted
sceptre led the motley horde against the strongholds
of tobacco.

The increasing popularity of smoking caused a
division in the ranks of science. Introduced into
Europe as an invaluable drug by doctors, they stood
as its sponsors before the Old World, and ascribed to
it more virtue than even it possessed. The nations
accepted the medical testimony as true, and found
tobacco the one thing needful to make life worth
living. It soon ceased to be used strictly as a
medicine ; people found it most palatable in those
forms which required not the apothecary's art. In-
stead of going to physicians for nicotian ' sireps,'
unguents, pills, and infusions, they smoked, snuffed,
and chewed tobacco. Finding this precious herb, a
source of great profit, slipping from their sole
guardianship and dispensation, most doctors attacked
its use under all circumstances. They drew lurid
pictures of the dried-up brains, wasted bodies, and
fearful deaths of smokers and snuffers, and wrote
ponderous tomes detailing the slow and horrible
effects of tobacco. Still, there were not wanting
doctors who upheld its virtues ; physicians waxed
wroth with each other on the great question, * to
smoke or not to smoke.' Meanwhile, the people

32 The Soverane Herbe

went on smoking, and had they waited for the unani-
mous answer to this question we should have been
waiting still.

The 'Counterblaste' of James, and the efifusions of his
followers merely blew the smouldering use of tobacco
into a flame. Their sneers and sarcasms, their
sermons, their diatribes and treatises, were as ineffec-
tual then, young though the practice was, as they are
to-day, when smoking has become venerable by age
and association.

What moral suasion and reasoning could not ac-
complish the powers that were attempted to perform
by force. The popularity of tobacco led to its perse-
cution. The year after his succession to the British
throne James commenced his vain attempt to stamp
out tobacco. Under Elizabeth there had been an
import duty of 2d. a pound on tobacco, and on
October 26, 1604, James raised this to 6s. lod. a
pound on tobacco from Virginia, where the colonists
had from the first devoted themselves to the cultiva-
tion of the plant. It was for years their sole support
and export in trade ; the prosperity of the first
English colony depended on tobacco.

From 2d. a pound James raised the duty to
6s. lod. (fully equal to 25s. present value), an advance
of exactly 4,000 per cent. This heavy duty nearly
ruined the colony. In 161 1 only 142,085 pounds of
tobacco were imported from Virginia, which was only
one-sixth of the amount previously exported to
England. The increased duty, moreover, applied to
Virginian tobacco only; whether by an oversight or
James's desire to conciliate Spain (the negotiations

The Trial of Tobacco 33

for the marriage of the Prince of Wales to the Spanish
Infanta were then in progress) and his hatred of
Raleigh, the trade of whose colony this measure
crippled severely, the Act increased the duty on
Virginian tobacco only. Portuguese and Spanish
tobacco continued to be imported under the old tax
of 2d. a pound. Thus James satisfied his hatred of
tobacco and of Raleigh by one measure. Against
tobacco he was totally unsuccessful, for, failing Vir-
ginian, Spanish tobacco was smoked in England, and
the plant itself cultivated in this country.

Both these evasions of the prohibitive duty received
legislative attention, though no direct prohibition of
tobacco was ever made in England as on the Con-
tinent. The increasing cultivation of tobacco in
England led James, in 1621, to promulgate a measure
forbidding the planting of tobacco in this country :
' Whereas We out of the dislike We have of tobacco,'
he prohibited the cultivation of the plant, as to do so
was to ' misuse and misemploy the soil of this fruitful
Kingdom.'

In the debate on this Bill in the House of
Commons, Sir Edward Sandys, M.P. for Pontefract,
protested against the importation of tobacco from
Spain at the old duty of 2d. a pound. * There was
wont,' he said, ' to come out of Spain a great mass
of money to the value of 100,000 per annum for
our cloths and other merchandises ; and now we have
from thence for all our cloths and merchandises
nothing but tobacco ; nay, that will not pay for all
the tobacco we have from thence, but they have more
from us in money every year ;£'20,ooo ; so there goes

3

34 The Soverane Herbe

out of this kingdom as good as 20,000 for tobacco
every year.'

Three years later this grievance was remedied. In
1624 the importation of all tobacco from Spain or
Portugal was prohibited, and that from Virginia only
allowed. The British colony thus once more sup-
plied England with all her tobacco, and though the
heavy duty was retained, Virginia prospered, for
tobacco at all costs England must have.

James, however, attempted to limit the supply at
both ends, by ordaining that no planter should ex-
port more than 100 pounds of tobacco a year, and by
creating a tobacco monopoly in England. Tobacco
could be sold only by persons holding royal warrants
of permission. These were granted for life on pay-
ment of ^15 and an annual rent of the same amount.
These sums, it should be pointed out again, repre-
sented four times their modern value. In 1633
Plymouth yielded ;^ioo per annum for the monopoly.
It is also recorded that ' the tobacco licenses go on
apace ; they yield a good fine and a constant yearly
rent.' One of the charges against Strafford on his
impeachment in 1640 was that he had created a
monopoly in tobacco and pipes in Ireland.

Do what James could, he could not uproot the
divine plant, or crush out the affection of his people
for it. Cut down, tobacco sprang up with renewed
vigour. James held the divinity of royalty, but
tobacco must have been even more divine, for not
even the might of James, the deputy of the Deity,
nor the fulminations of the wisest fool in Christendom
could destroy the practice of smoking.

The Trial of Tobacco 35

The hatred of James was shared and his example
followed by his fellow-monarchs, Christian and pagan.
English smokers, indeed, were but little harried com-
pared with the persecution visited upon the heads of
their foreign brother - smokers. The conquest of
tobacco in England was speedier and more complete
than on the Continent, though introduced into this
island twenty years later. With quickness of per-
ception our forefathers recognised the wonderful
virtues and qualities of the herb ; it was particularly
agreeable and helpful to the English temperament.

Not until thirty years after the duty on tobacco
imported into England had been raised, in the hope
of reducing its use, were steps taken in France to
check the use of tobacco. The tobacco presented to
her by Nicot, Catherine de Medici took in the form
of snuff. This also was prescribed for Charles IX. to
cure his chronic headache. Snuff-taking gradually
increased, so that in 1635 Louis XIII. prohibited the
sale of tobacco in France except by apothecaries,
and then only on the order of a physician. This law
was soon repealed, however. Eleven years before
the custom of taking snuff in churches had become
so common in Italy, Spain, and Austria — priests
even taking it when celebrating Mass — that Pope
Urban VIII. issued a Bull excommunicating with
bell, book, and candle all who took the accursed
weed into churches.

* We have recently learned,' proclaimed the Holy
Father, ' that the bad habit of taking the herb com-
monly called tobacco by the mouth and nose has
spread to such a degree in some dioceses that per-

3—2

36 The Soverane Herbe

sons of both sexes, even the priests and clerks, both
secular and regular, forgetting that decorum which is
due to their rank, take tobacco everywhere, princi-
pally in the churches of the town and diocese of
Seville. . . . We interdict and forbid, all generally
and each in particular, persons of either sex, seculars,
ecclesiastics, every religious order, and all those form-
ing a portion of any religious institution whatsoever,
to take tobacco in the future in the porches or in-
teriors of the churches, whether by chewing, smoking,
or inhaling it in the form of powder — in short, to use
it in any shape or form whatsoever.'

The Empress Elizabeth backed up this Bull by
ordering the beadles to confiscate the snuff-boxes of
persons entering churches. In Transylvania the pro-
perty of any person growing tobacco was confiscated,
and the penalty for smoking the plant was a fine
varying from three to two hundred florins.

English sailors took tobacco into Sweden, Russia,
and Turkey. The Dutch and Portuguese carried it
into Asia, reaching India in 1599, Java two years
later, and China — despite the native tradition — soon
afterwards. From Turkey tobacco spread into
Persia and Egypt. In the despotic Orient it fared
worse with takers of tobacco than in Europe. In
1634 the Greek Church forbade the use of tobacco, in
any shape or form, to its adherents. To give this
command the force of a Divine injunction a tradition
was manufactured, and it was solemnly preached
that it was with the fumes of tobacco that the devil
intoxicated Noah. In Russia the temporal power
supported and enforced the spiritual condemnation

The Trial of Tobacco 37

of tobacco. It was said that a great fire in Moscow
had been caused by smokers ; and the Tsar Michael,
prompted by anxiety for the spiritual and material
well-being of his subjects, decreed that for the first
offence smokers should be whipped, and executed for
a second indulgence in tobacco. Those who pre-
ferred snuff to smoke escaped with the amputation
of the nose. The Ambassadors of the Duke of
Holstein to Russia in 1634 saw eighteen men and
one woman publicly knouted for selling tobacco and
brandy.

In Turkey the use of tobacco was speedily pro-
hibited. Here, also, the persecution of tobacco was
on religious as well as temporal grounds. As in
Russia, a tradition was discovered prohibiting its use
by the faithful : Mahomet, it was said, had pro-
phesied that in future ages some of his followers
would smoke a herb called tobacco, but these would
be unbelievers. Sultan Amurath IV. strictly pro- \\U\ Cl
hibited its use. Search was ni^e for smokers ;
tobacco-pipes were driven through their cheeks,
and rolls of tobacco hung as collars round their
necks. Thus arrayed, they were mounted on asses,
facing the tail, and driven through the streets, as a
warning to lusters after tobacco, to be hanged. In
Persia the Shah Abbas prohibited the use of tobacco,
and on one occasion burnt a merchant alive in his
stock of the plant. The Mogul Emperor Jehan
Geer likewise visited with death the smoking or
snuffing of the American herb.

In 1653 tobacco began to be smoked in the canton
of Appenzfel, in Switzerland. These daring smokers

38 The Soverane Herbe

found themselves the object of many unwelcome
attentions from the juvenile population. Then they
fell under Government censure ; they were summoned
before the Council and heavily fined, innkeepers being
ordered in future to inform the authorities of all per-
sons who smoked in their houses. In 1661 the Com-
munal Fathers of Berne legislated against tobacco.
The canton regulations were based upon the Ten
Commandments, to each being added in explanation
the crimes which it was held to comprehend. Under
the seventh, ' Thou shalt not commit adultery,' was
comprehended the sin of smoking. This prohibition
was renewed in 1675, and to punish breaches of the
law a Chambre du Tabac was instituted ; this tri-
bunal existed until the middle of the eighteenth
century.

In 1694 Innocent XII. was obliged to repeat the
Bull of his predecessor seventy years before. He
solemnly excommunicated all who took ' snuff or
tobacco in church,' from which it is seen that the
previous edict had had little effect. In Holland*
Spain and Germany alone was tobacco allowed to
pursue its peaceful conquest, unopposed by the
stupidity and might of the law. In England, James
had not dared to prohibit its use, but what he could
he did by heavy duties, monopoly and restrictions.
Threatened on every side by paganism, Mohammedan-
ism and Christianity, by temporal monarchs and
ecclesiastical potentates, tobacco found itself in the
first century of its introduction into the Old World.
If force, invective and sarcasm could have destroyed
the herb, it would have perished long ago.

CHAPTER III

TOBACCO'S WORLD TRIUMPH

Jesuits and smoking — Uselessness of persecution— Names of
tobacco — Progress of tobacco and snuff in France — In Hol-
land—Spain— Italy — British navy — Italy freed by tobacco —
In Russia forbidden, and afterwards enforced by Peter the
Great — Tobacco among Esquimaux — Red Indians — Mexi-
cans— In South America and Cuba — Polynesia — Philippines
— Japan — China — Siam — Burma — India— Curious Hima-
laya pipe — In Persia and Turkey — Mohammedanism and
smoking — In Africa— Curious modes — Fourier and Balzac
on national smoking.

We have seen how tobacco was discovered with the
New World, how the practice of smoking was intro-
duced into Europe and Asia, and the opposition it
encountered. More pleasant is the duty of narrating
its final and lasting triumph.

All that fanatical ingenuity of reasoning and of
science could do was done to dissuade man from
the embrace of the gorging fiend. The terrors of the
law were invoked by the princes of every nation to
prevent the hated weed and its devilish practice
settling in their domains. It was death to inhale the
smoke of this American herb, and mutilation to snuff
its powdered leaves. Modern smokers do not realize
the penalties their forefathers dared for the sake of

40 The Soverane Herbe

the soothing herb, and that to their courage and
persistence this generation owes its liberty to ' drink
tobacco.'

Neither the anathemas of Popes, the decrees of
Princes, the warnings of physicians, the wit of fools,
nor the wisdom of scholars could subdue tobacco.
It was all-conquering, and converted its sternest
enemies into its most ardent devotees. How could
priests obey the Bull when they themselves relieved
the monotony of service with a fragrant pinch ? The
Jesuits replied to James I.'s ' Counterblaste,' maintain-
ing that tobacco-smoking was to the advantage of
public health and morals. Even if this were not so,
they declared that it was ridiculous and against all
good sense that a plant so recently discovered that its
merits were still unknown should be condemned by
the Church. Such censure was prompted by vulgar
opinion, fanaticism, and superstition. Was it possible
for an official to punish a man for smoking when he
himself knew and loved tobacco's fragrant fume ? In
1724 Benedict XIII. revoked all Bulls against tobacco
for the very good reason that he smoked himself.
Louis XIII. tried a pinch of snuff and the law re-
stricting its sale vanished. Shah Abbas' wild wrath
against tobacco changed to deepest devotion when in
a moment of idleness he curiously tried a pipe. The
Persians have now a proverb which declares ' Coffee
without tobacco is like meat without salt.' That
Amurath would execute a fellow-smoker was absurd ;
tobacco created a bond of sympathy between the
Sultan and his slave.

None of the fanciful names first bestowed upon

Tobacco's World Triumph 41

tobacco in France, Italy and elsewhere have survived
save that of ' nicotine.' As if perceiving its solid worth,
the world returned to ' tabaco,' the name under
which Hernandez introduced the plant into Europe.
The Spaniards have retained this word in its truth
and purity of spelling. The Portuguese and Italians
erroneously added an extra c, and they spell it
'tabacco.' The French have shortened it to ' tabac
the Germans, Dutch and Russians spell it ' tabak,'
while Poles phonetically preserve the original spell-
ing in 'tabaka.' In English the first vowel has been
wrongly altered, o being substituted for a — ' tobacco.'
The Danes and Swedes follow suit with 'tobak.'
'Bakah ' is the root of the name all over the world.
In Hindustani it is ' tumbaku,' and in Malayese
' tambracco.'

Until the present century tobacco was snuffed, not
smoked, in France. Under Louis XIV. both smoking
and snufifing increased in popular favour, the former
being almost entirely confined to the lower classes.
Until the middle of this century snuff was the only
mode of taking tobacco practised by French gentle-
men. In the days of the Regency snuff-taking
attained its zenith in France, and was an accomplish-
ment indispensable to all moving in society. The
nicotian history of France thus largely falls under the
heading of ' Snuff,' and is treated in a later chapter.
In 1674 the cultivation and sale of tobacco in France
became a State monopoly. It was farmed out to a
speculator for £s,ooo a year for six years. By 1720
the annual rent of the monopoly had risen to ;^io,ooo.
In 1 77 1 tobacco yielded France a revenue of

42 The Soverane Herbe

100,000 a year. The sympathy of France with
the American settlers fighting for their liberty against
English tyranny was expressed in two practical forms:
not only did they send Lafayette and men, but
France began to smoke American tobacco. The
increase of smoking in France during the fifty years
before the Revolution was very great. It was con-
fined, however, to the lower and middle classes, who
finally arose and overthrew the despotism under
which they had been so long labouring. There is
indeed much truth in the saying that the French
Revolution was the outcome of smoking. During
the cholera plague of 1831 France smoked and snuffed
as a prophylactic. Now all France smokes. Since
1864 the average consumption of tobacco per head
of the population has increased from i8| ounces
to 34 ounces per annum. The sincerity of France's
devotion to Nicotia is proved by the fact that last
year she consumed eighteen million pounds' worth of
the article sold as tobacco by the R6gie. A greater
test than this of smoking affection no one can de-
mand. The cigarette is universal in France ; it not
only befits Gallic gaiety and lightness of temperament,
but French tobacco is too utterly vile for a pipe.

Tobacco appears to have been introduced early into
Holland. Nicot bought his plants from a Dutch
merchant. The people accorded tobacco a welcome
even warmer than it received in England. No re-
strictions whatever were placed upon its use or im-
portation ; it was, and still is, largely cultivated in
Holland, despite the dampness of the climate. The
Dutch are literally a nation of smokers. ' The pipe

Tobacco's World Triumph 43

is never out of the mouth of the true-born Neder-
lander,' declared Washington Irving. Many Dutch-
men go to sleep with a pipe in their mouth, relight it
when they wake in the night, and again in the
morning before they turn out. Boys of six may be
seen smoking big black cigars, and whatever the task,
workmen are perpetually smoking. The Dutch,
indeed, are the greatest smokers in the world, though
Germans are popularly regarded as the foremost
smokers, a fact doubtless due to the huge pipes of the
Fatherland. The Dutch annually consume seven
pounds of tobacco per head of the population, or half
a pound per week for each smoker. The German
average per head is only three pounds per annum.
The Hollanders assert that the dampness of their
climate makes smoking a necessity, while the moderate
cost of tobacco renders its consumption inexpensive.
Certainly smoking has not wrought that havoc in the
material prosperity and moral character of the Dutch
which anti-tobacconists assert is the inevitable effect
of smoking. Dutch tobacco is chiefly home-grov/n
and very mild and hay-like.

From Holland tobacco and smoking spread into
Germany, with what result all know. Smoking is
incessant, as also in Austria, tobacco being culti-
vated in both countries. The pipe reigns supreme in
Germany, and only to a less extent in Austria,
where the smoking qualities of meerschaum were
discovered. Snuff has never been popular in these
countries, tobacco being enjoyed in its original and
best form, in a pipe.

The Latin races prefer tobacco in its lighter and

44 The Soverane Herbe

airier moods. In Spain the cigar and cigarette pre-
vail as ever. Pipes are never seen in the Peninsula
even among the poorest beggars. The course of
smoking in Spain has always been smooth, for the
paternal Government possess a monopoly of tobacco,
and cigars and cigarettes from the factories in Cuba
and the Philippines were, until these colonies were
ceded to the United States, the only ones to be
bought. Smoking is incessant. In some districts
workmen are allowed fifteen minutes' leisure every
hour for smoking. The consumption is relatively
small, being only one pound of tobacco per head per
annum.

In Italy cigarettes and cigars also hold the field.
Cigars, or what pass under this name, are given to the
soldiers as part of their daily rations. Italians may
well smoke, for to tobacco they owe their release
from Austrian rule. In 1848 the Italians protested
against the Austrian domination by renouncing
tobacco entirely, it being then, as now, a Government
monopoly. Its revenue thus reduced, in revenge the
Austrian Government supplied cigars gratis to the army
occupying Northern Italy. The soldiers converted
them into instruments of torture, tauntingly blowing
the smoke into the faces of Italians who had patrioti-
cally given up the fragrant herb. This conduct was
bitterly resented, and discontent ripening into action,
Milan, Venice, and then all Northern Italy, rose in
rebellion. Later the people of Southern Italy fol-
lowed this example, and not only abstained from
tobacco themselves, but in their patriotic zeal plucked
cigars from the mouths of all people smoking in the

Tobacco's World Triumph 45

streets and cast them into the gutter. Thus Italy-
was literally freed by tobacco, which has been ever the
friend of freedom and foe of despots.

The story of tobacco in Russia is a unique and
curious one. At first, as we have seen, its use was
prohibited by the joint decree of the Church and the
Tsar Michael Fedorowitz. This law succeeded in
preserving Russia from the contamination of tobacco
until Peter the Great introduced smoking, against the
will of the people. During his sojourn in England
and on the Continent he acquired the practice of
smoking. Noting the universal use of tobacco in the
countries he visited, he determined to introduce it
into Russia for the sake of the revenue it would yield.
A Russian merchant, Orlenka, offered 15,000 roubles
for the monopoly of the sale of tobacco in Russia, but
the Marquis of Carmarthen on behalf of an English
company offered 48,000 roubles (;^2 8,000) for the
privilege. For this sum the syndicate was to be
allowed to import into Russia 1,500,000 pounds of
tobacco per year, and Peter agreed to permit the free
use of the herb among his subjects, revoking all
previous edicts and laws. A rebellion among his
subjects and soldiers was the partial result of this
action. They complained of the number of foreigners
that Peter had introduced into Russia who ' come to
Moscow, have their beards shaven, and publicly smoke
tobacco to the discredit of orthodoxy.'

In what measure modern Russians share these
opinions is best shown by the fact that on Russian
railways there is always one compartment * For ladies
who do not smoke.' The recent edict of the Tsarina

46 The Soverane Herbe

forbidding smoking by the ladies of her Court was
received with indignant protests from them. Tobacco
is cultivated to a large extent in Russia. The nobility
smoke cigarettes, while the great mass of the people
are thankful for anything that will burn. In default
of tobacco, peasants smoke cabbage-leaves made into
cigars with coarse brown paper. A few years ago the
Bishop of Kursch forbade his clergy to smoke, on the
grounds that it is ' injurious to the health as well as
opposed to all common-sense, and is besides a great
temptation to the laity.'

In Latin countries priests of the Roman Church
are prohibited from smoking in public. In Berlin,
Munich and Vienna, soldiers and officers are forbidden
to smoke in the principal streets through which
members of the royal family drive.

In all degrees of climate tobacco is acceptable, and to
no people more so than to the Esquimaux. They are
dependent for tobacco on the whalers who occasionally
visit them. By cutting it up very fine and mixing it
with finely chopped willow-twigs, in the proportion
of two parts of tobacco to one of wood, they economize
their store of the grateful and comforting plant. As
the wood has a slightly aromatic flavour, the mixture
is by no means bad. After cleaning out the bowl of
his pipe, which is very small, the smoker inserts a
small wad of hair or wool from his clothing or deer-
skin. This is rammed down to prevent the powdered
tobacco-wood clogging up the stem. The bowl is
then charged and lighted, being smoked out in one or
two whiffs, so small is it. To make the most of his
pipe the Esquimaux inhales the smoke very deeply

Tobacco's World Triumph 47

and expels it from his mouth and nostrils very slowly.
The Esquimaux also chew tobacco very largely, men,
women and children keeping a quid always in their
mouth. They never expectorate ; indeed, so fond
are they of tobacco, that they actually eat the foul,
oily refuse from the bottom of their pipes, as also
does the Mexican.

The Indians of America, the originators of smok-
ing, are of course smokers still. Occasionally, when
short of tobacco, they smoke dried red willow-bark
and oftener mix it with tobacco. Sad to say, the
noble red man, among other degenerating influences
of civilization, is forsaking his pipe and becoming
attached to that makeshift for smoking, the cigarette.

The citizens of the United States smoke largely
and chew more. After the Dutch, they are the
greatest consumers of tobacco in the world, the
annual average per head being five pounds. For
chewing and skill in expectoration the American is
more famous than for smoking, his dexterity in the
former mode being recorded by Dickens with awe.
To avoid the necessity of constantly preparing a quid,
the negroes in Georgia fill the interstices of their teeth
with tobacco. In England chewing is also gaining in
favour, especially among mechanics and artisans,
since they can chew while at work when smoking is
forbidden.

Mexico is a land of smoking. Everybody, from the
highest to the lowest, from the oldest to the youngest,
takes tobacco in all circumstances. Judge, jury and
lawyers smoke in court while cases are being heard ;
even the prisoner is not denied his cigar or cigarette.

48 The Soverane Herbe

Schoolmasters smoke while teaching, and a scholar
who earns his tutor's satisfaction is rewarded with
permission to smoke. If a whole class distinguishes
itself, general permission to light up is given and the
room is soon filled with smoke.

Throughout South America smoking is general by
both sexes in all places. The Patagonians practise
the ancient mode described by the first Spanish
travellers in Mexico, swallowing and retaining the
smoke in a recumbent attitude. The Paraguayans
chew chiefly.

In Cuba, the garden of the finest tobacco in the
world, smoking is incessant. As befits the birthplace
of Havanas, the pipe is never seen ; cigars and
cigarettes, as in the days of Columbus, are alone
smoked ; indeed, fumer un tabaco means ' to smoke
a cigar.' Men and women smoke incessantly except
when they are in church or their beds. Old women
puff solid consolation from big black cigars, while the
younger ones whiff the gayer cigarette. The boy
sellers of sugar-cakes, cocoanuts, lottery tickets and
the bootblacks ask your custom between puffs from
their cigarettes. Railway porters and officials emit
more smoke than their engines ; negroes smoke
harder and more constantly than they work ; priests
are as devoted to tobacco as to theology. In fact, the
people smoke always, except when eating and sleep-
ing. ' I smoke but little,' says a Cuban ; ' only four
or five cigars a day and a few cigarettes — a couple of
packets.' But there are twenty cigarettes in a packet,
composed of black tobacco cut coarser than that for
pipes in England. Fully 30 per cent, of the cigars

Tobacco's World Triumph 49

manufactured in Cuba are consumed in that island,
only two-thirds of the annual crop being exported to
fill the world's cigar-case.

In Polynesia tobacco takes varied and primitive
forms of cigars and cigarettes. The Fijians make
a cigar or cigarette by rolling tobacco-leaf in a strip
of dried banana-leaf; this cigar serves for five or
six persons, being passed from man to man, each
inhaling a few whiffs. The natives of New Guinea
roll partly dried tobacco-leaves in a green leaf from
a tree, thus forming a rude cigarette. It holds fire
so poorly that it is necessary always to have a live
coal at hand to keep it alight. The Samoan Islanders
similarly roll tobacco in a green leaf.

Throughout Asia smoking is universal. The penal-
ties first visited upon it have long vanished, and the
taking of tobacco might be a custom grounded in
the immemorial antiquity of the East instead of an
innovation of a. mere three hundred years' stand-
ing.

After Cuba the PhiUppines are the smoker's
paradise. The tobacco is second only to that of the
Pearl of the Antilles, and all the people smoke.
Contrary to the usual Eastern custom, limitations
are set upon smoking by children. The Filipinos
do not allow children under ten years of age to
smoke. The lady of a house lays in a stock of
tobacco as regularly as an English housekeeper gets
in her coal. The people make their own cigars, as
smokers at home roll their own cigarettes (hence the
form of Manilla cheroots), and boys and girls twist
their cigars as deftly as a hardened English

4

50 The Soverane Herbe

cigarette-smoker. It is a common sight in Manilla
to see father and mother sauntering along, each
smoking a cigar, and followed by their children,
also happily puffing the divine herb. The Negritos
of Luzon smoke in a curious fashion, holding the
lighted end of the cigar in their mouth. Some
Anglo-Indians also practise this method, by which
it is claimed smoking is more enjoyable, and the
secretion of nicotine avoided. With a little practice
all danger of burning the mouth is overcome.

The Japanese are as dainty in smoking as in their
other customs. Their pipes, the kisserus, are very
tiny, and hold only a small pill of the finest cut
and mildest tobacco. From each pipeful only one
deep whiff is inhaled, the burning remnant shaken
out, and a fresh charge inserted for a second smoke.
However refined this may be, it does not commend
itself to an enthusiastic smoker.

The Chinese are also liliputian smokers. Their
pipes, of bronze, are very small ; the tobacco, which
is native grown, is a very mild, almost flavourless,
and light-coloured variety. It is imported to Europe,
and mixed with darker tobaccos to produce a medium-
flavoured and coloured mixture. The smoking of a
certain herb is said to have been practised in China
before tobacco was introduced and substituted for
it. According to a Hindu history tobacco was
introduced into China by Europeans in 1609. The
belief that the Dutch were the sponsors of tobacco
in the Far East is substantiated by the Corean word
for tobacco, hampan kock, which = Dutchman.

Throughout the East smoking is practised by both

Asiatic?* pes.

China.

ASIATIC PIPES.

Tobacco's World Triumph 51

sexes of all ages. All Chinese ladies smoke tobacco
through a water-pipe. After the lady visitor has
been asked her name, her age, the number of people
in her house, etc., the hostess asks her if she will ' eat
tobacco.' In Siam men, women, and children smoke
with equal zest. Little dots of humanity run about
at their play, unconcernedly puffing a cigarette, with
another held in reserve behind the ear, as a City
clerk holds his pen.

The Burmese are taught to smoke as to eat. A
Burmese mother takes the cheroot from her mouth
and puts it to the lips of her nursing babe ; the child
purses its tiny lips and puffs away with every indica-
tion of pleasure. The true Burmese cheroot differs
from that of any other country. It is from five to
ten inches long, consisting of an envelope of the
inner husk of the maize-plant, filled with the finely-
chopped leaf and stalk of tobacco, which grows
everywhere in Burma. The cheroot is an inch in
diameter at the thicker end, and is green, not white,
as Tommy Atkins described the one smoked by
Supi-yaw-lat, when he ' seed her first ' by the old
Moulmein pagoda :

'Where the flying-fishes play.
And the dawn comes up like thunder,
Outer China crost the bay.'

It is indeed a curious and picturesque sight to
see a Burmese girl puffing at her big cheroot. The
Burmese women smoke with robust and unmis-
takable enjoyment, not in the imitative fashion of
the advanced women of England. It would be

4—2

52 The Soverane Herbe

interesting to have medical opinion as to the effect
of juvenile smoking in the East on the physique.

In India the cultivation of tobacco is free and
unhampered by Government regulations and duties.
It is general throughout the peninsula. When the
inhabitants of the Himalayan districts are without
pipes they make tunnels in the snow, and lighting
a little tobacco in one end, they inhale the smoke
at the other. The wild men of Ceylon, who are
scarcely more than animals, suck up the smoke of
tobacco from their hands. Doubling up the hand,
they protect the palm with a green leaf, on which they
place and light some tobacco ; raising his hand to
his mouth, the savage sucks in the consoling smoke.

In Persia the cigarette has supplanted the pipe
and the narghile ; the lowest peasant rolls his own
papillos and smokes incessantly. In Turkey, too,
the cigarette is the only smoke. The Egyptians still
smoke, though tobacco is no longer cultivated in the
country. It is difficult now to dissociate the Orient
from tobacco. The lawfulness of smoking to the
Moslem has often been disputed, but is now generally
allowed. But the Mahdi, Mahomet Achmet, who
overcame General Gordon, forbade tobacco to his
followers, as contrary to the Koran.

The Emperor Menelik of Abj^ssinia, who claims
descent from Prester John, has recently forbidden
tobacco to his subjects. Seeing some Englishmen
with their pipes, and noticing their air of comfort, he
decided to try tobacco for himself. He called for a
pipe, and on some strong tobacco made his first
essay. Alas ! the herb knows not kingship, and the

Tobacco's World Triumph 53

Emperor went the way of all flesh. Since then even
the odour of the weed recalls those moments of
suffering, hence the prohibition which has raised so
great clamour as to give pause to even a paternally
absolute ruler. But is it fitting that the subjects
should enjoy that which tortured their king ? So
delighted was the Anti-Tobacco Society of France by
this virtuous decree that it has conferred its diploma
of honorary membership on the Emperor Menelik.

In all parts of the once Dark Continent smoking is
practised. The travellers and explorers of this cen-
tury have all found that tobacco had preceded them.
Some of the African methods of smoking are very
curious. Many Kaffirs habitually smoke cigars with
the lighted ends in their mouths, tucking their tongues
aside. Europeans who have tried this novel mode
assert that after the initial difficulty is surmounted it
is much superior to the common method. Several
African tribes when destitute of pipes unconsciously
return to the method of smoking practised by the
first smokers in America. They make a hole in the
ground, beating down the earth till hard, and work a
tunnel underground to another hole. The first is filled
with tobacco, which is lighted. Lying down on the
ground, the man places his mouth over the second hole
and inhales the smoke until he is filled with it ; then,
rolling over on the ground, he coughingly exhales it.
Recovering from the consequent exhaustion, he re-
peats the performance until the tobacco is reduced
to ashes. The pigmies of Central Africa, discovered
by Stanley, are devoted smokers. Their pipes are
delightfully simple and ingenious. A banana-stalk

54 The Soverane Herbe

cleared of the central pith is the stem ; this is stuck
in or held to the bowl, which is formed by rolling a
banana-leaf into a cone like a sugar-bag or ' twist'

The natives of the South-West Coast smoke Ihi-
amba, a nettle-like plant, as well as tobacco. The top
of the stems with the seeds on are used in a manner
similar to the Indian mode of ^moVm^ ganga. The
Congo Africans hollow out a small hole in the
ground, covering it with a dome. The dried herb is put
in, covered with red-hot stones, and the dome closed.
Inserting a reed in this miniature furnace, the native
draws in as much smoke as possible in one deep
breath. He is seized with a fit of hard, hacking
coughing for ten minutes or so, and recovering,
repeats the performance. Lhiamba-svi\QV\.xv^ makes
the natives moody, fractious and quarrelsome, but a
single dose early in the morning prevents fatigue for
the rest of the day.

Ey the African smoker strength and pungency, not
real flavour, of tobacco is most esteemed. Hence he
' sophisticates,' as Ben Jonson complained of his
' smoak-sellers,' his tobacco with vile ingredients to
make it taste strong. Fine black fibres are inserted
into the mouth-end of cigars to absorb the essential
oil and nicotine. When the cigar is finished the
fibres are withdrawn and chewed or eaten with relish.

Thus from America smoking has spread north,
south, east and west, until it has encircled the globe.
The practice of the aborigines of the New World has
become the recreation and delight of the universe.
At the lowest computation one-third of the people of
the earth are smokers, for it is only in Europe and

Tobacco's World Triumph 55

Anglo-Saxon countries that women, and, to a large
extent, children, do not smoke. The abstinence of
women, indeed, is one of the strangest anomalies of
custom.

Fourier declared that ' the nation that smokes
perishes.' Were this true, the whole world would be
hastening to ruin and devastation, since all races,
nations, and tribes smoke. For a perishing nation
Holland, smoking 7 pounds of tobacco per head of
the population per annum, is not a bad example of
national prosperity and sturdiness. Balzac, in his
essay on ' Modern Stimulants,' foretold the downfall
of Germany from its addiction to tobacco. To-day,
smoking more than ever, Germany is united and
more prosperous than she has ever been before.

Than tobacco there is nothing more universal.
The taste for it is world-wide. Salt, a necessary of
life, can alone compare with tobacco, really and
theoretically a luxury, though Locke classed it with
bread in its universality. There is, indeed, a strange
likeness between salt and tobacco. The king and
the humblest beggar, the sage and the fool, must take
salt to live ; in each it preserves the spark of life. So
is it with tobacco ; it soothes and helps the life of the
navvy and the aristocrat, of the savage African and
the cultured philosopher. Whether it be in the
coarse shag or half-guinea Havana the effect is the
same; the miner sucking thick twist out of a short black
pipe does not enjoy it less than his noble employer
precisely puffing a costly cigar in a gold-mounted
holder. Whether in roughest cut-cake or finest
Shiraz, in smutty clay, rich meerschaum or the

56 The Soverane Herbe

bejewelled hookah of some wealthy magnate or
Eastern sultan, tobacco appears in its most divine
form. There is no diminutive of tobacco ; it is wholly
superlative ; there are no degrees of comparison in
its use. The millionaire, the pauper, the brawny
labourer, the learned scholar, the wildest savage, the
oldest and the youngest alike enjoy tobacco. It
matters not whether they live in the farthest north
with sunless days and perpetual frost, in the fair
fields of favoured lands, or in the sweltering heat
and rich luxuriance of the tropics, tobacco is ever
the same to its devotees, be they black or white,
red or yellow, man or woman. Tobacco knows not
colour, sex nor creed, country, age nor race. On the
world-wide empire of tobacco the sun never sets. In
all the intermediate states of light and darkness there
rises the incense of tobacco and the red glow of
countless pipes. The Occident world smokes, and
when it slumbers the Orient takes up the pleasant
task, pouring forth incense in praise of tobacco's joys
and inspiration. If ever the Utopian dream of the
brotherhood of man be realized, tobacco will have
had no small share in its realization. Tobacco draws
men together and binds them in the common bond of
sympathy as smokers. It is the true democrat, the
only Volapuk, the veritable cosmopolite. Bring
together a Hindu and an Englishman ; they know not
a word of each other's language, but tobacco binds
them together, and they sit in such silent converse
as smoke alone can afford. Tobacco has played
a greater part in the cultivation of man and the
progress of civilization than has ever been credited
to the divine herb.

CHAPTER IV

TOBACCO IN ENGLISH SOCIAL LIFE

Sailors the (irst English smokers — Learning to smoke — The
first pipes — Speedy popularity — A German on smoking in
England — 'Drinking tobacco' and 'tobacconists' — Culture
in England — Teachers of the art of smoking — Fashionable
use of tobacco in the reign of James I. — Sleights of tobacco
— Cost of the herb — ^Discussed in Parliament — Its wide-
spread use — First British colony formed in smoke.

Sailors who had learned the use and virtues of
tobacco in their expeditions to the New World were
the persons to make the stay-at-home English
acquainted with the strange Indian practice of smok-
ing. In the trials and privations of a seafaring life
and constant warfare with the domineering Spaniards
they became acquainted with its virtues. Returning
home with supplies of the precious herb, they amazed
and attracted the people with their practice of ' drink-
ing tobacco.'

In the Sebright MS. it is stated that Captains
Myddleton, Thomas Price and Koet were the first
who smoked tobacco publicly in London. They used
twisted leaves, or cigars, and Londoners flocked to
the Pied Bull Inn at Islington, where tradition asserts
that the first tobacco was smoked in England, to see
the strange practice.

58 The Soverane Herbe

It is easy to picture an ale-house in a seaport or
village some evening three hundred years ago. The
centre of the company is a sailor, bronzed, ' bearded
like a pard,' and full of strange oaths and stories of
the Spanish Main, whence he has just returned. He
is one of Drake's, Hawkins', Grenville's or Raleigh's
men. The company gaze with mingled awe and
admiration at the person who has fought the Spaniards
and sailed the still wonderful and unknown New
World. His stories of strange sights, customs and
hairbreadth escapes are listened to with gaping mouth
and in breathless silence. He describes the strange
custom the Indians have of filling themselves with
smoke. Nay, more; he draws from his breast dark-
coloured leaves and a strangely carved instrument,
a pipe of clay consisting of a clay bowl, in one end of
which a hollow reed or stem is fixed. It is an Indian
pipe. Explaining its use and how it was given to
him by the Indians, who thought the white men gods,
the sailor rubs into powder the dry leaves ; this he
packs into the clay bowl, applies to it a burning coal,
and, holding the stem in his mouth, draws in the
smoke, which he then discharges funnelwise down his
nostrils. The men draw back in amazement, mingled
with horror and terror; he is the first smoker they
have seen.

* Nay,' he says, ' 'tis no heathen practice nor inven-
tion of the devil, but the very gift of God. Had it
not been for this blessed tobacco — so do the Indians
call it — we had all died. For three days off the
Indies did we fortify ourselves with this herb, our
food being spent. It's food, drink, sleep, warmth

Tobacco in English Social Life 59

and medicine, all in this one leaf. For stanching
wounds there's naught to equal it, and of rheum and
fever it purgeth you wholly. Try it, Master Williams ;
'twill rid ye of your palsy.'

The aged man draws back in novelty's distrust.
The pungent smoke already filling the room supports
the disinclination. Whether it be a trap of the devil
or no is not decided. To see for itself comes the
whole village, and from the neighbouring hamlets,
hearing of this strange eating of fire, trudge the curious
and horrified. The vicar, even, is drawn to see Jack
Tarman's smoking feat, and doubts not whether it be
an invention of the Spaniards. The squire is another
spectator. ' Sir Walter Raleigh, I have heard,' he
says, ' greatly and constantly practiseth the use of
tobacco.' The village apothecary quotes the medi-
cinal use of the herb ; his urban cousin has already
huge demand for it.

But when the sight of the sturdy tar devouring and
puffing forth clouds of smoke, always the centre of a
crowd drawn by the strange practice, has become
more familiar, Master Williams, urged on by his com-
panions, themselves curious to see one of their own
company take it, is at length persuaded by the sailor's
glowing account of the weed's virtues, and takes the
handed pipe. The company crush and crane to see
old Master Williams' experiment. Jack instructs the
master how to draw in and puff out the smoke. He
takes the smouldering tube cautiously, half fearfully
breathes in the smoke, attempts in vain to eject it
through his nose, but bursts into a fit of coughing
and spluttering. ' 'Tis simple,' says the sailor, care-

6o The Sovcrane Herbe

lessly inspiring a huge cloud and blowing it slowly
through his nose.

All England was learning to smoke. Raleigh had
brought its use into the higher ranks, and to ' drink
tobacco with a grace ' was an essential qualification
of everyone who would be considered a gentleman.
Sailors had similarly brought the practice home to the
common people, who smoked at first medicinally and
soon for pleasure. Tobacco came to be regarded as
a cargo scarcely less valuable than gold from the
New World. Doctors were busily engaged in dis-
covering its properties and its use in all diseases.

The clay pipes, strangely carved into fantastic
figures, of the Indians were used by sailors. The
common people assembling in the inn burned their
tobacco in a walnut shell and sucked up the smoke
therefrom through a straw. Each man around the
table inhaled his puff and passed it solemnly to his
neighbour. Sea-captains and gentlemen gravely drew
tobacco-smoke from long silver pipes. But the potter,
realizing a new opening for his trade, made pipes of
clay after the Indian fashion. The bowls were small
and the stems short. They held but a small quantity
of tobacco ; but its use was still medicinal and the herb
costly — 3d. a pipeful. The inspiration of a few whiffs
of the crude, strong smoke and the passage of it
through the nostrils, thus making the practice more
pungent, satisfied the early smoker.

Both men and women indulged in the wonderful
and fragrant whiff. From a mere novelty or whim
' drinking tobacco ' passed into a firmly established
habit. Quietly and noiselessly tobacco crept into

Tobacco in English Social Life 6i

favour and use among the English. Recommended
by doctors as a cure for and preventive against nearly
every ill, they learned to love it for its intrinsic
qualities and to smoke it for the pleasure and com-
fort it afforded. Never was a medicine so eagerly
accepted by a nation. It was pleasant, and one in-
dulged in the divine herb, as Spenser had already
christened it, with the pleasing and soothing reflection
that thereby health was being maintained and disease
scouted. Thus quietly a great social revolution was
accomplished. The sturdy yeoman and the cultured
scholar, the wise statesman and the gallant sailor, all
classes of English men and women, became ardent
users of tobacco.

Hentzer, a German lawyer, who visited England
in 1598, has recorded the then universal use of tobacco.
At the Bear Gardens, Southwark, ' and everywhere
else the English are constantly smoking and in this
manner: They have pipes on purpose, made of clay,
into the farther end of which they put the herb, so
dry that it may be rubbed to powder, and putting
fire to it, they draw the smoke into their mouths,
which they puff out again through their nostrils like
funnels along with plenty of phlegm and defluxion
from the head.'

'Drinking tobacco' was the term then applied to
smoking, and this is still the phrase in Egypt and
India. From this natural description of the inspira-
tion of smoke anti-tobacconists have drawn arguments
supporting their contention that smoking leads to
drinking ! Until the beginning of the eighteenth
century ' tobacconist ' was the term applied, not to

"!■

62 The Soverane Her be

the vendors, but to the smokers, of the weed. The
herb, as a drug, was sold chiefly by apothecaries, who
in token of it exhibited over their doors a big wooden
figure of a black Indian, crowned and kilted with
tobacco-leaves, and bearing three wooden rolls, repre-
senting the three kinds of tobacco then used : Trina-
dado roll, or carotte, pudding-cane and Virginia leaf.
* Seller of smoke \_fumi vendulus],'' said a wit, ' is the
best epithete of an apothecary.'

So great was the demand for tobacco that it was
cultivated in England. A considerable export trade
in tobacco was done with Turkey and the East,
though most of this was in the hands of the Dutch,
until James I. restricted its growth, though the
culture was not finally prohibited until the eighteenth
century.

Omnipresent as is tobacco, it is not more so than it
was in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. The
practice of Raleigh and other countries and adven-
turers gave so good a standing to the habit, that by
the end of the sixteenth century to ' drink tobacco
with a grace ' was considered an essential accomplish-
ment of every gentleman. The dissipated cavaliers,
the rakes, the broken-down soldiers and sailors, the
Captain Bobadils became professors of and tutors
in the art of smoking. In * Every Man out of His
Humour' Ben Jonson introduces a placard hung up
be/ore St. Paul's advertising the teaching of the whole
art and mystery of smoking in the high-flown,
bombastic language of the period :

' If this City, or the suburbs of the same, do afford
any young gentleman of the first, second, or third

Tobacco in English Social Life 63

head [a hunting term denoting the age of stags],
more or less, and whose lands are but new come into
his hands, that to be as exactly qualified as the best
of our ordinary gallants are, is affected to entertain
the most gentleman-like use of tobacco ; as first to
give it the most exquisite perfume, then to know all
the delicate sweet forms for the assumption of it, as
also the rare corollary and practice of the Cuban
ebolition, Euripus [a rapid inhalation and expulsion
of the smoke] and Whiffe, which he shall receive or
take in here at London and evaporate at Uxbridge
or farther if it please him. If there be any such
generous spirit that is truly enamoured of these good
faculties ; may it please him but by note of his hand
to specify the place or ordinary where he uses to eat
and lie, and most sweet attendance with Tobacco and
pipes of the best sort shall be ministered, Stet, quc^so
Candida lector.'

Each smoking-master had his own special feat of
smoking, and his placard warned ambitious youths
from thinking that they could learn the latest and
most fashionable modes from anyone but him-
self. A highly esteemed trick was swallowing and
retaining the smoke for some time before expelling
it. Another was to discharge the smoke evenly
in a certain number of seconds, neither more nor
less.

* Do you profess,' asks one of Ben Jonson's am-
bitious gallants, ' these sleights of tobacco ?'

' I do more than profess, sir, and if you please to be
a practitioner I will undertake in one fortnight to
bring you that you shall take it plausibly in any

64. The Soverane Herbe

ordinary, theatre or the tilt-yard, if need be in the
most popular assembly that is.'

' But you cannot bring him to the whiffe so soon,'
doubtfully asserts the nicotian aspirant.

' Yes, as soon, sir. He shall receive the first, second
and third whifif if it please him, and upon the receipt
drink his three cups of canary, and expose one at
Hounslow, a second at Staines, and a third at
Bagshot.'

Of Sogliardo, in the same play, it is said 'he
comes up every term to learn to take tobacco.' Each
tutor had a private room in an inn where he in-
structed his pupils in 'the most gentlemanlike use of
tobacco.' In one of these Sogliardo is depicted as
toiling after smoking perfection, sitting in a chair
while his tutor widened his nostrils with a stick ' to
give the smoke more free delivery.'

Exclaims another professor of smoking :

' I'll teach thee (do observe me here)
To take tobacco like a cavalier,
Thus draw the vapour through your nose, and say
" Puff! it is gone"; fuming the smoke away.'

It was in this painful, arduous manner that the
pioneers of smoking became adepts in the art. Like
Charles Lamb, they toiled after tobacco as some men
toil after virtue. Anti-smokers deduce from these
grotesque scenes the absurdity of smoking ; but it was
then the fashion, and the toils and hardships of young
gallants after ' the delicate sweet forms for the
assumption ' of tobacco are surpassed in absurdity by
many other freaks of fashion, as the history of dress
and manners showeth.

Tobacco in English Social Life 65

Dressed for the day, the gallant of the reign of
James I. sauntered out, having first carefully assured
himself that his pockets contained his whole smoking
apparatus. He is a finished pupil, an adept in all
the assumptions of tobacco, the admiration and envy
of younger bloods. His supply of the herb being
exhausted, his first duty is to replenish it. As likely
as not he goes to Abel Drugger, for Ben Jonson in
his latest comedy has lauded him as an honest
apothecary who does not ' sophisticate ' the tobacco
he sells. Having duly laid in a stock of Trinadado,
pudding-cane and leaf, he passes through the shop
into the smoking-room with which all apothecaries'
stores were furnished. Other gallants are there, all
engaged in smoking and exhibiting their own special
tricks of smoke. About noon he strolls away to the
ordinary, puffing his pipe. Passing a bookseller's, he
calls in to ' exercise his smoke and inquire who has
writ against the divine weed,' for the habit has begun
to be attacked already. Then on to the ordinary,
where other gallants are met.

During dinner conversation turns to tobacco, and
the gallant ' must observe to know what tobacco is in
town better than the merchants, and discourse of the
apothecaries where it is sold,' and of the kinds and
qualities of pipes — which burn black, which break,
which have the best bore.

While waiting for the serving of the various dishes
he draws forth his tobacco-box, his snuff-ladle, his
tongs for lighting his pipe with a live coal, and his
priming-iron. With careless grace he inhales a huge
puff, drinks off a glass of canary, and after retailing

5

66 The Soverane Herbe

the latest scandal, slowly expels the smoke down his
nostrils or in a sequence of rings from his mouth, ' for
these are complishments which gain gentlemen no
mean respect.' The exhalation of smoke from the
nostrils was practically the only known and certainly
most fashionable mode, and recommended by doctors
as discharging the head of ' rheums and great de-
fluxions.' One of the company, a youth from the
country, is asked if he will not take tobacco.
' S'death !' sneers one, 'he cannot put it through his
nose.' No severer or more cutting reflection can be
cast upon a gentleman. High words follow, and as
likely as not the company adjourn to the tilt-yard to
witness the settlement of the dispute with swords.

Meeting a friend, the gallant's first question is :
* Will you not take a pipe of tobacco ?' In the tilt-
yard of the ordinary our hero asks an acquaintance :

' Please you to impart your smoke .'"

'Very willingly, sir,' he replies, handing him his
pipe. After a whiff" or two the borrower exclaims :

' I' good faith, a pipe of excellent vapour.'

' Yes, 'tis the best the house yields.'

' What !' exclaims the other in contempt of inns ;
' had you it in this house ? I thought it had been
your own. 'Tis not so good now as I took it for.'

Linkboys had then a daily as well as nightly occupa-
tion in lighting the pipes of smokers with burning
coals. James I. complained that 'you are not able
to ride or walk the journey of a Jew's sabbath but
you must have a reeky coal brought ' to light your
pipe. Ladies entertained no squeamish objection
to tobacco. ' The mistress,' says the royal Misco-

Tobacco in English Social Life 67

panist, ' cannot in a more mannerly kind entertain
her lover than by giving him out of her fair hand
a pipe of tobacco.'

Contemporary dramas abound with references to
the custom of smoking in the theatres and elsewhere.
The gallants sat on stools on the stage itself, paying
an extra price for this privilege. They provided them-
selves with their three sorts of tobacco, or, the supply
running short, more could be purchased in the theatre
or a boy sent out to get the gallant's favourite kind.
They lit their pipes at the footlights, handing the
matches about on the points of their rapiers, which
Jonson declared of some gallants was the only use to
which they dare put their swords. Prynne, inveighing
against the stage, says that ladies were offered and
accepted pipes in the theatre. A character in a play
of the period reveals the smoking habits of the fair
sex ; recommending his tobacco as * right pudding,'
he adds as a final commendation, 'a lady or two took
a pipeful or two at my hands and praised it, 'fore the
heavens.'

It was amidst clouds of tobacco-smoke that the
plays of Shakespeare, Jonson, Decker, Marlowe, and
Beaumont and Fletcher were produced. The plays
of all but Shakespeare abound with references to
tobacco. This is the more remarkable as we know
that smoking was indulged in at the Globe, Shake-
speare's own theatre.

The opening years of the seventeenth century
merited, indeed, the title of ' The Smoaking Age '
imposed on it by James Braithwait in a book of
invective against and derision of the habit, already

5—2

68 The Soverane Herbe

firmly established. One author complains that the
patrimony of many noble young gentlemen has
' vanished cleane awaie with smoky vapour and
hath most shamefully and beastly flyen out the
master's nose.' Many, he declared, spend ' whole
daies, months, times and yeares (for the most part)
in tobacco-taking, not sparing to take it even in
their bed.' In the delirium of the first enjoyment
of tobacco our ancestors seem to have practised
smoking to extravagant excess.

In those days smoking was an expensive habit.
When tobacco was first introduced into England it
cost about 3s. an ounce, as befitted a herb of such
miraculous and wonderful virtue. In modern money
this is equivalent to fully i8s. Threepence was the
usual charge in taverns for a pipeful of tobacco. In
the reign of James I. the best tobacco cost i8s. per
pound, and an inferior article los, ; these sums multi-
plied by four give their equivalent in modern value.
In the diary of Sir Henry Oglander of Nunwell for
1626 there is the entry 'For eight ounces of tobacco
five shillings.' These prices included the duty of
6s. lod, per pound which James had raised to this
figure from 2d. a pound. In another diary for 1656
we have ' For two ounces of tobacco one shilling.'
Aubrey records that in his younger days tobacco
' was then sold for its wayte in silver. I have heard
some of our old yeomen neighbours say that when
they went to Malmesbury or Chippenham market
they culled out their biggest shillings to lay in the
scale against the tobacco.'

Its expense was one of the reasons educed by

Tobacco in English Social Life 69

James I., and his successors down to the present day,
against the habit. He declared that some gentlemen
smoked three or four hundred pounds' worth of
tobacco yearly ; but he must, surely, have meant
Scots pounds.

The costliness of the herb led to its adulteration
even in that early age. The poorer people were
accustomed to mix coltsfoot with tobacco to eke out
the latter, while Ben Jonson speaks of the apothe-
caries ' sophisticating ' tobacco with sack, lees, oil,
muscadel and grains.

The anger and satire of poets and philosophers at
the widespread practice of smoking passed into
mournful lamentation. Powerless to stop the pro-
gress of tobacco they were obliged to content them-
selves with pointing out its absurdity and waste.
In 'The Honestie of this Age,' 1614, Barnaby Rich
says there were seven thousand shops, ' in every lane
and in every corner about London,' where tobacco
was sold. ' It may well be supposed,' says this
serious statistician, ' it to be an ill-customed shop that
taketh not five shillings a day, one day with another
throughout the year, but let us make our account but
after two shillings and sixpence a day. . . . Let us
then reckon thus : seven thousand half-crowns a day
amounteth just to three hundred and nineteen thou-
sand, three hundred and seventy-five pounds a year,
summa totalis, all spent in smoke.' What, we wonder,
would Barnaby Rich have thought of the eleven
millions sterling per annum which tobacco now con-
tributes to the National Revenue ?

So common and constant did the use of tobacco

70 The Soverane Herbe

become that in 1621 Mr. William Stroud, afterwards
one of the famous Five Members, rose from his place
in the House of Commons and moved that he ' would
have tobacco banished out of the kingdom, and that
it may not be brought in from any part nor used
amongst us.' Sir Guy Palmes, supporting this motion,
declared ' that if tobacco be not banished it will
overthrow 100,000 men in England, for now it is so
common that he has seen ploughmen take it as they
are at the plough.' The House, however, contented
itself with merely prohibiting the cultivation of
tobacco in England on the ground that so to do was
to 'misuse and misemploy the soil of this fruitful
kingdom.'

In spite of the fulminations of James and other
erratic moralists, and the more effective duties and
monopoly, smoking had become firmly established.
Men, women and children all smoked, for the efforts
of tobacco's opponents were powerless to prevent the
herb's conquest. Truth cannot be destroyed by per-
secution, and tobacco has proved itself to be the
truth if its vitality in face of persecution be any
proof. Most of the courtiers, out of consideration for
the King's antipathy to the weed, were too politic to
smoke, and the herb was more generally indulged in
by the middle and lower classes, though it did not
lack adherents among the representatives of wealth
and position. As many obstacles as possible were
thrown in the way of smokers, the habit being for-
bidden in taverns, which had been up to that time
the chief places for the consumption of tobacco.
Bishop Earle described a tavern as ' a torrid zone

Tobacco in English Social Life 71

that scorches the face and tobacco the gunpowder
that blows it up.' James held that smoking was a
great incentive to drunkenness — an idea still errone-
ously held — and among the regulations imposed on
a Boniface of the period his license enacted : ' Item :
you shall not utter nor willingly suffer to be uttered,
drunke or taken any tobacco within your house,
cellar, or other place thereunto belonging.'

A further glimpse of the opinion then held in some
quarters of tobacco is seen in the regulations laid
down by Archbishop Harsnett in 1629 for his school
at Chigwell in Essex. The master was to ' be a man
of sound religion, neither papist nor puritan, of a
grave behaviour, and sober and honest conversation,
no tippler or haunter of alehouses, and no puffer of
tobacco.' Other ecclesiastics did not hold the same
opinion of the herb. Fletcher, Bishop of London,
imprisoned by Elizabeth for taking unto himself a
wife, solaced his durance vile with a pipe, and died in
1596 'while sitting in his chair taking tobacco.' In
1680 Aubrey said that ' within these thirty-five years
it was considered scandalous for a divine to take
tobacco.' But a writer ten years earlier admitted
that though tobacco ' be an heathenish word, it is
a great help to Christian meditations, which is the
reason I suppose that recommends it to your parsons,
the generality of whom can no more write a sermon
without a pipe in their mouths than a concordance in
their hands.'

The use of tobacco was not confined to the lower
and uneducated classes. Dr. Cheynell, of Oxford,
did not flinch from upholding the virtues of tobacco

72 The Soverane Herbe

before James himself, when that monarch visited the
University in 1605 and clinched a debate on the sub-
ject by a violent speech against smoking. The worthy
don, pipe in hand, stoutly maintained the virtues of
tobacco against the King and the servile scholars.
A later writer, after speaking of its use by seamen,
soldiers, farmers, ploughmen, porters and all labour-
ing men, declared : ' Scholars use it, and many grave
and great men take tobacco to make them more
serviceable in their callings.' Court influence pre-
vented tobacco becoming popular in high society, but
by the great mass of the people it was used and loved
despite the restrictions of James and his efforts to
uproot it.

Charles I. had almost as great a dislike of tobacco
as his father, and continued the heavy duties and its
royal monopoly. Considering the great revenue it
brought him, he was not likely to do otherwise ;
indeed, James' hostility to tobacco on the ground
that it was ruining the nation's health and morals
was unkind, for he did not scruple to employ the vast
sums of money that even then this ' devilish practice '
brought to the royal treasury.

Cromwell, though an occasional smoker, prohibited
tobacco culture in England and maintained the heavy
import duties. The Puritans as a body originally
detested and abhorred tobacco, but they, too, soon
fell a prey to its all-conquering virtues. Many of the
sectarians prided themselves on smoking, and puffed
tobacco in cathedrals and churches as well as stabling
their horses there. But the majority of the Puritans
seem to have preferred snufif, and compounded for

Tobacco in English Social Life 73

this failing by denouncing the ungodly pipes of
the Cavaliers, which attack the Royalists answered
by satirizing those who thrust pepper up their
noses.

In America the early English settlers found com-
fort in their privations and hardships in the smoke of
tobacco. Virginia, the first English colony, may be
said to have been literally established on tobacco.
Its culture was its chief and almost only occupation ;
so much so that it came to be considered as money.
The stipends of ministers were paid in tobacco. Any
ship's captain carrying a Quaker into Virginia was
fined 5,000 pounds of tobacco, and the same quantity
was the penalty extorted from any planter who
sheltered a Friend. The early settlers needed wives,
and to supply them cargoes of young women were
shipped from England. From these the colonists
chose wives, paying 120 pounds of tobacco, not for
the woman, but for the expense of her passage. It
is scarcely credible, but a fact, that modern anti-
tobacconists have educed this incident as a proof of
the vicious and depraving character of tobacco, whereas
nothing could have been more natural and innocent.
In new colonies money takes various forms, and there
is always a minority of women. The emigration of
women to Australia might as truly be regarded as an
instance of the depravity of sheep-rearing or gold-
mining.

As late as the eighteenth century contributions to
churches in the American colonies were made in
tobacco. The vestry-book of Hampton, Virginia,
shows that the expenses of the church from 1723 to

74 The Soverane Herbe

1 77 1 averaged about 70,000 pounds of tobacco a
year. The fee for a sermon was 350 pounds of
tobacco — ' Mr. Barlow for 17 sermons 5,590 pounds' —
while the minister received as salary 10,000 pounds
of tobacco per annum.

CHAPTER V

SOCIAL PROGRESS OF TOBACCO

Widespread character of smoking — Culture forbidden in Eng-
land— Tobacco in Great Plague — Universality of smoking
at end of seventeenth century — French travellers on English
smoking — Children taught to smoke at school — Tobacco in
Parliament and church and councils — Heyday of smoking
under William III. — Extent of habit — Decline in fashion —
Smoking degraded and snuff exalted — 'Vulgar, not merely
vicious' — Degradation of practice— Introduction of cigars
led to renaissance of smoking early in nineteenth century —
Low status of practice sixty years ago — Increasing popu-
larity again — Forbidden by Wellington — Tobacco comes to
its own again after period of degradation — Its rapid in-
crease— Women and smoking — Smoking-carriages in trains
ordained 1868 — Causes of restoration.

Under the Commonwealth tobacco assumed its true
and natural position in England. It had outgrown
its first phase as a terrifying novelty and pagan
practice, passed uninjured through the storm of
extravagant eulogy and direful warnings of its
medical friends and foes, and surviving the fantastic
admiration and fashionable abuse of the gallants of
James I., assumed its natural position among the
English people as a herb not lacking in medicinal
virtues, but the smoking whereof was a common,

76 The Soverane Herbe

every-day practice, acknowledged by all classes to be
a boon and a blessing, a herb without equal under
the canopy of heaven.

In ' The Wit's Recreation,' 1650, it was joyfully
declared :

' Tobacco engages
Both sexes, all ages,
The poor as well as the wealthy.
From Court to the cottage,
From childhood to dotage,
Both those that are sick and the healthy.

' It plainly appears
That in a few years
Tobacco more custom hath gained
Than sack or than ale,
Though they double the tale
Of the times wherein they have reigned.'

So firmly was it established, so widely were its
virtues known, that ere it had been an inmate of
Britain for a century people wondered how their
ancestors had lived without it. In the preface to a
translation of Dr. Everard's ' Discovery of the
Wonderful Virtues of Tobacco taken in a Pipe,' pub-
lished in London in 1659, testimony is borne to the
general popularity of the herb. ' Tobacco is grown
to be not only the physick but even the meat and
drink of many men, women and children. In a word,
it hath prevailed so far that there is no living without
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

Social Progress of Tobacco 77

it ; for were the planting and trafficking of tobacco
now hindered, millions of this nation in all proba-
bility must perish for want of food, their whole liveli-
hood almost depending upon it.'

Describing Cromwell's funeral as the 'joyfullest
funeral ' he ever saw, Evelyn notes that the soldiers
forming the escort were ' drinking and taking tobacco
in the streets as they went.' Monk, the principal
factor in the restoration of the monarchy, brought
into fashion the chewing of tobacco. This had been
common in the reign of James, when gentlemen
carried about with them small silver basins as
spittoons. From France came with the Court the
fashion of taking snuff. As an important change in
the economy of smoking it must be noted that the
original practice of discharging the smoke through
the nostrils died out with James I. The fume was
now sensibly and plainly expired through the mouth.
Smoking lost its medical and fantastic aspect ; it
became an honest, plain, every-day pleasure and
practice.

Under Charles II. tobacco increased even more in
popular favour. He prohibited, in order to maintain
the revenue from its import duties, the cultivation of
tobacco in England and Ireland under a fine of
forty shillings for every rood planted with the herb,
except ' in any physick garden of either University
or in any other private garden for physick or chi-
rurgery.' In 1664 this penalty was increased to
£10 per rood. The last instance we have of the
attempt to subdue smoking is that in a letter from
Charles II. to the University of Cambridge forbid-

78 The Soverane Herbe

ding the members to wear periwigs, smoke tobacco,
and read the sermons they preached.

The Great Plague, 1665, did much to increase the
popularity and establish the use of tobacco. It was
proved that its medicinal virtues, forgotten for some
time, really existed, and that as a prophylactic
tobacco was, and is, unequalled. It is recorded that
no tobacconist's household was invaded by the
plague ; past the smoking -shop marked by the
tobacco-crowned, wooden Indian, as by the blood-
plashed doorposts of the Israelites, Death's servant,
the dread plague, passed. Doctors, nurses of the
plague-stricken, and the collectors and buriers of the
dead smoked freely to prevent infection. Dear old
Samuel Pepys, going down Drury Lane on June 7,
1665, saw some houses marked with the red cross
and ' Lord, have mercy upon us.' ' It put me in an
ill conception of myself and my smell, so that I was
forced to buy some roll tobacco to smell to and chaw,
which took away my apprehension.'

Of the universal practice of smoking in the closing
years of the seventeenth century we have ample proof.
Widespread as is the habit to-day, it is almost
insignificant compared with the absolutely universal
smoking, by both sexes, all ages and classes, under all
circumstances and in all places, of two hundred years
ago. M. Jorevin de Rochefort in 167 1 published in
Paris an account of his travels in England the previous
year. He notes the general habit of smoking in his
account of an evening he spent at Worcester: 'The
supper being finished, they set on the table half a
dozen pipes and a pacquet of tobacco for smoking.

Social Progress of Tobacco 79

which is a general custom as well among women as
men, who think that without tobacco one cannot live
in England because they say it dissipates the evil
humours of the brain. ... I have known several
who, not content with smoking in the day, went to
bed with pipes in their mouths, and others who have
risen in the night to light their pipes, to take
tobacco with as much pleasure as they would have
received in drinking either Greek or Alicant wine.'

Children as well as women smoked ; they were not
only permitted but taught to take tobacco as an
essential part of their education. In 1634 D'Avenant
had protested that smoking was ' so much in fashion
that methinks your children begin to play with
broken pipes instead of corals to make way for their
teeth.' Thirty years later children were taught to
smoke, this being chiefly due to the lesson taught by
the Great Plague as to the virtues of tobacco. Con-
tinuing the above quotation, De Rochefort says :

' While we were walking about the town (Wor-
cester) he asked me if it was the custom in France as
in England that when the children went to school
they carried in their satchel with their books a pipe
of tobacco which their mother took care to fill early
in the morning, it serving them instead of breakfast,
and that at the accustomed hour everyone laid aside
his book to light his pipe, the master smoking with
them and teaching them how to hold their pipes and
draw in the tobacco, thus accustoming them to it
from their youths, believing it absolutely necessary
for a man's health.'

The scene which this account conjures up is irre-

8o The Soverane Herbe

sistibly comical. At the word of command from the
pedagogue pipes were produced, and arithmetic was
abandoned for tobacco, writing for smoking. The
h'ghted splinter of wood was passed along the benches,
pipes were kindled, and the dingy schoolhouse filled
with smoke to the chorus of coughs as the smoke
choked the still unseasoned throats of the pupils.
For allowing his pipe to expire an urchin is called
out. And his excuse, ' Please, sir, it wouldn't draw,'
would not save him a flogging. To a scholar
especially backward in smoking the master gave
a lesson in the art of inhaling and expelling the
fume evenly.

That M. Jorevin de Rochefort's story is not a
traveller's lie nor the imposition of perfidious Albion
on a too credulous Frenchman is abundantly proved
by contemporary records. Hearne, in his diary,
after speaking of the use of tobacco during the Great
Plague, says : ' Even children were obliged to smoak.
And I remember that I heard formerly Tom Rogers,
who was yeoman beadle, say that when he was a
schoolboy at Eton that year when the Plague raged
all the boys of that school were obliged to smoak in
the school every morning, and that he was never
whipped so much in his life as he was one morning
for not smoaking.' It would be difficult, we imagine,
in this year of grace to find a schoolboy who would
refuse to smoke on being ordered to do so.

A writer of the period laments his absolute inability
to check the practice of smoking. ' You are sensible,'
he writes with mournful resignation, ' to the state of
things that children smoke more nowadays than

*

f

Social Progress of Tobacco 8i

even soldiers and carmen did before.' Ralph
Thoresby, the Leeds antiquary, recording an even-
ing he spent with his brother at Caraway's Coffee
House in 1702, says he 'was surprised to see his
sickly child of three years old fill its pipe of tobacco
and smoke it as audfarrandly* as a man of three
score ; after that a second and a third pipe without
the least concern, as it is said to have done above a
year ago.' Of the precocity of the present genera-
tion we are being constantly assured, but seasoned
smokers of three years of age are not to be met with.
It is not unlikely that Thoresby was mistaken in
the age of his nephew, but of the fact that children
at an early age were taught to smoke for the sake of
their health, as in this case, there is no doubt.

Under William III., the Prince of that nation of
smokers, the Dutch, tobacco in England became even
more popular. Pipes grew bigger and smoking more
and more common. Misson, in his 'Memoirs of
Travels over England,' 1697, noted the ' perpetual
use of tobacco ' among men and women, especially in
the country. This, the Frenchman concluded, ' makes
the generality of Englishmen so taciturn, so thought-
ful, and so melancholy. Smoking makes men pro-
found theologists, for no men in the world will smoke
a pipe better than an English clergyman, and all the
world knows that the English theology is the most
profound theology of all.'

At that time tobacco was ubiquitous, smoking in-
cessant. In 162 1 the House of Commons had con-
sidered the advisability of banishing tobacco from
* Old-fashioned.

6

82 The Soverane Herbe

England. Seventy years later, on March 23, 1693,
the House found it necessary to enact that no
member was ' to take tobacco into the Gallery or to
the Table sitting at Committees.'

Smoking had long been practised in churches. In
1615 the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge found it
necessary to proclaim ' that noe graduate, scholler or
student of this Universitie presume to take tobacco
in St. Mary's Church uppon payne of final expellinge
the Universitie.' The Puritans frequently heard out
three-hour sermons of their preachers to the soothing
and edifying accompaniment of a pipe. In New
England this became so common that, the exercises
being greatly disturbed ' by the clinking of flints and
steel and the clouds of smoke in church,' in 1669 the
colony of Massachusetts had found it necessary to
enact a law ' that any person or persons that shall
be found smoking of tobacco on the Lord's Day,
going to or coming from the meetings, within two
miles of the meeting-house, shall pay twelve pence
for every such default.' History has handed down to
us the names of four Puritan worthies who suffered
for combining tobacco-smoke with Sabbath sanctity.
Richard Bury, Jedediah Lombard, Benjamin Lom-
bard and James Maker were fined twelve pence in
accordance with this law ' for smoking tobacco at the
end of Yarmouth meeting-house on the Lord's Day.'
In connection with this it is noteworthy that those
most unworldly of mankind, the Quakers, were
obliged to come to a compromise with tobacco. ' It
being considered,' runs an entry in the minute-book
of a Lancashire meeting-house in 1691, ' that the too

Social Progress of Tobacco 83

frequent use of smoking is inconsistent with Friends'
holy profession, it is desired that such as have occa-
sion to make use thereof take it privately, neither too
publickly in their own houses, nor by the highways,
streets, nor in alehouses or elsewhere tending to the
abetting of the common excess.'

City fathers in council assembled sought the assist-
ance of tobacco in their deliberations. Tobacco and
pipes were an indispensable part of the Lord Mayor's
banquet. Municipal councils were the originals of
Frederick the Great's 'Tabaks Collegium.' For
every meeting of the City Council of Bristol in the
eighteenth century there were payments out of the
municipal funds for 'pipes and tobacco.' At the
celebration of the coronation of George I. the council
consumed 2^ pounds of tobacco and used 216 pipes.
For the entertainment of a judge on circuit in 1702
the city provided 2 pounds of tobacco and 2 gross
of pipes. The municipal records of other towns are
similar. It is evident that smoking was practised on
every occasion and in every circumstance of life — and
death. Inordinate amounts of tobacco were con-
sumed, probably for sanitary reasons, at funerals,
which then took place at midnight.

During the reign of Queen Anne smoking reached
its zenith. Practically all England inspired the
fragrant fume. It is amusing to observe the despair
of resignation with which anti-tobacconists regarded
the futility of their efforts to persuade the nation
of the enormity of the crime it was committing
against morality, health and learning by inspiring
the smoke of tobacco. The invective, the vitupera-

6—2

84 The Soverane Herbe

tion, the scorn, the satire and the arguments against
tobacco of the moralists of James I. passed into mere
lamentation and doleful foreboding a century later.
They recognised the uselessness of these weapons
against the habit. Logic could not shake, wisdom
overthrow, nor satire and wit scathe the position of
tobacco. All that the enemies of tobacco could do
in the reign of Queen Anne was mournfully to note
its progress, lament over its use, and dolefully
prophesy its dire consequences. In 1703 one Law-
rence Spooner lugubriously declared that ' in two
miles ' compass may be found a thousand families or
persons in country villages that one with another do
smoak, snuff or chaw the year round one penny a
day, and most of these coal or lime men, fire-
men, etc' The cost of this nicotian indulgence was
£1,^2^ a year, which, 'if improved thriftily, in 20
years would amount to more than 30,000 to divide
amongst the smokers and their heirs for ever. By
which the world may see what mischief this Land
Robber doth amongst them.' He could compare the
use of tobacco ' to nothing but the waters of Noah,
that swelled fifteen cubits above the highest moun-
tain,' and gloomily prophesied that ' in an age or two
it will be as hard to find a family free as it was so
long time since one that commonly took it.' — A
prophecy well fulfilled.

Dr. Davenant states that from 1702 to 1709 the
aggregate consumption in England and Wales was
11,260,659 pounds a year. This averaged over 2
pounds per head of the population ; only during the
last three years, after the steady increase of the nine-

Social Progress of Tobacco 85

teenth century, has the consumption again touched
this figure. All the tobacco used was of the roll or
cake kind, Varinas, Knaster, and Spanish being the
favourite brands. The latter cost 8 shillings a pound
and Virginia 5 shillings.

This was the heyday of tobacco, the halcyon time
of the pipe ; Nicotia reached its zenith and began to
decline. It had attained a popularity it had never
known before, and to which the present age is only
now approximating. Its very popularity caused its
downfall. What the thunders of priests, the logic of
philosophers, the warning of physicians, the satire
of wits and the excise duties of kings had not been
able to accomplish, Fashion performed single-handed.
The laws of Fashion are aimed at singularity ; to be
unique, to be different at all costs from the common
people, is the aim of Fashion's constant inconstancy.
Smoking had become common ; the pipe was no longer
the badge of the beau; the habit was practised by the
very lowest classes of society. And society, with a big
' S,' repulsed for its vulgarity the practice it had first
welcomed for its singularity. The institution of
French habits and manners as the standard of social
life at the beginning of the eighteenth century — the
maxim 'They do things better in France' is Sterne's
— was a powerful factor in the degradation of smok-
ing. In France snuff had always been preferred to
smoking, and Georgian England, repudiating smoking
for its popularity, began to snuff. In Pall Mall, the
fashionable lounge, smoking was forbidden. Beau
Nash enacted similar laws at Bath. Forgetting that
they had ever enjoyed a pipe, the higher classes

86 The Soverane Herbe

speedily came to regard smoking with that odium
which only the last generation has removed. It was
tabooed by good society and snuff-taking substituted
for it as an accomplishment essential to all who
would be considered ladies or gentlemen.

The middle classes in time imitated the freak of
their social superiors and ceased smoking. But it
never lost its popularity among the people, though it
was regarded as synonymous with blackguardism and
the lowest vices. The movement against it was slow
except in the highest ranks, for Walpole's Excise
Bill of 1732 was defeated chiefly owing to the heavy
duties it imposed on tobacco. But by 1773 Dr. John-
son declared that * smoking has gone out.' Ten
years earlier Mrs. Bellamy said that it was most
unusual in England and Scotland for ' gentlemen of
any politeness ' to call for a pipe. The Regent
banned smoking and took snuff. What the first
gentleman in Britain scorned was, of course, scorned
more by society.

How debased v/as smoking a century ago the
following incident strikingly shows : The famous
Dr. Parr, going over from Bath to see Clifton and
Bristol, called for refreshment at the Bush, the
famous coaching inn of the western city. After his
meal he called for a pipe. The waiter informed him
that smoking was not permitted at the Bush.

' What !' exclaimed Parr ; ' send your master here.'

The waiter returned with his superior.

' Are you the master of this inn ?' asked Parr.

' No, sir, I am the head-waiter ; the master is
engaged on business.'

Social Progress of Tobacco 87

' Pray, then, Mr. Head-waiter, bring me a pipe and
tobacco.'

* I am sorry sir, but you cannot smoke at the Bush.'

' Why, man, I've smoked in the dining-room of
every nobleman in England. The Duchess of Devon-
shire said I could smoke in every room in her house
but her dressing-room, and here in this dirty public-
house of Bristol you forbid smoking ! Amazing !
Bring me my bill.'

The reaction against smoking was complete. It
arose when the pipe was favoured by all classes in
the reign of Queen Anne, and before the end of the
century it was as discredited and repudiated socially,
and hence morally, as it had been esteemed before.
It was not that smoking was regarded as injurious
physically or morally ; it was infinitely worse than
vicious — it was vulgar.

The solace of the weed was confined until well after
the middle of the last century to artists and Bohemians,
and to what are invidiously known as the ' working
classes.' John Wesley forbade his preachers to smoke
or take snuff. Adam Clarke ' could not help deem-
ing impiety in the use of this herb,' and, Methodist
though he was, hailed Urban VIII. as an 'apostolic
man ' for his Bull denouncing tobacco. Thus does
a common hatred make strange allies. The words of
Aubrey, that ' within these twenty years it was con-
sidered scandalous for a divine to take tobacco '
apply aptly to the present day.

In all classes smoking was regarded as more or
less scandalous and vicious. The works of Thackeray
well reflect the ill-favour with which tobacco was

88 The Soverane Herbe

regarded. Smoking was the especial vice of rakes
and spendthrifts, the special property of Bohemians
and the lower classes. One of Rawdon Crawley's
vices was that of smoking ; Pendennis's degeneracy was
first exhibited in the smoking of a cigar, and his de-
cadence finally sealed when he appeared with a pipe.
Was not, too, Bob Allen's affection for an old clay
and strong tobacco one of that lively gentleman's
most objectionable features ?

Until the middle of the last century there were
fewer smokers than snuffers. Snuff-taking was as
common as smoking was rare when Victoria ascended
the throne, though the introduction of the cigar early
in the century had rehabilitated smoking with beaux
and military men by the substitution of the neat
cigar for the cumbersome clay pipe which had
hitherto enjoyed a monopoly. A writer in 1839
stated that until twenty-five years before cigars had
been little known and could be obtained only from
the West Indian captains of Liverpool and Bristol
ships. The reduction of the duty on cigars in 1829
from 1 8s. to 9s. a pound contributed greatly to the
renascence of smoking by placing on the market at
a moderate price the elegant cigar. In two years
the importation of cigars increased from 8,000 to
66,000 pounds.

When Queen Victoria ascended the throne, in 1837,
though smoking was then on the increase, the tide
having turned, it was considered a very 'fast' and
vicious thing to smoke a cigar in the streets. A man
who walked out in the daytime with a pipe in his
mouth was regarded as having gone irretrievably to

Social Progress of Tobacco 89

the bad. Smoking was rarely practised in the home,
but was confined to the club-rooms of taverns and
inns. Long clays and churchwardens were practi-
cally the only smokes ; meerschaums were expensive
and little used ; wooden briars were totally unknown.
Clay pipes, however virtuous, are not, strictly speak-
ing, presentable in society. The courteous cigar was
beyond the reach of all but the longest purse, and the
elegant cigarette was almost unknown. A writer in
1845 remarks that ' the cigarette is rarely had re-
course to save by foreign visitors.' Hence it is not
surprising, perhaps, that smoking was considered
disreputable because clumsy and inconvenient. Cer-
tain it is that for a smoke it was necessary to seek
the accommodation of an inn. Clay pipes were
provided like tumblers and pewters for customers,
and on the parlour table was a tobacco-box on the
penny-in-the-slot principle, for smokers rarely carried
a supply of the herb with them. A verse on the box
explained its use :

' Drop a brown into the hole.
Touch the spring and fill your bowl ;
When you have filled, without delay
Close the lid or sixpence pay.'

Gradually smoking became more practised in the
higher ranks. By 1845 it was so common in the
Army that the Duke of Wellington issued an order
respecting the practice :

' The Commander-in-Chief has been informed that
the practice of smoking by the use of pipes, cigars or
cheroots has become prevalent among the officers of

90 The Soverane Herbe

the Army, which is not only in itself a species of
intoxication occasioned by the fumes of tobacco, but
undoubtedly occasions drinking and tippling by those
who acquire the habit ; and he entreats the officers
commanding regiments to prevent smoking in the
mess-rooms of their several regiments and in the
adjoining apartments, and to discourage the practice
among the officers of junior rank in the regiments.'

The condemnation and stigma under which smok-
ing lay fifty years ago is clearly and somewhat
amusingly revealed in this appealing command of the
Iron Duke. Snuff was going out of fashion and
smoking rapidly regaining its old-time ascendancy.
The Crimean War, with its association with the East
and its atmosphere of tobacco, and the hardships of
the campaign itself, increased the practice and popu-
larity in the Army. From their allies, the Turks and
French, English officers — smoking had never lost its
popularity among the people, for they are freed from
Fashion's dictates — learned to puff the fragrant weed,
and to find in it the best comfort and anodyne for the
hardships of war and the privations of the Crimean
winter. On their return home English officers
brought with them the cigarette and an ardent appre-
ciation of the divine herb. What had been their best
friend in adversity they found rendered prosperity
still more happy, while the cigarette provided them
with a novel and elegant smoke, against which could
not be urged the clumsiness and vulgarity of the pipe.
The gilded youth and men about town copied the
manners of the heroes of the day, the Crimean
officers, both by smoking and by cultivating beards.

Social Progress of Tobacco 91

What are accounted faults in ordinary men are
virtues in heroes, and smoking becoming fashionable,
soon came into its own again, under martial escort.

The increasing practice of smoking met with con-
siderable social opposition ; it was regarded as an
innovation. So completely was it forgotten that a
century and a half before smoking had been universal
in England, among men, women and children, from
the highest to the lowest in the land, that Thackeray
in his ' Fitzboodle Papers ' wrote : * W/iat is this
sjnoki?tg, that it should be considered a crime ? I
believe in my heart that women are jealous of it as
of a rival. The fact is, that the cigar is a rival to the
ladies, and their conqueror too. Do you suppose
you will conquer ? Look over the wide world and
see that your adversary has overcome it. Germany
has been puffing for three-score years ; France smokes
to a man. Do you think you can keep the enemy out
of England f The italicised passages show clearly
that Thackeray, with the rest of his countrymen,
forgot, if he ever knew, that in the golden reign of
Elizabeth, the stormy seventeenth century, and until
the reign of Anne, all England smoked, and that in
the early years of its introduction ' to drink tobacco
with a grace ' was the necessary accomplishment of
every gentleman. The odium and disgrace in which
smoking had lain for a century and a half caused
its former conquests and position to be forgotten.
Hence Thackeray was more happy in prophesying
the coming triumph, in reality the renascence, of
tobacco. ' I for my part do not despair to see a
Bishop lolling out of the Athenaeum with a cheroot

92 The Soverane Herbe

in his mouth, or, at any rate, a pipe stuck in his
shovel hat.'

To modern eyes the appearance of these pheno-
mena would excite scarcely a passing interest. It is
difficult for this generation to realize the contempt
and odium with which smoking was regarded forty
years ago. It was the vice of the vulgar, a degrading
and disgusting habit. ' Do you wish to be taken for
an omnibus conductor?' Charles Greville used to
ask any of the younger generation whom he found
smoking in the region of St. James's. The habit
was condemned by authorities so widely distant as
the autocrats of Pall Mall and of the Nonconformist
Churches. So late as 1877 the Wesleyan Conference
refused to rescind the regulation of its Church
passed in 1795 : * No preacher shall use tobacco for
smoking, for chewing, or in snuff unless it be pre-
scribed by a physician.' The rule is still in force, but
more honoured in the breach than the observance.

The example of the King, as Prince of Wales,
and his fondness for a smoke have done much to
give smoking its present social position. But there
is a story that only twenty-five years ago the Prince
when dining with a peer proposed a cigar after dinner.
His host regretted that he had no smoking-room and
suggested the stables, to which those of the party
who desired a smoke then and there adjourned.
Smoking was thus relegated to the stable as the fitting
scene of such an orgie.

The increase in smoking is clearly marked by the
Government returns of the imports of tobacco. In
1 83 1 only i2'8o ounces were imported per head of

Social Progress of Tobacco 93

the population. From I3'2i in 1841 it rose to 16*87
ounces in 185 1. During the following ten years it
increased 2 ounces per head, and in 1871 had risen to
2 1 '49 ounces. The increase then slackened, but from
22*6 ounces in 1881 it rose to 25 ounces in 1891, and
during the last ten years to 32 ounces per head of
the population.

As the true merits and virtues of smoking won
general recognition, smokers, rapidly increasing in
numbers and improving in status, were no longer
regarded as the scum and offscourings of society. It
was a great victory for smokers when their right to
punctuate their journeys with the soothing weed was
admitted and legalised by Parliament. The setting
apart of railway-carriages for smokers dates only
from 1868. Fairholt nine years before noted with
surprise that in Holland railway trains were filled
with conveniences for smokers. In England smoking
was strictly prohibited in all carriages, but nevertheless
was generally practised by the public.

Among the several measures of useful social re-
form, including the abolition of public executions
and the nationalization of telegraphs, passed into law
by the last Session of Parliament under Disraeli's
first premiership in 1868 was a Board of Trade Bill
regulating the railway system of the country. One
clause enacted that every train travelling above fifteen
miles an hour without a stop should have means of
communication between the passengers and the guard.
Another section imposed a penalty of ;^500 on any
railway company aiding and abetting prize-fights by
conveying principals, seconds, or spectators to the

94 The Soverane Herbe

rendezvous. When this Bill came up for discussion
on July 25 of that year Mr. H. B. Sheridan, M.P. for
Dudley, moved a new clause enacting that 'AH rail-
way companies shall, from and after this Act, in
every passenger train where there are more carriages
than one of each class, provide smoking compart-
ments for each class of passengers.'

In the discussion of this clause the opinion was
expressed that the matter should be left to the
companies' own discretion, that smokers had not had
justice done to them, and that they always put out
their pipes at the wish of non-smokers. The
Attorney-General, Sir John Karslake, while oppos-
ing the amendment, declared that it would restrict
rather than increase facilities for smoking. In the
last speech which he made in the House of Commons
John Stuart Mill approved of the clause as giving
justice to smokers, and recommended that the last
carriage in the train should be appropriated to them.
On a division the amendment was incorporated in
the Act by thirty-eight votes to sixteen, a majority of
twenty-two. On October i, 1868, the Act came into
force, though the companies were slow in providing
the necessary accommodation. Now the smoker has
no ground for complaining at the railway accommoda-
tion provided for him, unless it be that the strength
of the army of smokers justifies the setting apart of
compartments for non-smokers. So numerous are
smoking-carriages now that the smoker no longer
desires the carriage nearest the engine to be set apart
for him to avoid a long search for the compartment
sacred to the divine herb. This Act is noteworthy in

Social Progress of Tobacco 95

Nicotian annals as the first and only recognition by
the State of the right of man to smoke in peace and
comfort.

It is noteworthy that women have not participated
in the renaissance as they did in the introduction of
smoking, on the contrary proving its sternest oppo-
nents. There is no reason why women should not
smoke as well as men, as was the custom at first.
Custom vetoes it as illogically as decisively. So
strong is prejudice that men who admit the absurdity
of confining the solace of tobacco to the male sex
object to see ladies smoking. On the Continent and
in the East women smoke as devotedly as men.
Man is not wholly selfish in decreeing smoking as
unwomanly ; it is not that he denies the right of
woman to soothe her woes with tobacco, but an
instinct stronger than reason makes him dislike to
see a woman for whom he has any respect puffing
tobacco. Man's attitude is unfair, selfish and illo-
gical. Time may remove his objection, and already
smoking is becoming common by ladies in the highest
society. In a recent number of The Ladies' Field
Lady Jeune wrote :

' The habit of smoking which is so common abroad
has now become among many women in England
quite as natural a thing, and it is not in the least
unusual for cigarettes to be handed round in the
drawing-room after the women have gone upstairs
and left the men to drink their wine and eat their
dessert. Hitherto it has been mainly confined to the
house, and even the bedroom or boudoir, but within
the last two months two cases of women smoking in

96 The Soverane Herbe

public have come under my notice. One day in the
Strand a woman, young and pretty, was seen walk-
ing and quietly smoking a cigarette, and on another
occasion in Richmond Park a woman was enjoying
a fairly large cigar with her male companion. These
are only isolated cases, but they excited little or no
comment, and it seems an indication of a change of
sentiment and public opinion on the subject of women
smoking.'

The strongest objection entertained by man to
feminine smoking is its affectation, the mere puffing
at a cigarette for effect. To honest, true smoking he
is lenient, but detests the trifling and playing with
cigarettes. When woman ceases to be self-conscious
in smoking, her practice of the habit will have lost its
great objection, and — dare we add ? — its popularity.

There are several causes which have contributed to
the revival of smoking in the last half-century and its
establishment in popular favour. First and foremost
is the better equipment offered to the smoker. The
rough clays and delicate meerschaums, which were
the only pipes obtainable until forty years ago, were
cumbersome and inconvenient. The neat briar, the
use of the cigar and the introduction of the cigarette,
have combined to make smoking more convenient,
neater, and elegant. The invention of lucifer matches
led to smoking in the open air. The milder and
lighter qualities of tobacco placed on the market
created as well as met a demand. Manufacturers
now cater for the more refined taste of the upper and
middle classes, as well as for artisans and the lower
classes, who until fifty years ago formed the bulk of

Social Progress of Tobacco 97

their customers. Another potent reason is the severity
with which society of all classes regards drunken-
ness, and its consequent decrease. Smoking began
to come into favour and practice as it came to be
regarded disgraceful for a gentleman to drink to
excess. Whether smoking led to less drinking or
the diminution of drinking led to smoking is a moot
point, though in our opinion the former is the true
explanation. After dinner a smoker drinks less
between the whiffs of his cigar than does a non-
smoker, whose whole time is free for the bottle.
Gentlemen of the old school complain that young
men nowadays care more for tobacco than wine,
exercise more care in the selection of an Havana
than of their port or claret, and appraise the hospi-
tality of their host by the excellence of his cit^ars
rather than by the age and flavour of his vintage.
Last, but not least, the mental strain and worry
produced by the stress and speed of modern life,
together with the fierceness of competition and the
highly-strung nervousness of town life, demand a
specific, both sedative and stimulating ; and in
tobacco man has found, as did his ancestors, the best
of all Nature's remedies to minister to body and
mind distressed.

7

CHAPTER VI

THE TOBACCO PLANT : ITS CULTIVATION

Genus and varieties — Where grown— Cultivation of Nicotiana
Tabaaan — Soil — Manure — Sowing — Growth — Transplant-
ing— Insects — Pruning — Grades of leaves — Gathering crop
— Drying — Curing, or 'sweating' — Nature of leaf— ' Sweat-
ing,' or fermenting — Various methods — Fermentation due to
microbes — Drying and packing for export — Growth of
tobacco in England — Prohibition — Experiments in Kent in
1886 — Mr. Gladstone on prohibition of tobacco culture —
Varieties of American leaf — Light and dark tobaccos —
Other imports of tobacco — Japanese, Chinese, Turkish,
Dutch, African and Australian — Price of tobacco.

The tobacco plant is classed by botanists in the
genus Nicotiana of the order Solanacece. Among
other members of this order are belladonna, or deadly
nightshade, and the potato. Tobacco is a big plant
with large, broad leaves, covered with clammy hairs.
It is found in nearly every country, and grows in all
climates with more or less variation in form and
properties. Numerous as are the varieties of tobacco,
they are all variations of the original American plant.
Tobacco is very susceptible to its environment. The
Cuban plant transported to Syria assumes the
characteristics of the native tobacco of that region,

The Tobacco Plant 99

and inversely Syrian tobacco grown in Cuba becomes
identical with the Havana leaf.

Over thirty species are cultivated in British gardens
for ornament ; two of these come from Australia, two
from China, one from Nepaul, and twenty-seven from
America. Numerous as are the many varieties of
tobacco, there are, as far as the smoker is concerned,
only three species of the 'soverane herbe.'

Of these Nicotiana Tabacum, the American plant,
is by far the most important. It is grown all over
the world, and provides more than three-fourths of all
tobacco smoked. It was brought to Europe by
Oviedo about 1530, and to England by Drake and
Raleigh. It is a large, wide-spreading plant, grow-
ing to the height of six or seven feet ; several varieties
are cultivated, varying in the thickness, size and
smoothness of the leaf. The leaves of the common
variety are large and oval, about 24 inches by 18
inches, and of a peculiar cellular construction. The
flowers are pink or rose-coloured, and open at night,
emitting a pleasant perfume.

Nicotiana Rustica is also a native of America, but
is chiefly cultivated in Europe, Asia and Africa. It
is a hardier plant, about 3 or 4 feet in height, with
oval leaves of a green, not quite brown, tint and a
green flower. It is cultivated to some extent in
English gardens as an ornament, flowering from
Midsummer to Michaelmas. Its leaves are milder
than those of the American plant, and from them
Turkish, Syrian and Latakia tobaccos are prepared.

Nicotiana Persica is, as its name denotes, usually
found in Persia. It is smaller than either of the

7—2

loo The Soverane Herbe

preceding two, with oblong stem leaves and a white
flower. It is popular with English gardeners, but its
smoking use is confined to Persia, its flavour being
too mild for all but the Oriental palate. The tobacco
prepared from it is known as Shiraz, the place of its
chief culture.

For his inspiration the smoker practically depends
upon the Nicotiana Tabacum, the other two varieties
supplying only a very small proportion of the world's
tobacco.

Though a perennial plant, tobacco is grown annually
from seed. It flourishes best in a rich, deep, moist
soil and a temperate climate, between 40° and 50°
latitude. Though naturally a tropical plant, tobacco
acclimatises itself in any country, but that grown
in its native tropics yields, of course, the best crop,
the leaf deteriorating the farther north it is grown.
It is estimated that nearly two million acres of the
earth's surface are devoted to tobacco culture.

The cultivation of tobacco is a matter of great
care, requiring constant and experienced attention.
The rich, moist soil is exhausted of its mineral con-
stituents by the plant in a remarkable degree, more
so, in fact, than by any other plant. It is these
minerals which form the ash of burning tobacco. On
an average four pounds of smoked tobacco yield one
pound of ash or mineral matter. Tobacco absorbs
from the soil even the chlorine of common salt, which
it not only does not require, but which actually spoils
the tobacco for smoking.

Careful manuring of the ground and alternation of
crops is therefore necessary, as a single crop of tobacco

The Tobacco Plant loi

robs the ground of all its mineral constituents. Lime
yields a large but rather poor crop. The best manure
is naturally tobacco-ash, for it is simply the restora-
tion to the earth of the minerals the plant absorbed
from it. Just as four pounds of tobacco yield one
pound of ash, so will one pound of ash yield four
pounds to tobacco again. It is almost surprising that
steps have not been taken to collect smokers' ashes for
dressing the growing crops. But the practical diffi-
culties in thus raising tobacco, Phoenix-like, from its
own ashes, are insurmountable.

The best soil is alluvial, or a light loam with plenty
of potash. New land gives a large crop of coarse,
strong leaves, and old soil a smaller but better and
sweeter tobacco, provided it has been well dressed
with potash.

The plants are annually sown from seed, of which
Linnseus counted 40,000 in a single pod. Some
months before sowing-time the beds are broken up,
drained, dug round as for asparagus, and a fire lit on
the ground to destroy all weeds.

The seed is extremely minute, a hundred thousand,
it is calculated, going to the ounce; this quantity
about fills a thimble. Half an ounce is the usual
quantity of seed allowed per acre, and it is mixed
with ashes or sand to assist its equable distribution.
Between the middle of March and the beginning of
April seeds are sown in America, to which we are
now confining our remarks. In cold climates it is
necessary to sow the seed in hot-beds.

The soil must be kept moist, but not wet, by
watering. The bed is covered with manure, ashes.

I02

The Soverane Herbe

and cut straw and branches of trees, with the triple
object of nourishing the plants, preserving them from
ants, and protecting them against cold. In India it
is also necessary to shield them from sun and rain.

In a week's time the plants, no bigger than pin-
heads, appear above the ground. In two or three
weeks' time they are carefully thinned out, and after
seven or eight weeks' growth they are as big as crown
pieces and ready for transplanting. The field is hoed
into square hollows with alternating square hillocks,
two or three feet apart. A warm, rainy day early in
May is chosen and the plants, carefully drawn from
their nursery bed, are planted out singly in a hillock.
Each plant is allowed an area of some three square
feet, so that an acre contains about i,6oo plants,
which, if big, broad leaves are grown, yield half a
pound of tobacco each, or 800 pounds per acre.

The process of transplanting and the care of the
plants afterwards is a very tedious and anxious one.
A single night's frost at any stage of growth kills
them completely. In such case the planter renews
his crop from a reserve sowing. The ground must
be kept scrupulously free from weeds, lest they should
deprive the plants of any of the nutriment the soil
contains. The attacks of insects must also be
guarded against and their raids stopped. Lime and
sawdust are scattered around the roots to form a
quarantine ring, and on many plantations turkeys are
kept for the sake of the destruction they wreck among
things that crawl.

One of the greatest enemies of the planter is the
horn, or tobacco worm, that commits great devastation

The Tobacco Plant 103

among the leaves of the tender plant. Every morn-
ing and evening the plants are examined and all
intruders destroyed.

The quality of the soil, the kind of manure, the
local conditions of climate, as well as the variety of
seed, all exert great influence on the kind and quality
of tobacco produced. Equally important is the
method of pruning. Escaping the terrors of frost,
the injuries of careless handling and the attacks of
insects, the plant grows rapidly ; but its growth must
be checked and directed to produce a profitable crop.
No plant can produce more than twelve healthy
leaves of good quality.

To prevent the energies of the plant being devoted
solely to the attainment of great height, strong stem,
big flowers and capacious seed capsules, to the con-
sequent starvation of the leaves, the stem is nipped
off with the finger-nail ; this partially closes the
wound and is better than any instrument. The tip
of the stems and every flower-bud are ruthlessly
removed to confine the energies of the plant solely to
the growth of leaves. It is on the same principle
that gardeners prune trees and direct the energies of
a vine to the growth of a few first-class bunches of
grapes. In Turkey alone this course is not pursued,
as the leaves, buds and flowers are all used in Turkish
tobacco ; hence its mildness, the nutriment being
evenly distributed, and not, as in American plants,
directed to the leaves only.

As a consequence of removing the flowers and
buds the plant throws out shoots, or suckers, and
these as soon as they appear are snipped off to keep

I04 The Soverane Herbe

all the nutriment in the plant. The great object the
planter has in view is the production of well-developed
leaves, and to this end his constant care is to con-
centrate all the energies of the plant in their pro-
duction by the ruthless nipping in the bud of all its
superfluous attempts to flower, to grow to a great
height, or to propagate itself. In the old days of
Virginia a custom sprang up of resetting fields with
these suckers ; the tobacco thus grown was naturally
poor in quality, as the soil could not produce a first-
class double crop. In order to preserve and maintain
the high standard of their tobacco the planters pro-
hibited the practice, enacting that crops from suckers
should be destroyed by the officers of the law. Its
enforcement was rarely necessary, for the good name
of their tobacco — the word ' Virginian ' being a warrant
for quality — was too valuable to be tampered with.

The leaves of the tobacco plant naturally grow in
three grades. Those nearest the roots are the
strongest, since they have the first call upon the sap
of the plant ; leaves half way up the stem are of
medium strength, while the topmost are the mildest.
Hence the planter obtains a strong, medium or mild
crop, as he requires, by pruning the plant at any
part. To obtain strong and full-flavoured tobacco he
snips off the upper leaves ; the removal of the lower
ones gives him a crop of medium strength. When
leaves of a uniform quality and strength are required
the plant is allowed to grow untouched. First the
lowest leaves are gathered, and for eight or ten days
the whole strength of the plant is directed to the
improvement of the remaining higher leaves. When

The Tobacco Plant 105

the planter judges that the middle ones are of equal
strength to those already gathered they are stripped,
and the upmost leaves left to strengthen, in this way
obtaining a crop of uniform quality.

Even when approaching maturity the plant is
liable to disasters. Very wet weather produces a
blight known as ' firing ^ and the extreme heat and
drought infects the leaf with hard, brown spots,
which perforate the leaves and destroy the value of
the crop. Thus from the day of sowing to its final
harvesting the tobacco plant demands and receives
constant care, attention, and the judgment experience
alone can bring.

About the beginning of September the crop is
gathered. As they ripen the leaves become rougher,
thicker, and of a yellowish-green colour. The gather-
ing of the leaves requires great judgment, and is
always entrusted to the most experienced hands.
Reference has already been made to the gathering of
the leaves at intervals to obtain uniformity of quality.
As a rule the plant is cut down at once by severing
the stem close to the ground. Only such plants as
appear fully ripe are cut down, the rest being left for
a short time longer, but the planter has always fear
of frost before his eyes. Cut down in the early
morning, the plant is carefully laid on the ground and
exposed to the heat of the sun for the day, the juicy,
brittle leaves thus becoming wilted, or Haccid, and
bendable without breaking. Before evening the
leaves are carefully collected and stored in sheds.

Then comes the curing of the tobacco, as fully
important and anxious a process as any of the pre-

io6 The Soverane Herbe

ceding ones. It is this curing, or fermentation, of
tobacco which gives the leaf its well-known and
varied flavours. There are various methods adopted,
and by them the final flavour of the herb is deter-
mined. Tobacco-leaves simply dried have no more
odour and taste than any other dry leaf.

The gathered leaves are first dried. In Asia they
are simply dried in the sun ; in Europe in hot-houses
of 70° or 80° Fahr., while in America both methods
are practised, the more common one being in artificial
heat.

By the first or natural method the leaves are
simply hung in well-lit and ventilated sheds, spitted
on poles like herrings. Every tobacco-leaf thus has a
hole at the base of the stalk by which it has been
suspended. The reader may be again reminded that
the leaves are bigger than cabbage-leaves, being a
couple of feet long by one and a half broad. After
six or seven weeks' suspension the leaves are
thoroughly dried. The more common method is a
combination of artificial and natural means. After
being partially dried in the sun the leaves are finished
off in sheds by the heat of smouldering fires of bark
and rotten wood.

Then comes the process of ' sweating.* The leaves
are heaped on the floor of the shed and covered with
matting. The mass of tobacco gradually ' sweats,' or
becomes damply warm, this being due to the evolu-
tion of heat and water. To prevent overheating the
leaves are turned every twenty-four hours, thus
insuring equable ' curing ' and guarding against
'firing,' which turns the leaves dark and black. In

The Tobacco Plant 107

six or eight weeks' time the tobacco assumes a warm,
brown colour, though it is still flavourless. The
essential fragrance of tobacco is produced by fermen-
tation.

To understand this process some knowledge must
be had of the leaf. It consists of three parts — the
upper skin, the lower skin, and the intervening cells.
The upper cuticle is a thin, transparent, colourless,
tough substance, very like waxed tissue-paper. The
lower cuticle is a similar but coarser skin with tiny,
short, bulbous protuberances. Between the two skins
is a honeycomb-like collection of cells containing sap.
It is this sap which gives the colour, flavour and
taste to tobacco ; the skin is merely an envelope,
and, burnt, forms the ashes.

At first in the growing plant the sap is a pale
green ; as the plant matures it becomes a bright
emerald, and later of an olive shade. In the sweat-
ing process the sap is decomposed by the heat into
a thick, viscid gum of a brown colour. The final
process of fermentation evolves the flavour of the
tobacco.

When by ' sweating ' the leaves have become
warmish brown, they are formed into bundles of six
or ten leaves, secured by a leaf. These ' hands ' are
collected and stacked. The inherent heat and mois-
ture of the closely-massed leaves sets up fermenta-
tion and the tobacco undergoes a radical change.
To prevent the mass of tobacco reaching too great
heat (90° is the limit), it is constantly stirred, the
inmost hands being brought to the edge. Various
mixtures are used to promote fermentation and pro-

io8 The Soverane Herbe

duce certain flavours. With some choice tobaccos
the Americans use cider, but the natures of the
dressings are trade and firm secrets.

When to stop the process is a matter of the utmost
importance. With some tobaccos a day and a half's
fermentation suffices ; require others much longer ; in
scarcely any two cases is the period the same. Fer-
mentation must be stopped when the tobacco attains
a certain temperature. To ascertain this the planter
thrusts his hand into the heap. Experience and a
keen judgment are the only guides. If the tobacco
is heated too much the leaf becomes very dark
and harsh in quality, while insufficient fermentation
results in musty tobacco. Imperfect curing causes
black leaves, produces ammonia products and im-
perfect combustion.

Various methods of curing apply to various
tobaccos. Light leaves are cured entirely in the open
air ; yellow leaves are cured in sheds by charcoal fires,
and heavy, dark tobacco by open wood fires, the
smoke of which chokes the pores of the leaves and
preserves them.

The process of fermentation, or curing, is caused,
according to the recent investigations of Herr Suchs-
land, a German scientist (described by Mr. G. Clarke
Nuttal in the Contemporary Review for July, 1899),
by bacteria. The heap of fermenting tobacco con-
tains a complete flora of fungus life, and the microbes
drawing nourishment from the leaves produce organic
changes in the whole, in a manner analogous to the
action of yeast on dough.

The flavour of tobacco has long been known to be

The Tobacco Plant 109

produced by fermentation, and now the microbe is
known to be the cause of the heating and ferment-
ing. The fragrance of tobacco is produced by the
omnipresent and omnipotent microbe. The Havana
flavour is produced by bacteria indigenous to Cuba,
that of Manila by a Filipinos microbe, while Virginia,
Turkish and all other varieties of tobacco are the
work of other microbes. The susceptibility of
tobacco plants to local conditions has long been
known, Havana plants cultivated in Germany pro-
ducing strictly Teutonic tobacco, and inversely the
German plant transported to Cuba producing the
finest Havana leaf.

Herr Suchsland shows that these changes are due,
not to the climate and soil in themselves, but to the
different microbes indigenous to Cuba and Germany.
By introducing the bacteria discovered in the fer-
mentation of Havana tobacco into a fermenting heap
of German-grown leaf, the latter became in all
respects as the best-grown Havana leaf. The West
Indian microbe turns German tobacco into Havana,
and the German microbe transforms the fragrant
Havana into the weak, hay-like Teutonic weed. A
patent for the flavouring of tobacco in this way has
been taken out in Germany, and smokers are promised
the finest brands of tobacco, flavoured by microbes to
order, at nominal prices.

When sufficiently ' cured ' the leaves are placed to
dry. When elastic and dry enough to bear handling
and pulling like a kid glove, they are removed from
the poles on which they have been spitted. American
dealers then strip the leaves of the mid-rib. The

no The Soverane Herbe

leaves are then bunched together into 'hands' of
half a dozen each, and packed together in rows until
sufficiently dry for export.

The process of fermentation continues slowly in
the leaf for some time, even when dry. It is this full
development of the properties of the leaf that leads
to the storing and seasoning of cigars. It should be
noted, however, that only good tobacco improves
with age; bad tobacco deteriorates.

When dry the ' hands ' are packed for export. In
America they are first blended, all the brands being
the result of more or less blending of various growths.
The hogsheads, or serons, in which the tobacco is
packed stand feet high and hold 1,000 pounds.
The ' hands ' of tobacco are laid in alternate rows,
and when the seron is a quarter full the mass is
pressed down by hydraulic power, the barrel finally
containing a mass so compact that crowbars and
mallets are needed to split off the tobacco in wedges.

In the early days of smoking, tobacco was grown
in England for home consumption. Early in the
seventeenth century a considerable trade in English
tobacco — a weak brand known as viutidnngus — was
done with Turkey. In 162 1, however, James I. pro-
hibited its culture in England, not merely to check
the practice of smoking but also to increase the
revenue from the import duty on tobacco. Charles I.
maintained the prohibition, but the law was a dead
letter during the Commonwealth. Tobacco was
grown so largely in Gloucestershire that in 1655 the
county hangman complained of unemployment, men
being so busy cultivating tobacco that they had no

The Tobacco Plant 1 1 1

time or inclination for sheep-stealing, etc. In 1663
Charles II. re-enacted the prohibition of tobacco
culture, extending the law to Ireland, which hitherto
had been exempt, under a penalty of 40s. for every
rood planted with tobacco. The universities and
physicians were excepted and permitted to plant
half a pole of land annually, for use in ' physick or
chirurgery.' In 1684 the penalty was raised to £10
per rood — £40 an acre. These laws did not apply
to Scotland, where tobacco was largely grown about
Kelso and Jedburgh.

With the secession of the American colonies went
the chief objection to the home growth of tobacco — the
injury to the trade of the colonies. During the War
of Independence tobacco was grown in England to
supply the home demand. The planters in the Vale
of York and Rydale in the North Riding were
severely punished for their breach of the law, the
tobacco being publicly burnt by the hangman, and
themselves fined ;^30,ooo and imprisoned. The
tobacco crop in Scotland was purchased by the
Government at the fixed price of 4d. a pound,
thirteen acres near Kelso yielding .^114 even at this
monopoly price. In 1782 the cultivation of tobacco
was again prohibited in England, though half a rood
might be planted for medicinal or insecticide pur-
poses. The same Act removed the prohibition from
Ireland, permitting the growth of tobacco for home
consumption. Wexford tobacco was very highly
esteemed, its price being three times that of Virginian.
In 1827, doubt arising as to the legality of tobacco
culture in Ireland, Parliament affirmed its legality.

112 The Soverane Herbe

In 1830, however, the culture was deemed to be
reaching too large proportions, a thousand acres then
being planted with tobacco, and its growth was pro-
hibited.

Tobacco cannot now be grown for manufacturing
purposes in any part of the United Kingdom. The
climate is not unsuitable for tobacco culture, for
colder and damper Holland grows tobacco both for
home consumption and export, while France and
Germany also supply themselves with tobacco.
Southern Ireland, Cornwall and Devon are said to be
especially suitable for the cultivation of tobacco. In
1886 permission was obtained from the Inland
Revenue Department to experiment with the growth
of tobacco in Kent. The result was fairly successful,
it being proved that £$ per acre could be obtained.
Last year experiments were made with fair success
in Ireland. The proposal, however, to cultivate
tobacco in earnest, under the supervision of the
Revenue officers, has met with little approval, as is
natural, considering the extent to which the country
relies upon the tobacco import duty for its revenue,
nearly one-tenth of the Exchequer receipts being from
this source. When the question of permitting the
growth of tobacco in Ireland was raised in the House
of Commons in i88r, Mr. Gladstone said : 'I regard
any prohibition of the growth of any agricultural
product at all as being very unsatisfactory, and I am
at all times open to any statement or suggestion
tending to show that if that prohibition were removed
we could satisfactorily levy a duty on the commodity
when grown at home as we levy it when imported.

The Tobacco Plant 113

It is upon agriculturists, not smokers, that the pro-
hibition weighs. As far as smokers are concerned
they have no grievance on the subject, for the lack
of heat and moisture essential to the growth of really-
good tobacco would result in the production of leaf of
mediocre quality only.

Two-thirds of all tobacco smoked in this country
came from the United States and the remaining
third from the four corners of the earth. The chief
tobacco-growing States are Kentucky, North Caro-
lina and Virginia, in the order named. Kentucky
produces more than half of the tobacco grown in
the States. There are more than sixty varieties of
American tobacco.

Leaf for the old-fashioned, once and ever popular
shag — the purest and best of tobaccos — is grown in
Kentucky and South Indiana. Bird's-eye is prepared
from Virginian and North Carolinan tobacco. Vir-
ginian tobacco, the first introduced into England, is a
strong-flavoured, deep-mottled brown and unctuous
leaf. It is strictly a pipe tobacco, being unsuitable
for cigars and snuff. Maryland tobacco is light in
colour, and little smoked now. Florida supplies a
fine leaf used for cigar wrappers, and Connecticut a
coarse cigar-filling leaf.

Pdrique, the strongest of all tobaccos — a dark,
brown-black, fine-cut tobacco — is grown in Louisiana.
Its cultivation and preparation are in the hands of
one firm, who prepare only 175,000 pounds a year.
It was first raised by Pierre Chenet, of whose name
Pdrique is a corruption ; he was one of Longfellow's
* simple Acadian farmers,' who left Grand Pre for

S

114 The Soverane Herbe

Louisiana. Much spurious P6rique is made in
England.

During the last half-century many new brands
have been placed on the market, chiefly of the light-
coloured, mild type. Though these are now so
common, they are of comparatively recent origin.
Old smokers of the dark, full-flavoured tobaccos
despise the modern taste for mild, light tobacco.
Indeed, for purity and the true flavour of tobacco the
older brands are the best. Much of the light-coloured
weed now sold is weak, immature stuff. The dis-
covery of how to produce it was in nearly every case
an accident, and the result of, strictly speaking,
improper methods of culture.

Take the case of the yellow tobaccos of Carolina,
Georgia and Tennessee. About 1850 some planters
sowed their tobacco . in poor soil, and as a result of
the poverty of the ground it grew up a light-coloured,
sapless plant. Cured with charcoal-fires, the leaves
became a lemon colour and very sweet. Consider-
able difficulty was found in disposing of this poor,
weak crop, but as no better soil was obtainable it
continued to be grown. To the surprise of planters,
manufacturers and retailers, the light weed caught
the taste of the public, who preferred it to the rich,
full-flavoured, dark, matured tobacco. Between 1870
and 1880 the demand for light tobacco increased
largely, and now the dark, full-flavoured tobacco has
proportionately a very small sale.

A mild, light tobacco very popular nowadays is
White Burley. This brand arose in 1864, from some
Red Burley plants coming up white and sickly. They

The Tobacco Plant 115

were not cast aside as useless, but cured, the upper
side of the leaf turning a golden brown and the
under side white, on the stray chance of a sale. It
shared the public demand for mild tobaccos, and the
plant was grown for what had hitherto been regarded
as defects. The cultivation of mild, light tobacco
was very profitable to planters. Poor soil and no
manuring was needed for its growth ; lightness and
mildness were the qualities demanded, and to obtain
these it was only necessary to starve the plant and
prevent its vigorous and healthy growth.

Cigars are of course synonymous with Cuba, though
all are not by any means Havanas that are cigars.
The decay of the sugar industries in the British West
Indies has led Jamaica to take up the culture of
tobacco, which with climate and soil similar to that
of Cuba should do much to restore the island to
prosperity. Jamaica cigars are highly praised by
some connoisseurs.

South America grows considerable quantities of
tobacco, in Paraguay, Brazil and Venezuela. Kanaster
tobacco, the favourite brand two centuries ago, is
grown on the Varinas River. It is so called from the
k'naster or rush baskets in which it was packed for
export.

Though the smoker is aware that from the
American continent he receives two-thirds of his
supply of tobacco, he is generally ignorant of the
source of the remaining third. Japan is not usually
regarded as a tobacco-producing country, but the land
of the Mikado grows big, dark leaves, which are largely
used for cheap cigars to the delectation and ignorance

8—2

1 1 6 The Soverane Herbe

of 'Arry. China sends a very light-tissued, flavourless
tobacco ; it is insipid smoked by itself, and is chiefly
used to give a bright tint to smoking-mixtures.
Sumatra and Indian tobacco is used for cigars;
the former leaves are exported carefully folded to
prevent evaporation. Borneo tobacco is steadily
gaining ground.

The famous Latakia comes from Syria ; its place
of origin is the Laodicea mentioned by John in the
Apocalypse, Latakia being the modern form of the
name. It is an ugly, dark tobacco, the leaves being
strung and plastered together, as is all Syrian and
Greek tobacco. The peculiar flavour of Latakia is
due to its being cured over fires of camel-dung — the
common fuel of Arabia. To smoke it unmoderated
by a lighter tobacco is equivalent to drinking brandy
neat,

Turkish tobacco is a small leaf, about 4 inches
long by I J inches broad. The best Turkish is
grown in Salonica. The so-called Egyptian cigarettes
are made of imported Turkish, for the cultivation of
tobacco in Egypt was prohibited in 1891.

Very large crops of tobacco are grown in Holland,
France and Germany. Holland sends us more
tobacco than any other country but the United
States. Dutch tobacco is not a poor brand, for it
commands a shilling a pound in bond. Large
numbers of German cigars are smoked in England,

Large quantities of tobacco are grown in South
Africa, and by its consumers Boer tobacco is held to
be superior to all others. It looks like tea, but is
palatable, cheap and pure. Once smoked, the smoker

The Tobacco Plant 117

will have no other. The area of the Upper Nile
about the Bahr-el-Ghazel and the Soudan are re-
garded as specially suitable for the cultivation of
tobacco both in climate and soil. Tobacco is ex-
pected to play an important part in the development
and progress of the Upper Nile provinces.

Considerable attention is now being paid to the
culture of tobacco in New South Wales, Australia.
Hitherto the culture has been chiefly in the hands
of the Chinese. It being recognised that the poor
flavour of Australian tobacco is largely due to the
inexperience and faulty methods of curing, an
American expert has been engaged to advise
Australian tobacco-planters, and he regards the
prospects of the colony as second to none. Half
the tobacco consumed there is now home grown.
In Canada increasing areas are being devoted to
the cultivation of the herb.

The price of tobacco on the plantations or in bond
in this country varies from 3d. to i8s. a pound —
the latter for cigars. Japanese leaf costs 8d. a
pound, United States tobacco averages 8d. a pound,
Dutch IS., and Turkish Latakia 2s. 6d. a pound.
In 1899 we imported from the United States
^4,552,000 worth of tobacco, ex duty. Holland
supplied us with the next greatest amount, .£"372,000
worth of the weed.

CHAPTER VII

THE MANUFACTURE OF TOBACCO

Importation of tobacco — In bond — The manufacture — Blending
the leaf — ' Substitutes ' — Wetting down —Moisture in tobacco
— Stripping — Cutting — Stoving — Shag, birds'-eye, returns —
Smoking mixtures — Origin and manufacture — Navy-cut
— Hard tobaccos — Twist and roll — Cavendish — Packing
tobaccos — Adulteration — Prime cost of tobaccos — Dark v,
light — Climate and taste for tobacco.

There are two classes of tobacco, unmanufactured
and manufactured. Until the leaf, cured and dried,
has been prepared for smoking — in the form of cigars,
cavendish, navy-cut, twist, etc. — it is styled unmanu-
factured. Practically all the tobacco smoked in
Britain is imported in the leaf and prepared here.
The imports of manufactured pipe - tobacco are
insignificant, cigars constituting the bulk imported
under the heading ' Manufactured.'

Tobacco can be imported only at such ports in
Britain as possess Custom Houses, in vessels of not
less than lOO tons burden, and in quantities of not less
than 950 pounds as merchandise. Excise officers are
empowered to board any vessel carrying tobacco as
cargo within twelve miles of the coast, to examine
the bill of lading and cargo, and to batten down the

The Manufacture of Tobacco 119

hatches to prevent surreptitious sales of the dutiable
tobacco. Over 56,000 tons of tobacco were im-
ported into Britain last year, worth, ex duty, more
than ;!^"5, 500,000. Of this total London received
tobacco to the value of ;if3,ooo,ooo, and Liverpool
1, 500,000.

On being unshipped the tobacco is conveyed direct
to the bonded warehouses. No duty is paid as yet ;
it is stored there, and samples, about four pounds of
each consignment, are sent by the Excise to the
manufacturers who have purchased the tobacco
through brokers. The manufacturers can obtain any
quantity of their tobacco on paying the duty. This
they do from time to time, drawing on their bonded
stock as necessity requires. Much tobacco is kept
in bond for two or three years, to mature and season
before withdrawal for manufacture. Manufacturers
have always a large reserve stock, buying the leaf
two or three years ahead. There is never less than
^2,000,000 worth of unmanufactured tobacco in the
custody of the Revenue officials. If a hogshead or
bale of tobacco has been damaged by sea-water or
has deteriorated during the voyage or in bond, the
spoiled parts are cut away and burned in the ' King's
pipe,^ duty being paid on the wholesome remainder
only.

On his stock thus impounded by the Government
the manufacturer draws as his needs arise by the
simple expedient of paying the duty. American
tobacco is imported in huge hogsheads, containing
from 900 pounds to 1,400 pounds of leaf; Japanese,
Dutch, and most other tobaccos are packed in bales.

I20 The Soverane Herbe

An average hogshead contains tobacco intrinsically
worth ^35. The duty of 3s. a pound amounts to
£iSo, and the hogshead enters the factory with the
value of ;£'i85.

The case of wood is split off and the tobacco stands
revealed — a solid cylinder into which the leaf was com-
pressed on the plantation. With crowbar and wedge
the hard, dry mass is split into cakes which girls take
and gently separate into their component bunches or
' hands ' of leaf.

The assortment of the leaves for manufacture into
the various kinds and brands of tobacco is an art
demanding the highest judgment and skill. Tobacco
is selected for colour, aroma, body, and drinking power
— the ability to absorb water without becoming unduly
moist. A fiery tobacco is chosen to mix with a
badly burning tobacco, and a light leaf to modulate a
dark tobacco. The lighter leaves are used for cut and
flake tobaccos, and the stronger for cake and twist.
No special growth of leaf is alone used for any
brand. Nearly every variety and brand of tobacco
is a compound of many different leaves. In reality
every tobacco is a mixture and formed by a union of
different growths of the sovereign herb. Your favourite
honey-dew or navy-cut is compounded of light leaves
of Kentucky, Virginia, and Missouri, with a leaf or two
of Dutch or Asiatic tobacco, as the ambrosial mixture
is of Virginia, China, and Latakia. No tobacco is
elementary ; indeed, even the apparently simple shag
is a blend of some six or seven different growths to
obtain the established flavour. Java, Dutch, Japanese,
Greek and other non-American tobaccos are chiefly

The Manufacture of Tobacco 121

used as toning and flavouring ingredients, and never
smoked au naturel.

In the parlance of the tobacco trade all tobaccos
not of American growth are ' substitutes.' This
arose during the Civil War of the United States,
when the output was severely checked. Holland,
Java, Japan, China and other tobacco -growing
countries were called upon to supply the deficiency,
and their leaf was used to eke out the American.
So firmly established was the American herb as
tobacco that other growths were regarded as substi-
tutes, and are so called to this day — a name which
in lay minds has given rise to erroneous ideas of
adulteration.

' Wetting down ' is the first process of manufacture
after the hogshead has been separated into its com-
ponent bunches or 'hands' of leaves. These are taken
to a cool cellar to be wetted and thoroughly softened.
The workman, with the deftness of long experience,
sprinkles them with water, and taking up the leaves
in armfuls, throws them in layers in troughs, some-
what as hay is tossed to dry. The point of this
process is the thorough and even moistening of the
leaves so that they may regain their natural softness
and elasticity. Skill of no mean order is necessary
in this ' wetting down,' some tobaccos absorbing more
water than others, while an eye must always be kept
on the Revenue restriction of moisture to 30 per cent.
The popular idea that in this wetting saltpetre is
added to assist combustion is totally erroneous.

The inherent dampness of tobacco is termed by the
trade ' initial moisture ' ; the amount of water added

122 The Soverane Herbe

in the course of manufacture is dubbed ' moisture
on.' The inherent amount of moisture in tobacco
strikes an average of 15 per cent. This allows to
manufacturers a maximum addition of water of 17
or 18 per cent, to remain inside the Government
limit of 30 per cent, moisture. For twist and cake
tobaccos full advantage is taken of this, a good
' drinking ' leaf being selected for these brands. On
the other hand, some flake and cut tobaccos contain
only 5 per cent, of added moisture. On an average
tobacco ready for smoking contains moisture to the
extent of 25 per cent.

Tossed into layers and sprinkled with varying
amounts of water, the leaves are left for a couple
of days. Absorbing the moisture, the dry, shrivelled
tobacco of the hogshead uncurls itself and becomes
moist and pliable like a kid glove.

In the stripping-room the leaves are then smoothed
and stretched to their natural size. Most American
tobaccos are imported stripped of the thick central
stem. Such as are not, are so * stripped,' the soft and
pliable leaf enabling the swift, unerring fingers of the
girl-workers easily to tear away the midrib. The feat
appears easy, but like many, it requires practice and
skill to tear out the rib quickly and cleanly without
jagging the leaf For some brands, such as bird's-
eye, twist, cake, and some mixtures, the midrib is
not removed, but chopped with or incorporated in the
tobacco.

' Wetted down,' 'stripped,' smoothed and opened
out, the leaf is ready for cutting into the shag or flake
for which it is destined. The bundles of leaves are

The Manufacture of Tobacco 123

carried to the cutting-room. Very different is the
tobacco now from its state in the hogshead. The
hard, dry, shrivelled masses have become soft, moist,
pliable leaves, big and smooth. The old process of
compressing these into solid cakes for cutting is
obsolete except for navy-cut and flakes. Now the
leaves are piled loosely and bulkily in the trough of
the cutting-machine, which is similar in principle to
the old-fashioned chaff-cutter, though of course worked
by steam.

Slowly-revolving rollers draw the leaves between
them, and compressing the loose heap of 12 or 14
inches deep into a solid cake of 2 inches, carries it
under the guillotine knife. This, descending with
rapid stroke after stroke, shears the tobacco-glacier
into shavings, which a revolving-drum carries forward.
The long, keen blade cuts from 300 to 400 strokes per
minute, and the loose, broad leaves fed into the end
of the machine fall away, in the shavings which all
smokers know, from the knife at the front. So stiff is
the resistance of the moist tobacco, and so essential is
clean cutting, that after five minutes' working a knife
is dulled and a new one requisitioned. To the mere
layman the shavings seem as fine as before, but the
experienced workman, noting the rather rough cut,
slips off the driving-belt, unscrews the long, heavy
blade, and inserts a newly-sharpened one. The
stoppage is merely momentary, for the ' cutter ' stops
the machine, unships the knife, bolts in a fresh one,
and has the machine shearing away tobacco again in
less than thirty seconds.

The stroke of the knife can be adjusted to a nicety.

124 The Soverane Herbe

For superfine shag and the finest cut tobacco the
knife cuts fifty strokes to the inch, each shaving of
tobacco being thus one-fiftieth of an inch in breadth.
Rougher navy-cut and flake tobaccos are cut at
twenty or even fourteen strokes per inch.

As they come from the knife coarse flakes and cuts
are dried and packed into tin boxes for sale. Shag
and other fine-cut tobaccos for pipe and cigarettes are
carried from the machine, whence they emerge in
long, close shavings, to be * stoved.' The tobacco,
damp-wet from the knife, is placed in long, shallow
troughs, and heated to 200° or 400° F. by a multitude
of gas-burners playing on the under surface. So hot
are these ' pans ' that the dry bits of tobacco actually
scorch. Workmen, taking the close, damp tobacco-
shavings, knead and toss them on the broiling sur-
face until the flakes are thoroughly separated. Thus
steamed, pulled and kneaded, the thin, longitudinal
shavings emerge into a mountain of hair-like tobacco
such as the smoker presses into his pipe. In ' wetting
down ' the leaves the drying of this stoving process is
taken into account.

Then the shag or fine-cut honeydew, which in
their soft, warm state can be pulled into long-drawn
threads^ for all the world like silk, must be dried.
The hairy tobacco is spread on gauze and blasted by
a current of air to expel the steam and cool it, an
electrically-driven fan accomplishing this in three or
four minutes instead of the twenty-four hours of the
old process of spreading and natural drying. Then
the tobacco is ready for packing or manufacture into
cigarettes.

The Manufacture of Tobacco 125

This damping and cutting process, with minor
variations, is common to all loose or cut tobaccos.
Shag, the oldest of cut tobaccos, is prepared from
strong leaf, very finely cut into strips of one-fiftieth
of an inch, and steamed and kneaded. ' Returns ' is
made in the same way from light- coloured and mild
tobacco. It is so called from being originally pre-
pared by ' returning ' shag for re-cutting.

Bird's-eye is similarly prepared, but for its manu-
facture the leaf is not stripped of its mid-rib. The
leaves are cut up intact with the central stalk, and it
is the sections of these, supposed to resemble birds'
eyes, that give it the name. All fine honeydew
and 'cuts ' are thus shaved into flakes, to be kneaded
and steamed and pulled into the familiar hair-like
mass.

In the same way, also, the increasingly popular
' smoking mixtures ' are now prepared. Though
every brand of tobacco is more or less an amalgam
of varied leaves, avowed mixtures of dark and light
tobaccos are of quite recent invention. Like so many
discoveries, the mingling of strong and dark, light
and mild, tobaccos was the work of necessity.
Twenty or thirty years ago a Huddersfield gentleman
was travelling home from London. After leaving
King's Cross he discovered that his store of pipe-
tobacco was nearly exhausted and would not suffice
for the journey. He found, however, that he had a
cake of tobacco which he occasionally chewed. To
eke out ammunition for his pipe during the journey
he cut up the cake and mixed it with his flake
tobacco. The mixture was greatly to his liking ;

126 The Soverane Herbe

what he had smoked of necessity he continued to
smoke of free choice. Meeting a friend employed
in a Liverpool tobacco factory, he offered him his
own-made mixture, singing its praises loudly, as
smokers are wont to laud their favourite brand of
burning. The tobacco-man smoked thereof, enjoyed
vastly, and so realized the value of the idea that within
a very short time the first smoking mixture was
placed on the market.

Until recently these mixtures were made by ming-
ling the tobaccos in their cut state, just as many
smokers make their special vanity by buying half an
ounce of Latakia to mix with an ounce of gold
flake. How difficult is the thorough intermixing of
the two every smoker knows. Manufacturers now
insure the absolute amalgamation of the dark, coarse
leaf with the finer body of the mixture by assorting
the leaves before cutting. Kentucky or Virginia may
form the body. To this are added a few leaves of
the light-tissued Chinese herb to brighten^ and some
dark, blunt Latakia and stubby cigar-brown Java or
Japanese leaves to flavour. This bundle of varied
leaf is placed in the machine, compressed into one
mass by the rollers, and cut into shavings to be
kneaded and pulled into a perfect mixture, as shag.
By this method a mixture of perfect union and long,
silky strands is obtained, with none of the dusty and
fragmentary character of tobacco mixed after cut-
ting.

The manufacture of flake tobaccos is the same,
except that the tobacco is pressed into cakes by
hydraulic power, and then cut into the familiar slices.

The Manufacture of Tobacco 127

They are dried and packed in boxes in the long
narrow sections into which the knife shears the
tobacco-cake.

Little of the popular navy-cut is now prepared
after the nautical manner. The generality of it is
marine only in name, being pressed and cut like
ordinary flake tobacco. For true naval tobacco one
must make a raid on the Royal Navy. The
Admiralty serves out tobacco-leaf to Jack at a
charge of is. a pound, this leaf being duty-free.
(No duty is exacted on tobacco consumed out of
England ; before sailing, captains of merchant ships
requisition from the Customs tobacco free of duty
for consumption on the voyage.) The bluejacket
of the Royal Navy buys tobacco in leaf from the
ship's stores. He damps the leaves — old hands use
rum to strengthen and flavour — and lays them
neatly lengthwise, one on top of another. This
bundle he rolls up into the shape of a cigar, thick
in the middle and tapering at the ends with the leaf.
Covered with canvas, the roll is tightly secured with
thick cord, neatly and tautly wound round from end
to end. In three weeks or so the leaf is welded into
a solid, torpedo-shaped plug, which is cut into small,
square slices and rubbed up for the pipe.

This is true navy-cut. But scarcely any of the
tobacco sold as such is so prepared, being pressed
and cut like ordinary flake tobacco. Originally all
tobacco was prepared, like true navy-cut, by hand ;
in the not remote past each smoker carried his plug
of tobacco about with him, and cut it up as the
occasion and his pipe demanded.

128 The Soverane Herbe

From a strictly chronological point of view this
account of the manufacture of tobacco should have
commenced with cake tobacco. The herb smoked
by Elizabethan worthies was ' pudding,' ' roll,' and
* twist.' These hard tobaccos are the forms in
which ' the weed of glorious feature ' was originally
prepared. They were compact and convenient for
carrying about, the smoker slicing off a pipeful as
required, and equally suitable for chewing and
smoking. The plug known as carotte in the seven-
teenth century was a roll, about lo inches long and
3 inches thick, sweetened with treacle. It was for
such a roll of Virginia that Sir Roger de Coverley
called at a tobacconist's on his way to Westminster
Abbey.

For cake tobaccos strong and coarse leaves are
selected. The ultimate form of the tobacco permits
the use of short, broken leaves, though these are
not necessarily of inferior quality. But the leaf
' drinks well,' and moisture to the full legal extent
ot 30 per cent, is added. With a duty to pay of
3s. per pound, naturally every scrap of tobacco is
carefully hoarded. Until recently such of the mid-
ribs, removed from the leaf for shag, etc., as were not
ground into snuff were returned to the Customs, and
the duty which had been paid thereon was claimed
and received by the manufacturer. Now these refuse
midribs are crushed between the rollers of a machine
and the flattened stems are incorporated into cake
and nailrod. In passing it may be noted that even
the refuse and sweepings of tobacco factories are
collected and returned to the Customs for drawback.

The Manufacture of Tobacco 129

The sweepings are analysed for dust and extraneous
matter, and the duty of 3s. per pound refunded on
the wasted tobacco.

'Pigtail,' 'thick twist,' 'Irish roll,' etc., are pre-
pared in one way, differing only in the thickness of
the spin. The leaves, having been well damped —
cake tobacco absorbs three times as much water as
some flakes — are placed on the table at the end of
the spinning-machine. Under the nimble fingers of
the girl attendant the long, damp leaves are shaped
into a continuous rope, which, passing under wooden
rollers and their smoothing, tightening touch, is
wound on a huge spindle, revolving obversely, so
as to twist the tobacco-rope. Very curious is this
evolution of the leaf into a long, smooth cable.

From this spindle the rope is spun into serpentine
coils, forming circular cakes. In this spinning the
girl oils the tobacco-rope with her fingers. The
Customs now limit the oil in cake tobacco to 4 per
cent. In former days 20 per cent, was allowed, and
inserted. It is told how Northern manufacturers
used to sell cake tobacco at less than the price of
leaf, so free was their lubrication.

The cakes of coiled tobacco are covered with tarred
rope and heavily pressed in batches. For a day or
two the cakes are subject to hydraulic pressure
varying from 50 tons to 100 tons. They are then
'cooked' in a steam-stove, and pressed at the same
time for six hours, and left for a day or two to cool.
The brown rope, as which the ' twist ' started, is now
a serpentine-coiled cake, the jet-black colour being
due to the oil, the steam and pressure, and the

9

130 The Soverane Herbe

tobacco-juice. The paper enveloping the cakes
during the ' cooking ' and pressing is the black
tobacco-paper used by gardeners for insecticide
purposes.

' Nailrod ' and ' plug ' are made by pressing the
leaf into moulds by hydraulic power with similar
steaming and cooking. Roll and cake tobaccos is
greatly favoured by soldiers, sailors and artisans for
its full flavour, its suitability for chewing and its
portability. 'Waterloo Charges,' a curious form of
hard tobacco, were very popular just after the
downfall of Napoleon. These charges were ready-
made fills for the pipe, being shaped like the end
of a cigar, and exactly fitting the bowl. But though
the cartridge has superseded the old powder-flask
and ramrod loading of fire-arms, the ready-made
charges for pipes flourished for a time only.

In this country flavouring and sweetening of tobacco
is forbidden, save under Government supervision.
Cavendish — so called from its inventor. Cavendish,
an admiral of Queen Elizabeth and the ancestor
of the ducal house of Devonshire — and Negrohead
owe their special existence to the addition of sweeten-
ing. Until 1863 their importation into and manufac-
ture in the United Kingdom were prohibited. They
may now be prepared in bond, under Government
supervision, and must be sold in packages bearing an
Excise stamp. Their production in this country is
therefore limited, and large quantities are imported
from America at a duty higher than that on other
manufactured tobacco.

The manufacture of cavendish is, in the main,

The Manufacture of Tobacco 131

similar to that of ordinary flake tobacco, the dis-
tinguishing feature being the addition of flavouring
and sweetening matter. These ' sauces ' are trade
secrets, but they are usually analogous to liquorice.
Connoisseurs used to find in cavendish the purest
and sweetest flavour, as the tobacco was not subject
to all the wettings and pressings that other tobaccos
undergo. Now, however, that cavendish is cut and
flaked like other tobaccos, that virtue can no longer
be claimed for it. As any tobacco containing sweet-
ening comes under the Customs' designation of
negrohead or cavendish, the bright-flake sweetened
tobaccos, now very popular, are so-called, though
they scarcely resemble true cavendish, which is very
black and strong.

Large quantities of loose tobaccos are now put up
into packets, ready to be handed across the counter
to the smoker. This is of quite recent origin ; until
thirty or forty years ago every smoker had his
' herbe ' weighed out to him from bulk, as he still
has his cheese and bacon. After describing the
manufacture, Fairholt merely says, ' the tobacco is
then sent in casks to the shopkeeper.' Large quan-
tities are still sold from the scales, but the sale of
packeted tobacco is increasing every year.

The packing-room is one of the most interesting
features of a tobacco factory. Into tins, whether
I -ounce cases or ;^-pound canisters, tobacco is, of
course, packed by hand, girls weighing out the flakes
into portions, enclosing in paper, and placing in the
neat tin boxes of familiarity. Cigarettes are encased
in the same way. But in the wrapping of tobacco

9—2

132 The Soverane Herbe

into paper packets steel machinery has superseded
feminine fingers, though a considerable amount is
still done by hand. Nothing mechanical is more
pretty than this neat and unerring packing and
enfolding of tobacco at the rate of sixty packets per
minute.

At a table before the machine sit three girls,
weighing out tobacco into half-ounces, ounces, or
two-ounces, according to the calibre of the machine.
Almost instinctively the girl picks up the right
quantity of tobacco, weighs it on the scale, and with
accurate aim shies it into one of an endless chain
of little buckets travelling up and round. The bucket
carries the tobacco up to the top of the machine,
and turning for the descent, drops its burden into a
funnel. Through this the tobacco falls on to one of
a series of paper wrappers coming from the other
end on an endless band. Metal fingers and clutches
turn up the paper over the tobacco, which, drifting
onward, other clutches neatly fold, tuck in the ends
with inhuman precision, and drop out the packet
complete. The packing-machine is uncanny in its
steel skill ; one gazes at the process with awe and
wonder.

Here mention may be made of the practice and
penalties of adulteration. It is as old as the habit
of smoking. Ben Jonson declaimed against tobacco
' sophisticated to taste strong ' by the addition of
sack-lees, oil, muscadel and grains. In those days,
when tobacco cost los. per pound (multiply by
three for modern value), smokers were fain to eke
it out by adding a quarter of a pound of coltsfoot

The Manufacture of Tobacco 133

(still patronized by juvenile smokers — the first trial
of many a veteran) to half a pound of tobacco.

Adulteration is strictly forbidden and heavily
punished. By Act 5 and 6 Victoria, £300 is the fine
for using any substance whatever but water in the
manufacture of tobacco, cut or cigars ; £200 is the
penalty for dealing in adulterated tobacco or for
having in a factory sugar, honey, molasses, treacle,
leaves of herbs or plants, powdered wood, weeds
(ground or unground), roasted grain, lime, sand,
umbre, ochre, or any substance capable of being used
to adulterate or to increase the weight of tobacco or
snufF,

To-day the adulteration of tobacco may be said
practically to have ceased. Leaves of every tree and
plant steeped in tar-oil and tobacco-juice have been
at various times found in tobacco, together with peat-
earth, bran, saw-dust, and various meals, with alum,
lime, saltpetre, and red and black dyes.

A few years ago a man summoned for manu-
facturing cigars without a license escaped conviction
by pleading that his cigars were not made of tobacco,
but of cabbage-leaf and brown paper. Cigars have
been found to be made of 75 per cent, lime-leaves,
10 per cent, tobacco-steeped paper, 11 per cent,
tobacco and 4 per cent, gunpowder.

Adulteration of tobacco may now be said to belong
to the past. The annual Report of the Government
Laboratory furnishes proof conclusive of the purity of
tobacco. Of ninety-five samples of tobacco analysed
only twenty, all of foreign manufacture, proved to be
adulterated. It is in the matter of moisture that

134 The Soverane Her be

most sins are committed, and such are the result of
accident rather than of deliberate purpose to defraud
the public. The smoker who buys packet-tobacco of
eminent firms need have little fear of being fumed
with any of the nauseous ingredients enumerated above.

For the manufacture of tobacco an annual license
at the rate of 5s. per 20,000 pounds is required.
Though the price of tobacco in bond varies from
3d. to 1 8s. per pound (the latter for cigars), the
duty is 3s. or 3 s. 2d., according to moisture, on all
leaf. On tobacco for manufacture into common shag
or into rare cigars the duty is the same.

A sidelight may be thrown on the prime cost of
tobaccos. Take first the case of common shag, re-
tailed at 3d. per ounce. Leaf for this costs yd. per
pound, and contains 15 to 16 per cent, of inherent
moisture. Duty adds 3s. But the manufacturer,
adding 20 per cent, of water, reduces the net cost to
2s. lod. per pound, which is sold across the counter
at 4s. This is made up of: Duty, 2s. 5d. (calculating
addition of moisture and so reduction of dutiable
tobacco) ; leaf (bone dry), 6d. ; water (30 per cent.),
3d.; manufacture, 3d.; factor's and retailer's profits, /d.
— total, 4s.

Tobaccos sold at 4d. per ounce are cut from leaf
costing lod. per pound, and containing 14 to 15 per
cent, natural moisture. Duty adds 3s. Water is
added to 25 per cent., and the prime cost reduced to
3s. 4d. per pound, to be sold for 5s. 4d. This com-
prises : Duty (estimated as before), 2s. yd. ; leaf
(bone dry), gd. ; water, 3d. ; manufacture, 4d. ; profits,
IS. 5d. — total, 5s. 4d.

The Manufacture of Tobacco 135

For flakes, navy-cuts, and tobaccos retailed at 4jd.
or 5d. per ounce^ leaf costs is. to is. 3d. per pound
(say IS. id,), and contains 12 or 13 percent, moisture.
The duty is 3s. The manufacturer adds 10 per cent,
moisture, reducing the prime cost to 3s. 8d., to be
retailed at 6s. or 6s. 8d. per pound. This is made
up of: Duty (as before), 2s. 8|d.; leaf (bone dry), is. ;
water, 2^d. ; manufacture and packeting, etc., 5d. ;
profits, IS. 7d. — total, 6s.

As to the addition of moisture, it must be noted
that leaf, as imported with 15 per cent, moisture, is
altogether too dry for smoking. Wetting down to
20 per cent, at least is essential to good smoking. It
will be noted that though the i-etail prices vary from
4s. to 6s. per pound, the profits vary from yd. to
Is. 7d. The lower the price, the greater is the pro-
portion of duty. The difference in price between
shag at 3d. and a smoking mixture at /d. per ounce
is due not to the tobacco itself but the preparation.
For a fancy mixture the smoker has to pay a fancy
price, altogether out of proportion to the intrinsic
value. For a shilling spent on 3d. shag and 4-J-d.
flake, the values respectively received are :

Shag at 3d. per oz.

Duty
Leaf
Water

... 7,id.

Manufacture
Profits

... 2 „

IS. od.

IS. od.

' It may be a pity,' remarked an expert to the

136 The Soverane Herbe

writer, * to disillusion the public of their idea that the
extra value is in the tobacco itself, but the fact is
such is not the case. The highest-priced Havanas
and tobacco consist only of selected leaf.'

Fifty years ago all tobacco smoked in Britain was
very dark, strong, and full-flavoured, and uniform in
colour. In the last thirty years a very remarkable
change has taken place, and now light-coloured, mild
tobacco almost monopolizes the market. As we
have shown in the previous chapter, its production and
consequent sale was the result of the carelessness of
planters. Its general demand arose about 1870-1880,
and has extended so greatly that to-day a really good,
full-flavoured dark tobacco is rare.

Whether this is the result of a perverted taste is an
open question ; certainly old smokers sigh in vain for
the full-flavoured, coarse cut of their youth. As to
the hygienic aspect, ' smoker's throat ' and the
indigestion produced by over-smoking arise from
the consumption of light, woody, sapless tobacco.
The best antidote for over-smoking is to act upon
the advice of Hippocrates and cure one smoke by
another — smoke stronger tobacco. It satisfies the
appetite for smoking ; delicate ' moss-leaves ' and
mild cigarettes are merely spoon meat, and leave
the craving untouched. Probably the demand for
mild tobacco is an instance of the weakening of
the national taste consequent upon the enervation
of wealth : claret is preferred to port, flannelette to
flannel, snippety reading to literature, the music-hall
to the drama, and the cigarette to the pipe. On the
other hand, it must be stated that since the demand

The Manufacture of Tobacco 137

for lighter tobacco began adulteration has become
extremely rare.

The taste for tobacco varies greatly in accordance
with climate and physique. In the tropics mild,
aromatic tobacco is smoked. The sturdy Northmen,
with robust taste strengthened by cold and toil,
rejoice in very strong tobacco. On the Continent
lighter tobacco and cigars are smoked than in
England. Indeed, it would be physically impossible
for a Dutchman to smoke American tobacco to the
extent that he cremates his garden-grown tobacco.

Even in the small area of the United Kingdom
the climate and local temperament greatly influence
the consumption of tobacco. In the South of England
light, mild tobaccos are smoked ; the Eastern and
Midland counties fill their pipes with a medium
coloured dark flake. The farther north the darker
and stronger becomes the tobacco. In the North
of England strong mixtures and black cake tobacco
are favoured. When you reach Scotland you find
that four out of every five smokers charge their
cutties with black twist. In Celtic Wales and Ireland
cake and dark tobaccos likewise form the bulk of the
trade. It is curious, too, that removal to a warmer
clime results in a change of tobacco. The most
veteran pipe-smoker lays aside his briar in sunny
Italy and puffs the dainty, airy cigarette. In such
a land of beauty and sun the pipe is felt to be out of
place, the cigarette the only possible smoke in an
atmosphere of natural indolence and luxuriance.

CHAPTER VIII

PIPES

The evolution of the pipe — Cult of pipe-smoking — Pipes of
peace and of war — Sacredness of Indian pipe — The legend
described by Longfellow — Peace pipe and war pipe —
England the European pioneer of pipes — Why England
smokes a pipe — First English pipes — Fairy, elfin and cluri-
caune pipes — Pipemakers' Guild — Changes in the shape of
pipes — Fancy pipes — The meerschaum — Wooden pipes —
Pipe-smoking in Latin countries rare — Continental pipes —
Eastern pipes — The hookah and narghile — Primitive pipes
of Africa — Tobacco boxes and stoppers.

The religious origin of smoking has been already
described. The inhalation of the sacred fume was
regarded as synonymous with the inspiration of the
spirit of the gods. At first the medicine- or mystery-
man brooded over the fire inhaling the smoke of the
tobacco-sacrifice. This clumsy method was soon
superseded by the use of the iobago or Y-tube, which
obviated the fumigation of the whole head. Then
came the use of the long reed, which, stopped at one
end, constituted the pipe in its primitive and simplest
form. Thus was evolved the pipe. The natural
stages in the evolution of the pipe can still be seen in
various parts of the world. The African savage, when

PIPES OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS,

Pipes

139

pipeless, digs a small hole in the ground, beats down
the earth hard, lights some tobacco in it, and thrust-
ing a hollow reed below it, sucks up the smoke. The
poorer Chinaman advances a stage farther when he
makes a simple pipe by boring a hole near the end of
a joint in a slender bamboo, and places and lights a
pill of tobacco in it.

Upon the first rough pipe the Indian rapidly
improved as smoking passed from the ceremonial
into the practical stage, from use as incense and a
source of supernatural guidance into the daily
comforter and helpmeet, not of the medicine-man
only, but of the whole Indian people. From them
all nations have adopted the pipe, the first as it is the
best mode of drinking tobacco. The true smoker
regards all as mere dawdling save the pipe. Nor
is the reason far to seek. The smoking of cigars
or cigarettes is merely a practice — a habit. Pipe-
smoking is a cult. The one is polytheism or
polygamy, the other pure theism or monogamy.
In all nations and countries the pipe is, and ever
will be, the only smoke of the true, ardent Nicotian.
To him smoking is more than a mere burning of a
herb, the inhalation of the fume, the expiration of
smoke ; it is more than a mere physical performance :
it is spiritual and mental as well as material ; it is a
cult ; it is smoking in short and in deed.

In the Indian grave-mounds of the Mississippi
Valley there have been found specimens of the
primitive pipes which prove the practice of smoking
to be literally older than the hills. The antiquity
of these mounds, and hence of the pipes, is shown

140 The Soverane Herbe

by the enormous trees, centuries old, as their sectional
rings testify, growing on them. The number of pipes
which have been found proves smoking to have been
universal in remote times, while their variety and deli-
cacy of carving testify to the artistic skill of their
makers and users. These primitive pipes are generally
carved out of pieces of brown porphyry, and are of
great polish and strength. The base is about 5
inches long and inches broad, while the bowl is
slightly more than i inch high, with a diameter of
half an inch.

Such appears to have been the primitive pipe,
but smokers soon improved on this form, as hundreds
of relics testify. In the same hard stone have been
found quantities of pipes carved in the likeness of
men, beasts, birds, fishes, and reptiles, with an
astonishing fidelity to Nature. The most interesting
of these, as throwing light upon the antiquity of
smoking, is that known as the ' elephant pipe.' It
is thought that this tuskless elephant is in reality the
mastodon, and shows smoking to have been practised
by the very earliest inhabitants of America. With
remarkable truthfulness to Nature, early smokers
carved their pipes into representations of a heron
holding a fish, a hawk grasping a bird in its talons :
into figures of bears, wolves, panthers, squirrels,
snakes, and other incidents and sights of the chase.
All these carvings face the smoker, and do not, as in
modern clays, decorate the bowl at the opposite end
for mere ostentation.

These so-called pipes are really the bowls of pipes.
A reed or hollowed ash-stem from 2 feet to 4 feet

Pipes

141

long was fitted into the base of the bowl, through
which the smoke was drawn. Not until European
influence began to be felt in America were pipes made
in one piece. Pre-European pipes invariably consist
of two parts.

These pipe-bowls are all made of stone — of granite,
porphyry, or basalt. The method of manufacture
was thus described by Catlin in 1841 : * They shape
the bowls of their pipes from the solid stone, which
is not quite as hard as marble, with nothing but a
knife. The Indian makes the hole in the bowl of
the pipe by drilling into it a hard stick, shaped to
the desired size, with a quantity of sharp sand and
water, kept constantly in the hole, subjecting him
therefore to very great labour and the necessity of
much patience.' The stem was made of a young
ash-stalk, the pith of which had been drawn out.

Among the Indians smoking was more than a
mere habit or practice : it was intimately connected
with their national, social, and religious life. In
every event the pipe had its significance; war was
instituted by sending round the tribe the reddened
pipe of the chief to summon his warriors, and the
treaty of peace ratified by the puff of the calumet ;
it was the Indian's constant companion in every
circumstance of life, and in death it was buried with
him with his bow and arrows, so that he might not
be tobaccoless in the happy hunting-ground. The
passing of the calumet from mouth to mouth, the
solemn inspiration of one puff of smoke, was the
pledge of peace and amity, the gage of honour
between all whose lips touched it. The Norsemen

142 The Soverane Herbe

pledged their honour and friendship in draughts of
mead ; similarly the Indian pledged his faith and
amity in the smoke of the peace-pipe. And of the
two it cannot be denied that the latter is the more
poetic.

The sacredness and significance of smoking appears,
however, not to have dwelt in the tobacco, for in its
absence red willow-bark and other herbs were used,
but in the pipe. Pipe-smoking from the beginning
has been and is a cult. The quarry, the C6teau des
Prairies, in Wisconsin, from the red-stone of which
the Indians largely fashioned their pipes, was sacred
ground, and stubbornly defended by them against
the invasion of the white man. To-day it is still
reserved to the Indians, and the Sioux, in whose
reservation it is, permit no white man to cut pipe-
stone there. The stone, known as catlinite, after
Catlin, the first white man who saw the place, is
of a red colour, resembling steatite, and is easily
worked, giving a fine polish. From the smoker's
point of view it makes a good pipe, smoking very
sweet and cool. Some pipes are found for two
smokers ; on both sides of the bowl there are open-
ings for the insertion of stems, and thus two people
could smoke the same pipe.

To all Indians the quarry is sacred ground. The
Indian legend of the Flood says that when, many
centuries ago, a great deluge arose and destroyed all
peoples, the red-men of all tribes gathered together
at the Coteau des Prairies to escape the waters. The
Flood rose and rose, and gradually submerging them
all in a body, converted their flesh into the red-stone.

Pipes

143

From this stone their pipes were and are made.
From the legend that the stone was the flesh of their
common ancestors the quarry is considered sacred
and neutral ground, and belonging equally to all
tribes. Thus their differences and quarrels are for-
gotten at the tomb of their fathers ; the stone from
which their pipes were fashioned was the flesh of
the ancestors transformed to stone by the Great
Spirit. Thus, whilst smoking there or elsewhere,
their pipes reminded them of their common humanity,
and bred peace and amity.

Longfellow opens ' The Song of Hiawatha ' with
the legend of the institution of the peace-pipe :

'On the Mountains of the Prairie,
On the Great Red Pipe-stone Quarry,
Gitche Manito the Mighty,
He the Master of Life descending
On the red crags of the quarry,
Stood erect and called the nations,
Called the tribes of men together.

' From the red-stone of the quarry
With his hands he broke a fragment.
Moulded it into a pipe-head.
Shaped and fashioned it with figures ;
From the margin of the river
Took a long reed for a pipe-stem
With its dark green leaves upon it.
Filled the pipe with bark of willow.
With the bark of the red willow.

' And erect upon the mountains
Gitche Manito the Mighty
Smoked the Calumet, the Peace Pipe,
As a signal to the nations.'

144 'The Soverane Herbe

The tribes saw the signal and obeyed it, all
assembling in full war-paint and arms :

' All the warriors drawn together
By the signal of the Peace Pipe,'

and stood

' Wildly glaring at each other,
In their faces stern defiance,
In their hearts the feuds of ages.
The hereditary hatred.
The ancestral thirst of vengeance.'

The Master of Life admonishes them for their
wrath and feuds, and recounting his gifts of lands,
streams, bear, bison, and all other pleasures and
necessities of life, asks why they are not contented,
and why they hunt each other. He commands the
warriors to bathe in the river, wash away their war-
paint, bury their weapons, and making the red-stone
of the quarry into peace-pipes, smoke them and live
henceforth as brothers.

They obey, and emerging from the river

' In silence all the warriors
Broke the red-stone of the quarry,
Smoothed and formed it into Peace Pipes,
Broke the long weeds by the river.
Decked them with their brightest feathers,
And departed each one homeward.
While the Master of Life ascending
Through the opening of cloud curtains,
Through the doorway of the heaven.
Vanished from before their faces
In the smoke that rolled around him,
The Pukwana of the Peace Pipe.'

Pipes

145

And pipe in mouth the nations of to-day, like
the tribes of America, meet on a common ground,
that of tobacco, their common friend and consoler.
It was not mere fancy and poetry, beautiful as is
the sentiment, that made the Red Indians regard
smoking as symbolic of friendly intercourse and a
guarantee for peace. In fact as well as fiction, physi-
cally as well as poetically, smoking is peaceful and
amicable.

The calumet, or peace-pipe, is the most sacred
possession of each tribe, and handed down from
generation to generation. The bowl is made of
the sacred red-stone ; the stem, 4 or 5 feet long, is
fastened to the bowl by leather thongs, and gaily
decorated with the brightest eagles' feathers, tufts of
ribbon, and glass beads. Each tribe has its dis-
tinctive pipe, and an Indian can tell to what tribe a
pipe belongs as easily as a soldier recognises the
regiment of a fighting man from his uniform. The
calumet was only smoked to ratify treaties and peace,
and then with much ceremony. After the conditions
of the treaty of peace had been settled, the chief
solemnly brought in the calumet, and removed its
wrappings. Filling and lighting it, he pointed the
stem to the north, south, east, west, to the sky, the
earth, and the fire, as an offering to the spirits ;
then solemnly inhaling one puff of the smoke, he
passed the pipe to the next brave. He likewise gave
his assent and oath to the agreement by inhaling
one puff of smoke, and passed it on round the circle
of sitting braves. No more inviolable pledge and
sacred oath could an Indian give than that of the

10

146 The Soverane Herbe

calumet ; rarely or never was it broken. The pipe of
peace, which has become an English idiom, dates its
institution, as we have seen, from the legendary period
of Indian history. All the early travellers in America
noted the custom. The Chevalier Montgomery, the
French Governor of Canada in 1645, confirmed
treaties with various Indian tribes by smoking the
pipe of peace.

The pipe of war entailed no such ceremony. The
Indian brave, after scalping his enemy with his toma-
hawk, sat down and smoked a pipe out of the same
weapon. The back of the steel head is fashioned
into a pipe-bowl, and the reed handle, being hollow,
forms the stem. Thus the Indian warrior was provided
with weapon and pipe combined. By contact with
Western civilization and his own consequent degenera-
tion the smoking customs and primitive beliefs of
the Red Man are dying out.

For the cult of pipe-smoking Europe and the world
are indebted to England, as she in turn acknowledges
herself the debtor of aboriginal America. In France
tobacco was first used as snuff, smoking coming from
England much later. The Spaniards, learning the
practice from the Caribees, smoked a tobacco-leaf
twisted up in an outer leaf of maize — the first
cigarette. This was the general custom in the West
Indian Islands, pipe-smoking being confined to the
mainland. Before the Spaniards explored the Con-
tinent they had acquired this manner of smoking,
and did not abandon it for the pipes used in Mexico
and South America.

But the first English smokers graduated in the art

Pipes

147

of drinking tobacco under the able tuition of the
North American Indians. Like them, as Hariot
distinctly states, they smoked from pipes of stone,
and introduced the same instruments and manner of
smoking into England. At first the poorer classes
in England were fain content to drink tobacco from
a walnut-shell, through a straw. The richer habitues
sported silver pipes. It was soon found, however,
that cheaper and better pipes could be made of
clay. These appear first to have been made about
1590. The German Hentzer, whose account of
smoking in England in 1598 has been quoted, notes
with surprise the use of clay pipes. Twenty years
later Dr. Neander, of Bremen, in his ' Tabacologia,'
praised the English mode of taking tobacco through
clay tubes in imitation of the Indians. A French-
man, writing in 1688, says that the English ' invented
the pipes of baked clay which are now used every-
where.' From England the Dutch learned the manu-
facture of pipes, and as late as the last century all
the tools used in pipe-making in Holland bore English
names.

The first pipes were extremely small, and their
curious pear-shaped bowls held only a very small
quantity of tobacco. This, doubtless, was due to the
high price of the herb. The stems were about
3 inches long, though some were twice the size.
Under the bowl was a flat heel or spur, enabling the
pipe to be stood upright on a table. Their cost was
so great that for many years one pipe served a whole
company, being passed from man to man round the
table.

10 — 2

148 The Soverane Herbe

These primitive pipes of England are from time
to time brought to light in excavations. Their
extreme smallness led to the belief among the rustics
that they are the pipes of fairies. They are so called
in England, and the Scots similarly christen them
Celtic or elfin pipes. They are regarded as mascots,
and preserved as lucky charms in both countries ; but
the Irish, believing they belong to the cluricaunes
(mischievous elves), and are unlucky, destroy them.
To the pretensions of antiquaries, founded upon the
discovery of these pipes among ancient relics, that
smoking was practised in Britain before the sixteenth
century, attention has already been paid. However
great the temptation, it is impossible for the smoker
to believe that the soldiers guarding the farthest
fortress of Imperial Rome in bleak Northumbria
consoled themselves on their long, cold watches with
a whiff from a blackened cutty, or that the ancient
Milesians forgot their quarrels under the fume of a
dudeen. The oldest pipes discovered, in whatever
company in Britain, have been of the Elizabethan
stamp and pattern.

Broseley in Staffordshire has been noted for its clay
pipes from the time of Elizabeth to the present day.
Vauxhall, Derby, and Bath were other centres of the
pipe manufacture, and Ben Jonson testifies that in
his day Winchester pipes were accounted superior to
all others.

So rapidly did smoking gain ground and the
demand for pipes created so flourishing a trade, that
in 1619 — less than forty years after the introduction
of tobacco — the pipe-makers received their charter

Pipes

149

of incorporation from James I. The Company of
Pipe-Makers consisted of a master, four wardens,
and twenty-four assistants. Their arms were : Argent
on a mount in base vert, three plants of tobacco
growing and flowering, all proper. Crest : A Moor,
in his dexter hand a tobacco-pipe ; in his sinister
a roll of tobacco, all proper. Supporters : Two
young Moors proper, wreathed about the loins with
tobacco leaves vert. Appropriately enough, the
motto of the Pipe-Makers' Company was ' Let
brotherly love continue.' The guild was dissolved
about a century ago.

All pipes then were made of clay, though occa-
sionally some were made of iron or brass. The pipe
of Miles Standish, a little iron thing about the size
of a common clay, is still preserved in America.
Sometimes a sumptuous smoker had a pipe specially
carved out of wood. There is such a pipe beautifully
decorated in the style of the seventeenth century in
the Kensington Museum. These, however, were
exceptions to the rule. Until forty years ago a pipe
meant a clay, and of the various varieties and shapes
there is an interesting collection in the British
Museum.

The two famous makers of pipes in the seventeenth
century seem to have been Thomas Gauntlet and
John Legge, large numbers of pipes bearing their
trade-marks and initials having been found. The
small barrel-bowled short pipes of Elizabethan times
held their ground with little variation until the
Revolution, when England began to smoke bigger
bowled pipes with long, straight stems, adopting

150 The Soverane Herbe

the Dutch style with the advent of William III.
The Irish and Scotch, however, remained true to the
smaller, shorter dudeen and cutty. Long clays with
straight stems tipped with sealing-wax were intro-
duced by the Dutch about 1700. These ' aldermen,'
as they were called, held much larger quantities of
tobacco than the old ones, proving that under the
tuition of the Dutch past-masters in the art of
drinking tobacco, the smoker's appetite was grow-
ing bigger.

These long clays were those from which the wits
of Queen Anne's reign inspired the fragrant fume,
and for which Sir Roger de Coverley and Addison
called at the Club. Only the best pipes were waxed
at the end, while smokers prevented the cheaper
ones sticking to the lips by steeping the stems for
some minutes in a tankard of ale. Pipes were
valuable, and their destruction a serious matter.
When the smoker of to-day breaks his clay, he
promptly buys another, nor does he ever dream
of cleaning a blackened pipe by burning out the
nicotine in the fire. But many smokers can recall
the time when clays were so valuable that when
smoked foul they were thrust into the grate until
red-hot, and purified for subsequent reblackening
instead of purchasing new ones. Inns, clubs, and
coffee-houses provided pipes for their customers as
they now provide seats, tables, and pots. Corpora-
tions likewise purchased pipes by the gross for the
inspiration of the City Fathers, At these smoking
resorts all fouled pipes were carefully collected and
sent periodically to the bakehouse to be rekilned.

Pipes

In old municipal records there frequently occurs the
entry 'For burning fowle pipes is.' In inns these
renovated pipes were afterwards used in the tap-
room, parlour customers being provided with new
clays.

About the middle of the eighteenth century makers
ceased to produce the long Dutch-modelled pipes, and
returned to the smaller and handier clays, thus show-
ing that smoking was decreasing among the leisured
classes, who had patronized the graceful, long pipe.
The lower classes still smoked, and for their worka-
day use the pipe-maker catered by the production of
small handy pipes. Though now so cheap and
plentiful, pipes were formerly costly. As recently
as 1882 clays — true, they were moulded with figures
— cost sixpence each.

The decoration of clay pipes with effigies, figures,
busts of animals, and celebrities was formerly very
common. To be carved in effigy on a pipe was the
hall-mark of notoriety in bygone days, as to be
cartooned by Punch or have a collar or necktie
called by one's name is now. From a collection
of clay pipes it would be possible to write a history
of the heroes and events of the last two centuries.
The Duke of Wellington, Nelson, Pitt, were thus
immortalized ; the introduction of railways, the
Crimean War, the Civil War and abolition of slavery
in America were all thus commemorated on pipe-
bowls. The head and bowl of pipes were frequently
quite distinct, the wooden stem being inserted on
occasion by the smoker. The danger of breaking
clays in the pocket was thus greatly reduced. Carved

152 The Soverane Herbe

pipes are now rarely seen, and though the pipe
naturally lends itself to decoration, the true smoker
believes beauty unadorned is adorned the most ; he
needs no further recommendation for his pipe than
the tobacco it holds.

To the Austrians smokers are indebted for the
discovery of the virtue of the meerschaum. More
than a century and a half ago there lived in Pesth a
shoemaker, Karol Kowates, who earned as much by
carving pipes for wealthy smokers as by making
shoes. Among his pipe patrons was Count Andrassy,
While on a mission to Turkey in 1723 the Count was
presented with a lump of meerschaum. Its lightness
and porousness suggested its suitability for con-
struction into a pipe, and he handed the meerschaum
to Kowates with orders to that effect. Out of the
clay Kowates cut two pipes, one for the Count and
one for himself. His hands were naturally waxy
from his craft, and in smoking his meerschaum the
pipe became waxed at various points. He found
that wherever the pipe had been touched with wax a
spot of clear brown colour appeared. By way of
experiment he waxed and polished the whole pipe,
which by dint of smoking assumed a most beautiful
and even colour, while also smoking much sweeter
than before. This, the first meerschaum pipe, is
still preserved in the Pesth Museum. Meerschaum
immediately came into fashion and use as the pipe
of the connoisseur and gentleman.

Our grandfathers highly valued their meerschaums.
Collections of finely-coloured and carved pipes were
made, as much as ^500 being paid for a fine specimen.

Pipes

153

Every precaution was taken by smokers to ensure the
perfect colouring of their meerschaums. The bowl
was covered with a little coat of wash-leather, or
swathed in flannel to prevent it being scratched or
heated by the hand — fatal to perfect colouring — and
the cleaning was entrusted to competent hands only.

In 1 8 19 Sir Walter Scott wrote to his eldest son :
* As you hussars smoke, I will give you one of my
pipes, but you must let me know how I can send it
safely. It is very handsome, though not my best.
I will keep my meerschaum until I make my conti-
nental journey, and then you shall have that also.'

The bowls of the original meerschaums were large,
and the long stem consisted of a cherry-wood stick
terminating towards the mouthpiece in a flexible tube
like that of a hookah. Nothing can exceed the sweet-
ness of an old meerschaum, originally good and well
cared for, while its rich brown tints, indicative of its
blood, delights the artistic eye as much as its smoke,
enriched by the very essence of tobacco, pleases the
palate and charms the soul.

Both meerschaum and clay pipes are now rarely
seen, having succumbed before the cheapness and
excellence of wooden ones. These are the pro-
ductions of the last thirty years. Fairholt, writing
in 1859, said :

' Wooden pipes have been introduced into England,
and pipes made of briar root are now common in our
shops, but expensive, the bowls costing about three
shillings each.' A 'Veteran of Smokedom ' in 1865
declared : ' Of wooden pipes little need be said. They
were much in vogue a few years back, but the " taste "

154 The Soverane Herbe

has decidedly diminished. If they do not heat so
rapidly, their absorption is very defective, and they
always look dirty.' The last quarter of the century
has seen a complete change of attitude with regard
to pipes. The briar is omnipresent and omnipotent ;
it is practically indestructible, and in appearance is
equally superior to the clay, which with the meer-
schaum is essentially a reclusive and philosophical
pipe, unfitted for the rush and strain of modern life.
The introduction of the neat, workaday briar has
contributed in no small degree to the renaissance of
smoking.

Rare as is pipe-smoking in France now, it was
popular a century ago. When the French adopted
the clay pipes of England they beautified them.
Some beautiful pipes carved with figures of men
and beasts were made at Sevres. Even more than
in England the clay pipe of France, with its de-
corated bowl, reflected the flowing tide of men and
affairs. The pipe of the Revolution was draped
with the tricolour, and Liberty, lying along the stem,
supported the bowl and a wreath of immortelles with
the motto, ' Morte pour la Patrie.' The Napoleons
likewise adorned pipes ; * Libert^, Egalit^, Fra-
ternite ' (true smoking watchword), likewise inspired
the smoker with Utopian dreams. The literary
inclined smoked from the counterfeit head of Victor
Hugo. The patriotic Italian puffed from a pipe the
bowl of which was supported by a Roman soldier
trampling upon the Austrian eagle. Pipes were
likewise decorated with symbolical figures and
mementoes of the chase, the theatre, and the ale-

Pipes

155

house. But a whole book would be required to
deal adequately with the curious decorated pipes of
France, Germany, and Holland.

In Latin countries, as we have already pointed
out, the pipe is the exception rather than the rule.
The monopoly of the Cuban and Manila tobacco
crops until recently possessed by Spain accounts for
the absence of the pipe from the Peninsula. The
apology for tobacco supplied by the Regies of France
and Italy sufiflces in a cigarette, but is impossible in
a pipe, though the effervescent, gay papelitos suits
the lively Latin temperament more than the stolid,
philosophical pipe.

Smoking has been defined as the medium through
which the German introduces the external air into
his lungs. Tom Hood declared he should be afraid
to trust a sentimental Prussian to himself without
a pipe and tobacco. No nation has experimented
more in pipes than have the Germans. The pipe
at which they have arrived consists of four parts —
the kopf, to hold the tobacco ; the abguss, or reser-
voir, to catch the nicotine secretions ; the stem, and
the mouthpiece. The reservoir is an absolute neces-
sity, as the china bowl is impervious to the oils
distilled by smoking. The German, with a charac-
teristic carefulness English smokers might well copy,
regularly cleans his pipes. Most of the pipes hold
from an ounce to a quarter of a pound of the weak,
hay-like tobacco. The long bowl is decorated with
a carving or gaudy picture ; wealthy smokers lavish
gold and gems upon its embellishment, frequently to
the value of ;^^ioo. In no way does the German

156 The Soverane Herbe

pipe meet with English approval ; it is bulky and
unwieldy, and naust necessarily be held in the hand.
It is an execrable smoker, being a mere tobacco still,
for the china bowl is absolutely inabsorbent.

As great pipe-smokers are the Dutch, with not
dissimilar pipes. The bowl is pear-shaped, with a
long straight stem, which necessitates holding it in
the hand. A handsome pipe is a common wedding
present ; it is smoked on the nuptial day, and then
carefully laid aside, to be smoked only in future on
the anniversary of the day when the happy couple
were made one.

The Austrians are also great pipe-smokers. Besides
inventing the meerschaum, Austria also produced the
first of a long race of those tormentors of pupillary
nervous smokers, patent pipes. They date from
1689. In that year Jacob Francis Vicarius, an
Austrian physician, made pipe stems of glass, with
capsules of sponge to absorb the nicotine. Only
dawdlers and puffers of tobacco favour such puerile
devices ; the smoker remains true to his simple,
unhygienic pipe. Austrian smokers are much given
to the decoration of their pipes, some being encrusted
with gems to the value of ^1,000. Your honest
smoker, as Izaak Walton would have said, cares not
whether his pipe costs sixpence or sixty pounds ; he
values it by the pleasure it yields him. Hard smokers
shun costly, ostentatious pipes, and patronize simple,
workmanlike tools.

The Swiss smoke a queer pipe. It is in five
distinct parts ; the bowl, covered with a metal lid to
prevent the Alpine winds scattering its contents, fits

Pipes

157

into a hollow ball, which acts as a reservoir for the
juices, the stem entering it at an acute angle. Where
the mouthpiece, forming another angle, joins the stem
there is carved a grotesque horse's head. The pipe
is made entirely of black horn, mounted with German
silver fittings. The carved apple-wood pipes of Berne
smoke splendidly, being very sweet and cool.

Many and strange are the forms the pipe assumes
in different lands. In the far north very small metal
pipes, holding a minute quantity of tobacco, are
favoured. The Laps very frequently form the bowl
of a pipe by hollowing out the tooth of a walrus.
The Danes of Amager Isle smoke a pipe made up
of a 6-inch bowl and a 12-inch stem; as it comfort-
ably holds a day's allowance of tobacco, it saves time,
for the Dane is incessantly smoking.

The Chinese pipe consists of a tiny white metal
bowl, with a stem from 3 feet to 5 feet long, made
up of as many joints. The rich Chinaman smokes
a handsome little water-pipe made of brass or
silver. In opium pipes, it may be noted, the bowl
is in the centre, not at the end of the stem,
and opium is burnt in a flame, not smoked like
tobacco. Corean pipes are also of brass, but with
longer and flatter bowls. The small pipes with reed
stems of Japan are similar, but scalloped and orna-
mented round the bowl.

Only the poetic and luxurious Orient could have
invented the hookah and narghile. The former is the
Turkish and the latter the Persian form of the water-
pipe, the musical hubble-bubble, the smoking of
which is as lotus-eating. The hookah and narghile

158 The Soverane Herbe

are frequently spoken of as one and the same pipe.
This is not so ; the hookah stands on the floor or
divan, while the narghile (literally cocoa-nut) is a
hand-pipe. The metal fittings of these pipes are
frequently of gold and silver ; the flexible tubes, from
5 feet to 10 feet long, through which the smoke is
drawn, are covered with velvet and encrusted with
precious stones and gold filigree work. The water-
bottle is of the finest cut glass, and is handsomely
decorated with diamonds and other gems. The
hookah smoked by the Shah of Persia on state
occasions is so studded with diamonds, rubies,
emeralds, etc., that it is worth ;£"8o,ooo. This pipe,
as is the case in all Oriental courts, has its suite
of attendants, its guardians and cleaners, while to
the Master of the Pipe is entrusted the duty of
lighting it for his Imperial Master's smoke.

The pipes of Morocco are also highly decorated,
the velvet tube being covered with gold filigree, and
the bowl with gems. Kif, a greenish narcotic plant,
is generally preferred to tobacco ; it resembles opium
both in the manner of smoking and its effects. The
bowl of the Egyptian pipe is of a fine red clay,
polished like agate, and the cherry-wood stem has
an amber mouthpiece decorated with gold and gems.
It is a clumsy, barbarously splendid aff"air. Water-
pipes similar to the Turkish and Persian makes are
also common. Of late the cigarette has supplanted
the pipe to a very considerable extent in the East,
much to the lamentation of the professional pipe-
cleaners.

The poorer Turk and Persian draw as much enjoy-

Pipes

159

ment through the long cherry-wood stem from the
red clay bowl of their pipes as do their Sultans from
the most gorgeous thing in hookahs. In Assam and
Borneo simple pipes of bamboo are smoked. The
Afridis treasure their brass bowls, and form the stem
by scooping out a rut in two pieces of wood and then
binding them together. The Kookies of Manipur
have hit upon the German idea, and provide their
pipes with reservoirs to catch the tobacco juices.
When the reservoir is full they swallow the nauseous
oils with gusto, esteeming it the best part of tobacco !
Many Indian villages have a ' welcome pipe,' which,
kept alight, is offered to passers-by to smoke to the
health of the community — for a consideration.

The Russian peasant drinks tobacco from a roughly-
made pipe of wood tipped with copper, and lined in
the bowl with tin. The dog-wood stem is secured to
the bowl by leather thongs. A most curious pipe is
that of the Kirghiz. It consists of three bowls sur-
mounting each other on a stem of the usual Eastern
length. The Zulus have a similar two-bowl pipe, made
of wood and lined with tin. How these queer instru-
ments originated it is difficult to say. Perhaps the
smoker's appetite is so inordinate that one bowl does
not suffice, or it may be a patent method of blending
the fumes of various kinds of tobacco.

The fertility of necessity is abundantly demon-
strated in the matter of pipes. The Kaffir substitute
has been noticed already. In a similar manner the
Bechuanas beat a branch or twig into the ground
horizontally. At one end they dig a small hole, and
draw out the stick, leaving a little tunnel. In the

i6o The Soverane Herbe

excavation they place and light tobacco, and inhale
the smoke through the passage made by the twig.
The natives of the Zambesi fasten up one end of an
antelope horn, and about a third of the way up fit a
big block of wood, which serves as the bowl, the smoke
being drawn through the horn. Very similarly the
people of New Guinea plug a straight bamboo at one
end, and, boring a hole, cram the tobacco down. The
Kaffirs frequently smoke a rough water-pipe made
from a cow's horn ; when tobacco fails them, dagha,
a kind of hemp, is smoked. Some African tribes
affect a huge iron pipe nearly 4 feet long.

Thus the pipe assumes many shapes and forms,
and is made from such different materials as wood,
clay, metal, glass, ivory, horn, cane, bamboo and stone.
There are fine collections of pipes from all parts of the
world in the British and Guildhall Museums, and also
specimens of the mound pipes of America and of old
English clays. Salisbury Museum possesses an
especially valuable collection of the ancient American
stone pipes. Mr. William Bragge of Birmingham,
who died in 1884, gathered together no less than
7,000 different pipes of all dates and countries. It is
much to be regretted that on his decease this fine
collection was permitted to be broken up instead of
being secured for the British Museum.

Indispensable to the pipe was the tobacco-box, now
completely displaced by the rubber pouch. The boxes
were made of metal, silver, iron, copper, brass and
tin, and of ivory, mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell, bone
and wood, curiously and artistically carved. At
Hertford House is a box, traditionally said to have

I

Pipes

i6i

belonged to Raleigh. It holds a pound of tobacco,
and is pierced with holes to receive pipes. The boxes,
however, were usually small enough to be carried in
the pocket, and contained, in addition to the weed,
a pipe, tongs for holding a live coal, flint and steel,
and a pipe-picker. Gallants prided themselves on
their tobacco-boxes. The ' spruce coxcomb ' of the
reign of James I.

' Never walked without his looking-glass
In a tobacco box or dial set.'

Tobacco-boxes were bequeathed to friends as
souvenirs, and sweethearts * gave him a 'bacca-box
marked with her name.' They were given and
exchanged as tokens of friendship and in recognition
of esteem, as were snuff-boxes in the latter years of
the eighteenth century.

When smoking fell into disgrace tobacco was rarely
carried by smokers. They called at inns for a tankard
of ale, a pipe, and a paper of tobacco. Indiarubber
pouches are of quite recent invention, and were brought
into use by the practice of smoking out of doors.

If the pouch has been introduced, one of the
smoker's tools has dropped out of use. The tobacco-
stopper for pressing down the ashes is now never
seen. The cheapness of tobacco and the greater
prodigality of this age have made its use obsolete.
Formerly, when tobacco was 8s. or los. a pound,
smokers burned their tobacco to the very bottom
of the bowl, instead of following the modern wasteful,
if healthy, practice of throwing away the residuum.

The stoppers were made of wood, bone, ivory,

II

1 62 The Soverane Herbe

mother-of-pearl, brass, silver or gold, in various
forms and shapes. Such heroes as Cromwell, Nelson,
Wellington, etc., and the heads of dogs, horses, stags,
foxes, etc., adorned tobacco-stoppers in effigy. Some
smokers wore rings provided with a stud for ramming
down the contents of a pipe.

The relic-hunters of those days frequently carved
their stoppers out of the wood or material of some
famous tree or article. Taylor, * the water-poet,'
made himself two or three tobacco-stoppers out of
a dead branch of the famous Glastonbury thorn.
Shakespeare's mulberry-tree was preserved in the
same form. When viewing Westminster Abbey
Sir Roger de Coverley remarked of the Coronation
Chair that ' if Will Wimble were with us and saw
those two chairs it would go hard but he would get
a tobacco-stopper out of one or t'other of them.'

CHAPTER IX

HOW PIPES ARE MADE

The cult of pipe-smoking — Making of clays — Meerschaum :
where found ; its manufacture — Wooden pipes — The briar :
where grown, how made — Mouthpieces — Amber — Vulcanite
and horn — Choosing a pipe — The Lance fs advice — Cleaning
pipes.

' Sweet smoking pipe, bright glowing stove,

Companion of my still retreat,
Thou dost my gloomy thoughts remove.
And purge my brain with pure heat.'

Tom Hood.

The pipe-smoker regards his clay, meerschaum, or
briar with an affection of which the cigar-smoker is
totally ignorant. His pipe is more to him than a
mere smoking instrument. A cigar is merely a
bundle of tobacco-leaves, the means of wiling away
an idle hour. When smoked it is forgotten, for its
very entity has gone, and its place in the smoker's
thoughts is taken by another cigar. But the pipe is
constant ; each smoke it yields enriches and endears
it to its owner. The cigar is the chance acquaintance
of half an hour ; the pipe is the companion and
friend of countless smokes and of years. It is the
adviser and comforter of affairs which the smoker

1 1 — 2

164 The Soverane Herbe

reveals to not even his dearest human friend. The
smoker idealizes his pipe, and endows it with a per-
sonality. He dislikes to, nor does he, regard it as
ever having been made by the hands of man and the
steel of machinery. Without in any way wishing to
destroy this ideal, a book on tobacco would be in-
complete without an account of the way pipes are
made.

Though pipes are fashioned from such varied
materials as wood, stone, bronze, iron, and other
metals, clay, china, asbestos, horn, and other vege-
table and mineral products, pipes of clay, meer-
schaum, and wood form the overwhelming majority.

As has been pointed out, clay pipes were practically
the only ones smoked in this and other countries
until thirty years ago. Broseley, in Staffordshire,
has been famous for its pipes and clay from the days
of Elizabeth. Now all the clay of which white pipes
are manufactured comes from Newton Abbot and
Kingsteignton in Devonshire. It is sent to all parts
of England and the world in rough lumps, about the
size of quartern loaves, weighing some 28 pounds
each.

At the manufactory these lumps are first dried, for
the clay absorbs water only when crumbling. The
clay is next moistened with water, worked up with a
spade, and beaten by an iron bar until it is of the
consistency of putty. Masses of 80 or 90 pounds
are served out to the actual pipe-maker. The work-
man cuts off a piece of clay according to the size of
the pipes he is then making, rolls it into the shape of
a cigar or stick, and then, with boards fastened to the

How Pipes are made 165

palms of his hands, rolls it into the approximate
shape of a pipe. After ten hours' drying the clay
becomes stiffer, and is moulded. Taking the 'roll'
in his left hand, he thrusts a wire up it to form the
passage for the smoke. It is then placed in a metal
mould. This is composed of two valves tightened ■k.^.'^c^
together with a screw, a ' stopper,' or block, in the
shape of the bowl being forced into the solid head of
the roll.

The moulds vary, of course, in shape, as church-
wardens, cutties, plain, or fancy pipes are being made.
They are placed in racks for another ten hours'
gradual drying, and passed on for trimming. This
work is done by women, and consists in again wiring
the stem, and with a curved metal burnisher trim-
ming off the seams and edges resulting from the
two-fold nature of the moulds. At this stage the
pipes are stamped with the maker's or wholesale
dealer's name. After a day or two's natural drying
the pipes become 'chalk-white,' and ready for baking.
Packed in coarse earthenware pots called ' saggers,'
each holding from one to three gross, they are placed
in the kiln. Nearly 200 saggers of pipes are
kilned at once, the fire being maintained for seven or
eight hours, and twelve or fourteen allowed for cool-
ing. In the early days of pipe-making only twenty-
four gross of pipes could be baked at once, but now
from 350 to 400 gross are burned at a time, with only
I per cent, breakage.

The meerschaum is the queen of pipes, though it
is no longer regarded as the only pipe for a gentle-
man. Its delicate and fragile nature accord little

1 66 The Soverane Herbe

with the sternness of this mascuh'ne age, and it has
now given place to the briar.

Meerschaum, literally * the foam of the sea,' is a
white mineral, composed of magnesia, silica, and
water. When first mined it is soft, though dry, and,
forming a lather, like soap, was used by the Tartars
in washing. It varies greatly in density, some lumps
floating and others sinking in water. That of
medium density forms the best pipes. It is its soft-
ness, lightness, purity, and power of absorption that
recommend it to smokers.

Meerschaum is found in Italy and Spain, but the
best and largest quantities come from Eskishur and
Natolia in Asia Minor. It lies in lodes and veins,
and is dug from marl-pits at a depth of 50 or 60 feet.
The lumps vary in size from a pigeon's egg to that of a
quartern loaf, the largest blocks being worth over £20.

When brought to the surface it is quite soft, but
soon assumes a stififer consistency. It is packed in
boxes of about 50 pounds for export, the price vary-
ing from 2s. to i6s. a pound according to the size and
quality of the pieces.

At the factory the pieces are first cut on a circular
saw into the rough size of pipes, each piece being
carefully planned out in order to utilize it to the best
advantage. After soaking in water, a workman takes
the block of meerschaum in hand, and carves it into
the approximate shape of a pipe-bowl. The bowl is
excavated, the stem drilled, and the whole turned on
the lathe. After drying in an oven the mouthpiece
is affixed, and the pipe is passed on to the polishers.
Glass-paper having removed all roughness, it is im-

How Pipes are made 167

mersed in hot fat, polished with rags and a special
powder. Another bath in hot wax follows, the time
of immersion varying from five minutes to an hour,
according to the density of the meerschaum. It is
the wax which, acting upon the meerschaum, results
in the tobacco effecting the fine rich tints so well
known and admired. A final polishing with powdered
chalk completes the meerschaum, which is then ready
for the burning embraces of tobacco.

The transformation of the rough sea-foam into the
graceful and polished meerschaum entails much care
and skilful labour. A plain pipe can be made in
three days, but on carved ones months are spent.
The decoration of meerschaum is an art, and employs
hundreds of workmen. Vienna is the headquarters
of the meerschaum manufacture, and the Germans
and Austrians have it almost entirely in their hands.
Attracted by the higher wages offered in England,
there are many Germans engaged in the manufacture
of meerschaums in London. They frequently earn
from £4 to £6 a week.

Imitators of meerschaum are very many. Burnt
gypsum slaked with lime or a solution of gum-arabic
forms a hard plaster which, smoothed and polished
with oil, assumes a marble-like surface. A very fair
imitation of meerschaum is also made of hardened
plaster of Paris, polished and tinted with a solution
of gamboge and dragon's-blood, afterwards treating
it with paraffin-oil or stearic acid. All the cheaper
meerschaum pipes, cigar- and cigarette-holders are
made of these or similar compounds. There is no
absolute test for meerschaum, and experts are fre-

1 68 The Soverane Herbe

quently unable to distinguish the natural from the
artificial. In absorption and colouring properties the
imitation is equal to the real article at one-half the
price. It is estimated that about half a million real
meerschaum pipes are turned out yearly, and twice
that number of artificial meerschaum.

Meerschaum pipes are the pets of luxurious and
poetic smokers. For genuine, hard smoking there is
nothing to beat a good briar. Granted a good briar
is rare, but when obtained what can beat it ? Unlike
the meerschaum, one need not handle and smoke it
gingerly, in fear of breakage ; finger-heat does not
spoil its colouring, so swaddling clothes are super-
fluous. Of course, the briar will not yield the rich
shades of the foam of the sea, but the pleasure of the
smoker as he sees the darkening wood is not less than
that of the meerschaum devotee. The meerschaum
is the pipe for the study and house ; it cannot be
smoked out of doors. But the briar is equal to every
occasion. At home, or in the open, in the wind or
sun, on land or sea, the briar is ever ready. Sturdy,
needing no case, practical and philosophical, it is
emphatically the pipe of the Briton.

It is not surprising that the wooden pipe is of
recent invention, for the wood must possess many
qualities. The wood must be hard and practically
incombustible, yet light. It must be sapless and
inodorous, or when heated the fragrance of the
tobacco would be lost. And while not essential, it is a
desideratum that the fibre should be gnarled, mottled,
or grained, and susceptible of a high polish.

No native British timber possesses these necessary

How Pipes are made 169

qualifications. The root of the French heath-tree,
bniyere, corrupted into briar, is really the only suit-
able wood. Cocus, a very dark wood, is used for
cheap pipes, but though very hard, splits easily. Myall
wood from Australia emits a pleasant odour of violets,
is absorbent and hard, but brittle. Maple, juniper,
and cherry-wood are used to a small extent. There
are few woods which have not been tried at one time
or another, but the result of all experiment is to con-
firm the fact that briar is practically the only wood
suitable for pipes.

La bruylre, from the roots of which pipes are
made, is the heather shrub that grows in the Mediter-
ranean countries — in France, Italy, Spain, Algeria,
and Corsica. It has no connection with the briar,
the English word being merely a corruption of the
French name. Its cultivation is extremely simple,
consisting of the regular pruning of the tops in order
to promote the growth of the roots. The best briar
grows on the hill-sides near Leghorn, the second
quality in Corsica, and inferior kinds in Jura and
Algeria. Only the root is used, the wood growing
above ground being useless, as it is very brittle, and
splits immediately a machine knife touches it. In
gathering the crop, the plant has to be torn or dug
up, roots and all, and it is said that in ten years the
supply will be exhausted.

The roots are often larger than a man's body, and
weigh hundreds of pounds. The wood is remarkably
beautiful and finely veined, as the examination of
even the cheapest pipe shows. It is remarkably tough,
does not char, and is practically incombustible.

170 The Soverane Herbe

Briar heats very slowly, and the tobacco, burning at
a low temperature, gives off less nicotine, making the
briar a most hygienic pipe.

Ten or fifteen years ago the majority of briar pipes
smoked in England were made in France and Germany,
but English manufacturers now supply their own land
and other countries with briars at cheaper prices.
About 400 tons of briar-root are imported to London
annually. Nuremburg and Ruhla do a big trade in
briars, the average annual output from each place
being 500,000 pipes.

The briar is imported in sawn-up, roughly-shaped
blocks, 3 or 4 inches square, ready seasoned, the
bags holding between 200 and 300 blocks each.
At the factory they are first sorted out in sizes for
larger or smaller pipes, and then steamed in vats for
twelve hours, to give them the familiar yellowish-
brown tint.

The workman takes a block in hand, decides into
what form it can best be fashioned, and places it in
the boring machine. This has three knives ; the
middle knife, revolving 4,000 times a minute, bores
out the bowl of the pipe, and the two outer ones cut
away the wood on the outside, forming it into the
shape of a pipe. The roughly-formed briar is then
placed in a lathe used for cutting irregular forms.
A metal pattern of the shape the pipe is designed to
become is fitted in ; the circular cutting tool, with its
peculiar knife-like teeth, is set in motion ; the briar-
block turns with the metal model, and is mechani-
cally cut to pattern. The pipe is then finished with
coarse and fine sandpaper (by machine), and a final

How Pipes are made 171

polish given by a pumice-stone wheel. The hole
through the stem is bored by a steel wire, having a
cutting tip, turned rapidly by a lathe. Another
machine cuts the thread in the end of the stem to
screw the mouthpiece ; the silver band or mount,
hall-marked at the Government Assay Offices, is
fixed and the mouthpiece attached. The pipe is
then polished by the naked hand with a preparation
of rouge and olive-oil, and is ready for the smoker.

The qualities for which the maker looks in a briar
are three — good figuring and veining of wood, free-
dom from knots, and density. In its natural state
the briar is of a light colour, and a darker hue is
obtained by polishing with linseed or olive oil. This
accounts for the peculiar oily condition of many
dark briars, rendering their smoking for some time
most unpleasant. If the smoker prefer a dark briar
he will find that a light one soon assumes a deeper
hue, and smokes much more sweetly than a greasy,
artificially-darkened one.

A briar pipe goes through no less than eighty-four
processes in its manufacture. Only 8 per cent, of all
turned out are perfect and of the first quality, eleven
out of every twelve pipes being rejected from the
premier class for flaws. Only experts can detect
the tiny cracks in the unsmoked briar, through which
tobacco juices will ultimately ooze. These imperfect
pipes are assorted and priced according to their
merits or demerits.

That small but essential part of a pipe, the mouth-
piece, still remains to be dealt with. Amber mouth-
pieces are, of course, infinitely superior to vulcanite

172 The Soverane Herbe

or horn. There is no occasion to narrate the history
of amber, which was eagerly sought for and prized by
the civilized nations centuries before the Christian era.
In these smoking days mouthpieces are regarded as
the sole end of amber ; but the Greeks, Romans and
Egyptians prized it as a gem, wearing amber jewel-
lery, while the wealthiest drank out of amber wine-
glasses. The old legend declares amber to be the
petrified tears shed by the sisters of Phaeton at his
sad death.

Amber is merely the fossilized gum or resin of
pine-trees. Pope's wonder ' how the devil ' hairs,
straws, dirt, grubs and worms got into the amber is
easily removed by modern science. The fly got into
the amber when the gum was liquid, and became
enveloped and preserved in it by petrification. Over
800 species of insects and 100 plants have been dis-
covered enveloped in amber.

Amber is found literally all over the globe — in
France, Holland, Greenland, Sweden, Italy, Sicily,
Spain, Siberia, China, India, occasionally near Cromer
in Norfolk, but principally on the shores of the Baltic.
It is always found in conjunction with brown coal or
lignite. In Eastern Prussia it is mined, as is coal,
but elsewhere it is simply dug from the soil or picked
up from the clifts. It is very valuable, costing from
8s. to £\2 per pound. Fine large pieces are worth
more than their weight in gold. The largest known
piece, pi-eserved in the museum in Berlin, weighs
18 pounds, and is valued at £7,000.

Amber is found in pieces varying from the size of a
pea to that of a large potato. When first dug up it

How Pipes are made 173

is a very pale yellow, but the longer it is exposed to
the light the darker it becomes, in course of years
turning a rich ruby tint. Owing to its high price,
very little real amber is made into mouthpieces and
pipe-stems. The blocks are cut by hand, and the
necessary bend made by heating the amber over a
flame. Both operations are very delicate, and
demand much skill.

The amber shavings are carefully preserved, the
larger chips being used in the preparation of a very
fine varnish for oil-paintings and the smaller frag-
ments ground up to make incense for Roman Catholic
churches. There is a belief prevalent among smokers
that the imitation amber mouthpieces consist of
90 per cent, real amber chips and shavings with a
10 per cent, composition to harden and combine it.
But the makers of the best imitation amber guarantee
that it contains no amber at all. The composition of
the imitation is a trade secret ; the ' amber ' is so
good that only experts can distinguish it from the
genuine product. But its looks are its only recom-
mendation ; the cheap kinds are, in fact, positively
dangerous, and frequently produce diseases of the
mouth and gums. So rare is amber nowadays that
it is practically impossible to get a pipe with a
genuine amber mouthpiece.

Except for appearance vulcanite mouthpieces are
little inferior to amber. Cut vulcanite, indeed, is as
smooth and cool as amber, but the moulded vulcanite
tips are rough to the lips. Horn mouthbits are made
from the horns of Brazilian bullocks. As only the
solid tips of these can be used, the rest being hollow,

174 The Soverane Herbe

some idea can be formed of the enormous number of
bullocks required to tip the pipes of smokedom.
After being boiled for ten minutesj the horn is
straightened on a lever, then turned on a lathe,
bored, and the screw cut. A second immersion in
hot water enables the tip to be bent to any angle, and,
filed, polished and burnished, it is fitted to the pipe.

A pipe of quite Arcadian simplicity is the corn-
cob. It is simply the hollowed-out cob of an ear
of Indian corn or maize with a stem inserted near the
bottom. It is a feather-weight pipe, and though
smoking rather rawly at first, it develops into a
splendidly cool and sweet smoker. They are not
lasting nor beautiful pipes, for the porous bowl soon
becomes blotched and saturated with the tobacco
oils, but for simplicity and ruggedness of flavour they
cannot be beaten.

Your honest smoker does not lay aside his old pipe
in a hurry. It is with a sigh of sorrow that he per-
ceives his faithful old briar is getting used up ; the
cracks in the bowl can no longer be winked at. That
the tip is nearly bitten through and quite jagged with
teeth-marks is impressed upon him every time he puffs
it ; the internal economy and joints of the briar are
choked with nicotine, and even the indulgent smoker
cannot but recognise that the days of service of his
faithful pipe are nearly over. It is a pang to part
with it, but an accident robs the pain of half its
bitterness by making it compulsory, not voluntary.

Your true smoker does not choose a pipe hastily ;
it is a matter requiring consideration and judgment.
The companion of his thoughts, the counsellor of his

How Pipes are made 175

plans, his partner in joy and sorrow, is not to be
hastily chosen. He recognises the gravity and
responsibility of a pipe's position as his trusted
friend and companion. He will not court treachery
and faithlessness by a hasty choice that leads to
quick repentance. He once bought a pipe which
taught him a lesson. At first it smoked beautifully,
and he congratulated himself on his luck and judg-
ment. Then came a fall ; the brute turned nasty,
would not smoke smoothly, and, perforce, he was
compelled to throw it aside. All the trust he had
reposed in it was betrayed ; henceforth he selected his
pipe as he would a wife — for wearing qualities and
faithfulness. A pipe is the very image of true friend-
ship ; it grows better and sweeter with age.

There are physical as well as social considerations
to be taken into account in choosing a pipe. In this
respect we cannot do better than quote a recent
paper in the Lancet on the respective hygienic merits
of pipes :

'A soft clay is invariably cool smoking, because
the acrid oils obtained on the destructive distillation
of the tobacco are absorbed instead of collecting in
a little pool, which must eventually, either by the
volatilization or by mechanical conveyance, reach
the mouth. An old wooden pipe or briar, so dear
to inveterate smokers, becomes " smooth smoking,"
because the pores of the wood widen, and so absorb,
as is the case with clay and meerschaum, a large
proportion of the tobacco oils. A hook-shaped pipe
must be better than a pipe the bowl of which is on
the same level as the mouth, for the simple reason

176 The Soverane Herbe

that in the former a considerable quantity of the oil
is kept back in the U-shaped part of the pipe, while
in the latter the oil travels easily down the stem.
Ebonite stems are in general objectionable, because
they commonly spoil the true flavour of tobacco
smoke. We know instances where ebonite stems
have produced distinctly objectionable symptoms in
the throat. Bone or real amber makes a much more
satisfactory stem, or the pipe should be of wood
throughout. Amber substitutes, and especially cel-
luloid, should be discarded entirely as dangerous.
Pipes of special construction cannot be regarded
with much favour, such as those which are said to
be hygienic and usually contain a so-called nicotine
absorber. Those smokers who require such auxiliary
attachments had better not smoke at all.'

The Lancet's condemnation of hygienic pipes
accords with the opinion of all true smokers, by
whom they are regarded as beneath contempt. A
man who smokes a hygienic pipe would only kiss
his wife through a respirator, lest her salute should
convey disease-germs into his system.

Pipes should be cleaned regularly after each smoke,
and the ' dottle ' of tobacco removed, otherwise it
will become sour. The Mexican has a simple and
economical method of cleaning his pipe. Filling the
bowl with brandy, he stirs the liquid until it is thick
with the reeking tobacco-oils, and then tosses the
broth down his throat with a smack of the lips that
tells of supreme gusto.

It would be useless to recommend this mode to
English smokers. Of other ways the thrusting of a

How Pipes are made 177

red-hot wire or of a feather up the stem, and blowing
the smoke from the bowl through the stem, covering
the bowl with a handkerchief for the operation, are
well known. The forcing of steam from an engine
through a pipe is an excellent method ; any engineer
will clean a pipe thus for a few pence. Another way-
is to fit into the bowl a cork, through which a hole is
bored large enough to make it fit tightly on to the
nozzle of a soda-water syphon. Holding a basin
under the mouthpiece, force a little soda-water
through the pipe, which is thus washed of its oils.
It is impossible, however, entirely to rid a well-
smoked briar of its accumulated oils.

t2

CHAPTER X

CIGARS

Cigar or pipe first mode of smoking ? — Origin of word ' cigar ' —
Why Spaniards smoked cigars and English pipes — Primitive
cigar — Introduction of cigars in Nortehrn Europe — Cuba
home of cigars — Growth of leaf — Veguero's trials — Gathering
and packing — Classes of leaf — Curing and manufacture —
Stripped — The Torcedor's magic — Where Havanas go —
The gems of cigardom — Cuban's knowledge of leaf and
tests — Light specks on cigars — The marks of a cigar box —
American cigars — Mexican, Manila, Indian and European
cigars — The Italian concoction — British-made cigars — Price
of cigars — Rarely adulterated — How to choose a cigar —
Light V. dark cigars — Proper colour of a cigar — Output of
Cubas — The world's cigars.

Whether the cigar or the pipe was the original
form of drinking tobacco is a somewhat vexed
question. The first smokers seen by Columbus
were puffing rolls of tobacco ; it was only on the
mainland of North America among the Red Indians
that the pipe was in general use. In the ofif-lying
islands and in Southern America the leaves were
rolled up and smoked direct. Taking into considera-
tion the ceremonial use of tobacco as incense, it
seems clear that the pipe was the original mode
of inhaling the smoke, and that the cigar was the

Cigars

179

perfected instrument. The additional fact that in
the West Indies smoking was of little religious
significance, having passed from a sacred rite into a
pleasing practice, supports the belief that the cigar
was a stage ahead of the pipe. The lighted fire-
brands noted by the Spaniards were indeed merely
the later form of a pipe. The Red Indian placed
the powdered tobacco in the end of a reed ; the
Caribs and other islanders rolled up a tobacco leaf
in a dried leaf of maize, for it was a cigarette rather
than a cigar. The variety of tobacco indigenous-
to the West Indies by the shape and size of its leaf
made this the most natural form of smoking.

The word ' cigar,' and hence ' cigarette,' applied to
twisted rolls of tobacco is of some interest. Most
probably it is derived from the Spanish cigarar, to
roll. A more fanciful derivation traces its origin
from cigarrel, the Spanish word for an orchard ;
literally, the place of cicadas, a kind of grasshopper
whose droning noise is said to induce slumber. The
first Spanish smokers are said to have indulged in
the practice in orchards, and thus the word cigaros
came to denote the tobacco from the place where it
was consumed, while there was also the common
resemblance in that, as the orchard was the pleasant
resting-place, so was tobacco peaceful and reposeful.
Another explanation is, that when tobacco was intro-
duced into Spain the plant was cultivated in the
orchard, or cigarrel. But the true derivation of the
word is undoubtedly cigarar, to roll, cigar being a roll
of tobacco.

In the countries of the New World occupied by

12 — 2

i8o The Soverane Herbe

the Spaniards the only mode of smoking was that
of twisted rolls of tobacco ; hence the Spaniards
adopted this manner, and to this day smoke only
cigars and cigarettes. The English, on the contrary,
exploited North America, where the pipe reigned
supreme, and, as naturally as the Spaniard, adopted
that method of smoking. In Central and Southern
America, as well as on the island, the cigar or
cigarette is still the main form of tobacco ; pipes are
indigenous to and common in colder climes. The
luxurious cigar and light, airy cigarette accord with
the Southern temperament, while the pipe is the
natural smoke of the sterner, hardier inhabitants of
the colder North.

The original cigar consisted of tobacco leaves
enclosed in a maize leaf. Puros were cigars formed
entirely of tobacco with no outer covering. The
word ' cigarette ' is quite modern, and applies to
paper-enrolled tobacco only. In Cuba, fiimar un
tabaco is to smoke a cigar.

Owing to the monopoly of the Spanish colonies
and the exclusion therefrom of all foreigners, the
practice of smoking cigars or cigarettes was confined
to Spain and Portugal until the close of the eighteenth
century. Captains Thomas Price and Koet are said
to have smoked the twisted leaves of tobacco, or
' segars,' in London during the reign of Elizabeth ;
but until the dawn of the present century the pipe
was the only mode of drinking tobacco in England.

Not until about 1790 were cigars introduced into
Northern Europe, the first factory being established
at Hamburg in 1796. The Peninsular War was the

Cigars

i8i

occasion of both French and English adopting the
cigar from the Spaniards. The importation of cigars
into England was prohibited, and for many years
they could be obtained from ship captains only. After
the peace of 1815, cigars were admitted at the duty
of 1 8s. a pound. So little were they smoked, how-
ever— smoking then being under the ban of society —
that in 1823 only 26 pounds of cigars were imported.
The duties were reduced, and by 1830 the import of
cigars had reached 253,882 pounds for the year.
They were then strictly an aristocratic luxury, and
their importation was an important factor in the
renascence of smoking, beaux who scorned the
plebeian pipe readily puffing the courtly cigar.

To make a reputation is easy ; to keep it is the test
of greatness. Hence Cuba is not so famous for
having given tobacco to Europe as for retaining, not
only undimmed, but actually increased during the
flight of centuries, the good name of her tobacco.

As every smoker knows, the finest cigars in the
world are made of tobacco grown in the Vuelta
Abajo, or Lower Valley, about five miles north-west
of Havana. Here no artificial fertilizers are needed,
as the river enriches the land with an alluvial deposit
every year. This land, combining all the elements
essential to the cultivation of the finest tobacco, is
only 100 miles in length by 25 miles in breadth.
Tobacco has been grown here since 1580, the manu-
facture of cigars being a Government monopoly until
181 5, when this and other restrictions on the tobacco
industry were removed by Spain.

The vegas, or tobacco farms, are situated principally

1 82 The Soverane Herbe

on the sandy-soiled, low-lying margins of rivers, or
in low, moist localities. In the moist, rich soil and
hot climate the tobacco plant attains the greatest
perfection. Few of the farms are of more than
lOO acres, half of which is devoted to the production
of food and half to tobacco culture ; the actual area
of the vega is rarely more than 33 acres.

The cultivation of the plants is similar to that
described in a previous chapter. The seedlings are
planted out in October, and with this commences the
season of anxiety for the veguero, or tobacco farmer.
His great enemies are the insects. Early every morn-
ing all hands turn out to seek and destroy marauding
insects, each plant undergoing careful search. A
single caterpillar overlooked means the loss of several
leaves. The enemies are of three classes — the
vivyagua, a huge white ant, attacks the root and
destroys the sap, the cachaga infests the leaves, and
the rosqinlla the buds. All these must be picked off
by hand. The morning searches are followed by one
in the evening, and strange and beautiful it is to see
the Cuban landscape illuminated by the safety-lamps,
fastened to the hats or shirts of the men searching for
the raiding insects, moving up and down the fields of
the vega.

The plant grows to the height of 6 or 9 feet.
The young leaves are of a cool, dark-green colour,
and when matured and ripened of a greeny yellow.
The fewer the leaves allowed to grow, the stronger the
tobacco ; from eight to twelve leaves only are per-
mitted to mature on each plant, on the principle
already explained in connection with American cul-

in

*'

Cigars 183

ture. The instinct of the veguero when to nip off the
leaves to obtain tobacco of a certain uniform strength
is nothing less than wonderful. It is said, and not
without reason, that the Cuban planter can produce
tobacco of whatever quality and strength he desires ;
it is this constant care and amazing skill combined
with soil and climate that sustain the world-acknow-
ledged excellence of Havanas.

When the leaf turns from bright green to yellow
and spotty it is ready for picking. The stalk is
snipped off in sections with two leaves on each bit of
stem. They are dried, being strung on thin poles for
the purpose. They are then tied in bundles, or gavillas,
of about a hundred leaves. Four gavillas secured
together become one inanoja, and from fifty to eighty
manojas, according to the quality of the leaves, are
made into a tercio or bale of lOO or 120 pounds.
Thus packed they are conveyed by mules to Havana.

There are four classes, with subdivisions, of the
leaves. Desechro, or the finest quality, comprises the
top leaves of the plant, the best because they have
received the most sunshine and dew. Scarcely in-
ferior to these are the desechito, growing below them.
The small leaves growing about the top are placed
in the third class, libra, or ' inferior,' while injuriado
are the leaves about the root, which are soil-stained
and injured by insects or manure.

These classes are subdivided. The imperfect leaves
of the desechito and libra are classed as injuriado bueno.
Mixed leaves of varied quality are termed injuri-
ado inalo. The injuriado, or root leaves, are divided
into reposo, primeros, and segundos. A vega of 33

184 The Soverane Her be

acres yields a crop of about 10,000 pounds of
tobacco a season. Of this only 500 pounds are desecho,
2,000 pounds are desechito, 3,000 pounds libra, and
4,500 pounds injtiriado. The price of these varies
from 400 to 40 dollars a bale.

The leaf is cured and dried in a manner similar to
that already explained. It is then kept in bales for
several months to season before being made up into
cigars, and for a year or two afterwards.

The quality of the leaf varies from year to year as
in the case of the vine. An estate one year produces
an excellent crop of fine texture and superior flavour,
and the next season from the same seed tobacco of
very inferior quality is grown. This is due to causes
beyond the planter's control, arising, perhaps, from
excessive heat or wet, insect pests, and many other
causes.

Some planters make up their own tobacco, but
most sell their crops to the factories in Havana.
There are two hundred of these, several employing
from five hundred to a thousand hands. The first-
class houses refuse to make up injuriado leaves,
turning out the finest cigars only.

The bales of tobacco are stored in the stone-
floored factory, special attention being paid to the
temperature and ventilation of the room. The
manojas are split up into their component gavillas,
and these bunches placed in vats of water, in which
saltpetre has been dissolved. After a few hours'
soaking the leaves are removed, the water pressed
out, and passed on to the unfolding-room. Here
women work in pairs ; the first unfolds the leaf with-

Cigars 185

out tearing it — a feat only accomplished quickly
after great experience — and passes it on to her
partner, who removes the mid-rib.

The leaves are next sorted by men into capa
(wrappers) and tripa (filling). A single glance at a
leaf reveals to the escojedor whether it is suitable for
a wrapper, or must be condemned to form the interior
of the cigar.

Around the walls of the same sorting-room are
about twenty small tables, standing in a good light.
At each table sits a torcedor, or twister, the actual
maker of the cigar. Before him lie two heaps, the
smaller of capa, the bigger being tripa. Taking up
a c«/«-leaf, he cuts it with his knife to form the out-
side wrapper of the cigar, making the most of the tip,
which is the best part, that near the stem being the
worst. He is an expert in everything relating to
tobacco, and can adjudge the virtues of a leaf at a
glance. Having cut the wrapper, he with mechanical
accuracy takes the exact quantity of tripa, twists it
round with the capa in his long, supple fingers, and
the result is a cigar. There is not a knife-cut about
it ; his fingers are the only instruments. Watching
the torcedor rolling out cigars with unerring fingers,
one is convinced of the fact that the process is not
one of skill, but art magic — a piece of magnificent
jugglery. A clever workman turns out three or four
hundred cigars a day ; the twist which he gives
to secure the tip of the cigar is absolutely inimitable
by all other makers, and renders Havanas unique.
The escojedores, to whom the responsible and delicate
task of selecting the leaves is entrusted, earn from

1 86 The Soverane Herbe

five to eight dollars a day, while the torcedor's daily
pay varies from three to five dollars. Underhands
engaged in making up the poorer leaf are paid from
two to four dollars per thousand cigars.

The finished cigars are sorted into bundles of
twenty-five, and packed in the familiar cedar-wood
boxes, which most factories make themselves.

One of the first factories in Havana turns out
30,000,000 cigars a year. Spain, England, Latin
America, and the United States take 5,000,000
each. France and Germany buy 3,000,000 apiece,
while the remaining 9,000,000 are retained in
Cuba for home consumption. The finest cigars
never leave Cuba, for the merchant is a smoker
before a seller of tobacco. The crop of the finest
Vuelta Abajo tobacco is so small that not more than
30,000 cigars can be made of it. Some find their
way to Europe to delight the palates and soothe the
minds of monarchs and multi-millionaires, but the
greater number are smoked in Cuba. Selected cigars
of the finest growth and of celebrated harvests are
treasured by their growers as European connoisseurs
store wine of fine vintage. The cigars are kept in
oiled-skin envelopes, and smoked on great occasions
only. They are handed round on silver dishes, and
lit from a glowing splinter of the aromatic ceiba-wood.
The most phlegmatic of European smokers, when
once he has been privileged to smoke one of these
priceless cigars, no longer is amazed at the more
emotional Cuban addressing such a cigar as ' My
soul ! Light of my life 1' as he inhales the entrancing,
divine perfume in an ecstasy of delight.

Cigars

The silly story that Cubans smoke cigars when
green is utterly absurd. They are too learned in
tobacco lore to be guilty of such stupidity. The
finest Havanas are of an even tint of rich dark brown,
free from all stains and spots, burning freely with a
white or brown ash, which remains intact until the
cigar is three-quarters smoked.

There is no keener judge of tobacco than a Cuban
grower. By its colour and smell he distinguishes its
quality instantly ; a whiff or two of the smoke deter-
mines its flavour. The leaf of the best quality burns
well, holding its fire for four or five minutes. The
qualities demanded in cigar-leaf are a good colour
and fair body ; a continuous pleasant aroma ; fairly
fine texture, combined with a certain amount of
toughness ; small ribs and veins ; good combustion.

Very few smokers know how the light specks get
on the wrapper of a cigar. They are caused by rain-
drops, which sprinkled on the leaves act as lenses,
and, concentrating the sun's rays like a magnifying-
glass, burn the little specks upon the ripe tobacco
leaves. As there is a silly superstition that cigars so
speckled are of superior quality, Yankee manu-
facturers produce the spots by sprinkling potash on
the growing leaves.

The average man is sadly ignorant of the various
terms and titles by which cigars are described. There
are five Spanish terms applied to cigars, describing
(i) their brand, (2) the shape, (3) the size, (4) the
colour, (5) the quality.

First, on the lid of the box is stamped the name of
the brand, as Cabana, Pedro Murias, Cortina Moras,

i88

The Soverane Herbe

La Coronas, Flor de Cubas, etc. The visit of a
distinguished person to a factory is usually com-
memorated by the adoption of his name as the title
of a brand of cigars. Thus were christened Henry
Clays, Serranos, etc.

On the front of the box the shape and size of the
cigar is marked. Among the many shapes are
Trabucas, Conchas, Londres, Reina, Victorias, Panta-
tilas. Regalias, etc. With this is usually combined
the size, such as Perfecto, Infantes, Princesses. Com-
binations such as Conchas Finas, Conchas Speciales,
Londres Grandes, describe both the shape and size.

On the back of the box, flanking the lid, is the
quality of the brand, the classes in the descending
scale being Superfina, Fina, Flor, Superior, and Bueno.

The right-hand side or end of the box bears the
colour-mark, these in the ascending scale being Claro,
Colorado, Maduro, Oscuro, and Negro. Claro is
applied to the lightest-coloured cigars ; Colorado
Claro to not quite so light coloured ; Colorado, dark ;
Colorado Maduro, darker; Maduro, very dark ; Oscuro,
extremely dark ; Negro, darkest.

So fully is the pre-eminence of the Cuban cigar
recognised that practically all cigars are sold as
Havanas. Even English-made cigars are put in
foreign boxes and given high-sounding Spanish
names. But a genuine Havana cannot be imitated ;
its fragrance and flavour are its own, while the Cuban
workman alone turns out a perfectly-made cigar, the
dexterous twist with which he finishes off both ends
of the cigars being inimitable by all other makers.

If the names of brands were to be taken as true, it

Cigars

189

would appear that Cuba supplied all the world's
cigars. As a matter of fact, only the best and most
expensive cigars come from the Pearl of the Antilles,
and can truly claim the title of Havana. More than
half the cigars smoked in this country are of American
growth and manufacture. Of every 100 boxes im-
ported, 45 come from the United States (including
Mexican cigars), 10 from the Philippines, 10 from
British East Indies (Borneo, etc.), 8 from France, 6
from Belgium, 6 from Holland, 3 from Germany, and
the remaining 1 1 boxes from Cuba, the Channel Isles,
Spain, the West Indies, Hong Kong, and other
countries.

The Americans import Cuban tobacco for use as
the wrapper, the body of the cigar consisting of Mary-
land or Ohio leaf. These cigars are all dubbed
' Havanas,' to which title they have as much right as
a cigarette to be called paper because its cover is
paper. A good cigar consists of the same tobacco
throughout, but the filling is usually of a tobacco
inferior to that of the wrapper.

Of cigars not Havanas, those made of Mexican
tobacco are rapidly gaining in popular favour.
Cheroots (the word is frequently and incorrectly
applied to cigars), which are square at both ends,
come from Manila and Burma principally. The
peculiar softness of Manila tobacco is due to the leaf
being beaten between two stones. Until the American
annexation the manufacture of tobacco in the Philip-
pines was solely in the hands of the Spanish Govern-
ment. Indian cigars are beginning to occupy, in the
estimation of stay-at-home English, the position they

190 The Soverane Herbe

have long held in that of Anglo-Indians. People
who have once smoked them will have no other.
The reason for this, however, does not commend
them to the smoker. In India tobacco is grown on
the same soil in alternation with opium ; the tobacco
absorbs a flavouring of the drug, and the smoker of
Indian cigars misses in Havana or American cigars
the subtle flavour of opium. The idea that tobacco
is adulterated with opium is absurd, for the drug costs
three times the price of tobacco.

European cigars are not to be commended. German
cigars are always bad, and can be recognised by their
uniform thickness and rotundity. The Italian sigarro
is incredibly vile. The manufacture and sale of
tobacco is there, as also in France, Austria, and
Spain, a Government monopoly. Cigars are served
out in the Italian army as part of the daily rations.
Bad as are the cigars sold to the public by the Regie,
the military ones are worse. Some years ago they
were found to consist of a piece of lime, powdered
gypsum, a quantity of earth, a splinter of wood, and
a length of string. The abominable cigars of
Trieste are 8 inches long, and have a straw running
through the centre. This is essential, as, owing to
their greenness, and the tightness with which the
leaves are rolled, they could not be smoked other-
wise.

The high duty on cigars imported into this country
has greatly encouraged their home manufacture, and
the reduction of the duty on unmanufactured tobacco
has further aided the industry. The poor Cuban
crops of the last seven or eight years consequent on

Cigars

the troubles of that island have brought British cigars
well on to the market. British and foreign-made
cigars can be readily distinguished. The former are
more glossy, better made, and more uniform in
appearance. The prejudice against them is fast
dying out as British manufacturers learn the art of
blending leaf and the niceties of making. Seventy
years ago cigar-making was carried on regularly
nowhere in England. It was the custom for manu-
facturers to engage a cigar-maker for a few days'
work occasionally as the stock required. He was
usually a foreigner, and contracted for the manufac-
ture of so many cigars, and brought with him his
staff of makers, whom he took about from warehouse
to warehouse. Now every manufacturer has his own
staff of cigar-makers in constant employment. The
drawback to home-made cigars is that the frequent
dampings essential to the manufacture into cigars
of dried imported tobacco destroys the delicacy of
flavour. The best and all good Havanas, such as
Vegueras, are made of half-dry Vuelta Abajo tobacco,
and never damped.

If a comparative is needed to express a wide area
of difference and range of extremes, nothing is more
varied than a cigar in both price and quality. A
Pickwick or cheroot for which 'Arry pays id. is as
much a cigar as that for which the millionaire lays
down a sovereign.

The most expensive cigars are Flor de Cuba,
Intimidads, and La Corona, costing 12s. 6d. each, or
^50 a hundred. Big cigars, made of the finest
tobacco, 9 inches long and 4 inches round the waist,

192 The Soverane Herbe

are sold for los. There is a sale for them among
City men and stockbrokers, especially in times of
financial crisis. After the Jameson Raid the great
' slump ' in South African shares created a big demand
for these cigars. Dealers proclaimed the security of
their position by smoking cigars at ^50 the hundred.

There are scores of smokers — big solicitors, wealthy
noblemen, opulent merchants — who never demean
themselves by smoking less than a seven-and-sixpenny
cigar. On the other hand, experts declare that the
best cigar can be had for is., and that beyond that
price the smoker is paying for some peculiarity merely
in the shape or leaf, and not for any superiority in
the quality of tobacco.

It is popularly supposed that the King smokes
the most expensive cigars, but it has been stated
that he never pays more than los. 6d., generally
4s., and even as low as is. 3d., for a cigar. The
costliest cigars ever made were those which Marshal
Prim had manufactured specially to present to
Napoleon III. Each cigar was made of the finest
Havana leaf, was tipped with gold, and stamped with
the Imperial ' N.' in gold. Each of the 20,000 cigars
represented 30s., the whole batch costing .£^30,000.

The Rothschilds are credited with habitually
smoking the most costly cigars, the Henry Clay
Sobranos, costing 5s. each. They are wrapped in
gold-leaf, and packed in inlaid cedar-wood cabinets
containing 14,000 cigars. Three cabinets form the
millionaire prince's usual order.

Cigars are rarely adulterated, and the stories about
cabbage, rhubarb, dock, or lettuce-leaf cigars are

Cigars

193

absurd. There is also the pretty fable that cigars
made of paper impregnated with tobacco-juice are
imported from America. More credible is the account
of how old cigar-butts are worked up into cigars
again. The high duty on imported cigars and the
vigilance of the Excise authorities on their manufac-
ture in this country render such fraud unprofitable
and difficult of execution. At the worst the body
of the cigar is of cheap and poor tobacco, concealed
under a showy outside leaf. The cigar-wrapper, like
charity, covereth a multitude of sins.

To say that a man exercises more care in selecting
his cigars than in choosing a wife does not imply
much for either his smoking or matrimonial taste.
In both transactions he is the victim of illusions,
and his choice is determined by ignorance rather than
knowledge. It is dangerous to dogmatize anent
the best sort and condition of cigars, since every
smoker has his own opinion on the matter, and
neither reason nor judgment has part or lot in the
eccentricities of taste. Nevertheless, some few points
about cigars may be appended here.

English smokers like dry cigars and damp pipe-
tobacco, while foreigners reverse the qualities — damp
cigars and dry tobacco. When cigars were intro-
duced into England some eighty years ago there was
little demand for them, and consequently they became
dry and brittle before being sold. With a stock of
dry cigars on his hands, the retailer persuaded his
customers that cigars were best dry and brittle, being
fully seasoned. The legend remaineth unto this day.
A cigar should not be so dry as to crumble at the

13

194 The Soverane Herbe

touch, nor so green as to be moist, but a happy
medium. It should be solid to the pressure of the
fingers.

From the ash of a cigar many smokers deduce the
quality. White ash, it is said, denotes a fine, and
dark ash an inferior, leaf. To a certain extent the
ash is an index to the quality of the tobacco-leaf.
The ash should be white or grayish-white, but its
colour depends largely upon the strength of the
tobacco. A mild penny cigar will yield pure white
ash, while the finest Havana of maduro strength
burns a blackish ash. Reddish ash denotes the
presence of iron, and streaky, black ash is due to
an excess of carbon and the resultant imperfect
burning. The belief that the quality of a cigar may
be judged by the length of time the ash remains
intact is true as regards the manufacture of the cigar.
It depends upon the length and neat arrangement of
the filling leaf ; a well-made, compact cigar naturally
is of greater consistency than one in which the body
is composed of leaf twisted and huddled together.
When the ash is flicked off, the glowing point should
be sharp — the sharper the point the better the cigar.

In the previous chapter we have referred to the
inferiority, as a whole, of light-coloured to dark
tobacco for pipes. This applies with even greater force
to cigars. Light-coloured cigars should be avoided ;
they are made from quickly-grown leaf, artificially
dried and ' seasoned ' in about six days instead of
from six months to two years, and manufactured and
shipped to England for sale all in six months.

The real true colour of the perfect, properly-grown

Cigars

195

and cured cigar-leaf is a dark, heavy cinnamon, even
colour. These are no stronger than light-coloured
tobacco ; a cigar pitch-black smokes mild if it is of
good and properly-seasoned leaf. Lightness and
mildness, darkness and strength, are not synonymous.
Light cigars contain little of the true flavour and
essence of tobacco. They are nearly all fibre, con-
tain little sap, which yields the true fi-agrance, and
that not matured. Light-coloured tobacco and cigars
are unhealthy in comparison with dark leaf. The one
is immature, fibrous, and non-resinous ; the other fully
grown, juicy, with slightly decomposed fibres. It is the
combustion of so much fibre and solid matter that
causes ' smoker's throat,' tonsillitis, and indigestion.

Good dark leaves take eight or nine months to
grow, some months to cure, two years to season in
bales, and a year or two to mature after being made
into cigars. Such fully-grown, perfectly-cured, ripened
and seasoned cigars are never lighter than cinnamon ;
they should be darker, running to a dark, dry-look-
ing, heavy chestnut-brown. These cigars, declares a
connoisseur, ' are worth smoking ; the aroma charms
the gods, the flavour is entrancing, and — they cost
money.'

About 60,000,000 pounds of tobacco are grown
annually in Cuba, of which two-thirds are exported
and 20,000,000 pounds retained for home consumption.
The annual output of Havanas is about 3,200,000,000
cigars a year. Britain imports some 2,450,000
pounds of cigars per annum, valued at ^1,500,000.
The world's annual consumption of cigars is estimated
at 400,000,000,000.

13—2

CHAPTER XI

CIGARETTES

The cigarette preceded the cigar — Modern use dates from 1840
— Brought to England during Crimean War — Manufacture
forty years ago very small — Rice-paper manufacture — Hand-
made cigarettes — By machinery — The tobacco and flavour-
ing— Machine made — Speed and cost — Turkish cigarettes —
Egyptian cigarettes — French cigarettes — Modern and recent
popularity — Enormous consumption — Cigarette additional
to pipe or cigar — Differs from smoking — Its hygienic aspect
— Opinion of Sir Henry Thompson.

As we have shown, the original cigar consisted of
tobacco-leaves enrolled in an outer covering of
maize or other dried leaves, being thus the originator
of the modern cigarette. Nothing has been more
notable in the social changes of the last few years
than the extent to which the cigarette has increased
in popular use. The modern cigarette seems to have
originated in Spain, where maize or other suitable
vegetable envelopes for the tobacco being unobtain-
able, a thin sheet of paper was substituted. Thus
the cigar and cigarette assumed distinct forms. A
Spanish proverb declares that ' a papelitos (a paper
cigar), a glass of clear water, and a kiss from a pretty-
girl will sustain a man for a whole day.'

Cigarettes

197

The dainty, unsubstantial, airy cigarette is the
natural smoke of the Latin peoples. Its use in this
country dates from only some forty years ago. In
1845 a writer noted that the cigarette was smoked by
foreign visitors only. The Crimean War of 1854-1856
led many military and naval officers to adopt this
mode of smoking, then common in Malta, the Levant,
Turkey, and Russia. English officers, unable to
procure cigars and driven by the hardships of the
Crimean campaign to the alleviation of tobacco, took
to the cigarette smoked by their French and Turkish
allies. Returning, they brought the mode to England,
and the cigarette became fashionable among club-
men and in the higher circles. The first well-known
person who smoked cigarettes publicly in London
was Laurence Oliphant, who had acquired the
practice during his many years' residence in Russia,
Turkey, and Austria.

At that time smokers made their own cigarettes as
they needed them. About 1865 or 1866 their use
had so spread that manufacturers began to cater for
cigarette smokers. Even then manufacturers em-
ployed only a single man, usually a Pole or Russian,
to make up cigarettes occasionally. The firm that
now turns out the most cigarettes in England at that
time made only a few hundred pounds of tobacco a
year into the dainty, paper-enveloped rolls. The
demand for cigarettes increased, and they are now
turned out by machines, which are marvels of
ingenuity, at the rate of 200 to 400 a minute.

Rice-paper, with which cigarettes are made, has
nothing to do with rice, but is made from the mem-

198 The Soverane Herbe

branes of the bread-fruit tree, or more commonly of
fine new trimmings of flax and hemp. France makes
cigarette-papers for the whole world, the output of
Austria and Italy being insignificant.

Cigarette-paper should be of the very best and
purest quality obtainable, and every effort is made
by manufacturers to provide a paper free from
injurious elements and effects. A year or two ago a
foolish canard went the round of the press that French
cigarette-papers were made from the lint and old
dressings of the Paris hospitals. Horrid indeed was
the story, and as untrue as horrid. All the alleged
harm of cigarettes is due to bad paper, the deadliest
thing a smoker can consume. This manufacturers
have recognised, and the cigarette-paper is now as
pure and perfect as possible. So light is it that 500
of the tiny sheets go to the ounce. They are per-
fectly combustible, and give off the minimum of
smoke. Before being rolled with tobacco, they are
analyzed to prove their freedom from all deleterious
ingredients, and that they contain nothing but the
purest paper fibre.

Only new material — flax and hemp trimmings — are
used, and these are thoroughly purified. Chopped
by machinery into minute particles, they are well
mixed by a revolving fan, and then reduced to almost
a dust. This is placed in a solution of lime and soda.
In order that every foreign substance may be elimi-
nated, it undergoes a thorough washing process, the
water being obtained from artesian wells sunk for the
purpose. The pulp is again crushed and rolled out
into paper. This is of a grayish tinge, and the pure

Cigarettes

199

white of the finished leaf is obtained by an electric pro-
cess, which also cleanses it of all possible impurities.

That the age of chivalry has been succeeded by
that of calculators and economists is particularly true
of cigarette-making. Spain, still half shadowed by
poetry, being fifty years behind these prosaic times,
may still shelter a Carmen — wild, fascinating and
savage — making cigars ; or Russia a Vjera, of the
' Cigarette-maker's Romance.' But the smoker of
to-day cannot, watching the puffs of his cigarette
float lazily upward, see in them a picturesque maiden
of romantic life as its rhaker. In America, England,
and France the romance of the cigarette is no more ;
the overwhelming majority of the cigarettes smoked
are scientifically made by cold steel with metallic cer-
tainty, not fashioned by the lithe, dainty fingers of a
maiden with a history aglow with the adventures of
love and hate.

Many cigarettes are still made by girls in English
factories, but they are not Carmens or Vjeras, and
even their labour is being superseded by the quicker,
cheaper work of machinery. Seated at a long table
with others, the girl takes a pinch of tobacco from a
box, deftly rolls it in a sheet of rice-paper, imprisons
the yellow weed with a dab of starch, and adds the
cigarette to the growing pile by her side. With
amazing accuracy each cigarette is of the same size
and weight.

The cigarette-making machines are among the
most wonderful products of human ingenuity and
mechanical skill. With a single exception they are
of American invention.

200 The Soverane Herbe

The machines work on two principles : in those of
one class an endless roll of tobacco is enveloped by
an endless ribbon of paper, and chopped up into
cigarettes of the required length ; other machines
roll the tobacco separately, and press it into its paper
case. The former are the faster makers, but they turn
out also a larger proportion of faulty cigarettes.

The great majority of cigarettes now smoked are
made of bright Virginia, the mildest tobacco on the
market. It is cut in a manner similar to that for
flake and cut pipe-tobacco, but more finely. Various
essential oils are added to most blends of cigarette
tobacco. The flavourings include rose, geranium,
vanilla bean. Tonka bean, and liquorice, the solution
being sprayed on the tobacco as it is being stirred and
combed. The quantity of scent is very carefully
judged, so many drops being allowed to each cigarette.

At one end of the machine a girl sprinkles the fine
cut-tobacco on an endless cloth, which carries the
tobacco under rollers to be combed and scurried of
every knot and lump. Gliding along a groove
through U-shaped wheels, the tobacco becomes a
continuous roll or rod, which is carried forward to
the paper. This is bearing the tobacco onward when
the machine clips the paper enveloping the tobacco ;
moving past a brush which imparts a tiny streak
of starch paste, the edges are pressed down, and the
continuous paper-enshrined roll of tobacco moves
forward beneath a knife, which, descending at inter-
vals, cuts it off into cigarette lengths. These fall into
a receptacle, and in many cases are counted and
packed by machine also.

Cigarettes

20I

The machines turn out from 200 to 800 cigarettes
a minute. The Baron machine crimps instead of
gumming the paper, and thus removes one objection
to cigarette-smoking. This machine makes any
shape or size of cigarettes, round or oval, at the rate
of 240 to 400 per minute. The introduction of these
machines, necessitated by the increasing demand for
cigarettes, has greatly decreased the cost. Made by
hand their manufacture costs 2s. 6d. per 1,000, while
the same number is mechanically made for 2:|d.
By hand from 1,500 to 2,500 cigarettes can be made
per day, the output varying according to the method
adopted ; in the same time a machine will turn out
180,000 cigarettes. Some cigarette-makers roll the
tobacco with the paper, while others form the paper
into a cylinder, then roll the tobacco the required size,
and push it into the paper tube.

Russia and Turkish cigarettes are still, and pro-
bably will be always, made by hand, as the delicate
flavour of the tobacco is impaired by the metal of
the machine. Turkish tobacco varies greatly in
quality, the poorest being obtainable at is. a pound
while the best costs The famous Dubec comes

from Yenidge in Roumelia; another good brand comes
from Salonica, near Constantinople. All Turkish
tobaccos are very carefully manipulated. They are
cut by hand, as the quickly-chopping machine heats
and spoils the fine flavour.

Each manufacturer has his own secret scent or
perfume for his various brands of cigarettes. All
Turkish cigarettes are doctored, and in this, the
Ottoman manufacturer holds, lies the art of cigarette-

202 The Soverane Herbe

making. The actual manufacture is done by Greeks
and Russians, who turn out the rolls of tobacco as if
by magic. A good hand can make 3,000 a day,
and can command £'i, or ^4 a week ia England, for,
despite the competition of machines, there is a demand
for handmade cigarettes, and good makers are rare.

Egyptian cigarettes are quite a misnomer. True,
they are made in the land of Pharaoh, but they can
produce no other claim to the title. Since 1891 the
cultivation of tobacco has been prohibited in Egypt,
but Egyptian cigarettes still hold their own as the
best on the market. The tobacco of which they are
made is grown in and imported from Turkey ; the
paper comes from the factories in France, Italy, and
Austria, while Greeks combine the two into Egyptian
cigarettes. It is their unique flavour, produced by
methods known in Egypt alone, that constitutes their
excellence. The annual export of cigarettes from
Egypt is about 14,000,000, valued at;^230,ooo.

In France the Government commenced the manu-
facture of cigarettes in 1843. The machines now
used turn out 250 a minute, the factories being
situated at Paris, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Mortaix,
Nancy, Nantes and Toulon. The tobacco, which
has been aptly described as consisting of scorched
linen flavoured with assafcetida and glue, is very
coarsely cut, more so than for the pipe in England,
and very dark. To reduce its strength it is steeped
in water. The resultant cigarette is indescribably
horrible; English smokers fail to recognise it as
tobacco. Yet of these cigarettes France smokes some
300,000,000,000 a year ; in any form but that of the

Cigarettes

203

cigarette it would be intolerable. An Englishman
will face unmoved the armies of France or the bowl-
ings of her mobs, but from her cigarette he flies
apace. In the Paris Figaro, a year ago, ' Nestor '
recounted his success with this horrible weapon :
' There are still too many Englishmen in Monte
Carlo. Still, during my trip I had the pleasure of
making one old Englishman's life a misery to him by
smoking him out, with my strong French cigarettes,
from the railway compartment in which he sat with
me. He left the carriage half asphyxiated at Lyons,
and I felt that Fashoda was, at any rate, partially
avenged. Childish, no doubt, but one must do what
one can.'

Childish it was not, most certainly : France has no
more terrible weapon than her cigarette.

It is rare to find an Englishman really adept at
making cigarettes. He usually blunders, and makes
them so clumsily that he buys ready-made ones.
Italians, Spaniards, and Brazilians make them as
they are needed without ceasing their conversation
— a pinch of tobacco, a paper, a twist, and the
cigarette is made. In Russia the consumption is
2,600,000,000, and in Austria 2,000,000,000 per
annum.

Twenty years ago the cigarette was almost unknown
outside France, Spain, Italy, and Turkey. To-day
it is the most popular smoke among all classes in
England and America. Then it was considered
infra dignitatem for a gentleman to smoke a cigarette
in public as to-day the pipe is publicly banned by the
rules of good society.

204 The Soverane Herbe

Within the last twenty years the smoking of
cigarettes has reached enormous proportions in the
United States. The imposition of a stamp duty on
packets of cigarettes supplies a means of estimating
their consumption. In 1 880 only 500,000,000 cigarettes
were sold and smoked in the States ; last year the
number reached the enormous total of 4,476,000,000
cigarettes, or 200 a year for each male in the country.
In this country statistics are unavailable, but to
the enormous increase in the number of cigarettes
sold all manufacturers bear witness. Thousands are
sold now where tens were demanded formerly. It
is estimated that fully 3,000,000,000 are consumed
annually in this country, and the consumption is rapidly
increasing. The tobacco thus made up is some 4,500
tons, and represents in duty alone ;£"3, 250,000 sterling.
The Customs authorities attribute the increased re-
venue from tobacco to the use of the cigarette, and
this theory is supported by public appearances.

The adoption of the cigarette has been a clear
increase to the consumption of tobacco. A cigarette
is additional or supplementary to the pipe or cigar.
There are, of course, many smokers who confine their
attentions to cigarettes, but they are consumed largely
by pipe and cigar-smokers also. People who ten years
ago smoked a pipe or cigar now sport the ubiquitous
cigarette. For occasions when a pipe is ' scarcely
the thing,' or for times when a pipe is too cumber-
some and lengthy, the cigarette makes its appearance
where, without it, there would be no smoking. It is
undoubtedly the most elegant form of smoking. As a
stepping-stone to the more solid pipe and cigar, the

Cigarettes

205

cigarette plays no small part. The pufifing of
cigarettes differs from smoking ; such it can scarcely
be considered. It is a form of slight excitement ;
it feeds rather than satisfies the appetite ; it is more
like, in its effects and practice, the smoking of opium
than of tobacco; the cigarette is a variety of the
craving for absinthe and morphia. Its popularity is
a sign of the national craving for brevity, weakness
and mild excitement, and of dislike for all that is solid
and substantial, whether it be in food, clothes, litera-
ture, religion, or amusement. Indeed, the cigarette,
denounced by the ' honest smoker ' as mere flirtation
with Diva Nicotina, emphasizes in one aspect the most
striking phase of modern life and thought.

As to the hygienic aspect of cigarette-smoking there
is much diversity of opinion. The subtle mildness
of, and constant craving for, the cigarette condemn
it in the eyes of some doctors, as drying up the
stomach and weakening the nerves and eyesight.
The passage of the shredded bits of tobacco into
the mouth and the inhalation of the smoke of the
burning paper are cited for its condemnation. Sir
Henry Thompson, however, regards the cigarette
with favour, especially if smoked through a holder.
He has invented one with a cavity for a wad of
cotton-wool to absorb the oils. ' Smoked simply,'
he concludes, 'or with cotton-wool interposed, I do
not hesitate to regard the cigarette as the least
potent, and therefore the least injurious, form of
tobacco-smoking.'

CHAPTER XII

SMOKE STATISTICS

Duty on tobacco under Elizabeth — Under James I. — Increasing
imports from Virginia — Restriction on the colony's trade —
Consumption in eighteenth century — Effect of War of Inde-
pendence— Consumption in 1791 — Rise and fall of duty this
century — Present rates — Drawbacks — High duty — Big sums
paid — Increase of consumption, table of — Revenue from
tobacco — Annual consumption in United Kingdom — Value
and varieties of tobacco — Britain's annual smoke bill —
Tobacco a world-wide supporter of Government — Conti-
nental monopolies — In' France — ^World's crop and sources
of tobacco — European culture — World's consumption —
Amount per head per annum in European countries.

' The practice of smoking,' wrote a seventeenth-
century commentator, * is like EHas's cloud, which was
no bigger than a man's hand, that hath suddenly-
covered the face of the earth,' Certain it is that no
habit has leapt into such immediate and universal use.
The devotion of all countries and nations is abundantly
proved by those cold enemies of enthusiasm and
firm friends of fact — statistics.

From the day of its introduction into Europe tobacco
has been the firm supporter of constitutional govern-
ment by the revenues accruing from the charges upon
it. Under Elizabeth an import duty of 2d. a pound

Smoke Statistics 207

was levied on the divine herb. Of the quantities
then imported and consumed in England there is no
record. In i6ii James I. raised the duty at one
blow to 6s. lod. a pound — an advance of exactly
4,000 per cent. This severely checked the importa-
tion of tobacco. According to Stith it amounted in
that year to only 142,085 pounds from Virginia, or
one-sixth of the previous annual supply. The
deficiency from the colony was made up, however, by
supplies from Spain and Holland, for the Act raised
the duty on Virginian tobacco only. If these figures
be regarded as accurate, the annual consumption of
tobacco in England early in the seventeenth century
was nearly 1,000,000 pounds, or six ounces per head
of the population — a large amount, remembering that
smoking had been practised for only thirty years.
The equalization in 1624 of duties on tobaccos from
all countries revived the colonial trade.

So rapidly did the demand for tobacco increase
that to prevent over-supply and to maintain the
standard quality of their tobacco the Assembly of
Virginia in 1638 restricted the output for the follow-
ing year to 1,500,000 pounds, and for the two
following years to 1,200,000 pounds per annum.
This was efi'ectual in preventing the exportation of
poor, hastily-grown leaf. To profit by the demand for
tobacco it had been grown in the very streets of
Jamestown.

Later, as Adam Smith states, the American
colonists restricted the cultivation of tobacco to 6,000
plants, supposed to yield 1,000 pounds of leaf, for
every negro employed between sixteen and sixty

2o8 The Soverane Herbe

years of age. Large quantities of tobacco were even
burned, not merely to maintain its price, but to
prevent the exportation of inferior tobacco to the
ultimate damage of the colony's good name.

By Charles II. an extra charge of 2s. per hogshead
was added to the duty, and retained until the present
century. Adam Smith states that before the revolt
of the American colonies 96,000 hogsheads of tobacco
were imported annually into England. Of these
14,000 were required for home consumption, and the
remaining 82,000 hogsheads exported again, the
colonial trade being then a monopoly. Taking 1,000
pounds as the weight of the hogshead, the annual
consumption would be 14,000,000 pounds. In con-
sequence of the War of Independence the price of
tobacco rose from 7|d. to 2s. 6d. a pound. In 1774
the revenue from tobacco was ;^"2I9,II7; a year later
it rose to ;£'298,002, the duty being increased.

The consumption of tobacco in England alone in
1 79 1 is stated as having been 9,500,000 pounds.
The amount used in the United Kingdom thus
would be about 14,000,000 pounds as calculated
above.

During the present century the consumption of
tobacco has greatly increased, the average per head
having been more than doubled. This is largely
due to the reduction of the duty on tobacco, but
principally to the reaction in favour of tobacco. In
1 82 1 it was 4s. a pound; ten years later it was
reduced to 3s.; in 1841 an addition of 5 per cent,
was made, making the duty 3s. 2d. a pound. This
remained unaltered until 1878, when Sir Stafford

Smoke Statistics 209

Northcote in the ' Cur and Cutty Budget ' raised it to
3s. 6d. a pound.

The duty on cigars has always been higher than
on unmanufactured tobacco. At first their importa-
tion was prohibited, but in 1815 they were admitted
at 1 8s. per pound duty. In 1824 this was reduced
to 9s.; in 1828 only 26 pounds had been imported,
but the amount rose to 253,882 pounds of cigars for
the year 1 830. The duty was raised in 1 8 5 1 to 9s. 6d.,
and fell in 1863 to 5s. 2d., and 2d. was added to
this in 1879.

In 1887 the duty on unmanufactured tobacco was
lowered to 3s. 2d. a pound, and the proportion of
moisture allowed to be added reduced from 45 to
35 per cent. In 1898 the duty was further reduced
by 6d. a pound, and the moisture by 5 per cent, to
30 per cent. To meet the expenses of the South
African campaign 4d. was reimposed in March, 1900,
for eighteen months only.

The import duties now are :

s. d.

Unmanufactured, containing 10 per cent, or

more moisture, per pound - -30

Unmanufactured, containing less than 10 per

cent, moisture, per pound - - 3 4

Manufactured, cavendish or negrohead - 4 4

Other manufactured tobacco - - - 3 10

Cavendish or negrohead, manufactured in

bond from unmanufactured tobacco - 3 10
Cigars - - - - . - 5 6

A drawback of 3s. id. a pound is allowed on
tobacco (except cavendish or negrohead) manu-

14

2IO The Soverane Her be

factured in the United Kingdom when exported or
deposited in warehouse for ships' stores. On tobacco
not used in the kingdom the import duty is returned,
the extra penny over the duty, 3s. od., returned
being the allowance for waste incurred in manu-
facture. Every vessel leaving the United Kingdom
is at liberty to take tobacco duty-free for the use of
the crew, the duty being remitted as the tobacco is
not consumed in the United Kingdom. Each vessel's
order is forwarded to the Excise Warehouses, whence
the tobacco is received ready packed.

These duties are tremendously high — higher,
indeed, than in any other country. Tobacco is the
most taxed article in the tariff, the prime cost of
manufactured tobacco being increased 500 per cent,
by the duty. The average price of tobacco imported
into England is 8d. a pound, the duty raising this
to 3s. 8d.

In March, 1899, when it was rumoured the Budget
deficit would be made up by the reimposition of
the 6d. a pound duty on tobacco, removed in
1898, huge sums were paid for the removal from
bond of tobacco. Ogdens of Liverpool led off with
a cheque for ;^85,ooo, and in one week the record
sum of .^186,000 was paid in Liverpool for tobacco
duty. W. D. and H. O, Wills of Bristol, however,
created a record by paying in March no less than
.^324,000 in duty; ;£"224,ooo was paid in one week,
and of this 50,000 by a single cheque.

In addition to these heavy duties, manufacturers
pay £s 5s. per 20,000 pounds of tobacco manufactured
for a license.

Smoke Statistics

2 11

The extent to which the consumption of tobacco
has increased during the present century is most
remarkable, and best shown by the totals imported
per annum in decennial periods :

Total Imports of Tobacco and Consumption
PER Head of the Population.

Year.

Total import.

Per head.

1821

15,598,000

II 7 1 ounces

183I •

■ 19,534,000 - -

i2-8o „

1841

22,309,000

• I3"2i „

1851

28,063,000

■ 16-87 „

1861

- 34,135,000 - .

- 18-88 „

1871 ■

■ 42,775,000 - ■

■ 21-49 „

1881 •

49,820,000

22'6o „

1891 •

60,930,000

25-00 „

I goo

■ 80,955,000* - -

■ 3175 »

In the sixty years between 183 1 and 1891 the
consumption per head of the population was doubled,
and the total imports of tobacco were trebled. From
1 84 1 the increase is very marked, each of the ten
years ending '51, '71, and '91 showing an increase
per head of 3 ounces. The last decennial period,
1 90 1, shows a still greater increase, the consumption
per head of the population being nearly 32 ounces,
or an increase of 7 ounces since 1891.

In the year ending March, 1900, 124,000,000
pounds of tobacco were imported, and 81,000,000

* Amount cleared from Custom House.

14 — 2

212

The Soverane Herbe

pounds cleared for consumption. This represents
2 pounds per head of the population. But this
does not give the consumption per smoker. Deduct-
ing 30,000,000 non-smokers (women, children, and
25 per cent, of the men) it appears that Britain's
ten million smokers consume 81,000,000 pounds of
tobacco per annum. Thus striking an average each
devotee of Lady Nicotine reduces to ashes 8 pounds
of the sacred herb in the course of a year, or 2^ ounces
per w^eek.

The authorities attribute the increases of recent
years to the growing popularity of the cigarette. In
his Budget speech of 1896 the Chancellor of the
Exchequer stated that the Custom officials esti-
mated that not less than 1,000,000 sterling a year
is literally thrown into the gutter in the shape of
cigar- and cigarette-ends.

The tremendous increase in the consumption of
tobacco is shown also by the advance of the revenue
from the truly ' soverane herb.' A hundred years
ago the revenue from tobacco was not a million
sterling. In 1849 — half a century ago — tobacco
brought ;^4,42S,040 into the Imperial Exchequer.
In 1 89 1 it for the first time produced more than half
the Customs' revenue. In 1900 it brought in the
enormous sum of 1,257,500 (including £g6,ooo for
manufacturers and vendors' licences), or one-tenth of
the ordinary national revenue.

About 56,000 tons of tobacco are imported into
Britain every year, and of this 36,000 tons are con-
sumed. Of this only 1,100 tons are foreign cigars, for
the pipe is England's smoke. The value, ex duty, of

Smoke Statistics

213

the tobacco annually imported is over 5,500,000
sterling. Only some 400,000 worth of this is manu-
factured tobacco — negrohead, cavendish, cigarettes
and snuff. The cigars are worth 500,000. The
bonded warehouses of the United Kingdom never
hold less than 20,000 tons of unmanufactured
tobacco, three-quarters of which are stored in London.

About 200,000,000 cigars are smoked annually in
this country, London alone consuming 1,000,000 a
week. The lowest estimate places London's daily
bill for tobacco at ^fi 5,000.

The value of the tobacco imported every year into
England is between five and six millions sterling.
Taxation increases this to 17,000,000. Profits,
pipes, pouches, matches, etc., make Britain's annual
smoking bill at the very lowest estimate amount
to ;^20, 000,000, or £1 per head for every male in-
habitant. During an average life — from seventeen to
sixty years of age — it is estimated that a pipe-smoker
expends ^100 on tobacco, a cigarette-smoker ;^330,
and a cigar-smoker .^800 — an average of, say, £2,^0
per smoker. But what are these sums in comparison
with the solace to saddened hearts, the comfort to
wearied bodies, and the courage and joy to harassed
souls and saddened spirits ? The golden shekels
weighed against the balmy smoke fly upwards to the
beam ; they are as nothing in man's sight.

In all countries, save some in Asia where its
growth cannot be supervised, tobacco forms a con-
stantly increasing source of revenue. Governments
have no firmer supporter than tobacco ; were smoking
to die out, half the Governments of the world would

214 The Soverane Herbe

be undermined. The first English colonies were
formed by and through tobacco, and the herb also
played no unimportant part in the Revolution of 1688,
the expenses of William III.'s expedition to England
being defrayed by an increased tax on tobacco in
Holland. There is no other article — a luxury, but so
much in demand as to be a necessity — that could
take the place of tobacco as a source of revenue.

In most Continental countries the manufacture and
sale of tobacco is a State monopoly. Such is the
case in Austria-Hungary, Italy, Spain, and France.
At a ball in the Tuilleries in 181 1, Napoleon noticed
a lady vi^earing magnificent diamonds. On inquiry
he was told that she was the wife of a tobacco manu-
facturer. Learning from this brilliant display the
lucrative character of the trade, the Emperor on the
following day issued a decree making tobacco a State
monopoly in France. France now obtains more
money from tobacco than does any other State ; in
the last year the profits of the Rdgie were £1 5,7 1 5,000.
In Germany and Holland, where tobacco is largely
cultivated, the duties are very low.

It is estimated that 1,000,000,000 acres of land
are devoted to the cultivation of tobacco throughout
the world, and the annual crop of the civilized world
at more than 2,000,000,000 pounds, valued at (exclusive
of duty) ;£'45,ooo,ooo sterling.

A third of this comes from America, of which
590,000,000 pounds are grown in the United States,
where 1,000,000 acres are devoted to its culture. The
State of Kentucky is responsible for 185,000,000 pounds
of this. Cuba produces about 60,000,000 pounds of

Smoke Statistics

leaf a year, 40,000,000 pounds of which are exported
and the rest manufactured in Havana.

About 500,000,000 pounds of tobacco are grown
in Europe annually. In Austria-Hungary 150,000
acres are devoted to the plant, 50,000 in Germany,
32,000 in France, and 12,000 in Italy. Tobacco
is an important branch of agriculture in Holland.
Last year England imported ;;^372,ooo worth of
Dutch tobacco. To learn that tobacco is largely
grown in Russia is surprising ; 128,000 acres are
under cultivation, yielding 140,000,000 pounds of
leaf a year, valued at ^300,000. In the East Indies
about 500,000,000 pounds of tobacco form the annual
harvest. The export from Natal and Africa generally
is trifling.

Every year the cloud of incense offered to Diva
Nicotia grows greater and greater, exceeding in
increase the population of the world. In 1859 the
Statistical Journal estimated that the world smoked
1,950,000,000 pounds of tobacco annually, or 70 ounces
per head of the population. This, remembering
the universal practice in the East, where women
and children smoke as well as men, is by no means
an extravagant estimate. At the low price of 2d.
a pound the world's tobacco cost ^36,462,000 a year.
On the same basis the world now consumes
6,300,000,000 pounds, or 2,812,500 tons of tobacco a
year, worth ;£"5 2,000,000 sterling.

In 1 891, the last year for which general figures can
be obtained, the consumption of tobacco in Europe
averaged 2\ pounds per head of the population. If
the smokers be taken as forming 30 per cent, of

2i6 The Soverane Herbe

the population this averages 2^ ounces per smoker
per week. In the last few years John Bull has just
reached this point.

The Germans have the reputation of being the
hardest smokers, but they do not smoke more than
the Austrians, Danes, Swiss, and Belgians. The
Dutch are the greatest smokers, and the citizens of
the United States are a good second. The Russians
smoke least of all. The following are the latest
figures of the annual consumption of tobacco per
head of the population in the principal countries ;

Per head

Per head

per annum.

per annum.

Holland -

- 7 lbs.

Norway

- 2-3 lbs.

United States

- 5

France

- 2'I

Austria

- 3-8 „

Sweden

- 2 „

Denmark -

- 37 »

United Kingd

om 1-34 „

Switzerland

- 3'3

Italy

- r25 „

Belgium -

- 3"2 „

Spain

Germany-

- 3 »

Russia

- I"2

CHAPTER XIII

THE LITERATURE OF TOBACCO

Quantity and quality of tobacco books — Early books pro and
con — Real meaning of term 'divine tobacco' — 'Dyet's Dry
Dinner' — James's ' Counterblaste' — His 'Apothegms' —
Satanic origin of the weed — Medical treatises on tobacco —
Burton — -The Ovid of tobacco — Classical fables — Sylvester's
'Tobacco Battered and Pipes Shattered' — Braithwait's
' Smoking Age ' — Ben Jonson — Poetry of tobacco— Byron —
Kipling — J. M. Barrie — Histories of tobacco — Fairholt's —
Mahommedan legend — Persian — Mr. Andrew Lang's fairy
tale.

With probably the single exception of religion, there
is no subject on which so much printer's ink and paper
has been expended as on tobacco and the practice of
smoking. From its very introduction into Europe a
fierce literary controversy has raged about the use of
the Indian herb — a controversy the embers of which
are smouldering still in intermittent tracts and
periodical pamphlets. Hundreds of volumes have
been written attacking, as many defending, and
scores in unrestrained eulogy of the * soverane weed,'
as Spenser early christened it.

The literature of tobacco is exceeded in quantity
only by its inferiority of quality. The hundreds of

21 8 The Soverane Herbe

volumes in all languages which tobacco has called
forth form, with scarcely an exception, wearisome and
tedious reading, whether the subject is approached
from a medical, moral, poetic, social, or rational (save
the mark !) standpoint. If it be true, as one writer
declared, that ' a whole ounce of tobacco will hardly
purchase one dram of wit,' the works of anti-smokers
prove that abstinence from tobacco in no wise im-
proves the mental faculties. Beside the task of
reading and reviewing the books, pamphlets, poems
and treatises written for and against tobacco during
the last three centuries, Carlyle's 'job of buckwash-
ing ' for his ' Life of Cromwell ' sinks into insignifi-
cance. It is improbable that any man ever will, and
indesirable that he should, devote himself to the truly
Herculean task of sifting and sorting the huge mass
of nicotian printages to present an intelligible precis
thereof, and to rescue from deserved oblivion the few
gems of wit or wisdom that problematically are buried
therein.

The best and fairest method of review would be to
estimate them, as Macaulay did a ponderous tome, by
the aid of avoirdupois, linear, square and cubic
measures. But the task, in which a modern statis-
tician would revel, of numbering the volumes in folios,
quartos and octavos, in piling them to the height of
St. Paul's, in girding the earth with them, in covering
Africa with the area of their pages, in dwindling Mont
Blanc beside their cubic mass, and arraying in serried
lines the railway trains necessary to convey the tons
of tobacco books, we will not attempt. This chapter
does not pretend to be a review of the literature of

The Literature of Tobacco 219

tobacco, confining itself to short sketches of, and
extracts from, some of the numerous volumes pub-
lished in praise and depreciation of the Indian herb.

Like most successful things, smoking excited
opposition and abuse by its very success. Ten or
twenty years after its introduction into England
tobacco began to be fiercely assailed in poems,
pamphlets and treatises. In 1602 was published
' Worke for Chimney-Sweepers,' the first English book
devoted to the abuse and condemnation of smoking.
Its successors are appearing even in this day, repro-
ducing the same arguments, drawing the same conclu-
sions, and indulging in the same vituperation with
which the first anti-tobacconists attacked the practice
300 years ago. Originality, even in abuse, is a vice
to which non-smokers certainly are not addicted.
This first attack on smoking was followed speedily
by a ' Defence of Tobacco.' Before that, however,
Spenser, in the ' Faerie Queene,' had sung of the
healing virtues of ' divine tobacco,' and Lilly, Eliza-
beth's Court poet, had praised the curative effects of
'our holy herb nicotian.' It maybe pointed out that
the adjective * divine,' now applied to tobacco in a
merely metaphorical or euphemistic sense, was then
literally correct, tobacco being considered by the
Indians as a gift from the gods, and so used in their
sacred rites.

In * Dyet's Dry Dinner ' Henry Buttes praised
tobacco for its hunger-quenching virtues, as many a
mortal since has done and will do — a complete meal
in itself without wine or liquor. Similarly Rowlands
in 161 1 declared :

2 20 The Soverane Herbe

' Whenas my purse cannot afford my stomach flesh or beer,
I sup with smoke, and feed as well and fat as one can wish ;'

proceeding to assert :

' Much victuals serve for gluttony to fatten men like swine,
But he's a frugal man indeed that with a leaf can dine,
And needs no napkins for his hands, his fingers' ends to wipe.
But keeps his kitchen in a box, and roast meat in a pipe.'

In his ' Counterblaste to Tobacco ' James I.
appeared in his twofold character of Vicegerent of
heaven and master of human knowledge. His tract
forms curious reading, exhibiting to the full its
author's pedantry of mind and meanness of soul.
It is worth perusal, if only for the sidelights it
throws on the practice of smoking :

'I am now, therefore, heartily to pray you to con-
sider, first upon what false and erroneous grounds
you have first built the general good liking thereof ;
and, next, what sins towards God, foolish vanities
before the world, you commit in the detestable use of
it.' After demolishing the four principal reasons
advanced for smoking, ' two of them founded upon
the Theorick of a deceivable appearance of Reason,
and two upon the mistaken Practick of general
Experience,' James asks : ' Have you not reason then
to be ashamed, and to forbear this filthy novelty, so
basely grounded, so foolishly received, and so grossly
mistaken in the right use thereof? In your abuse
thereof sinning against God, harming yourselves in
persons and goods, and taking also thereby (Look to
it, you that take snuff in profusion !) the marks and

The Literature of Tobacco 221

notes of vanity upon you ; by the custom thereof
making yourselves to be wondered at by all foreign
civil nations, and by all strangers coming in among
you to be scorned and contemned. A custom loath-
some to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the
brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black,
stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the Stygian
smoke of the pit that is bottomless.'

Though brevity be the soul of wit, it cannot be
said that there is more wisdom in James's apothegms
than in his treatise. Among other pearls of speech
dropped by James, and afterwards collected, are four
relating to tobacco :

' That tobacco was the lively image and pattern of
hell, for it had by allusion in it all the parts and vices
of the world, whereby hell may be gained, to wit :

' First, it was a smoke ; so are the vanities of this
world.

' Secondly, it delighted them who take it ; so do
the pleasures of the world delight the men of the
world.

' Thirdly, it maketh men drunken and light in the
head ; so do the vanities of the world — men are
drunken therewith.

' Fourthly, he that taketh tobacco saith he cannot
leave it, it doth bewitch him. Even so the pleasures
of the world make men loath to leave them, they are
for the most part so enchanted with them ; and further,
besides all this, it is like hell in the very substance of
it, for it is a stinking, loathsome thing, and so is hell.'

All anti-tobacconists inverted the Indian legend of
the origin of tobacco, and ascribed its creation to the

22 2 The Soverane Herbe

devil. Comparisons of popular pleasures to Hades
are distinctly unfortunate. The acceptance by the
ardent smoker of the seventeenth century of the
truth of James's comparison could not but place con-
signment to the nether regions in a light totally
opposed to the orthodox teachings of theology.

In 1610 Edmund Gardiner published ' The Trial
of Tobacco, wherein his worth is most worthily
expressed : as in the name, nature, and qualities of
the same hearb ; his special use in all Physicke, with
the right and true use of taking it, as well for the
seasons and times, as also the complexions, dispo-
sitions, and constitutions of such bodies and persons
as are fittest ; and to whom it is most profitable to take
it.' The title is a true index to the book. Similar was
the quarto * Tabacologia ' of Dr. Neander of Bremen,
published at Leyden in 1622. Medical condemna-
tions of tobacco poured from the press in a fast and
furious stream. The names of their authors are now
as forgotten as the falsity of their prophesies is
proved. As examples of their statements may be
given Pauli's declaration that tobacco-smoke blackened
the brain ; Borrhy's ' fact ' that the brain of a con-
firmed smoker became so dried up that on his death
his skull was found to contain nothing but a clot of
black matter.

The opposition of doctors, and to some extent of
moralists also, was directed against the non-medical
use of tobacco. Physicians claimed it as a drug, only
to be dispensed by them and used on their recom-
mendation, pecuniary considerations skilfully being
veiled under professional anxiety for the public health.

The Literature of Tobacco 223

Moralists, such as James, while not admitting virtues
to tobacco medically administered, supported the
physicians and declaimed against the abuse — i.e., the
common use of tobacco. So wrote Burton in the
' Anatomy of Melancholy ' : ' Tobacco, rare, super-
excellent tobacco, which goes far beyond all the
panaceas, potable gold and philosopher's stone, a
sovereign remedy to all diseases, but as it is com-
monly abused by most men, which take it, as tinkers
do ale, 'tis a plague, a mischief, a violent purger of
goods, lands, and health.'

But where the hatred was not wholly prejudice
tobacco was condemned for the Puritanical reason,
not that it injured, but that it gave pleasure to its
users.

There were, however, some worthy physicians who
did not hesitate to praise smoking. In 1614 Dr.
William Barclay issued ' Nepenthes, or the Vertues
of Tobacco,' in his dedication to the Bishop of
Murray, calling on him to defend 'this sacred herb,'
incapable of injury :

' A stranger plant, shipwracked on our coast,
Is come to helpe this cold phlegmatic soyle.'

He enthusiastically defends tobacco as having 'much
heavenlie vertue in store,' piously describing America
as * the countrie which God hath honoured and blessed
with this happie and holy herb.' With tobacco and
a pipe he declares he will, ' God willing,' overcome
many maladies, concluding with the dictum :

' Tobacco neither alteieth health nor hew.
Ten thousand thousand know that it is true.'

2 24- The Soverane Herbe

Fierce as were the opponents of tobacco, its devotees
courageously defended their loved plant. James's
pamphlet may have been inspired by the ' Metamor-
phosis of Tobacco,' a kind of Ovidian poem published
anonymously in 1602, with a dedication to Drayton.
The poet tunes his lay to tobacco in a high strain :

' Let me adore with my thrice happie pen
The sweete and sole delight of mortal men,
The Cornucopia of all earthly pleasure,
Where bankrupt Nature hath consumed her treasure.'

In classic style he proceeds to narrate the birth of
this ' blessed offspring of an uncouth land.' Prome-
theus, recognising that his work was not perfect,
called together the elements to aid him in completing
creation. The Earth proposed that from her forehead
there should spring a plant which, touched with fire,
' Shall breath into this lifeless corse inspire.' To the
creation of this plant the elements combined, but
their intention that the inspiration of the fume of
the plant — tobacco — should make man immortal
was ruined by Tellus carelessly adding too much
mud. This mistake roused Jupiter's anger, and
he banished the herb to the Unknown World
(America), where after many centuries it was dis-
covered by the Graces, who remained there smoking
it eternally. From this pretty conceit is drawn the
moral that the only way to study the Graces is to
smoke also, and so ingratiate one's self into their
favour. Our author provides an alternative story.
Jupiter became enamoured of a fair maiden of

The Literature of Tobacco 225

Virginia, and Juno in her jealousy turned this rival
into the tobacco-plant, ^sculapius discovered it,

'And did devise a pipe which should asswage
The wounds which sorrow in our hearts did fix.'

This poem produced another from the pen of
Joshua Sylvester, a favourite of the King. James,
indeed, was surpassed almost in his abuse of ' so
loathsome a vanitie ' by ' this volley of holy shot '
discharged under the title of * Tobacco Battered and
the Pipes Shattered/ Sylvester dedicated his verses
to the Duke of Buckingham, calling upon that tyrant
and libertine to aid him

' Against the proud oppression
Of th' infidel, usurping faith's possession,
That Indian tyrant, England's only shame '

— Tobacco !

The poet ascribes the invention of tobacco and
firearms to Satan, and holds that of the two the
former is the worse. With that imitation which is
the highest form of flattery, he follows his Royal
patron's example, and consigns all users of the herb
to Hades :

' For hell hath smoke
Impenitent tobaccanists to choake.'

From 'the sign of Teare-Nose' came in 1617
another fabulous condemnation of tobacco, entitled
' The Smoking Age,' with the rashly prophetic
subtitle of * The Life and Death of Tobacco,' by
Richard Braithwait.

At a great feast given by Pluto Bacchus is
present, and after intoxicating his host makes love

15

2 26 The Soverane Herbe

to Proserpine. The fruit of their illicit love is the
birth of a boy. Mercury informs Pluto of his wife's
unfaithfulness, and he calls upon Jupiter to mete out
punishment. To minimize the disgrace Jove trans-
forms the babe into a plant, which he calls Tobacco,
in memory of its father, Bacchus. In sending it forth
into the world Pluto promises Tobacco a warm
reception, particularly in England, saluting the plant
as the ' only enlarger of his kingdom, the enricher
of his state, and the founder of his state eternally.'
Tobacco is recommended particularly to court the
favour of the scholar, the lawyer, and the poet. The
first will welcome him on being flattered as ' the most
profound, dogmatical and literate Trismegistus,' and
the lawyer receive him for his oratorical powers.
But Pluto confesses himself puzzled how tobacco was
to recommend itself to the poet, for * he is so oft out
of his wits, as he verily imagines himselfe the Man in
the Moone.'

Tobacco is borne to the earth in Charon's ferry-
boat. He is so successful in his conquest over man
that soon Time stands, scythe in hand, weeping at the
way in which he is neglected for tobacco.

Finally, Time bursts forth into poetic exhortation :

' Sweet youth, smoake not thy time.
Too precious to abuse :
Th' hast fitter feats to choose.
What may redeeme that prime
Thy smoaking age doth loose ?
•x- -x- * *
' Shunne smoake east, west, north, south,
Love's lady, old man, youth.'

The Literature of Tobacco 227

Finally, Braithwait conjures up Chaucer's ghost to
abuse tobacco, which feat he accomplishes to his
own satisfaction.

All the anti-smokers agreed in ascribing the
parentage of tobacco to the Prince of Darkness.
Peter Hausted wrote in fine fury :

' Let it be damned to hell, and call'd from thence
Proserpine's wine, the Furie's frankincense,
The Devil's addle eggs.'

In a play of Brewer's * the mighty Emperor
Tobacco, King of Trinidado,' is declared to be the
son of Vulcan and Tellus, and a relative of Bacchus.
In the eighteenth century the Athenian Oracle ex-
plained that ' when the Christians first discovered
America the Devil was afraid of losing his hold of
the people there by the appearance of Christianity.
He is reported to have told some Indians of his
acquaintance that he had found a way to be revenged
upon the Christians for beating up his quarters, for he
would teach them to take tobacco, to which, when
they had once tasted, they should become perpetual
slaves.'

In his * Gipsies Metamorphosis ' Ben Jonson
attacked tobacco in a manner so much after James's
own heart that the King had the play performed
before him three times. Jonson called tobacco ' the
Devil's own weed,' but there is reason to believe that
rare Ben knew the virtues of a pipe of Virginia,
though politically concealing his taste.

The smokers even ventured to carry the war into
the enemy's camp ; in a play, ' The Marriage of the

15—2

228

The Soverane Herbe

Arts,' performed by the students of Christ Church
College, Oxford, before James I., at Woodstock, in
August, 1 62 1, there was a song in praise of tobacco.
It can be understood that the King sat very restlessly
(indeed, it is recorded that twice he prepared to
retire, but was persuaded to remain) while tobacco
was successively hailed as a musician, a lawyer, a
physician, a traveller, 'a critticke,' and 'ignis fatuus,'
with the chorus after each verse :

' This makes me sing so ho, so ho, boyes 1
Ho, boyes ! sound I loudly.
Earth ne'er did breed
Such a jovial weed
Whereof to boast so proudly.'

In the eighteenth century little was written of
tobacco directly, though the literature of the period
contains many by-passages, appreciative and other-
wise, of smoking. Snuff was then in, and smoking
out of, fashion. But the tracts and treatises of the
last two centuries, and the numerous contributions
to the periodical press, do not require notice, since
they contain little or nothing about tobacco that
is worthy of reproduction, or that had not been said
before, and since repeated with wearying persistency.

From the very introduction of tobacco poets have
expressed in verse, indifferent on the whole it is true,
their devotion to tobacco. The praises of tobacco, in
every form and aspect, have been sung in every metre
and mood. To attempt to make a selection in the
limits of a chapter is out of the question ; the material
is great, and Mr. W. G. Hutchinson has garnered the

The Literature of Tobacco 229

best verses into his charming anthology, 'Lyra
Nicotiana.'

Though Spenser was among the first to sing the
blessings of tobacco, the great poets, with a few note-
worthy exceptions, have not tuned their lyres to a
nicotian song. Most of them have sought inspiration
from the divine herb, and nearly all the poems of the
last three centuries have been conceived in tobacco
clouds. The literature of tobacco, though actually
poor in so far as the herb itself is related, includes
the greatest works of the last 300 years. The litera-
ture of tobacco, like the weed itself, must be judged
not by what it is intrinsically, but by what it includes ;
not by what has been written of, but by what has
been written by and through tobacco.

Byron is the only immortal who has sung tobacco ;
his rhapsody in ' The Island ' is the classic eulogy,
and shows Byron as a true smoker who differentiated
between the various ' forms for the assumption ' of the
weed, though few will agree with him in awarding
the palm to the cigar. Cowper sang the virtues of
snuff, proclaiming that it

' Does thought more quicken and refine
Than all the breath of all the Nine.'

Lowell's * Thanks for Certain Cigars ' ranks after
Byron's poetical tribute to the 'weed of glorious
feature ':

' Tobacco, sacred herb though lowly, '
Baffles old Time, the tyrant, wholly,
And makes him turn his hour-glass slowly.

' . . . This rare plant delays the stream
(At least if things are what they seem)
Through long eternities of dream.'

230 The Soverane Herbe

Inimitable in its grace and gaiety is Calverley's
' Ode.' Mr. Kipling, in ' Betrothed,' contrasts smoke-
less matrimony with a cigar-lit bachelorhood. ' You
must choose between your cigar or me,' said Maggie.
And the bachelor did :

' Open the old cigar-box ; let me consider awhile.
Here is a mild Manila, there is a wifely smile.

* Which is the better portion — bondage bought with a ring,
Or a harem of dusky beauties, fifty tied in a string ?

' Counsellors cunning and silent, comforters true and tried,
And never a one of the fifty to sneer at a rival bride.

' Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes,
Peace in the hush of twilight, balm ere my eyelids close.

' Open the old cigar-box ; let me consider anew.
Old friends, and who is Maggie, that I should abandon you ?

' Light me another Cuba ; I hold to my first-sworn vows :
If Maggie will have no rival, I'll have no Maggie for spouse !'

Besides the numberless verses by poetasters of the
past and present centuries, Mr. W. E. Henley and
Mr. Le Gallienne have prettily sung of the incom-
parable virtues of tobacco :

' Nature's idea, Physicke's rare perfection,
Cold Rheum's expeller, and the wit's direction.'

Scattered among the works of great writers, his-
torians, philosophers, teachers, and novelists are
passages in praise of the consoling and inspiriting
virtues of tobacco.

Charming and unique is Mr. J. M. Barrie's ' My
Lady Nicotine,' by far the best book strictly about
tobacco, the only smoking book that can claim to

The Literature of Tobacco 231

be literature. With rare charm and humour are the
subtle pleasures of smoking discussed, and its practice
placed in its true position, not merely as a physical
habit, but as a cult, with its mental and spirituelle
aspects. So truly does it reveal the smoker's inner
mind, that it is surprising to learn, on Mr. Barrie's
own confession, that he was then only a novitiate in
the mystery of smoking, ' gingerly pulling my first
pipe instead of being, as I represented, a hardened
smoker.' Even to the non-smoker ' My Lady Nico-
tine ' appeals, and tobacco appears in a fresh light.
It is a worthy tribute to tobacco that on no other
habit could a series of essays so charming, humorous,
and delicately philosophical be written without
offending against the laws of refinement and good
taste.

Of the historical aspect of tobacco and smoking
little has been written. Small pamphlet histories are
not inconsiderable in numbers, but painfully redun-
dant in matter, all being more or less rechauffe
editions of each other. The bulk of the matter in
each is the same, with an occasional sidelight on the
contemporary position of tobacco.

Fairholt's ' Tobacco : Its History and Associa-
tions,' published in 1859, is the only work which
can claim to be a history of the herb. Fairholt,
though not a smoker, was especially fitted by his
antiquarian lore and his position in the tobacco trade
to become the chronicler of tobacco. His work is
especially valuable for its minute and complete
account of the early history of smoking. But
beyond the middle of the seventeenth century he

232 The Soverane Herbe

scarcely goes. As he approaches his own time he
is very sparse, but his book covers the early history
of tobacco so completely that later writers have
little or nothing to add to the facts collected by
Fairholt. The industrious winnowing of ' Papers of
Tobacco,' ' Tobacco Talks,' * The Smoker's Friend,'
and such booklets yields a few grains, but the pro-
portion to the amount of chaff is painfully small.

Legend, the purest form of poetry, holds in un-
civilized peoples the position of history in more
advanced lands. Directly, it has been said, truth
is written it becomes false ; at all events, its reduc-
tion to black and white strips it too frequently of
all its beauty. Tobacco, though only three centuries
known in the Old World, has legends of its origin.

The orthodox legend of Islam is that Mahomet,
finding a sick viper, restored it to health by the heat
of his body. Returning to vigorous health, the viper
requited the prophet's kindness by biting his wrist.
Mahomet sucked the venom from the wound and
spat it forth. 'From these drops sprang that
wondrous weed which has the bitterness of the
serpent's tooth quelled by the sweet saliva of the
prophet.'

' He who doth not smoke hath either known no
great griefs,' wrote Lytton, ' or refuseth himself the
softest consolation next to that which comes from
heaven.' ' What, softer than woman ?' whispers the
young reader. Young reader, woman teases as well
as consoles. Woman makes half the sorrows which
she boasts the privilege to soothe. Woman con-
soles us, it is true, while we are young and hand-

The Literature of Tobacco 233

some; when we are old and ugly woman snubs and
scolds us. On the whole, then, woman in this scale,
the weed in that ; Jupiter, hang out thy balance and
weigh them both, and if thou givest the preference
to woman, all I can say is, the next time Juno ruffles
thee, O Jupiter, try the weed!' The enmity of
woman to tobacco is certainly due to her knowledge
of its superior power over man. There are two
pretty legends which describe tobacco as being
created as a solace to woman-harassed man.

A Persian legend says that tobacco was given by
an anchorite to console a youth for the death of his
wife : ' Go to her tomb and there thou wilt find a
weed. Pluck it, place it in a reed, and inhale the
smoke as you put fire to it. This will be to you
wife and mother, father and brother, and, above all,
will be a wise counsellor and teach thy soul wisdom
and thy spirit joy.'

Even more charming, in a similar vein, is a legend
included by Mr. Andrew Lang in his ' Ballades of
Blue China.' The habitat of this pretty fairy tale is
New Zealand.

In the distant past man was alone, like Adam, and
though happy in an unconscious way under the bright
sun in a fair and fruitful land, he yearned for a com-
panion. To the great spirits, who had already given
him fire, he prayed for one to share his life. One
morning he awoke to find the first of women lying by
his side. His prayer had been answered, and for long
they lived happily together. But human nature was
human even in those Edenic days, and soon familiarity
bred, if not contempt, at least dissatisfaction with the

2 34 The Soveraiie Herbe

shortcomings of each other. Woman was demonstra-
tive, man melancholy and given to lonely walks in
the wood where previously they had wandered bliss-
fully together hand in hand. He would sit him down
on mossy stones and whimper aloud of ' The woman
you gave unto me.' Waking wearily one morning, he
rose sulkily and strayed aimlessly into the forest to
lose his melancholy in its recesses. There he met
dancing towards him a woman fairer and more
beautiful than the other. In happiness and joy of
the sublimest depths the day passed all too swiftly.
But as night approached she told him with tears that
they must part for ever, for she must die — for that
only had she been created.

' Yet sorrow not overmuch,' continued she, ' for
from my grave a wondrous herb shall spring, from
the leaves of which shall come the healing of the
nations. For when you shall burn them with fire an
exceeding grateful vapour shall arise therefrom, blue
as my eyes and sweet as my breath — for you named
them blue and sweet — which being drawn into thy
heart shall cause thee to forget all trouble and sorrow
that may ever come upon thee.'

' So saying she died, and man buried her, and
watched secretly over her grave many days till all
was fulfilled as was spoken. The fair herb grew, the
sun dried its leaves, the fire burned it, and indeed the
healing breath was there. So it came to pass that
man no longer feared woman, for from that time
forth he could always, like ^neas, escape into his
cloud. And he named the herb Nicotia, " for," said
he, " ' Haec otia.' "

The Literature of Tobacco 235

* In which authentic story is not woman's jealousy
of the weed once and for ever explained ? And it
should be added that one day, discovering her lord
mourning over that fragrant grave, she had torn the
poor weed byhandfuls and scattered it abroad, "for,"
said she, " something told her that a woman was at
the bottom of it," which, as we have seen, was just
the literal truth.'

CHAPTER XIV

TOBACCO AND GENIUS

Connection between tobacco and thought — EHzabeth's a smok-
ing age — Raleigh, Spenser, and Shakespeare — Bacon —
Hobbes — Isaac Newton — Non-smokers tyrants — Cromwell
— Milton — Izaak Walton — Penn the Quaker — Smoking
theologians — Dr. Parr — Pope and Swift — Dr. Johnson —
Charles Lamb — Cowper — Byron — Scott — Frederick the
Great — Napoleon's futile attempt to smoke — Talleyrand's
dictum — Snuff = diplomacy — Bismarck — Moltke — Mazzini —
Mr. Gladstone's hatred of tobacco — Dickens and Thackeray
— Kingsley — Tennyson's devotion — Swinburne's abhorrence
— Carlyle's philosophy of smoke — Ruskin — Lytton — Oliver
Wendell Holmes— Huxley— ' R. L. S.'—Daudet— Zola's ex-
planation— Mark Twain — Smokers of to-day — Spurgeon —
Pius IX. — The King's dilemma — Political smokers.

' I owe to smoking, more or less,
Through life the whole of my success.
With trusty pipe I'm sage and wise ;
Without I'm dull as cloudy skies.
When smoking all my ideas soar ;
When not they sink upon the floor.
The greatest men have all been smokers, '
And so were all the greatest jokers.'

Anonymous, circa 1835.

The connection between tobacco and thought,
smoking and scholarship, has always been evident,

Tobacco and Genius 237

and was recognised by the first drinkers of tobacco.
It was with truth that Richard Braithwait, in his
' Smoking Age,' represents Pluto as directing Tobacco
to pay particular court to the scholar and poet : ' They
will be thine if thou take in their element.' ' Scholars,'
noted a historian in 1659, 'use it much, and many
grave and great men take tobacco to make them more
serviceable in their callings.' Right early did men of
mind discover the virtues of tobacco. There are but
few of the world's great men whose indebtedness to
the divine herb the above verse does not express.

It has not escaped observation that the introduction
of tobacco into the Old World was synchronous with
the outburst of genius that illuminated the sixteenth
century. The golden age of England was an age of
tobacco. The giants of literature, statecraft, adven-
ture and empire-building were all inspired by the
fumes of tobacco ; the empire of Britain was founded
amidst clouds of smoke. The era of the weed's entry
was that of the most brilliant achievements of the
human mind.

Recall that most brilliant company to whom
Raleigh introduced the virtues of the matchless
herb, instructing them in the ' forms for the assump-
tion of it.' Spenser learned from Raleigh how to
take the divine tobacco, as he took the first oppor-
tunity of calling it. Did not tobacco inspire the
' Faerie Queene ' ? Shakespeare never mentions or
alludes to smoking, though the practice was pur-
sued in his own theatre, the Globe. Not a single
passage in his works can be construed into reference
to tobacco. Still, we think of him as a great smoker,

238 The Soverane Herbe

and imagine him meditating and maturing many a
thought and fancy over a pipe of Virginia. Cannot
you trace the broad-minded, generous, intuitive views
of Shakespeare to tobacco ? Much of Hamlet's
melancholy and indecision would have been dissi-
pated had he but smoked. Perchance Shakespeare
abstained from the weed to appreciate his hero's
despair and vacillation of mind, or drew upon the
experiences of his pre-smoking days for example.
Yes, Shakespeare was a smoker — decidedly a good
smoker. What a rare trio, that — Shakespeare,
Raleigh and Spenser gravely puffing tobacco and
delighting in the ever-novel and untiring virtues of
the new herb ! What would not we give for an
authentic account of just one evening at the Mer-
maid .''

Smoke, too, did Marlowe, Fletcher and his collabo-
rator, Beaumont. Ben Jonson inveighed against and
satirized tobacco, but sought inspiration the while
from a pipe. English philosophy began with smoking.
Bacon from personal experience declared that tobacco
' hath power to lighten the body and shake off uneasi-
ness.' Old Hobbes of Malmesbury prepared for his
day's work by filling ten or twelve pipes with tobacco,
and laying them ready for use when writing, thus
avoiding the interruptions necessitated by the use of
only one pipe. Hobbes held that tobacco was of
' rare and singular virtue,' and proved it by living to
the age of ninety-two. Burton praised tobacco as
' a sovereign remedy for all diseases ' when rightly
used, and as severely denounced its common abuse,
holding it to be too ' divine, rare, super-excellent ' for

Tobacco and Genius 239

frequent use. Locke implied that tobacco is as great
a necessity as bread : ' Bread or tobacco may be
neglected, but reason at first recommends them, trial
and custom make them pleasant.'

It was in smoking contemplation that Sir Isaac
Newton comprehended the law of gravitation, and
over countless pipes elaborated his great discovery.
He earned for himself the title of the 'Smoking
Philosopher,' and to tobacco Science owes his whole-
hearted, life-long devotion to her, untouched by love
for woman. Once Newton did go a-wooing. Know-
ing his fondness of tobacco, the lady filled and handed
him a pipe before seating herself to listen to the pro-
posal she had good reason to believe was coming.
Sir Isaac, with a few practised whiffs, got his pipe in
working trim. Still he did not speak ; lacking words,
he smoked quietly on. The silence grew embarrass-
ing. His pipe-bowl was tipped with ashes ere Sir
Isaac drew his chair nearer to the lady. She quivered
with suppressed agitation, for the philosopher was
manifestly uneasy, and drew his pipe with anxious
hesitancy. ' Oh, the timidity of man !' thought the
lady. At length, puffing furiously to conceal his
agitation, Sir Isaac took the lady's hand in his. Her
heart beat with triple force as he raised her listless
hand towards his lips. With downcast eyes and
blushing cheeks the damsel had felt already through
her heart the vibration of his kiss, but — that could
not be a kiss ! It was too warm, too soft a
touch. Glancing up, she recognised the bitter truth,
snatched her hand from the philosopher's grasp, and
rushed out of the room. Her wooer had not raised

240 The Soverane Herbe

her hand to imprint a chaste kiss on it, but only to
use the forefinger as a tobacco-stopper to press down
the ashes in his half-smoked pipe ! Thus, if history
lies not, was it that Sir Isaac Newton was wedded
only to Science.

Smoking is as conducive to good government as
sound logic. James I. transmitted his hatred of
tobacco to his descendants. Neither of the Jameses
nor of the Charleses knew the wisdom-giving practice
of smoking. Under their tobaccoless tyranny
England was ill-at-ease, beheading Charles I. and
flinging out James II. William III., an honest
smoker, was the one who set the country to rights
again.

Cromwell, the typical Englishman, knew the virtues
of tobacco, especially in the consideration of weighty
questions. When he was offered the kingship, and
dallied and played with the attractive offer, he
frequently discussed the question for three or four
hours with Lord Boghil, Bulstrode Whitlocke, Sir
Charles Cameron, and Thurloe. ' He commonly,'
says a contemporary biography, ' called for tobacco,
pipes and a candle, and would now and then take
tobacco himself.' If Cromwell had not smoked, and
had accepted the crown, to-day we might be ruled by
the House of Cromwell. What an influence that pipe
may have exerted upon Old Noll and all history !
General Monk, who brought back King Charles, was
a notable smoker.

Milton loved his pipe next to his organ. Even
when blind he continued to smoke — a most remark-
able thing. But in those days the smoke was ex-

Tobacco and Genius 241

pelled through the nose, and thus excited the senses
of smell and taste more strongly than when exhaled
from the mouth. Smoking as practised now de-
pends for pleasure, as Casanova said, on the sight as
well as taste and smell. ' Paradise Lost ' was con-
ceived, executed, and perfected over countless pipes
of Trinidado. Butler and Dryden likewise sought
inspiration from the pipe.

Rare old Izaak Walton enjoyed many a quiet pipe
on the banks of the Dove in company with Cotton,
as is recorded in the * Compleat Angler.' Smoking,
like fishing, is the contemplative man's recreation.
Izaak lauds the pleasure of a pipe in lieu of break-
fast, a course, however, which is not to be recom-
mended in the interests of health. After their light
supper Piscator (Cotton) calls :

' Come, take away and bring us some pipes and a
bottle of ale. Are you for this diet, sir ?' he asks
Viator.

' Yes, sir ; I am for one pipe of tobacco, and I per-
ceive yours is very good by the smell.'

' The best I can get in London, I assure you,' re-
plies Piscator, with the complacency born only of the
first whiff of an after-supper pipe.

Tobacco and theology blend naturally. Puritans
as well as Anglican divines smoked, and many a
three-hours' sermon was composed by the aid of
tobacco.

Bishop Burnet, the most popular preacher of his
day, his sermons being continued frequently into the
third hour at the demand of his hearers, imitated
Boxhorne, the Ley den professor, and cut a hole in

16

242 The Soverane Herbe

the brim of his hat to support his pipe. Hooker,
South, Jeremy Taylor, Bishops Hall and Warburton
were devout smokers. Isaac Barrow called his pipe
his panpharmacon, or cure-all. When George Fox,
the founder of Quakerism, first began to show his
eccentricities he was recommended to smoke tobacco.
He did not, and the world gained a new religion.

Penn, the Quaker, disliked tobacco — a strange
thing for a Friend. Once visiting some acquaintances,
he perceived they had been smoking, but had hidden
their pipes on his approach, knowing his dislike to
the practice.

* Well, friends,' said Penn, * I am glad that you are
at last ashamed of smoking.'

' Not at all,' replied one, ' but we preferred laying
down our pipes to the danger of offending a weaker
brother.'

Paley smoked like a Dutchman. Robert Hall,
most eloquent of Nonconformist divines, found in
tobacco an antidote to his melancholia. ' I am quali-
fying myself,' said he, ' for the Society of Doctors of
Divinity, and this ' (holding up his pipe) ' is the test of
my admission.' On being presented with an anti-
smoking tract, he said: 'I can't refute these argu-
ments, and I can't give up smoking.'

A lady visitor discovering Paxton Hood with his
pipe, exclaimed reproachfully (smoking she regarded
as the sole defect in the minister's character ) :

' At your idol again, Mr. Hood !'

'Yes, ma'am,' he replied ; 'burning it.'

Wesley did not smoke, and forbad his preachers
to do so. John Foster, the essayist and divine, was

Tobacco and Genius 243

a smoker. Person, critic and Greek scholar, speak-
ing of the decline of smoking in the eighteenth
century, declared that when tobacco began to go out
of fashion learning began to go too.

Dr. Parr and his pipe will go down to posterity
together. He smoked incessantly, in season and out
of season ; wherever he was he must have a smoke,
for ' No pipe, no Parr ' was his motto. He never
wrote without the inspiration of tobacco ; he describes
himself as ' rolling volcanic fumes of tobacco to the
ceiling.' Even in the presence of ladies and of
royalty, in the drawing-room as well as the dining-
room, he would smoke, usually detaching a young
lady to load and light his pipe. At Cambridge, when
the Duke of Gloucester was feted by the University
on his inauguration as Chancellor, Parr lit his pipe
directly the cloth was removed, 'blowing a cloud into
the faces of his neighbours, much to their annoyance,
and causing royalty to sneeze by the stimulating
stench of mundungus.' Parr carried smoking to
excess, and lacked the courtesy of the true smoker
in thus insisting on his pipe. His biographer might
well declare that tobacco calmed Parr's spirits. ' It
assisted his private ruminations ; it was his com-
panion in anxiety; it was his helpmeet in composi-
tion.'

The reaction against tobacco in the eighteenth
century did not affect the great men. Pope and
Swift took both snuff and tobacco. Addison and
Steele smoked many a pipe with Sir Roger de
Coverley. Bolingbroke, Prior, Phillips, and Sterne
were all smokers. Dr. Johnson smoked like a

16 — 2

244 The Soverane Herbe

furnace, and took snuff like the Scotsmen he so much
hated. He kept his snuff in his waistcoat pocket,
and with characteristic slovenliness his dress was
always smeared with it. All his friends — Goldsmith,
Reynolds, Garrick — were his companions in tobacco-
worship. Equally devout Nicotians were Fielding,
Hogarth, and Jenner.

Many a pleasant evening did Charles Lamb and
Coleridge spend in 'the little smoky room at the
Salutation and the Cat.' Lamb was an inveterate
smoker. Once Parr asked him how it was he could
smoke so furiously and continuously.

' I toiled after it, sir,' replied Lamb, ' as some
men toil after virtue.'

He was content to use the coarsest and cheapest
tobacco so long as it was tobacco. Wordsworth,
Keats, Coleridge, and De Quincey smoked many a pipe
with him. Southey did not smoke. Sending some
copies of Milton to Coleridge in 1802, Lamb bade
him carefully read any page soiled with stray tobacco-
ash. * Depend upon it, it contains good matter.'

The celebrated ' Farewell to Tobacco ' is a proof
of Lamb's insight into the opposite side of the
question, but through his abuse comes the truth :

' For thy sake, Tobacco, I
Would do anything but die.'

' I design to give up smoking, but I have not yet
fixed upon the equivalent vice,' pleaded Lamb.
The blame which Lamb heaped upon tobacco for
his headaches and low spirits should have been
bestowed on beer and wine. To Wordsworth he

Tobacco and Genius 245

wrote : ' Tobacco has been my evening comfort and
my morning curse for these five years ' ; but it was
his excessive drinking, not smoking, that produced
ill-effects. Smoking never induces headache or dis-
sipates energy. Of snuff Lamb was fond also. His
sister Mary dipped into his box for inspiration as
they together wrote ' Tales from Shakespeare.' ' May
my last breath be drawn through a pipe and exhaled
in a pun !' exclaimed quaint and winsome Charles.

Campbell drew the fire which burns in his lyrics
from his pipe. Moore smoked, and so did Burns, in
those evenings so fatal to his genius. Cowper, first
an enemy to tobacco, ultimately became its champion.
Describing a clerical friend, he wrote : ' Such is Mr.
Bull. But he smokes tobacco — nothing is perfect.'
Later he learned the virtues of snuff and of tobacco
taken in a pipe. In a poetic epistle he laments his
need of a ' succedaneum then To accelerate a creeping
pen,' and exclaims :

' 'Tis here, this oval box well filled
With best tobacco finely milled.'

The Waverley novels owe much to tobacco, while
in later years Scott forgot his creditors and the
pangs of neuralgia under the soothing influence of a
pipe. His French follower, Dumas pere, did not
smoke, neither did Balzac and Victor Hugo. Goethe,
German and genius though he was, hated tobacco.
Heinrich Heine would have lost his pessimism if he
had puffed a pipe. Voltaire, Rousseau, and Mirabeau
preached against tobacco.

246 The Soverane Herbe

The divine herb is as acceptable to men of action
as to men of mind. Its influence on government
has already been pointed out. Washington, the
father of the United States, was called from his
tobacco plantations to the command of the army
and government of his country. With Frederick
the Great, says Carlyle, tobacco became * a political
institution, a love of nature, constant as the setting
of the sun.' His Cabinet Councils {Tabaks Colle-
gium) were conducted amidst clouds of smoke, and
Carlyle caustically remarks : ' The substitution of
tobacco-smoke for Parliamentary eloquence is by
some held to be a great improvement.'

Napoleon was a great snuff-taker, but could not
smoke. The Sultan sent him a fine pipe, and
Napoleon's attempt to smoke it is amusingly de-
scribed by Constant : ' He contented himself with
opening and shutting his mouth alternately, without
in the least drawing his breath. "The devil!" he
cried. " Why, there's no result." I made him observe
that he made the attempt badly, and showed him
the proper method of doing it ; but the Emperor
still reverted to his kind of yawning. Wearied by
his vain attempt, he at last desired me to light the
pipe. I obeyed, and returned it to him in order.
Scarcely had he drawn in a mouthful when the
smoke, which he knew not how to expel from his
mouth, turned back upon his palate, penetrated his
mouth, and came out by his nose and blinded him.
As soon as he recovered breath he cried : " Away
with it ! What an abomination ! Oh, the hog ! My
stomach turns !" In fact, he felt annoyed and ill for

Tobacco and Genius 247

an hour. He gave up his attempt to learn to smoke,
calling it a habit fit only for sluggards.'

A sight for the gods indeed was the spectacle
of the mighty Emperor, at the height of his power,
utterly defeated by the simple pipe. The tyrant of
Europe and the ever-victorious General met his
first defeat at the hands of tobacco. Wellington,
like his great antagonist, did not smoke, hating
tobacco, as we have previously seen. Marshall Ney
smoked constantly, even in battle. Blucher had a
servant to attend to and serve him with pipes. He
perfected his plans of battle over a pipe immediately
before engaging.

Talleyrand declared that snufif - taking was an
accomplishment essential to diplomatists. The taking
of a pinch and the manipulation of the box enable
them to conceal their emotions and gain time for
decision without the appearance of hesitation.
Similarly Lord Clarendon, who turned the Foreign
Ofifice into a smoke-room during his tenure of the
portfolio, declared he could always settle a quarrel
if he knew beforehand whether the plenipotentiary
smoked cavendish, Latakia, or shag.

Bismarck was a man of tobacco as well as of blood
. and iron. The best smoke he ever had in his life,
he declared, was a cigar which he did not smoke.
At Koniggratz he had only one cigar left, and this
he carefully guarded during the battle, anticipating
the hour of victory when he could smoke it. Riding
over the field after the fight, he came across a poor
Dragoon lying helpless with crushed legs, and pray-
ing for something to refresh him. Bismarck had

248 The Soverane Her be

nothing I'n his pockets except gold and his cherished
cigar ; the former was useless to the wounded man —
but his cigar ? He lit it, and placed it between the
soldier's teeth. 'You should have seen the poor
fellow's grateful smile. I never enjoyed a cigar so
much as that one which I did not smoke.' Of all
the touches of nature which make the whole world
kin, tobacco is the most potent. When entering
Paris with the German troops, Bismarck noted a
group of Frenchmen scowling at him. Riding up to
them, he asked for a match to light his cigar ; it was
readily given, and with it vanished their malignity.

Moltke refreshed himself with snuff. Gambetta's
cigar is historic. Mazzini, the Italian patriot, had
an experience similar to that of Bismarck, but more
exciting. He was warned that his assassination had
been planned, but took no steps to defend himself.
One day the conspirators entered his room and found
him smoking.

' Take a cigar, gentlemen,' he said, and began to
chat genially. ' You do not proceed to business,' he
said, noting their discomfiture at this reception. ' I
believe your intention is to kill me.'

The would-be assassins, overcome with this cool-
ness and geniality — and the cigars — sought his for-
giveness and retreated.

Mr. Gladstone never smoked pipe, cigar, or
cigarette. One of his pet aversions was the intro-
duction of smoking after dinner, and he used to recall
a saying of Lord Castlereagh, a leader in fashionable
society fifty years ago, that no man ought to enter
the society of ladies until four hours after smoking.

Tobacco and Genius 249

His great rival, Beaconsfield, knew the virtues of a
cigar.

Macaulay, De Quincey, and Shelley are among the
notable non-smokers of this century. Legal lumi-
naries, like Eldon, Stowell, and Brougham, smoked.
Buckle, the historian of civilization, used to smoke
three cigars a day as a mental stimulus. Smoked,
too, did De Musset, Eugene Sue, Prosper Merim^e,
and ' George Sands.'

In his youth Charles Dickens took snuff, abandon-
ing it in later life for tobacco in its better form of
smoke. His great contemporay, Thackeray, likewise
loved tobacco, and smoked while working. Cruick-
shank was once an inveterate smoker, but — mirabile
dictii I — renounced and preached against the weed in
his latter years.

Charles Kingsley loved tobacco, as his forceful
eulogy in ' Westward Ho !' proclaims. He could not
work long without smoking. Long churchwardens
were his favourite * wanity,' and these he kept in
all sorts of convenient places. In a stroll round
the garden he would produce one from a fruit-tree or
some odd corner, and light up to blow a cloud.

Tennyson's passion for a long clay is well known.
He smoked Milos and afterwards Dublin clays ; mild
bird's-eye was his favourite tobacco. The story that
he never smoked the same pipe twice is absurd, for,
like all smokers, he detested new pipes. ' I take my
pipe,' he wrote to a friend in 1842, 'and the muse
descends in the fume, not like your modern ladies, who
shriek at a pipe as if they saw a " splackmuck." Do
you know what a " splackmuck " is V (the Brobding-

250 The Soverane Herbe

nagian name for man). After breakfast and dinner
he smoked by himself, and ' these,' says his son,
'were his best times for thought.' He entertained
the liveliest hatred of Florence, because he could not
get any decent tobacco there, and on this account
promptly returned home.

Carlyle, describing Tennyson, said : ' Smokes
infinite tobacco.' His devotion to the herb became
so intense that literally he could not exist without
it. On one occasion, at a soiree of the Royal Society,
he declared he must have a pipe. A friend said he
should smoke up the chimney of the back library or
on the roof. Tennyson chose the latter, and, with
his body thrust half-way through the skylight, puffed
away in peace, descending, in a quarter of an hour,
greatly refreshed. Wherever he went he must be
allowed to smoke. Accepting an invitation to visit
Mr. Gladstone in 1876, he wrote : 'As you are good
enough to say that you will manage anything rather
than lose my visit, will you manage that I can have
my pipe in my own room whenever I like ?'

His friends occasionally teased Tennyson about
his devotion to tobacco, declaring he could never
renounce smoking. ' Anybody,' once replied the
poet, 'can do that if he likes.' The assertion was
received with gay scepticism, whereupon Tennyson
declared he would prove it by giving up smoking
from that night. The same evening the poet threw
his pipes and tobacco out of the window. The
following day, says Professor Max Muller, who tells
the story, Tennyson was in a most amiable, though
rather self-righteous, mood. The next day he was

Tobacco and Genius 251

very moody and irritable ; the third day he was
unbearable. He passed a restless night, and directly
dawn broke he got up, went into the garden, picked
up one of his broken pipes, and, filling it with the
scattered tobacco, began to smoke. After a few
whiffs he regained his right mind and spirit, and
went in to breakfast his usual self. After that experi-
ence nothing was ever said to Tennyson about his
giving up tobacco.

His brother poet, Robert Browning, did not smoke.
Swinburne absolutely abhors tobacco. On one
occasion, at the Arts Club, he could not find a room
free from smoke. With poetic fury he burst forth :
' James the First was a knave, a tyrant, a fool, a
liar, a coward ; but I love him, I worship him,
because he slit the throat of that filthy blackguard
Raleigh, who invented this filthy smoking !'

Carlyle's grim philosophy was tempered with
tobacco, which he held to be * one of the divinest
benefits that has ever come to the human race.' He
smoked incessantly, ' York River ' being his favourite
tobacco. David Masson relates how Carlyle used to
buy his tobacco by the stone, and his pipes — 'long
clays of the nobler sort ' — by the gross.

Emerson visited Carlyle at Craigenputtock, and
they passed the whole evening in silent smoking,
broken only by occasional requests to ' pass the
tobacco.' When Emerson rose to go, Carlyle pressed
him to stay longer, and not to curtail the most
pleasant evening he had ever spent.

A friend once asked Carlyle if he did not smoke
too much, suggesting that his dyspepsia might arise

252 The Soverane Herbe

from immoderate use of tobacco. The seer admitted
the probability of this hypothesis, and said he would
give up tobacco for a month to see the effect of
abstinence. A day or two later a friend called to
inquire progress in Carlyle's self-denying ordinance.
* Oh,' replied Carlyle, ' I've given in. I was meeserable
with it and I was meeserable without it ; I think I
may as well be meeserable with it.'

Ruskin heaped scorn on those who 'pollute the
pure air of morn with cigar-smoke.' More are of
Lytton's way of thinking : ' A pipe ! It is a great
comforter, a pleasant soother. Blue devils fly before
its honest breath ! It ripens the brain, it opens the
heart, and the man who smokes thinks like a sage
and acts like a Samaritan.'

Hawthorne smoked, and discussing the philosophy
of tobacco, awarded the highest honours to the pipe.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, the genial autocrat, called
himself a tobacconalian. ' Really,' he said once, 'I
must not smoke so persistently ; I must turn over a
new leaf — a tobacco leaf — and have a cigar only after
each ' — he paused as if to say ' meal,' but continued
' after each cigar.'

At the age of seventy-three Darwin declared that
nothing rested and soothed him more after hard work
than a cigarette. Huxley's conversion to the use of
tobacco, as related by himself to a sectional meeting
of the British Association, forms an amusing story.

' For forty years,' said Huxley, ' tobacco had been
a deadly poison to me. (Applause.) As a medical
student I tried to smoke, but at every attempt
tobacco stretched me upon the floor. On entering

Tobacco and Genius 253

the Navy I again tried to smoke, and again met with
defeat. I hated tobacco. I could have almost lent
my support to any institution that had for its object
the execution of smokers. (Vociferous applause from
anti-smokers.) A few years ago I was in Brittany
with some friends. It was a miserable, drenching
day, and they looked so happy and comfortable with
their pipes that I thought I would try a cigar. (Great
expectations and anxiety.) I did so. I smoked that
cigar; it was delicious. (Groans.) From that moment
I was a changed man, and now I feel that smoking in
moderation is a comforting and laudable practice, and
productive of good. There is no more harm in a
pipe than there is in a cup of tea.' (Dismay and
anger of anti-tobacconists ; laughter from smokers.)

Robert Louis Stevenson dictated his works between
the puffs of a cigarette. He declared that if his
doctor told him that smoking would kill him he
should continue to smoke, since he would have to die
some time, and he was certain that nothing could
bring death more pleasantly than tobacco.

Alphonse Daudet, the Dickens of France, used to
expatiate on the fund of working power there is in
tobacco. ' In writing,' he said, ' I have always found
my capacity for work diminish as the tobacco in
my pipe burns lower and lower.' Tolstoi ascribes
smoking as well as wine-drinking 'simply and solely
to the desire to drown the warning voice of conscience.'
Zola, though a smoker, strips tobacco-worship of all
its poetry by realistically declaring that men begin to
smoke from affectation and continue from habit.
M. Taine, his witty compatriot, says he finds smoking

2 54 The Soverane Herbe

useful between two ideas — when he has the first but
has not arrived at the second.

Mark Twain declares tobacco has helped him more
than anything else in his life. It is a moot point
whether he smokes 300 or 3,000 cigars a month.
But cigars merely represent his nicotian dessert ;
his solid meal of tobacco is taken from a corn-cob
pipe. As corn-cobs smoke very rawly at first, Mark
Twain hires a man to break in his pipes for him.
After a couple of weeks' smoking Mark takes the pipe,
puts in a new stem, and smokes until it will no longer
hold together.

Rudyard Kipling is another devotee of the corn-
cob, Thomas Hardy prefers a clay; many of his
best chapters have been written in the sanded tap-
rooms of Wessex rural inns and inspired by whiffs
from long churchwardens. George Meredith declares
tobacco to be 'man's friend, his company, his con-
solation, his comfort, his refuge at night, his first
thought in the morning.'

Mr. Barrie holds the briar to be the king of pipes,
though he acknowledges that he has smoked a meer-
schaum— only when his briar has become too hot to
smoke again. Like all true smokers, he detests new
pipes, and uses his old one until string and sealing-
wax will no longer hold it together.

Spurgeon once brought a shower of rabid abuse
upon his head by saying : ' When I have found intense
pain relieved, a weary brain soothed, and calm,
refreshing sleep obtained by a cigar, I have felt
grateful to God, and blessed His name for it.' In
reply to a correspondent who would not believe this

Tobacco and Genius 255

report, and inquired as to its truth, Mr. Spurgeon
curtly replied that he cultivated his flowers and
burned his weeds.

The objections of the ' unco guid ' to tobacco were
neatly answered by Pope Pius IX,, who, receiving an
Englishman of the highest rank in private audience,
offered him a cigar.

* You will find this very good,' he said.

' Thank you, your Holiness, but I am not addicted
to this vice.'

' It isn't a vice,' cuttingly replied the Holy Father,
himself a smoker, ' or probably you would be.'

Leo XIII. does not smoke, but takes snuff.

Though Queen Victoria detested tobacco, and
prohibited its use in any place frequented by her.
King Edward's liking for a smoke is well known.
To his patronage of tobacco the changed aspect
of society during the last fifty years to its use is
largely due. Like his royal father, the King does
not smoke a pipe, confining himself to cigars and
cigarettes. During his visit to Canada in 1859, he
and his party found themselves on the prairie miles
from human habitation. The Prince, as he was then,
proposed a smoke, to which all agreed ; but it was
found that the whole party had only one match
between them. On the successful ignition of that
match depended the pleasure of the whole suite.
Lots were drawn to decide on whom should fall the
responsible duty of striking it. The lot fell to the
Prince. Sheltered from the wind by his companions,
he successfully accomplished the feat, but afterwards
declared that it was the most exciting and nervous

256 The Soverane Herbe

moment of his life, with which feeling smokers who
have found themselves far from the haunts of men
with an extremely limited supply of matches sym-
pathize to the full.

Recently, while out riding alone, the German
Emperor found himself without a match to light his
cigar. Dismounting, he asked a small boy, who was
puffing a cigarette, for a light. The lad had not a
match, but offered the glowing end of his * fag,' at
which the Kaiser kindled the Imperial cigar. Thank-
ing the lad, the Emperor gave him a twenty-mark
gold piece ; since when German small boys are con-
firmed in their addiction to cigarettes, and are ardent
in admiration of their matchless Emperor.

To the crowned head tobacco is as grateful as to
that of the meanest beggar. A German artist has
depicted a King's crown balanced by the poor man's
pipe. Tobacco is the most democratic of luxuries. The
German Emperor, the Emperor of Austria, the Tsar,
the King of Italy, and nearly all other monarchs are
smokers. When the Empress of Russia prohibited
smoking in her presence by the ladies of the Court,
the Russian dames and maids of honour protested,
and pointed out that the Queen-Regent of Spain, the
late Empress of Austria, * Carmen Sylva,' Queen of
Roumania, and the Queen of Portugal all indulge in
the soothing weed.

The President of the United States, Mr. McKinley,
smokes so hard that his physicians have limited him
to two cigars a day. Most of France's Presidents
have been non-smokers ; M. Faure puffed cigarettes,
but M. Loubet smokes a pipe, and therefore under

Tobacco and Genius 257

his guidance France is likely to experience greater
peace and prosperity. The pipe is the emblem of
stability and strength, the cigarette of insecurity and
weakness.

The loud cries of dissent with which Sir Michael
Hicks-Beach's condemnation of tobacco in his Budget
speech a year or two ago was received from all parts
of the House proved that our legislators, whatever
their party differences, are united in their devotion to
tobacco. Lord Salisbury detests tobacco, but most
members of his Cabinet are smokers. Mr. Chamber-
lain smokes cigars, while Mr, Balfour is partial to the
cigarette. Lord Rosebery is one of the few who still
indulge in the most statesman-like practice of taking
snuff.

It would have been easier undoubtedly to have
chronicled famous men who have not smoked than, as
we have attempted, to enumerate the celebrities who
practised the use of tobacco. The rank and file of
mankind love to discover some point of resemblance
between themselves and those whom the world
acknowledges to be great. Hero-worship is inbred
in man, but the worshipper loves to discover that he
and his hero are, after all, of the same clay, passions
and intellect, otherwise his admiration would be the
servility of the slave, not the ungrudging acknowledg-
ment of superiority of a fellow-man. It is consoling
to the average man to know that Carlyle used to
smash the dinner crockery in his rage ; that Tenny-
son could not give up smoking makes the similarly
situated smoker of prosaic life feel less culpable.
The law of compensations, of the imperfection of

17

258 The Soverane Herbe

human nature, or, rather, the good to be found in the
very meanest, is a delightful one to the average man.
The humble smoker, of unknown life and deed, likes
to remember that his delight was the delight, too, of
the world's greatest men.

To two-thirds of mankind, whether they move in
the higher or lower spheres of life, whether their lots
are cast in the arena of politics, literature, art, or of
commerce and manufacture, tobacco is more than a
mere weed : it is a comforter, sweetener, and inspira-
tion of life. What civilization owes to tobacco can
never be known. That a plant once used by only the
savage aborigines of America should be now the
solace and inspiration of all sorts and conditions of
men, not only of the vast mass of humanity, but of
the brightest intellects and greatest men that this
world has had and has, declares beyond argument that
' there is no herb like it under the canopy of heaven.'

CHAPTER XV

SNUFF AND SNUFF-TAKERS

Indian mode of taking snuff — Introduction into Europe — Its
medical virtues — Speedy popularity — Method of making
snuff — Fashionable use in France >nd by ecclesiastics —
Use in Ireland and Scotland — Introduction into England
and speedy popularity — Eighteenth century an age of snuff
— Its fashionable use — Snuff-boxes — Perfumed snuffs —
Number and names of popular brands — Condemned by
physicians — Medicinal snuff — Famous snuffers — Manu-
facture— Decline of snuff in England — Philosophy of snuff
and smoke.

Friar Romano Pane, who accompanied Columbus
on his second voyage to the New World, noted that
the Indians took tobacco in the form of powder as
well as smoke. The herb was reduced to dust,
* 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.' It was in this manner that the
first tobacco brought into Europe was taken.
Catherine de Medici took as snuff the leaves pre-
sented to her by Nicot. For the headaches of her
son Charles IX. snuff was prescribed, and thus
patronized by royalty, its use speedily became a
practice of the beau-monde.

17 — 2

26o The Soverane Herbe

Physicians highly praised its medicinal virtues.
For ' sneezing, consuming, and spending away grosse
and slirnie humours from the ventricles of the braine'
it was unequalled, and was also an effective cure for
' a lethargy or vertigny, in all long griefes, paines, and
aches of the head, in continued senselesses or be-
numming of the braine, and for a hicket that pro-
ceedeth of repletion.' For other fleshly ills snuff was
triturated with vinegar or mixed with grease and
ointments.

In Europe snuff was at first almost the only
mode of taking tobacco. Smoking was a later
acquisition. In England the positions of snuff and
tobacco were reversed, the former not coming into
popular use until the eighteenth century, though
snufiT was taken to some extent by the bloods of the
early years of the seventeenth century, and especially
favoured by the Roundheads. The progress made
by snuff was easier than that of smoking, for it was
simply an adaptation of the long-established custom
of inhaling various aromatic and sneezing powders.
Shakespeare's Hotspur describes

' A pouncet box, which ever and anon
He gave his nose and took 't away again.'

On the Continent snuff held sway to the neglect
of smoking. So popular did it become that, as we
have seen. Pope Urban VIII. found it necessary to
interdict its use in churches. In 1690 Rome again
thundered against the use of snuff in holy places.
Ecclesiastics were the most flagrant offenders against
these commands, taking snuff during the perform-

Snuff and Snuff- takers 261

ance of Divine Service, keeping, indeed, snuff-boxes
on the altar.

In that day each snuffer made his own snuff, carry-
ing with him in a cylindrical box a carotte or roll of
tobacco, a grater, and a nose-shovel. Wanting a
pinch, he grated a small quantity of tobacco and in-
haled it. Tobacco thus grated into snuff was known
as tabac rapi, from which one kind of snuff has
derived its name — rappee.

As the habit became more popular manufacturers
placed ready-made snuffs on the market. In Paris
the makers stationed persons with snuff-boxes in
public places to offer pinches gratis to all passers-by,
in order to introduce snuff and special brands into
public favour.

In the days of the Regency no French Abbe was
without his box ; as his rank and wealth, so were the
flavour and costliness of his snuff. Under Louis le
Grand snuff-taking became an integral part of
fashionable life, practised by both sexes, though
personally disliked by that monarch. His physician,
Dr. Fagon, acting under royal commands, lectured
against snuff, pointing out its injurious effects on the
health, producing apoplexy and drying and blacken-
ing the brain. The effect of the worthy physician's
eloquence was minimized by the absent-mindedness
of his actions ; carried away by the flow of his
periods and the irresistible logic of his arguments,
from time to time during his discourse he gained
fresh energy for his attack on snuff by imbibing a
fragrant pinch !

In England smoking was preferred to snuff. The

262 The Soveraiie Herbe

Irish, however, took tobacco in * powder or smutchin.
I believe,' wrote Howel in 1646, 'there is as much
taken this way in Ireland as there is in pipes in
England. One shall see the serving-maid upon the
washing-block and the swain upon the plough-share,
when they are tired with their labour, take out their
boxes of smutchin and draw into their nostrils with
a quill ; and it will beget new spirits in them and
fresh vigour to fall to their work again.' ' The Irish,'
says another writer, * are altogether for snuff to purge
their brains.' A century later Wesley noted and
censured the general use of snuff in Ireland.

The Scotch also preferred snuff to smoke, a taste
that still survives. So noted were the Scots for their
snuff-taking propensities, that when the rebellions of
17 1 5 and 1745 drew attention to Scotch manners, the
figure of a Highlander became the sign of a snuff-
shop. The cheapness of snuff compared with
smoking was probably no small recommendation to
the canny Scot.

In England the Plague of 1665 first brought snuff
into prominence on account of its disinfectant proper-
ties. The Dutch era, inaugurated by the Revolu-
tion, further popularized it ; but the age of snuff did
not really commence until the reign of Queen Anne.
French ideas and manners, coming from Continental
travel, were then infecting English society. Among
these was the habit of snuff-taking, which took society
by storm, while smoking, having by this time pene-
trated to all classes, was tabooed by the beaux as
vulgar.

Lillie, a perfumer of that time, in a book on the

SnufF and SnufF-takers 263

preparation of snuff, says that very little snuff was
taken before 1702, ' it being chiefly a luxurious habit
among foreigners residing here, and a few of the
English gentry who had travelled abroad. Amongst
these the mode of taking the snuff was with pipes
of the size of quills out of small spring boxes. These
pipes let out a very small quantity of snuff upon the
back of the hand, and this was snuffed up the nostrils
with the intention of producing the sneezing, which
I need not say forms now no part of the design or
rather fashion of snuff-taking.'

The Spanish War gave a great impetus to the
use of snuff. Sir George Rooke revenged his failure
at Cadiz in 1702 by a raid on Port St. Mary and
Vigo, where he captured several prizes, included 1
among the cargoes being many hundred barrels of
snuff, imported from Havana. Fifty tons of this
snuff were awarded to the crews as part of their
share of the prizes. Eager to turn it into money,
the sailors sold the stuff on landing at Portsmouth,
Plymouth, and Chatham at the low price of 4d. a
pound. This Vigo snuff was cheaply retailed to the
public, who, attracted by its low cost, the growing
fashionability of its use, the name of the snuff, and
the popularity of the war, bought it in large quanti-
ties. Once tasted they asked for more.

It was an age of snuff. The beau took it in
dainty pinches, his cook in huge handfuls. Snuff
completely displaced smoking in society. The litera-
ture of the period abounds with references to and
satires on the habit. A Frenchman (Misson) de-
scribed English beaux as ' creatures compounded of

264 The Soverane Herbe

a periwig and a coat laden with powder as white
as miller's, a face besmeared with snuff, and a few
affected airs.' To take snuff was then as essential
a part of gallantry as to drink tobacco had been a
century before. Into the middle of this century a
snuff-box and a gold-headed cane survived as the
professional equipment of a physician.

A gentleman who did not take snuff was a con-
tradiction in terms. It is impossible to imagine
that age without its constant attendant and master,
snuff. Snuff forms as integral a part of the eighteenth
century as its belaced and gallant clothes ; its
jewelled fingers sought the snuff-box instinctively ;
to its cynicism, its affectations, its gallantry, its
dilettantism, its extravagance and licentiousness, snuff
must be added to comprehend it.

In a manner similar to its treatise on the use of
the fan the Spectator propounded 'The Ceremony
of the Snuff-box, or Rules for offering Snuff to a
Stranger, a Friend or a Mistress, according to the
Degrees of Familiarity and Distance, with Explana-
tions of the Careless, the Scornful, the Politick, and
the Surly Pinch and the Gestures proper to each of
them.'

Ladies snuffed as artistically and vigorously as
men, and thereby incurred the censure and satire of
contemporary writers. In 17 12 the Spectator wrote. :
' This silly trick is attended with such a coquettish
air in some ladies, and such a sedate masculine one
in others, that I cannot tell which most to complain
of; but they are to me equally disagreeable. . . .
As to those who take it for no other end but to

Snuff and Snuff- takers 265

give themselves occasion for pretty action, or to fill
up little intervals of discourse, I can bear with them ;
but then they must not use it when another is speak-
ing who ought to be heard with too much respect
to admit of offering at that time from hand to hand
the snuff-box. Yet Flavilla is so far taken with her
behaviour in this kind that she pulls out her box
(which is, indeed, full of good Brazil) in the middle
of the sermon, and, to show she has the audacity of
a well-bred woman, she offers it to the men as well
as the women who sit near her ; but since by this
time all the world knows she has a fine hand, I am
in hopes she may give herself no further trouble in
this matter. On Sunday was seven night ; when
they came about for the offering she gave her charity
with a very good air, but at the same time asked the
churchwarden if he would take a pinch !'

Boswell wrote several poems in praise of tobacco
and snuff, asking of the latter :

' Who takes thee not ? Where'er I range
I smell thy sweets from Pall Mall to the 'Change.

' By thee assisted ladies kill the day,
And breathe their scandal freely o'er their tea.'*

A gentleman was then known by his snuff and snuff-
box. Pope wrote :

' 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 opened, then the case.'

The method of taking snuff and tricks of opening
* Tea was then pronounced iay.

266 The Soverane Herbe

and tapping the box were reduced to a fine art.
There was a fashion in snuff as well as in clothes ;
the one proclaimed the gentleman as much as the
other. Brummel and the Regent had a knack, much
admired, of holding their snuff-box in and opening it
with the left hand only.

Defoe complained that his servant-maid took her
snuff with the air of a duchess,

' Do you do anything with this ?' inquired Mr.
Smauker, producing a snuff-box decorated with a
fox's-head.

' No,' replied Sam Weller, ' not without sneezing.'

* It is rather difficult,' said Mr. Smauker patroniz-
ingly. ' Many carry coffee, which looks like rappee.'

This was written of 1827, when snuff had lost much
of its fashionability. Throughout the eighteenth
century snuff was the firmly established objet de
fashionables. In that age of beaux snuff reigned
paramount. It was carried to an excess characteristic
of that age ; only natural, indeed, were those excesses.
It was an age of extremes, of struggles with primal
elements uncloaked by the indifference of this cen-
tury. The life or death struggle that England was
engaged in reflected itself in the foppery and the
poverty, the stark atheism, with hard drinking, high
gambling and fashionable viciousness, and the religious
enthusiasm of English society, in the eighteenth cen-
tury. Its men were of sterner mould than this
generation, reared and bred in an age of compromise.

Snuff, and particularly the snuff-box, occupied a
position in the national life held by no other object
before or since. Snuff-boxes became the gauge of

Snuff and Snuff- takers 267

friendship and admiration. Containing gifts of money
they were presented to charities. They were pre-
sented with the freedom of cities. When Pitt was
forced to resign, ' it rained snuff-boxes ' on him for a
month. Snuff-boxes were passed round with the wine
after dinner. Regiments had their mess-boxes. To
offer one's box to a person for a pinch was a mark of
favour and grace. Talleyrand's declaration that the
use of snuff was essential to diplomacy was an actual
fact. Boxes were presented to ambassadors on great
occasions, such as the accession, coronation, or marri-
age of Sovereigns. At the coronation of George IV.
£8,20$ 15s. 5d. was paid to Messrs. Rundell and
Bridge for ' snuff-boxes to foreign Ministers ' as means
of maintaining friendly relations with the States they
represented.

A beau prided himself on his snuff and his boxes.
Lord Petersham had a box for every day in the
year. Someone admiring a light blue Sevres box,
he answered carelessly : ' Yes, it's a nice box for
summer, but would not do for winter use.' Lady
Mary Wortley Montague's son had a hundred dif-
ferent boxes. From historical relics boxes were made
and eagerly prized. The deck planks of the Victory,
Shakespeare's mulberry-tree, the table on which
Wellington wrote his Waterloo despatch, Crabbe's
cudgel, Siddons' desk, were all turned into snuff-boxes.
Of the furniture of a lady's boudoir a snuff-box
fashioned with the most delicate art and grace in
porcelain, mother-of-pearl, gold or silver, was an
indispensable item.

Gentlemen laid down snuff as they laid down

268 The Soverane Herbe

cellars of wine. Lord Petersham left i^3,ooo worth
of snuff in his cabinets when he died. The same
snuff that was used in the morning would not do for
the evening, any more than the same costume would.
There were morning, afternoon, and evening snuffs.
George IV. had a dozen different kinds of snuff
placed on the dinner-table with the wine, selecting
his pinch according to his mood and taste.

Unless the utmost care was exercised, the habit
became slovenly. Snuff-coated clothes and smeared
faces were enough to excite disgust and satire. But
fashion had decreed its use, and snuff was exalted,
while smoking was degraded. Many dandified snuffers
carried, attached to their mulls, a dainty silver shovel
for carrying the dust to the nose and a hare's-foot for
wiping away stray grains from the lips and nostrils.
Lord Stanhope declared that a proper application of
the time and money spent in taking snuff would
' constitute a fund for the discharge of the national
debt.'

The extent to which snuff-taking was an affectation^
not an enjoyment, is shown by methods of prepara-
tion. Tobacco was soaked in water for 'purification,'
and thus weakened was dried, powdered, and its natural
flavour replaced by the incorporation of various per-
fumes, and an agreeable colour produced by a mixture
of red lead or yellow ochre. The true flavour of
snuff was destroyed by perfumes of musk, civet,
essence of miilefleurs, rose-water, cloves, etc., the
varieties of snuff being so called.

In France, where these scented snuffs originated,
they were used as instruments of revenge. The

Snuff and Snuff- takers 269

Dauphin died in 1712 from inhaling poisoned Spanish
snuff. This led to general suspicion, and for a long
time offers of a pinch were regarded with disfavour.
Santeuil, the poet, died from a dose of snuff inserted
in his wine by the Due de Bourbon in a drunken
freak.

The number of snuffs on the market in the time of
Queen Anne was so infinite that a writer in an ency-
clopaedia declared it impossible to enumerate them,
contenting himself with the divisions, granulated,
finely-powdered, and the coarse siftings of bran.

Chief among many were Brazil, Martinique, Penalva,
Bolongaro, Bureau, Montagne, Carotte, Scotch, and
Masulipatam. Sachaverell's popularity led to the
demand for his favourite Orange snuff and the
decoration of boxes with his portrait. Wilkes's stand
for the people brought into popular use a '45 ' brand.

Famous among mixtures were Hardham's ' 37,' so
called from his shop at 37, Fleet Street. Still more
famous was Taddy's ' 37.' In the early days of
George III. huge snuff-boxes were passed round,
with the simple word of recommendation, ' Taddy's.'
To be without Taddy's snuff was a sign of social
degeneration or perdition. Taddy's ' 37 ' was known
everywhere; in 1760 the French Ambassador sent an
express to bring him a packet. Its curious name
arose from a vote once being taken as to the merits
of various snuffs. Thirty-seven voted for Taddy's, a
few for other makes, and hence its name.

The Regent, afterwards George IV., used a com-
pound of rappee scented with attar of roses, which is
still sold as * Prince's Mixture.' 'Violet Strasburg'

270 The Soverane Herbe

was greatly favoured by ladies, including Queen
Charlotte.

' Lundyfoot,' or ' Irish Blackguard,' was a very
pungent snuff sold by Lundy Foot, of Dublin, its
alternative name being derived from its popularity
among the lower classes in Ireland. Its discovery
was by accident. According to one account the
maker carelessly burnt the snuff, and to prevent
an absolute waste gave it away to poor customers,
who speedily returned to buy a supply, so well did it
suit their tastes. The other story states that a tobacco
factory being burned down in Dublin, Foot purchased
the charred leaf and ground it into snuff, which he
disposed of very cheaply among the poor. Like
Oliver Twist, they came for more, and the upper
classes soon discovered its virtues likewise. From
this snuff Foot made his fortune. Quin suggested
as the motto for his carriage the Latin phrase. Quid
rides ? Similarly, when Gillespie, a noted seller of
snuff, retired and set up as a gentleman, Erskine
proposed as the motto for the arms of his carriage :

' Who would have thought it,
That noses had bought it ?'

Snuff, of course, was opposed and condemned by
some physicians. Its use was declared to reduce the
brain to a sooty, dry condition, and to have increased
a hundredfold the death-rate from apoplexy and
cancer.

On the other hand, medicated snuffs were largely
sold as cure-all-ills. Grimstone's 'Eye Snuff' was
most sovereign for clearing the head of all humours

Snuff and Snuff-takers 271

and strengthening the sight. Samuel Major pro-
claimed his ' Imperial Snuff' a remedy for all dis-
orders of body and mind. Repudiating the report of
his death, he declared that even when he died his
snuff would live after him, for its power ' of keeping
the world in sprightly life and health.' Out of regard
for the poor, he sold it at the low price of sixpence
per box at the Punch House on Ludgate Hill, or
Sam's Coffee House near the Custom House.

* The honest men ' whose passion Moli^re declared
snuff to be include many of the highest fame.
Moli^re himself said : ' In spite of Aristotle and all
philosophy, there's nothing equal to snuff. It is the
craving of upright men, and he who lives without
snuff is not worthy of life. It not only rejoices and
purifies the brains of men, but it also instructs their
souls unto righteousness, and by taking snuff we
acquire virtue.'

The beaux and wits who frequented Wills' Coffee
House in Bow Street were raised to the seventh
heaven if Dryden did them so much honour as to
offer them his box. Pope sneered at snuff, but took
it himself ; his wit is essentially that of the pungent
dust. Swift also primed himself with snuff, making
his own by grating tobacco and mixing it with a
small quantity of ready-made Spanish snuff. In the
' Sentimental Journey ' Sterne has depicted how one
pinch of snuff makes two strangers kin. Addison,
Bolingbroke, and Congreve derived pleasure from its
stimulus.

Dr. Johnson was always in a snuffy condition, his
habit of keeping his supply in his waistcoat-pocket

272 The Soverarie Herbe

aggravating his natural carelessness. Goldsmith,
Garrick, Reynolds, and all that coterie took snuff.
Reynolds used it so profusely that it became mixed
with his paint :

' When they talked of their Raphaels, Correggios and stuff,
He shifted his trumpet and only took snuff.'

Gibbon refreshed himself with the pungent powder;
Colman described him as

' Like an erect black tadpole taking snuff ;'

and he himself writes : ' I drew my snuff-box, rapp'd
it, took snuff twice, and continued my discourse in
my usual attitude of my body bent forward and my
forefinger stretched out.'

Cowper abhorred smoking, but sang that snuff

' Does thought more quicken and refine
Than all breath of all the Nine.'

Sheridan was another snuff-taker. Coleridge used
to buy ' Irish Blackguard ' by the pound. Mrs.
Siddons and Mrs. Jordan, Kemble and Kean, re-
freshed themselves with it on the stage.

When Frederick the Great was not smoking
tobacco he was snuffing it. A box of it was kept
on the mantelpiece of every room frequented by
him. His waistcoats were also furnished with a
capacious leather-lined pocket for snuff, that he
might never be without his beloved pinch. By this
means also he kept his snuff to himself Once
detecting a page taking a pinch from the royal box,
he commanded him to * Put that box in your pocket ;
it is too small for both of us.'

Snuff and Snuff-takers 273

All the Georges took snuff. George IV. was
especially famed, when Regent, for his taste in snuff.
He was very fastidious, and threw his box away in
anger when a gentleman at a masked ball took a pinch
from it. His mother and his wife, the ill-fated
Queen Caroline, both took snuff, as became leaders
of society.

Marie Antoinette found in snuff consolation for
her trials and terrors.

Though Napoleon abhorred smoking, he carried
snuff in his waistcoat-pocket, and took it profusely.
At Waterloo he used it incessantly, but spilt more
than he imbibed. During his exile in Elba his
followers in France used violet (Napoleon's favourite
flower) scented snuff. Offering a pinch, they asked
significantly : ' Do you love this perfume ?' ' Yes,'
was the reply of a Bonapartist. * I long for the
spring, when the flower now faded shall again wear
the purple, and when its breath shall be felt even
farther than its colour can be seen.'

Napoleon calmed and stimulated his mind with
snuff. Moltke was the last of the famous snuff-
takers ; during the Franco-German War he consumed
a pound a week.

In the museum of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland is Burns's snuff-mull, a plain horn with silver
plate, engraved ' R.B.' Whately used to take hand-
fuls of snuff when lecturing. Leigh Hunt translated
some Italian poems in praise of snuff. Talleyrand's
maxim as to the diplomatic use of snuff is obsolete
now. Lord Rosebery is the only snuff-taker of
statecraft, if an advertisement for the recovery of a

18

2 74 Tht Soverane Herbe

snuff-box belonging to him be taken as proof of
the fact.

Most Popes have found pleasure in the nose-
refreshing weed, and the present Pontiff maintains
the priestly practice ; his snuff, specially manufac-
tured at Baltimore, is the finest now made, and
scented with attar of roses.

Formerly snuff was prepared from the leaf of
tobacco. Now this waste of good smoking material
is avoided, and better ' sneeshin ' obtained by grind-
ing up the stems or midribs. The leaf, which is
unavoidably scattered on the floor of the factory and
warehouse, is carefully collected and scraped together.
Nothing is wasted in a tobacco factory, and all the
bits are utilized for snuff of the baser and darker
sorts. Light-coloured dry snuffs, such as Scotch, are
the purest, and ground from the central stalk only.

For dry snuffs the stalks, stripped from the leaf,
are chopped up, placed in wooden bins, moistened,
and allowed to ferment for weeks or even months, the
mass being frequently stirred to insure thorough
fermentation. It is then gently roasted until dry,
and ground into powder in mills.

Moist snuffs are ground when the stalks are damp,
then fermented, and finally mixed with certain salts,
scented and moistened to the required flavour and
degree.

Formerly snuff was abominably adulterated. The
diseased livers of cows and pigs are said to have been
dried and ground into a ' snuff,' which sold largely.
Nothing is now permitted to be added to snuff but
waters and scents. Unscrupulous makers used to

SnufF and Snuif-takers 275

add salts, red lead, chromate of lead, and oxide of
iron to increase pungency. Powdered glass, coal,
wood, straw, and sand, as well as burnt sienna and
yellow ochre, with ammonia as a flavouring, have
been found in snuff* on analysis.

That use is second nature is proved in the manu-
facture of snuff". The men employed in it move,
breathe, and work in an atmosphere reeking with the
pungent dust, but never a sneeze is heard. Nor are
the snuffy surroundings in any way injurious to health,
for the employes are strikingly hale and hearty.

Sixty years ago fully one-half of the people of the
United Kingdom of both sexes and all ranks took
snuff. For every one that smoked there were five
who took snuff". The renascence of smoking has been
the degradation of snuff. It is, of course, still taken
by many, but only pounds of the leaf are put down
for snuff" for the tons that used to be. Snuff'-taking
to-day is indeed a curiosity. One reason for the
decline of the habit is said to be that white handker-
chiefs have completely displaced the coloured silk and
bandana ones of our grandfathers. Lawn and snuff"
are incompatible.

About ;^3,ooo worth of snuff" is imported into
this country annually. Nearly all of this comes
from Brazil. In France also snuff has declined in
favour of smoke ; in 1869, 7 ounces were taken per
head, and the annual average consumption has now
dropped to five ounces per head, and the total amount
consumed from 13,000,000 to 12,000,000 pounds per
annum. In England the consumption is put down
at only 500,000 pounds per annum. Elderly people

18—2

276 The Soverane Herbe

are the chief consumers, as shown in workhouses, and
women are more partial to the pinch than men.
Among female operatives in the textile factories snuff-
taking is increasing.

But on the whole snuff-taking is practically extinct ;
the practice lingers as a survival of the past. The
mark of an old-time character or eccentric is the
taking of a pinch. Snuff-takers acknowledge the
eccentricity of their practice by the apologetic and
almost shamefaced secrecy with which they imbibe
the dust.

Mrs. Malaprop's aphorism that * comparisons are
odorous ' certainly applies to an attempt to weigh the
merits of smoking and snuffing. An old writer
summed up the virtues of tobacco in the line :

' In smoke thou'rt wisdom and in snuff thou'rt wit.'

Probably the devotees of each practice receive equal
pleasure, though that of the snuff-taker is more fleet-
ing and transient. On the other hand, snuff is more
keen and concentrated ; hence, perhaps, its use by
highly-susceptible persons or nervous temperaments,
as the French. Snuff-takers have the merit of being
able to indulge their passion at all times, in every
place, and under all circumstances, without in any
way offending the tastes of others — a privilege which
smokers certainly cannot claim.

In its mental effects smoking differs entirely from
snuff. ' The pungent, nose-refreshing weed ' is akin
to brilliance, while smoking fosters solidity of thought.
Smoking is the contemplative, philosophical man's
recreation ; snuff that of the impulsive, brilliant

Snuff and Snuff-takers 277

mind, as our list of famous users shows. Smoke is
the humour and snuff the wit of tobacco; the one
tends to philosophy, the other towards the arts. Snuff
also is associated with laxity of morals, as well as
brilliance of society ; smoke with a stricter code of
morals and sterner virtus. The brilliant and profli-
gate Court of France was the home of snuff. Puritan
England smoked. The brilliant gaiety and licentious
excesses of eighteenth-century society was ushered
in with snuff, and the dawn of the purer Victorian
era was synchronous with the revival of smoking.

It would be curious and interesting to trace the
connection between the sobriety and prose of this
smoking age and the brilliance and wit of our snuff-
taking ancestors. In dress and life we are as dull as
our ancestors were gay ; in national affairs as cautious
and fearful as they were decisive and bold. Nowa-
days we do not converse ; we talk and listen. The
highest effort to which one aspires is the reproduction
of the arguments and news of the morning's paper.
Originality, bon mots, and epigrams are unheard of.
Is smoking to answer for this ? A return to the
snuff with its soul-stirring pungency would lead, per-
chance, to the brilliance in conversation and bright-
ness of life of our century-old ancestors, for rappee
seems to be as synonymous with repartee, and snuff
with epigram, as periwigs with courtesy and knee-
breeches with gallantry.

CHAPTER XVI

NICOTIANA

Tobacco and government — Germany formed in smoke — The
pipe of peace — Smoking in church — And snuff — Tobacco
and justice — The enemy of tyranny — Capacity for tobacco —
The king of smokers — Smoking matches — Culottier des
pipes — Cigar-stump Exchange — Juvenile smoking — The pipe
in war — The kapnometer.

To the influence of tobacco upon government and its
enmity to tyranny we have already incidentally
referred. The greatest Sovereigns and wisest states-
men of the last 300 years have been smokers. Under
the tobacco-hating Stuarts England was ill-at-ease,
William the Silent was carried to England in a cloud
of tobacco-smoke, and set the kingdom to rights.
The cost of his expedition to England was defrayed
by an increased duty on tobacco, imposed by the
Dutch States-General.

The House of Commons smoked during the reign
of William HI., when the increase of this practice
led to its prohibition. Carlyle declared the Tabaks
Collegium of Frederick the Great to be ' a Parliament
reduced to its simplest expression with smoke instead
of speech.' How the weed influenced these Cabinet
Councils and the affairs of Europe can never be

Nicotiana

279

known. A year or two ago the United States Senate
took what the Seer of Chelsea would have regarded
as a retrograde step, and forbad smoking in the House.

How only fifty years ago tobacco freed Italy from
Austrian dominion has already been told. Even now
many Hungarians are patriotically abstaining from
tobacco and alcohol to drive home their protest against
Austrian rule by the reduction of the State revenue
from these sources.

Modern Germany was literally conceived and
formed in clouds of tobacco-smoke. Bismarck, the
creator of the German Empire, formulated his plans
in his pipe. It was the resemblance between the
pipes of Germany and Schleswig-Holstein that made
him declare the two peoples were ' separated brothers.'
Moltke carried out his part of the task under the
stimulation of snuff. The great German Chancellor
has graphically described the part tobacco played in
one momentous Session of the now defunct German
Bund :

' I went to see Rechberg, who was at work and
smoking at the same time. He begged me to excuse
him for a moment. I waited a little while. By-and-
by I got rather tired of waiting, and as he did not
offer me a cigar, I took one out of my case and asked
him for a light, which he gave me with a somewhat
astonished expression of countenance. But that is
not all. At the meeting of the Military Committee,
when Rochow represented Prussia at the Federal
Diet, Austria was the only member who smoked.
Rochow, who was a desperate smoker, would have
dearly liked to smoke too, but dare not venture to do

2 So The Soverane Herbe

so. When I came in I also felt that I wanted to
smoke, and as I did not see in the least why I should
not, I asked the presiding Power for a light, which
appeared to be regarded both by it and the other
Powers with equal wonder and displeasure. Obvi-
ously it was an event for them all. Upon that occa-
sion, therefore, only Austria and Prussia smoked, but
the other gentlemen considered it such a momentous
matter that they reported upon it home to their
respective Governments. The affair demanded the
gravest consideration, and fully six months elapsed,
during which only the two Great Powers smoked.
Then Schrenk, the Bavarian envoy, began to vindi-
cate the dignity of his position by smoking. Nostitz,
the Saxon, yearned to do so too, but he had not as
yet received permission from his Minister ; but as at
the next meeting he saw that Bothmer, the Hano-
verian, lit a cigar, he (who had strong Austrian pro-
clivities and some of his sons in the Austrian army)
came to an understanding with Rechberg, for he also
drew a weed from its leathern scabbard, and blew a
cloud. The only ones now remaining were the
Wtirtemberger and the Darmstadter, neither of them
smokers. But the honour and importance of their
respective States imperatively demanded that they
should smoke, and so at the very next meeting the
Wiirtemberger brought out a cigar — I can see it now,
a long, thin, light yellow thing — and smoked at least
half of it as a burnt-offering for his Fatherland.'

The introduction of tobacco into the political arena
would undoubtedly work for peace and progress, and
greatly reduce the number and length of speeches.

Nicotiana

281

What an amiable spirit would be breathed into the
debates ! Political rancour and animosity would
vanish before the smoke of tobacco. Party differences
and disputes would be welded and arranged under the
pipe of peace. Nothing has contributed more to
the peace and progress of the world than tobacco.

Had it not been for Nicotia, the Hispano-American
Peace Commission in Paris would have broken down.
The delegates began their work without a single
point of agreement or of sympathy. Tobacco sup-
plied that touch of nature. For the first four or five
meetings all was as stiff and formal as red tape could
desire. Then said Senor Monteros Rios, the Spanish
President :

' I have observed that the American Commissioners
are accustomed to smoking. May I suggest that we
join together in our one bond of sympathy, and pro-
ceed to light our cigars and cigarettes

Thenceforth all was clear sailing, and the negotia-
tions proceeded without a hitch.

Bolder spirits of the present day have asked the
pertinent question why smoking should not be
allowed in church, claiming that thereby congrega-
tions would be largely increased. Reference has
been made in an earlier part of this work to the laws
and penalties attached to this practice on the Conti-
nent and in New England. The Puritans did not
hold sanctity and smoke, piety and a pipe, to be in-
compatible. They smoked freely in church, and
without a pipe it is difficult to believe that they could
have sat out their four or five hour sermons. The
smashing of stained windows and the stabling of

282 The Soverane Herbe

horses in cathedrals were accomplished by the
Roundheads to the smoke of tobacco — horresco
referens.

In 1615 the Vice-Chancellor of the University of
Cambridge issued a notice enjoining that ' Noe
graduate, scholler or student of this Universitie pre-
sume to take tobacco in Saint Marie's Church uppon
paine of final expellinge the universitie.' The
custom of smoking during worship seems to have
been fairly common until the last century. In
Dutch churches this was the case. In Lima
Cathedral spittoons are provided in the stalls of
deans and dignitaries.

Scott, in 'The Heart of Midlothian,' describes
how Duncan of Knockunder, bailiff of the Duke of
Argyle, smoked his pipe during the sermon, which
lasted an hour and a quarter. ' When the discourse
was finished he knocked the ashes out of his pipe,
replaced it in his sporran, returned the tobacco-pouch
to its owner, and joined in the prayer with decency
and attention.'

When Vicar of Hatton, in Warwickshire, Dr. Parr
smoked regularly in the vestry while the congregation
were singing the hymn before the sermon. As he
remarked, ' My people like long hymns, but I prefer
a long pipe.' Fairholt records the similar practice of
a clerical friend of his only forty years ago. Many
of the clergy naturally regarded this habit with dis-
like and disgust. Archbishop Blackbourn of York
was severely reprimanded by the Vicar of St. Mary's,
Nottingham, for smoking in the vestry after con-
ducting a Confirmation Service. This was in 1773 ;

Nicotiana

283

the practice appears to have been by no means in-
frequent in all sects.

There is a story of a clergyman who, mounting the
pulpit for the sermon, refreshed himself with several
pinches of snuff before announcing his text. This,
aptly enough, was, ' My soul cleaveth unto the dust '
(Psa. cxix. 25). But snuff-takers are more favoured
than smokers. No one has ever dreamt of denying
them the right of taking a pinch when and where
they please ; hence it seems that it is the appear-
ance of evil, not the evil itself, which has caused
smoking to be vetoed. A snuff-taker need never de-
clare his weakness, if weakness it be ; he can take a
pinch and escape detection and blame. But a pipe
is too honest for surreptitious enjoyment. It pro-
claims its presence ; it cannot be concealed. Hence,
though snuff is connected with subtlety of intellect,
smoking is for ever linked with strength of mind and
will.

In recent years several Urban District Councils in
various parts of the country have returned to the
ancient pract'ice of City Fathers, and discussed public
matters with the aid of tobacco. Magistrates, when
hearing especially tedious and lengthy cases, have
also called in Nicotia to their aid by daring to smoke
pipe or cigar on the judgment bench. Such is the
custom in Mexico. To the prisoner the advantage
is great, for the quality of mercy is not strained.
Were Justice to smoke she would lose half her
severity under the soothing influence of tobacco.

Tobacco is the stern foe of tyranny. During the
Reign of Terror in Paris it was decreed that all

284 The Soverane Her be

prisoners should be deprived of all implements lest
they should assassinate their judges. 'Two shifty
male citizens who were eager,' says Carlyle, 'to pre-
serve an implement or two, were it but a pipe-picker
or a needle to darn hose with, determined to prevent
themselves by tobacco ; they light their pipes to
begin smoking. Thick darkness envelops them.
The red nightcaps, opening the cell, breathe but one
mouthful, and burst forth into a chorus of barking and
coughing. " Quoi, messieurs !" cry the citizens,
*' you don't smoke ? Is the pipe disagreeable ? Est-
ce que vous ne fumez pas ?" But the red nightcaps
have fled, with slight search. " Vous n'aimez-pas
la pipe ?" cry the citizens as their door slams to
again. My poor brother citizens ! oh, surely in a
reign of brotherhood you are not the two I would
guillotine.'

In these days of toleration the smoker is per-
mitted a wide range. Thirty years ago the stable
was thought the fit place for smoking. Now every
house has a smoking-room, dignified by the name
of * study.' The smoker can pursue his favourite
recreation in the railway train, though waiting-rooms
at stations are forbidden him. Mrs. Grundy is no
longer shocked at smoking in the streets. Blessed
with good sense and grace, the smoker can exercise
his inspiring faculties in nearly every circumstance
of life. Indeed, so omnipotent and omnipresent has
tobacco become that it should be seriously con-
sidered whether smokers should continue to be
officially regarded as forming the minority. Why
should not railway carriages be regarded as primarily

I

Nicotiana

285

for the use of smokers, and, following the Russian
example in setting apart carriages for ladies who
do not smoke, label one or two compartments as
nonsmoking ?

The capacity of some smokers is equal to that of
Niklas Henkerwyssel, who, according to the Dutch
legend, sold his soul to the Devil for the ability to
smoke all the time. The average consumption of
tobacco per smoker in the United Kingdom is under
2\ ounces per week, taking one-third of the popula-
tion as smokers. Some men regularly smoke half a
pound a week, besides chewing a couple of ounces
of thick twist. Others regularly buy an ounce of
Perique, the strongest tobacco in the world, in the
morning, and consume it in cigarettes during the
day, and what that means only those who have
attempted Perique can realize.

No one has ever disputed the right of Mynheer
Van Klaes, who flourished about forty years ago,
to the title of the ' King of Smokers.' His den
was a museum of nicotian relics, containing specimens
of every kind of tobacco smoked in the world and
every kind of pipe through which the nations draw
inspiration. Here he smoked constantly, incessantly
(his life-consumption was estimated at 4 tons of
tobacco, or 10 pounds every week of his sixty smoking
years — he died at eighty-one), devoting his whole
life to the burning of incense to Nicotia. His funeral
was in harmony with his life. By his express direc-
tion his coffin was lined with the wood of old cigar-
boxes. At his feet were placed a bladder of the
finest Dutch golden-leaf and a packet of caporal;

2 86 The Soverane Herbe

by his sides were laid his china-bowled pipe and a
box of matches, and steel, flint and tinder. In
accordance with his will all the smokers of Rotter-
dam were invited to the funeral, and, instead of the
old-fashioned mourning -rings, each was presented
with 10 pounds of good tobacco and two pipes
bearing Van Klaes' arms. All the mourners smoked
during the funeral service, and at the words, ' Ashes
to ashes, dust to dust,' shook the ashes out of their
pipes on to the coffin-lid. By a further bequest a
sum of money was provided for the distribution
every year of lo pounds of tobacco among the poor
of Rotterdam. It is worth noting that Van Klaes
amassed a fortune during his smoking life. He
died about thirty years ago.

Smoking is essentially the temperate man's recrea-
tion, and in it there has never been that competition
which marks other hobbies. Smokers are shy about
revealing the size of their weekly tobacco-bill ; they
draw back and equivocate when asked how much
they smoke a week. Some few, chiefly novices,
boldly brag of the quantity they smoke, but the
average smoker is more than a little reluctant about
it. But it is a question which should be faced.
Every smoker should fix a maximum, within which
he should restrain his appetite. If this is not done
there is the danger of becoming a slave to the
herb. Place a limit on your pipe. If, for instance,
you smoke 4 ounces a week, you should resolve
never to smoke more than half a pound a week.
By this means you experience all the moral exhilara-
tion and virtuous glow which come from keeping a

Nicotiana

287

resolution, while leaving an ample margin for enjoy-
ment.

The smoker is not ambitious to distinguish him-
self as a great tobacco-taker ; all he desires is to
enjoy his pipe in peace and comfort. Tobacco-
burning competitions have been few but curious.
Hearne, in his ' Reliquiae,' records that on Sep-
tember 4, 1723, ' At two o'clock was a smoaking
match over against the Theatre at Oxford, a scaffold
being built up for it just at Finmore's, an alehouse.
The conditions were that anyone (man or woman)
that could smoake out three ounces of tobacco first
without drinking or going off the stage should have
twelve shillings. Many tryed, and it was thought
that a journeyman taylour of St. Peter's in the East
would have been the victor, he smoaking faster than
and being many pipes before the rest j but at last
he was so sick that it was thought he would have
dyed ; and an old man that had been a builder and
smoaked gently came off the conqueror, smoaking
the three ounces quite out; and he told me that
after it he smoaked four or five pipes the same
evening.'

In i860 a sporting gentleman agreed for a wager
to smoke a pound of strong regalias in twelve hours.
The cigars ran 100 to the pound, so that eight
had to be smoked every hour. The match was
decided on a Thames steamer plying between London
and Chelsea, the smoker standing well forward in
the bows, where he caught the force of all the wind
that was blowing. He lit his first cigar at 10 a.m.
In the first hour he smoked ten, and his second hour

2 88 The Soverane Herbe

was the record one, as he reduced sixteen to ashes.
About two he lunched, while during the day he drank
a gill and a half of brandy and cold water. By seven
o'clock he had smoked eighty-six cigars, and as
only fourteen remained to be smoked in two hours
and a half the backer of time gave in, and the winner
puffed the remainder away at his leisure during the
evening.

Some years ago a contest in London as to the
greatest number of cigars smoked in two hours pro-
duced seventeen competitors. Before an hour had
elapsed ten retired. The winner reduced ten large
cigars to ashes in 120 minutes, while his nearest com-
petitor smoked but nine and a half cigars. After
such a contest as this, it is almost useless to mention
an American smoking match, when the winner
smoked 100 cigarettes in six and a half hours.

The smokers of Lille, France, some time ago held
a contest which involved the smoking of if ounces
of tobacco. There were fifty competitors, and the
winner smoked his portion in exactly thirteen minutes,
while the second smoker got through his ounce and
three-quarters in twenty minutes. But the quaintest
smoking contest is that held weekly in the ancient
city of Bruges, where exists the smoking club,
Brugsche Rookers' Club. The competitors endeavour,
not to smoke the greatest quantity in the smallest
time, but the smallest quantity in the longest time.
Portions of tobacco, 2^ grammes, are weighed out,
stuffed into long clay pipes by the officials of the club,
and then distributed among the members. At a
given signal the pipes are lit, and the competitors

Nicotiana

289

begin to smoke very slowly and deliberately, en-
deavouring to keep the tobacco alight and consume
it as slowly as possible. If a pipe goes out its smoker
retires from the contest. As pipe after pipe expires
the contest becomes more and more exciting, until
only two are left and the acme of interest is attained.
So expert are some of the members of the Rookers'
Club that they have been known to keep alive the
flame in 3 grammes of tobacco for an hour and a
half.

In the North of England pipe-colouring competi-
tions were very popular some years ago. A tobac-
conist used to offer prizes for the best specimens of
clay pipes coloured by smoking a certain tobacco
sold by himself. To attain the honour of first-prize
winner young men smoked themselves almost into
the grave. But from these irrational competitions
and the modern craze for records smoking is more
free than any other recreation.

In Paris, the city of curious professions, there are
culottiers des pipes — pipe-colourers by trade. They
devote their whole time to carefully colouring new
meerschaums and fancy clays for their owners. The
work consists in merely sitting and smoking day
after day, for which a franc per day and a supply of
tobacco is charged.

Another novel feature of Paris is the Cigar-stump
Market, held every afternoon on the steps which lead
from the ancient Place Maubert to the Boulevard
Saint Germain. The merchants bring their stores of
cigar-ends, picked up from the gutters with a spiked
stick, in paper boxes. For these there are both

19

290 The Soverane Herbe

wholesale and retail purchasers. The wholesale
dealers buy up stumps at about a franc a pound,
clean them, cut up the tobacco fine, and sell it in
fancy packages as smuggled tobacco for three or four
francs a pound, which is two francs below the price
for Government tobacco of similar quality. Smokers
in financial low-water buy a pound of stumps at a
time for their own consumption. Like other markets,
that in cigar-stumps has its fluctuations, according to
the demand and supply. In winter, when there is
less smoking in the streets, few stumps are found
and brought to Place Maubert, and merchants get
10 or 15 per cent, more for their wares than in
summer, when the boulevards and squares are crowded
with smokers. In London also there are gatherers of
fag-ends, but they lack the dignity of their Parisian
confreres. They have no exchange, and dispose of
their 'hard-up,' as the refuse tobacco and cigar-butts
are called, in common lodging-houses.

In the East, as we have seen, children begin to
smoke while still at their mothers' breasts ; but in
this country the two-thirds of the male population
who smoke have acquired, not been taught, the prac-
tice. This is a fact that renders the widespread use
of tobacco most remarkable. Some people can smoke
anything at the first time of asking ; others can never
smoke, try as they may. The vast majority of smokers
have acquired the habit only by degrees, and their
nicotian experiences comprise the usual disasters.
There must be something very fascinating in smoking
that leads men through all the horrors of a first
pipe, and still worse first cigar, to complete and

Nicotiana

291

love of tobacco. How many smokers cannot

' The aroma of that stolen whiff
Comes back upon my mind
E'en now as vividly as if
'Twere borne upon the wind I

' Another — and expressions fail —
'Twere better not to try,
For turning hot by turns and pale
Methought that I should die.'
Or:

' Dark night closed in around me,
Rayless, without a star ;
Grim Death, I thought, had found me,
And spoiled my first cigar.'

Anti-tobacconists argue from the repugnance of the
stomach to tobacco, and that it is only by degrees
and in time it can be used with pleasure, that smoking
is harmful and obnoxious to nature. The same
argument applies with at least equal force to sailing ;
sea-sickness is harder to be overcome than the intoler-
ance of the stomach to tobacco, and yet no one
doubts the benefits to be derived from a sea-voyage.

To smoke is one of the delights of the schoolboy,
none the less sweet because forbidden. By degrees
he acquires the habit, until, by the time he is arrived
at man's estate, he is proficient in 'the most gentle-
manlike assumption of tobacco.' Of late years the
increase of smoking among young boys has been very
great. The cheapness of cigarettes and the prevailing
precocity of youth are the factors in this increase.
Before cigarettes were to be obtained at five a penny
the boy had his first smoke from a pipe or cigar.

19 — 2

perfect
say :

292 The Soverane Herbe

The resultant lesson was severe enough to postpone
for some time a second attempt at nicotian honours.
But the cigarette is so mild that it can be smoked
with impunity. Thus the path to smoking glory
is devoid of all difficulties and terrors.

There is little doubt that smoking is injurious to
the physique of growing youths, though it would
be interesting to learn the medical opinion of the
effects of tobacco on children in the East. In three-
fourths of the States of the American Union, local
laws prohibit, under heavy penalties, the sale of
tobacco to children under sixteen years of age.

In Canada a similar law is in force, and pupils in
the public schools who are discovered smoking are
punished by suspension from attendance, and incor-
rigible puffers are expelled. In Norway, a recent
law prohibits the sale of tobacco to any child under
the age of sixteen, without a signed order from an
adult relative or employer. The penalty is a fine
varying from 2s. to and the police are empowered
to take away pipes, cigars, and cigarettes from youth-
ful smokers. In some parts of Germany there is a
similar law. In the town of Westhofen the old
ordinance forbidding smoking in public is still en-
forced. These details may be interesting to the
School Boards in various parts of this country that
have advocated recently the suppression of juvenile
smoking. In the Isle of Man a measure to this end
is promised. The cigarette by its popularity has
earned for itself many enemies, and the Legislature
of Minnesota (U.S.A.) has just prohibited, with a
fine of not less than ;^io, the manufacture or sale,

Nicotiana

293

gift or offer of ' any cigarette or cigarettes or
cigarette-papers or substitutes for the same,' but
leaving unfettered the use of pipe and cigars.

In his ' Counterblaste ' James I. declared that
smoking unfitted a man for the part of a soldier.
' No man,' he said, 'can be thought able for any service
in the wars that cannot endure the want of tobacco.'
The British Solomon so little understood the herb he
was denouncing that he knew not that tobacco serves
as meat, drink, sleep, and medicine to the warrior.
He pictures a night-attack rendered futile by all the
men lagging behind to smoke. But in the desperate
night sortie from Ladysmith to destroy the Boer gun
on Bulwana, the fuse of the charge of gun-cotton that
shattered the Long Tom was lit from the glowing
end of an officer's cigar.

In all wars since its discovery tobacco has played
a notable part. The discovery of Elizabethan adven-
turers, that for hunger, fatigue and privation tobacco
is a sovereign remedy, has been verified by all suc-
ceeding generations of soldiers and sailors. On active
service there is nothing the men desire more than
tobacco ; in soothing the last moments of thousands
of men laying down their lives for their country
tobacco has been the noblest benefactor.

In all navies and most armies tobacco is served out
as part of the men's rations. In the British Navy the
Admiralty provides Jack with tobacco at the normal
price of is. per pound, obtaining it duty-free. On
active service the same course is followed in the
Army. In neither branch of the service are youths
under eighteen allowed to smoke. More than any-

294 The Soverane Herbe

thing else the men feel the deprivation of their
tobacco. In the latter months of the siege of Lady-
smith tobacco was sold for £6 per pound, and a
threepenny packet of cigarettes for /s. 6d. Tobacco
was the starving garrison's first request when the
long-looked-for relief came.

There are many stories of the part played by the
weed in war. When the Light Brigade was ordered to
charge at Balaclava, a regimental butcher was engaged
in dressing a sheep, smoking the while. In his shirt-
sleeves, pipe in mouth and cleaner in hand, he
charged with his regiment, and returned still smoking.
In the very thick of the fight at Rorke's Drift the
English soldiers smoked as hard as they fought,
lighting their pipes with burning splinters of wood
from the hospital fired by the Zulus. During the
Ashanti campaign it was declared to be better to be
without quinine than tobacco. In the Boer War
our troops have gone into action time after time
smoking their pipes. So, too, during the Franco-
German War the Germans smoked regularly while
fighting. At Saarbrucken the Brunswick Hussars
charged, cigars in mouth, into a solid mass of
French troops and hail of bullets. Lord Roberts
does not smoke, but Lords Wolseley and Kitchener
are hard smokers. For a fortnight before Tel-el-Kebir
the former did not touch tobacco, but directly the
day was won he lit up and smoked six cigars right off
the reel. General ' U. S. A.' Grant smoked incessantly
during the progress of an engagement. At Rich-
mond the number of cigars he reduced to ashes was
enormous. ' Chinese ' Gordon was never without his

Nicotiana 295

big cigar and little cane when there v/as any work
on hand.

Some years ago a very pretty story went the rounds
of the press. It was related that Professor Manlesel,
an ingenious German, had set out for America to
erect large works on the tobacco plantations there
for supplying houses and persons with tobacco-smoke
by the cubic foot. The tobacco was to be burned in
large retorts, and the smoke passed through pipes to
a large bell-shaped chamber, where it would be
cooled, purified and scented to the flavour of the
finest Havana cigar. From this smokometer the
smoke would be conveyed in pipes to houses, like
gas and water. In every house thus connected the
smoke consumed there would be registered by a
delicate meter. From these meters pipes would lead
to every room in the house, terminating in long
flexible tubes with amber mouthpieces. Desiring a
smoke, it would be necessary only to place the tube in
the mouth, turn a small tap, and inhale the ready-
made smoke, cool, delicious, and perfumed, to any
extent. For peripatetic puffers india-rubber bladders
would be provided, which, inflated with smoke, would
greatly improve the appearance. Flexible tubes with
mouthpieces and a tap would complete these ' bag-
pipes.' Smoke thus provided, it was claimed, would
be free from nicotine and other injurious elements,
cheaper and better than ordinary smoke, and greatly
reduce the consumption of matches. But the day of
the kapnometer is not yet, though it is curious that
socialistic smoking has not been included among the
perfections of the Millennium, as forecast by various
novelists.

CHAPTER XVII

THE HYGIENE OF TOBACCO

As a medicine — Physical constitution of tobacco — Constituents
— Ash — Nicotine — Quantity in various kinds of tobacco —
Ash — By-products — Bitter oil of pipes not nicotine — Why
smoke from pipe blue, from mouth gray — Nicotine not
inhaled — Tea, coffee, and potato poisonous — Action of
tobacco — Overdose — Effects not organic — Smokers' throats
— Excess — Indigestion — Shortens life (?) — As a prophylactic
— Best form of smoking : pipe, cigarettes, or cigar ? — Lancet
on cigarettes — Hygienic notes for smokers — Cigar-smoking
— Cigarettes — Pipe tobacco — Lancet on pure tobacco.

As we have seen, tobacco was originally hailed as a
panacea for all ills, as an omnipotent weapon in the
physician's armoury. As late as the present century
it was still used in some diseases. Tobacco wine,
made by steeping an ounce of tobacco in a pound of
Spanish wine, was administered for dropsy. Sir
Astley Cooper regarded it as the best drug for the
reduction of hernia. At the present time there is
only one preparation (an infusion in water) of tobacco
in the British Pharmacopoeia. Though disowned by
doctors, the common people have received it gladly,
and as a comforter and soother of life's worries tobacco
labours more effectually for the happiness of man

The Hygiene of Tobacco 297

than if it were the most prized drug in the physician's
dispensary.

The opportunity may be taken here to explain the
physical constitution of tobacco. The green leaf con-
tains a large percentage of complex organic bodies,
which retard combustion and emit a most offensive
smell in burning. The curing and manufacture of
the green leaf into smokable tobacco get rid of or
modify these bodies. Excessive fermentation, how-
ever, blackens the leaves and produces ammonia
compounds.

Tobacco consists largely of mineral constituents.
These burn into ash, which should be white or grayish-
white in colour. In good dry leaf the ash is not
excessive in quantity, forming from 12 to 20 per cent,
of the leaf. Reddish ash denotes the presence of
iron, and black ash is due to excess of carbon result-
ing in imperfect combustion.

Nicotine (CiqHN), the essential characteristic alka-
loid of tobacco, found in no other plant, is colourless
and liquid at the ordinary temperature. It is a
virulent narcotic poison. Nicotine, it may be noted,
is an antidote to strychnine and strychnine to nico-
tine. Nicotine is not present in large quantities in
tobacco, forming from i to 9 per cent. French and
German tobaccos contain the most, 9 per cent, Vir-
ginia and Kentucky 4 or 5 per cent., and Havana
and Manila only 2 to 3 per cent.

Small as is the percentage of nicotine, it is largely
consumed and destroyed in the smoke, the ratio
depending on the freeness of combustion. The greater
bulk of nicotine is therefore not inhaled.

298 The Soverane Herbe

The ash consists of potash and ammonia salts and
nitrates. The smouldering action of tobacco is caused
by the nitrate of potash. Tobacco should burn clearly
and freely, but not too rapidly. If it is slow of com-
bustion (due to imperfect curing or poor quality),
objectionable products such as carbon dioxide are
evolved. This is the case with a badly burning cigar.

But tobacco is never entirely burned. Carbonic
acid and water are produced and many other organic
substances, which, released or formed by the heat
of combustion, are distilled into gases. The con-
densation of these volatile substances forms the
smoke. The colour as well as the flavour of the
smoke, therefore, depends upon the quantity and
nature of the substances forming it.

Among the bye -products of combustion are
ammonia and its compounds, an empyreumatic oil
found in the stale tobacco or ' dottles ' of bowls, and
a dark, bitter, resinous substance or oil in the pipe-
stems. ' These organisms,' remarks an authority,
' begin to be deposited directly they are formed (by
the burning), so that some remain in the mouth, and
if the smoke is swallowed or passed through the
nostrils, so much more will be retained and absorbed
into the system.'

The dark bitter oil which forms in the bowls and
stems of pipes is popularly regarded as nicotine. This
is totally erroneous. It is a joint product of the
moisture from the tobacco, produced by combustion
and impregnated by smoke. It is really the water
of tobacco in combination with the soot and tar of
the smoke. Nicotine is colourless, and forms an

Hg 111 »i m

The Hygiene of Tobacco 299

infinitesimal part, less than one ten-thousandth part
of all the constituents of smoke. Heat is the least
harmful way of obtaining nicotine. The nicotine
dissolved from one cigar would kill a dog, adminis-
tered internally, but the same dog would have to
smoke 400 cigars right off the reel before succumbing
to nicotine poisoning.

According to one authority tobacco is com-
posed of:

Nicotine

Malic and citric acids
Oxalic acid
Resinous fats -
Pectic acid
Cellulose
Albuminoids
Ash -

I to 9 per cent.

- 10 to 14 „ ,,

I to 2 ,, ,,

4 to 6 ,, ,,

5 „ „

- 7to 8 „ „

25 „ „

- 12 to 20 „ ,,

The essential flavouring oil, acetic acid and sugar
also contribute small percentages.

Smokers will have often noticed that the smoke
from the bowl of a pipe or the end of a cigar is
blue, while that from the smoker's mouth is gray or
brown. Smoke consists of minute particles of solid
or liquid matter suspended in the air, and its colour
depends upon the size as well as chemical constitu-
tion of the particles. Exact experiment has shown
that as the particles increase in size they form colours
varying from sky-blue down through the whole range
of the spectral scale. The smoke given off from the
heated surface of the tobacco in the bowl or the end
of a cigar consists of matter very highly heated, and

300 The Soverane Herbe

very fully oxidized and decomposed. It consists
mainly of exceedingly small solid particles, and thus
the smoke assumes a bluish colour. As Lord Kelvin
recently explained, minute particles have an intense
affinity for moisture. On being inhaled the blue
smoke loses its smallest particles, which are captured
by the moisture of the mouth. It is these small
particles which give the smoke its blue colour, the
relatively large size of the particles forming the
smoke exhaled from the mouth being of the well-
known grayish tinge.

In a whiff from a pipe there are said to be
1,800,000,000 particles, from a cigar 2,000,000,000,
and from a cigarette 2,900,000,000 particles. The
pipe is thus the best means of smoking, as, the smoke
consisting of few particles, less will adhere to the
mouth than from the fume of cigars or cigarettes.

Anti-smokers prove the deadly character of tobacco
by the fact, and fact it is, that an ordinary cigar
contains enough nicotine to kill two men. One-
tenth of a grain of nicotine kills a dog of medium
size ; in a quarter of an ounce of tobacco there is
nicotine sufficient to poison twenty or thirty men —
if swallowed. But tobacco is smoked ; and how
small is the quantity of nicotine inhaled — to be
exhaled — is proved by the fact that people can and
do smoke many cigars a day without dying or
suffering in any way whatever.

American preachers have proved to delighted
sensation-seeking congregations the deadliness of
tobacco by administering during their sermons a
grain of nicotine to a cat. Puss immediately gives

The Hygiene of Tobacco 301

up the ghost. No one has ever denied that tobacco
is a poison administered internally. Had these
irreverend gentlemen administered a similar dose of
the essence of tea they could have killed ten cats.
Anti-smokers would have an interesting object-lesson
in natural history and toxicology if they administered
tobacco to a goat. Poisonous as is tobacco to a cat,
goats can and do eat it with impunity. But these
fanatics regard all smokers as goats, and reserve unto
themselves the title and honour of right-hand sheep.

Tobacco is undoubtedly a poison taken internally.
So are tea and coffee. Theine and caffeine, their
essential elements, are more poisonous than tobacco.
A grain of theine kills a frog instantly. In Ceylon
and Indian teas, which are now used to the exclusion
of China tea, theine is present to the extent of 2j
to 4f per cent. Each ounce of tea contains from
twelve to twenty-three grains of theine, which is
swallowed, not exhaled ; not more than three or four
grains can be taken daily without injury. Similarly
almonds and peaches owe their flavour to prussic
acid, the most deadly of poisons. The potato
belongs to the same genus of plants as tobacco, and
contains solanine, an acrid narcotic poison of great
virulence, two grains of which kill a rabbit after
great suffering. The continued consumption of
potatbes in large quantities injures and dulls the
mental faculties.

The action and effect of tobacco depend, of course,
upon the individual, the time, and the circumstances.
It acts both as a sedative and a stimulant. Some
persons it affects in the former, others in the latter

302 The Soverane Herbe

way ; at different times it acts in both phases on the
same person. Its action is undoubtedly that of a
narcotic or sedative, quieting and soothing the mind
and nerves. In other persons it rouses the sluggish
mind to activity. Purely as a medicine smoking is
valuable for correcting nervousness and constipation.
Every doctor admits its beneficial action in mental
distress and anxiety. Its varied and different effects
on different individuals render dogma as to its use
impossible. It disarranges and upsets the nerves of
some people by the slightest use ; on others excess
produces the same effects, while others can smoke to
any extent without the slightest ill-effects ; hence
the use of tobacco is essentially to be governed by
that most uncommon of qualities, common-sense.

The soothing, calming influence of tobacco upon
the nerves is admitted even by anti-smokers. It
helps digestion and stimulates the healthy action of
the intestines. An after-breakfast pipe is better than
a dose of salts. After any heavy meal nothing is
more productive of effective digestion than a quiet
mind, for producing which a good smoke is without
rival. Smoking also preserves the teeth from decay.
After thirty years of age tobacco prolongs life and
preserves the mind by lessening the bodily functions
of waste and repair.

The effects of an overdose of tobacco are well
known — faintness, nausea, giddiness, relaxation of
muscles, loss of power in limbs, cold perspiration,
and vomiting. Sometimes there is purging, sinking,
or depression of the heart. The pupils of the eye
are usually dilated, the sight dim, and the pulse weak.

The Hygiene of Tobacco 303

with difficulty of breathing. Fresh air and stimulants
speedily remove these symptoms. Indeed, the tem-
porary character of all evil effects produced by tobacco
is a striking feature.

However serious may be the results of over-smoking,
the affection is not organic, but merely circumstantial.
If smoking be abandoned, the symptoms imme-
diately disappear, not to recur, and without leaving
any permanent organic affection. Tobacco never
permanently injures the system; whatever effects it
may produce, they are temporary, and disappear on
smoking being given up.

' Smoker's throat,' with its irritability of the mucous
membrane, dry cough, and enlarged, soft, sore tonsils,
is occasionally produced by excessive smoking in
persons with a weak larynx. It is caused more by
cigar than pipe smoking.

A great deal of absurd twaddle has been written
on the evil of smoking too much — as if too much
anything were not harmful 1 Excessive smoking de-
ranges the liver, produces indigestion, and sometimes
injures the sight. The rhythm of the heart's action
is altered, producing palpitation and irregular pulse,
trembling of the limbs and headache. A first pipe is
gently soothing and stimulating; continued smoking
excites the brain and nervous system. If still per-
sisted in, tobacco becomes narcotic, and stupefies.

It is wildly asserted that tobacco is responsible
very largely for modern dyspepsia. Excess, especially
in the consumption of light fibrous tobacco, does
occasion indigestion. Used in moderation, there is
nothing more conducive to digestion. What is mofe

304 The Soverane Herbe

soothing and easing than a cigar or a pipe after a meal ?
Its very influence can be felt. As a digestive tobacco
has been known from the very first, and was so first
smoked by Drake and his men, Thomas Hobbes,
the philosopher of Malmesbury, held truly that as ' a
digesture ' tobacco was ' of sovereign vertue.'

The assertion that tobacco shortens life and stunts
physique is equally groundless. The most ardent
smoker admits that tobacco is a luxury for men, and
should not be indulged in till maturity, though he is
curious to hear medical opinion on the infantile prac-
tice of smoking in the East. Statistics prove that
we live longer than our ancestors, who did not
smoke. Equally so do they show that physique is
improving. In individual cases centenarians almost
always acknowledge to a lifelong use of the weed.
It is extremely rare to hear of a teetotal and non-
smoking man of a hundred years. In other indi-
viduals, such as Hobbes, Parr, Tennyson, smoking
cannot be said to have shortened their lives or dulled
their mental powers.

As a prophylactic tobacco is unequalled. It is
deadly in action on nearly all germs and bacteria.
In bacteriological laboratories smoking is forbidden
as destructive to the cultivation of bacilli. Smoke
retards the growth of many kinds of microbes, and
absolutely destroys many others, especially that of
Asiatic cholera. During the Great Plague in London
not a single person engaged in the tobacco trade was
seized, and its prophylactic virtues led to its general
use on medical grounds. In epidemics of diphtheria,
scarlet fever, typhus and typhoid even children should

The Hygiene of Tobacco 305

smoke. Only one smoker is attacked by diphtheria to
twenty-eight non-smoking victims. When cholera
was raging in Southern Europe in 1885, and people
were dying by thousands, not one of the 4,000 women
engaged in the National Tobacco Factory at Valencia
was attacked. Tobacco is not the deadly enemy of
man — it is surprising with what eagerness man takes
so kindly to his ' deadly enemies ' — but his great
friend, not only in solacing his woes, but as a
guardian and as a destroyer of the germs that insist
on colonizing his body.

Lastly, even if smoking is indulged in to excess,
the habit never kills, never renders a man unfit for
work, and never punishes anyone but the delinquent
himself. The chewing of calamus root is said to
remove the appetite for tobacco.

Which is the best and least injurious mode of
taking tobacco is a vexed question. One authority
holds that the pipe is the best, the cigar second, and
the cigarette third. Another doctor places them
thus : (i) Long pipe of clay or meerschaum ; (2) short
pipe ; (3) cigar ; (4) cigarette. Superior to all these,
he holds, is snuff, as the quantity taken must be kept
within limits. As a rule, however, snuff-takers are
far more intemperate than smokers, and the fact that
a considerable portion of the dust actually enters
the body and cannot be sneezed away makes snuff
apparently the most injurious. Another doctor like-
wise awards the palm to snuff as the best form of
tobacco, while chewing he regards as the worst.
Smoking he classes in the happy medium betwixt
good and ill.

20

3o6 The Soverane Herbe

Another expert, however, declares that ' chewing,
though perhaps a dirty habit, is far more healthy than
smoking.' Yet another doctor, none other than Sir
Henry Thompson, claims cigarettes to be the least
injurious, provided good paper be used, as there is no
collection of the essential nicotian oils as in cigars
and pipes. In a pipe the oil is said to be volatilized
and inhaled, whereas such is not the case in the cigar-
ette. Though excessive consumption of cigarettes
may affect the optic nerve and cause dimness of sight,
the injury, we are told, is nothing compared with the
danger that may be wrought by a single pipe. The
cigarette-smoker escapes because his stomach gives
out before his nerves are in the least danger. In
short, it is declared that there is more possibility of
harm in one pipeful of shag than in a hundred mild
cigarettes. But some years ago the Lancet wrote :

' We have not a word to say against smoking at
suitable times and in moderation, nor do our remarks
apply at this moment to the use of cigars and pipes ;
it is against the habit of smoking cigarettes in large
quantities, with the belief that these miniature doses
of nicotine are innocuous, we desire to enter a protest.
The truth is that perhaps owing to the way the
tobacco-leaf is shredded, coupled with the fact that
it is brought into more direct relationship with the
mouth and air-passages than when it is smoked in a
pipe or cigar, the effects produced on the nervous
system are more marked and characteristic than those
recognisable after recourse to the other modes of
smoking.'

All doctors recommend that smoke should be kept

The Hygiene of Tobacco 307

as far as possible from the eyes and nose. The longer
the pipe the better. The custom common in France
and Russia of passing the smoke through the nose is
very injurious, and frequently destroys the sense of
smell. The insidious habit of swallowing the smoke
is responsible for the stomach troubles from which
many cigarette-smokers suffer.

To smoke when taking active exercise is bad — bad
for the exercise and bad for the smoke. Especially
does this apply to cycling. One may smoke a pipe
when cycling ; to puff a cigar when scorching is add-
ing insult to injury to the cigar ; a cigarette will blow
to pieces. Don't smoke when cycling ; one is com-
pensated for one's abstention by the rare delight of a
pipe at the journey's end. Smoking by soldiers on the
march increases the number of men who fall out. It
is more than worth while to abstain from smoking for
three or four hours in order to enjoy the delectation
of the subsequent smoke.

There is one point that smokers should bear
in mind — that over-smoking is a common cause of
insomnia. To brain-workers smoking is at first a
sedative ; the second pipe acts as a powerful stimu-
lant. When used continuously tobacco thus becomes
a cerebral irritant, and the centres of the brain are
unable to adjust themselves to the condition required
for healthy sleep. From this indulgence in tobacco
immediately before retiring to rest insomnia frequently
arises. Those who smoke hard during the day should,
if suffering from insomnia, abstain from tobacco for
an hour before going to bed, or at all events curtail
their evening's tobacconalian revelry.

20 — 2

3o8 The Soverane Herbe

' The smoker,' says Dr. Scholer, * ought to rinse
out his mouth, not only before every meal and before
going to bed at night, but several times during the
day. The best rinse is a glass of water in which a
teaspoonful of salt has been dissolved. It should be
used as a gargle at night, and care should be taken
that every cavity in the teeth is well washed with it.
The pipe's proper place is in the hand, and only
occasionally in the lips or teeth.'

Smokers should follow the advice of Punchy and

' Learn to smoke slow ; the other grace is
To keep your smoke from people's faces.'

A cigar should be thrown away as soon as four-
fifths of it are smoked. The latter end of a cigar is
worse than the beginning of all others — in cauda
venenum. All the oils of the cigar are concentrated
in the last fifth ; smoking cigars to the bitter end
produces * smoker's throat.' When the end is felt
to be softening and the taste becomes acrid and
bitter, a cigar should be laid down.

Cigarettes should be smoked dry, as the damping
of the paper gives full play to the action of any
deleterious matter it may contain. Veiy few smokers
can smoke cigarettes thus. But it is this sucking at
the damp tobacco, and drawing the shreds into the
mouth, that constitute the danger of cigarette-smoking.
To prevent a cigarette sticking to the lips a good
plan is to run a burning wax vesta round the end,
thinly coating it with wax to form a mouthpiece.
This is tasteless, efficient, non-absorbent, and equal
to the amber-tipped cigarettes, which are prepared by
coating one end with spermaceti.

The Hygiene of Tobacco 309

' The war in South Africa,' remarked the Lancet
a few months ago, * has taught many things of greater
and of less importance. Perhaps nothing that it has
demonstrated has been more marked than the impor-
tant part which tobacco plays in the soldier's existence.
Whether this is to be reckoned as a great fact or a
small one, there can be no doubt about the truth
of it. . . . It is difficult to believe that tobacco is
anything but a real help to men who are suffering
long labours and receiving little food, and probably
the way in which it helps is by quieting cerebration —
for no one doubts its sedative qualities — and thus
allowing more easily sleep, which is so all-important
when semi-starvation has to be endured. We are
inclined to believe that, used with due moderation,
tobacco is of value second only to food itself, when
long privations and exertions are to be endured.'

Referring to a French society which acts upon the
principle that 'tobacco is always useless, often harm-
ful, and sometimes homicidal,' the Laficet recently
laid down the truth as to good and cheap tobacco :

'We agree in so far that we allow tobacco to be
sometimes very harmful. It is, of course, a poison ;
but so is tea, as also coffee, two vegetable products
which are consumed by nearly every inhabitant of
either England or France. All three can be and very
often are abused, but this does not do away with
their reasonable use. In these days of rush and
hurry tobacco has often a soothing and restful effect.
The tobacco sold in France is, to put it mildly, not
good, and though in England it is possible to buy
fairly good tobacco, it is next door to impossible to

3IO The Soverane Herbe

get it pure — that is to say, it is nearly always
scented or treated in some way so as to give it an
artificial flavour. Cigars are beyond the purse of any
but the rich, and as for cigarettes, the filth sold as
such is beyond description. A pure tobacco society
would be an admirable institution, and as for traders
saying "Customers like scented tobacco," the customer
seldom gets the chance of smoking anything else.
The truth is that, as in the case of highly-scented
tea or soap, it is cheaper to " fake " inferior qualities
of stuff than to supply the real thing. To be un-
sophisticated, an article must be of good quality ;
but the craze for cheapness is ruining everything, and
when people buy cigarettes at is, iid. a hundred, it
is not to be wondered at that they get — well, an in-
ferior article.'

CHAPTER XVIII

TO SMOKE OR NOT TO SMOKE ?

Charles Lamb's noonday opinion of smoking — Medical opinion
of smoking — Drs. Pereira, Christison, Brodie, B. W. Richard-
son, Lankester, Andrew Wilson — French Government in-
quiry into smoking — Not immoral — Tolstoi on smoking —
Sm.oking not inducive to drinking — The contemplative
man's recreation — Its opposition to chatter and talkation —
' Divine, rare, super-excellent tobacco.'

This question is really synonymous with Hamlet's
famous soliloquy, for smoke is life to many. There
are few people, however, bold and independent, un-
prejudiced and open-minded enough to discuss this
question in a fair spirit. Mankind is naturally divided
into two classes — those who smoke and those who
do not. The former answer the question by lighting
a pipe, and the latter by distributing anti-smoking
pamphlets. In neither case is the question fairly
argued without prejudice.

' What do you think about smoking ?' asked Charles
Lamb of Coleridge. ' I want your sober average
noon opinion of it ; generally I am eating my dinner
about the time I should determine it. . . . Morning
is a girl and can't smoke — she's no evidence one
way or another; and Night is so evidently bought over

312 The Soverane Herbe

that he can't be a very upright judge. Maybe the
truth is that one pipe is wholesome, two pipes tooth-
some, three pipes noisome, four pipes fulsome, five
pipes quarrelsome, and that's the sum on't. But that
is deciding upon rhyme rather than reason. After all,
our instincts may be best.'

It is on medical grounds that smoking is frequently
objected to. There is probably no secular subject
which has been the theme of such heated and lengthy
argument as has been smoking. At first praised by
doctors, then reviled, smoking is now adjudged by
the faculty to be more beneficial than harmful.

Dr. Jonathan Pereira declared : ' I am not acquainted
with any well-ascertained ill-effects resulting from
the habitual practice of smoking.'

Sir Robert Christison said : ' In many individuals
who use it habitually the smoke has an extraordinary
power in removing exhaustion, listlessness, and rest-
lessness, especially when brought on by bodily and
mental fatigue, and this property is the basis of its
general use as an article of luxury.'

Sir Benjamin Brodie drew a lurid and gloomy
picture of the evils consequent on smoking to excess,
but he admitted that ' if tobacco-smokers would limit
themselves to the occasional indulgence of their
appetites they would do little harm to themselves and
others.' Like tea, coffee, and stimulants, he regarded
the human taste for tobacco as almost an instinct.

Dr. Sir B. W. Richardson, after minutely analyzing
the symptoms and diseases caused by smoking, and
condemning it by no means gently, concluded that
' its moderate use prevents waste and soothes the

To Smoke or Not to Smoke ? 313

mind and body. It is innocuous as compared with
alcohol, it does infinitely less harm than opium, it
is in no sense worse than tea, and by the side of
high living altogether it contrasts most favourably.'

Dr. Lankester has said : ' If you will not give up
this habit of smoking from motives of economy,
from a sense of its uncleanliness, from its making
the breath smell bad and your clothes filthy, from its
polluting your hands and your house and driving
women from you who do not smoke, I dare not, as a
physiologist or a statist, tell you that there exists any
proof of its injurious influence when used in modera-
tion. I know how difficult it is to define moderation,
and yet in my heart I believe that every one of
you has an internal monitor that will guide you to
the true explanation of it in your case. The first
symptoms of giddiness, of sickness, of palpitation, of
weakness, of indolence, of uneasiness, whilst smoking
should induce you to lay it aside. These are the
physiological indications of its disagreement, which
if you neglect you may find increase upon you and
seriously embarrass your health.'

In answer to the question, * Is tobacco-smoking
injurious ?' Dr. Andrew Wilson has written :

' I should say that to certain persons tobacco acts
as a subtle poison, but these are exceptional cases ;
they rank with cases in which mutton or salmon,
otherwise healthy foods, make certain people very ill
indeed. The vast majority of smokers who smoke
in moderation do not, I believe, derive any ill-effects
from their enjoyment of the weed. If tobacco be
smoked to excess it will produce tobacco blindness.

314 The Soverane Herbe

and will cause certain heart troubles which are known
to doctors under the name of " smoker's heart." Both
ailments are cured by giving up tobacco for a time
and by using it afterwards in strict moderation.
Tobacco is a sedative, and has certainly a soothing
effect on mankind. It is not a necessity of life, but
is a luxury, and I suspect it has to be ranked with
these little " extras " in the way of additions to our
life which have for their aim the rendering of exist-
ence a little more pleasurable and contented. Most,
if not all, nations, it is curious to observe, have some
such form of indulgence to be laid to their credit.
Even savage peoples discover some representative or
other, for example, of the " wine that cheers " the
heart of their more civilized neighbours. It seems
as though there existed a craving in humanity at
large for some form of stimulant on the one hand^ or
for some other kind of narcotic on the other, and
this craving is satisfied in one fashion or another
according to the climate, degree of civilization, and
opportunities of any particular nation whose habits
we may examine.'

The judicial tone of these dicta is evident ; there
is no partiality displayed towards tobacco, and its
use in moderation is declared to be absolutely bene-
ficial. In striking contrast with the rabid denuncia-
tion of tobacco by doctors thirty or forty years ago
is the equanimity with which smoking is now re-
garded by the faculty.

About twenty years ago a Bill was introduced into
the French Chamber of Deputies to prohibit smoking
by children under sixteen years of age. The

To Smoke or Not to Smoke ? 315

principle of the measure was agreed to, but the
practical difficulties of its enforcement led to its
rejection. The Government agreed, however, to the
appointment of a Commission to inquire ' Whether
the noxious action of tobacco is sufficiently proved
to become a subject of consideration as a matter
affecting the public health.' The verdict was in the
affirmative, but with the very qualifying rider that
except in cases of excessive smoking the injury is
infinitesimal. This, it should be noted, applied to
French tobacco.

Excess, of course, is inevitably injurious. A
Government inquiry is not needed to discover that.
It is noteworthy, however, that the crusade in
France is headed by ' The Society against the Abuse
of Tobacco.' English anti-smokers protest against
its use, even when it may be, and is, beneficial.

During this French inquiry an interesting fact was
brought to light. One of the subjects of investigation
was whether crimes of violence were instigated by the
use of tobacco. Not a single case was found where
crime had been committed vi^hen smoking, the nearest
instance being that of a criminal who admitted that
he always smoked a cigar when forging a signature,
as he found it calmed his nerves and steadied his
hand. Similar investigations in Germany had the
same result, as had an unofficial inquiry in England.
In the words of the report, ' A man who is smoking
is not likely to commit a bad act. Tobacco seems to
make him better natured and more resigned.'

Yet Tolstoi declares that man smokes, not from
inclination, nor for pleasure, distraction, or amuse-

3i6 The Soverane Herbe

ment, but * simply and solely to drown the voice of
conscience. The brain -clouding fumes paralyze
conscience.' If conscience has any influence for
good deeds and benevolence, then this does not
hold good. When is man more generous and
charitable, more benevolent and beneficent, than
when smoking ? Are non-smokers ex officio more
virtuous? * Be careful of smoking,' said an old
colonel to young Disraeli ; ' My cigar lost me the
most beautiful woman in the world. Smoking has
prevented more liaisons than the dread of a duel or
Doctor's Commons.' ' You prove it a very moral
habit,' replied Disraeli.

One of the slanders hurled at smoking is that it
leads to drinking. Nothing is more absurd and
false. Many teetotalers are hard smokers ; hard
smoking and hard drinking rarely go together.
Nowadays, indeed, smoking is to man what wine
used to be. Nicotia divides with Bacchus the task
of pleasing and refreshing man ; hence Bacchus
is much less worshipped than before the advent
of Nicotia. Watch two men, one a smoker, the
other a non-smoker, drinking. The latter finishes
his glass before the smoker has filled and lit his pipe.
It stands to reason that a man with nothing to do but
drink — no pipe to load, smoke, keep alight — drinks
more than one so employed. Observation confirms
this fact, as an hour in any place where men do
congregate to drink and smoke will prove.

Again, it is noteworthy, as pointed out previously,
that the renascence of smoking in England synchro-
nized with the decrease of drunkenness. When

To Smoke or Not to Smoke ? 317

tobacco began to be smoked by the upper classes forty
or fifty years ago, to be ' as drunk as a lord ' was a
popular comparative. It was then the exception for
gentlemen to arrive in the drawing-room from dessert
undiminished in numbers and sanity. The introduc-
tion of tobacco after dinner has undoubtedly decreased
drunkenness. There are few men who do not enjoy
a smoke more than a drink, and who, obliged to
surrender alcohol or tobacco, would give up the
latter. Nowadays, instead of sitting down to claret
in single-minded purpose, the diner lights his cigar.
He sips while he smokes ; he does not smoke while
drinking. The consequence is that wine is slighted
for tobacco ; Bacchus is deserted for Nicotia, for no
man can serve two masters. It is a complaint of
members of the passing generation that men of the
young school do not care for wine, and scorn it for
cigar or cigarette.

To smoke or not to smoke ? If not, why not ?
Physically, mentally, and morally beneficial, what
pleasure can exceed the delectable devotion of
smoking ? With pipe and pouch your smoker needs
no other companion or pleasure. He takes it about
with him, and it never fails him if he never fails it.
There is no cheaper and purer pleasure than that of a
quiet smoke —

' Sweet when the morn is gray.
Sweet when they've cleared away
Lunch, and at close of day
Possibly sweetest.'

In these days of spasmodic speed, volcanic rush,
and eternal hurry, when quiet has lost its meaning

3i8 The Soverane Herbe

and speed, not perfection, is the universal aim,
tobacco affords man a resting-place and shelter
from storm and stress. Smoking leads to contem-
plation and meditation. There are people who
cannot do nothing ; inaction is impossible to them,
and yet though eternally busy they do nothing.
A smoking man may be slow to commence, but he
accomplishes his task better than the fraternity of fuss.
Smoking affords man an opportunity for formulating
his plans ; he takes his time about things, judges
the ultimate effect of the action he is about to take,
shaping his plans accordingly. He is cautious to
move, but having surveyed his ground, marches forward
boldly, knowing and ready to overcome the obstacles
in his path. But he does not dawdle ; his pipe
teaches him that action must be prompt. He must
keep his pipe in, the tobacco aglow.

Tobacco the parent of idleness and indolence Were
the worthies of Queen Elizabeth indolent from the use
of tobacco, or did they not find it ' make them more
useful in their callings ' ? Were Raleigh, Cromwell,
Tennyson, Carlyle and all the noble army of smokers
made indolent and lazy by their use of tobacco?
Did it make them less noble, less able to perform
their life duties, or did it not smooth their lives, calm
their souls, and inspire some of their great projects
and noble thoughts ?

Half an hour's quiet smoke is good for soul, mind
and body. Over a pipe man calmly regards himself,
his life, his deeds. It removes him from the bondage
of the body, raises his thoughts to a higher plane,
and open his eyes to the reality of things. As Sam

To Smoke or Not to Smoke ? 319

Slick said, a man no sooner gets a pipe in his mouth
than he becomes a philosopher. Tobacco calms his
body, sweeps away the memory of petty, irritating
incidents, stimulates his mind and soul, reveals him-
self to himself, consoles him for past blunders, inspires
him to better things in the future. What non-smoker
ever meditates and contemplates himself? He abhors
being alone, which is hell to him. The smoker with-
draws from the rush and stir of life to examine life,
to view it dispassionately, and to shape it by higher
things than mere terrestrial considerations. The
reverie is as helpful as humiliating. The silence of
smoking, the opposition of tobacco to gabbling and
irresponsible chatter, was a great virtue in Carlyle's
eyes. ' Tobacco- smoke,' he wrote, 'is the one
element in which by our European manners men can
be silent together without embarrassment, and where
no man is bound to speak one word more than he
has actually and veritably got to say. ... At all
events, to hold his peace and take to his pipe again
the instant he has spoken his meaning, if he chance
to have any.'

Tobacco is the true volapuk ; she speaks the same
message of joy, sympathy and aspiration to all the
peoples of the earth. Steadily and constantly it is
promoting civilization, amity and sobriety among the
nations ; when all mankind smoke, then will all
mankind be brothers.

To smoke is to obtain a truce with the irritating
miseries, the petty annoyances and pin-pricks of life.
It stimulates the mind, clears the ideas, and captures
in its caresses thoughts that otherwise escape. In

320 The Soverane Herbe

physical toil it lessens the sensation of fatigue ; it
removes worry and discouragement. It subdues
anger and irritation against others and yourself. It
soothes pain, consoles sorrow, softens grief and
heightens joy.

To the young man it teaches patience with, and
gives wisdom for, the trials that beset the beginning
of life ; gives advice as to his actions, and inspires
him with a steadfast purpose. The middle-aged man
it sustains, soothes and comforts. To the old man
who has drunk to the very dregs the cup of life
tobacco brings calm and consolation ; in its fragrant
cloud he forgets his griefs and troubles, and recalls
his pleasures and triumphs. Tobacco is all things to
all men : to the young, youthful ; to the mature, ripe
and mellow ; to the old, old in comfort, yet ever new ;
to the joyful, joyous ; to the saddened, sympathetic ;
to the defeated and baffled, hope emerges from its
fairy wreaths ; to one and all of its myriad lovers, of
all ages, nations and tongues, Tobacco is

' Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes,
Peace in the hush of twilight, balm ere my eyelids close.'

INDEX

Ability to smoke, 285
Abuse of tobacco, 220, 226
Abyssinia, tobacco in, 53
Action of tobacco, 301, 309
Adulteration, 132-134
Africa, smoking in, 53 ; pipes of,
159

* Age, Smoaking, ' Braithwait's, 22 5
Amber mouthpieces, 172
America, discovery of smoking,

8, 48

American cigars, 189 ; varieties of

tobacco, 113
Ancient use of herbal fiimes, 18
Anti-tobacco books, early, 219
Army, smoking forbidden in, 89
Art of smoking, 65
Ash of tobacco, loi, 194, 298
Asia, introduction of tobacco into,

36

Asia, pipes of, 157
Australia, tobacco culture in, 117
Austria, tobacco forbidden in, 36 ;
pipes of, 156

Bacon on tobacco, 238
Balzac and national use of tobacco,
55

Barrie, J. M., on tobacco, 231
Benefits of smoking, Lancet on,
309

Bcbt form of tobacco, 305

• Bird's Eye,' 125

Bismarck and tobacco, 247, 279
Blending tobacco leaf, 120
Blue, smoke from pipe, 299
Bond, tobacco in, 119
Boxes, tobacco, 160

Brands of tobacco, 120 ; of snuflF,
269

Briar pipes, 153, 169

Brodie, Sir B., on tobacco, 311

Bulls, Papal, against tobacco, 35,

38, 40
Burma, smoking in, 51
Burton ('Anatomy of Melancholy')

on tobacco, 229
Bye-products of smoking, 298
Byron's eulogy on tobacco, 229

Cake and roll tobacco, 128
Carlyle on tobacco, 251, 318
Carved pipes, 140, 151
Cavendish and negrohead, 130
Children, smoking by, 49, 51, 78,
80, 291

China, smoking in, 22, 50, 157
Chinese leaf, II 6

Christison's, Dr., opinion of
smoking, 311

Churches, tobacco in, 35, 36, 40,
82, 260, 282

Cigar, history of, 179 ; primitive
form, 180; meaning of word,
179; introduced into Northern
Europe, 181 ; into England, 188

Cigar-box, trade terms on, 187

Cigars, growth of leaf in Cuba for,
182 ; class of leaf, 183 ; manu-
facture of Havanas, 189 ; other
makes, 190 ; British made, 191

Cigars, colour of, 194

Cigars, selection of, 193 ; how to
smoke, 308

Cigars, speeches on, 187

Cigars, price of, 191

21

322

Index

Cigar-stump exchange, 289
Cigars, world's consumption of,

19s. 213
Cigarette, primitive form, 196
Cigarettes introduced into Eng-
land, 197
Cigarettes, popularity of, 203
Cigarettes, paper for, 200
Cigarettes, manufacture of, by

hand, 199 ; by machine, 200
Cigarettes, Egyptian, 202 ; French,

202 ; Turkish, 201
Cigarettes, hygienic aspect of,
Sir Henry Thompson on, 205,
308; Lancei on, 306
Clay pipes, how made, 164
Cleaning pipes, 177
Clergy and snuff, 260, 283
Climate and tobacco, 136
Colonization by tobacco, 73
Colour of cigars, 194 ; of pipe-
tobacco, 114, 13s
Colourers of pipes, 289
Constitution of tobacco, 107, 297,
299

Consumption of tobacco in Eng-
land, 92, 207, 211, 212 ; during
nineteenth century, 216

Consumption per head in Europe,
216

Consumption, world's, 215
Consumption of cigars, world's,
195

Contests, smoking, 287
Cost of pipes, 147, 151, 156, 158
Cost of smoking, 213
Cost of tobacco, comparative, 134 ;
seventeenth century, 60, 68, 85,

117, 134
Councils, smoking, 83, 246, 279
' Counterblaste ' of James I., 220
Cowper on tobacco, 22, 245
Criminal, smoking not, 314
Cromwell a smoker, 240
Crop of tobacco, gathering, 105 ;

amount of, per annum, 215
Cuba, smoking discovered in, 48,

179

Cultivation of tobacco plant in
America, 100 ; in Australia,
117 ; Asia, 115 ; Europe, 215

Cultivation of tobacco in England,
33, 62, 77, no; Mr. Gladstone
on prohibition of, 112

Curing leaf, 106

Cut tobaccos, 123 ; navy cut, 127

Damping leaf, 121

Dark v. light leaf, 114, 135

Daudet, Alphonse, on tobacco, 253

Decline of smoking in England,
85 ; of snuff, 275

Defence of tobacco, 219, 223, 227

Degradation of smoking in Eng-
land, 88

'Divine' tobacco, 219

Drawback on tobacco, 128, 209

' Drinking tobacco,' 61

Drying leaf, 106

Duty on tobacco under Elizabeth,
206 ; raised by James I., 32 ;
rise and fall, 208 ; present table
of duties, 209

Duty oil cigars, 209

Duty, heaviness of, 134, 210

Duty, how paid, 120, 134

Duty, revenue from, 212

Dutch tobacco, 116

Dutch pipes, 156

Edward VII., King, a smoker, 255
Egyptian cigarettes, 202
Elfin pipes, 148

Elizabeth and Raleigh's wager, 26
England, tobacco introduced into,
14 ; first smoking described,
15 ; smoking popularized by
Raleigh, ly ; smoking in, de-
scribed by foreigners, 61, 78;
pipes in, 146
England, culture of tobacco in, 34,

62, 77, no, 112
England, snuff in, 262
England, tobacco monopoly in, 34
England's tobacco bill, 213
English account of Indian smoking,

first, 10
English smokers, first, 56
Esquimau.v, tobacco among, 46
Europe, tobacco introduced into

12

Index

323

Europe's annual crop of tobacco,
213 ; consumption per head,
216

Evolution of the pipe, 138
Evolution of smoking, 2, 5
Exaltation of smoking, 83
Excess, smoking to, 305
Export, drying and packing leaf

for, no
Export of Havanas, 195

Fables, tobacco, 224
Fairholt's 'Plistory of Tobacco,'
231

Eairy pipes, 148

Fashionable smoking under

James I., 60
Fermentation of leaf, 106
First English smokers, 25, 57
Fourier on national smoking, 55
France, tobacco introduced, 12;
prohibited, 35 ; progress of, 41 ;
snuff, 261 ; Government in-
quiry, 314 ; pipes of, 154
Frederick the Great and tobacco,

246, 272
French cigarettes, 202
French description of English
smoking, 78, 81

Gathering tobacco crop, 105
General use under Elizabeth, 61 ;

James, 66 ; William III., 82 ;

Queen Anne, 84
Genius and tobacco, 257
Genus of tobacco plant, 98
German Empire formed in smoke,

279

German Emperor's smoke, 256

German pipes, 155

Gladstone, Mr., on prohibition of

tobacco culture in England, 1 12;

dislike to tobacco, 248
Government and tobacco, 278
Grades of leaf, 104
Great Plague, tobacco in, 78
Greek Church, prohibition by,

36

Growth of tobacco plant, 103, 113,
215

Harlot's description of Indian

smoking, 10
Havana cigars, 181 ; growth of

leaf, 184 ; manufacture, 185 ;

export, 195
Herbs, ancient smoking of, 18
Himalayan pipe, 52
Histories of tobacco, 231
Hobbes on tobacco, 238
Holland, tobacco introduced, 42
Holmes, O. W., on tobacco, 252
Hookahs and narghiles, 157
Horn mouthpieces, 173
Huxley's conversion to tobacco,

252

Hygiene of tobacco, 305 ; notes
for smokers, 308

Importation of tobacco into
United Kingdom, 118; amount,
"7, 213

Incense, original of smoking, 2, 3
Increase of smoking, nineteenth

century, 78, 213
India, tobacco in, 52
Indian ceremonial and religious

use of tobacco, 2, 5, II, 47,

138, 141
Indian legend of pipe, 142
Indian pipes, 138
Indian smoking, accounts of, 7 5

snuff, 259
Indigestion and tobacco, 303
Insect enemies of tobacco, 102,

182

Introduction of tobacco into

Europe, 12 ; England, 14, 28 ;

Asia, 36
Ireland, snuff in, 262
Italy: introduction of tobacco, 13 ;

freed by tobacco, 44 ; cigars of,

190

James I.'s opposition to tobacco,

32 ; ' Counterblasle,' 220
Japan, smoking in, 50
Japanese leaf, 1 16
Jesuits and tobacco, 40
Johnson, Dr., on smoking, 243
Jonson, Ben, on smoking, 227
Juvenile smoking, 80, 291
21 — 2

324

Index

Kapnometer, 295
King of smokers, 285
King Edward VII. a smoker, 256 ;
royal smokers, 257

Ladies, smoking by, 66, 95
Lamb, Charles, on tobacco, 244,
310

Laruet on cigarettes, 306 ; pipes,
175 ; pure tobacco, 310; benefits
of tobacco, 309

Lang's, Andrew, legend of tobacco,
233

Lankester, Professor, on smoking,

312
Latakia, 116

Laws against smoking, 35, 45, 77,
293

Leaf tobacco, varieties of, 113 ;
curing, 106 ; grades of, 104 ;
light and dark, 114, 135 ; nature
of, 107; packing, no; price
of, 117; imports, 1 17; manu-
facturing, 118
Legend, Indian, of tobacco, 11,

142, 232
Literature of tobacco, 216
Locke, John, on tobacco, 239
Longfellow : Indian pipes, 143
Low status of smoking, eighteenth

century, 86
Lowell in praise of tobacco, 229
Lytton in praise of tobacco, 232,
252

Mahomet and tobacco, 37, 233

Manila cigars, 189

Manufacture : of leaf, 120 ; pipes,

164 ; cigars, 184 ; cigarettes,

197

Mazzini smokes out assassins, 248
Medical opinions of tobacco, 219,
233,. 311

Medicine, tobacco as, 28, 259,

270, 296
Meerschaum, 152, 166
Meredith, George, on tobacco, 254
Mexico, tobacco in, 47
Microbes produce flavour of

tobacco, 108
Milton and tobacco, 24

Mixtures, smoking, 12^
Moisture in tobacco, 134
Moliere on snuff, 271
Monopoly of tobacco : in England,

34 ; abroad, 214
Morality of smoking, 314
Mouth, smoke from, gray, 299
Mouthpieces, 172

Napoleon's attempt to smoke, 246
Narghile, 158

National smoking, Fourier and

Balzac on, 55
Nature of tobacco leaf, 107
Navy-cut, 127
Negrohead, 131
Newton, Isaac, 239
Nicot introduces tobacco into

France, 13
Nicotiana Tabacum, 100
Nicotine, 297

Nineteenth century, revival of
smoking in, 90

Opposition to smoking in England,
32

Origin of smoking, religious, 2, 5
Origin of tobacco, various accounts

of, 32, zpg, 221, 225, 233
Overdose of tobacco, 302
Ovid of tobacco, 224

Packeting tobacco, 131
Parliament and tobacco, 33, 70, 81
Parr, Dr., 243
Pope, 255

Penalties of smoking, 38
Penn and tobacco, 242
Pereira, Dr., on tobacco, 311
Persecution of smoking, 32, 36, 40
Persia, tobacco in, 37, 52
Persian legend, 233
Philippines, tobacco in, 49, 189
Pipes, cleaning of, 177 ; colourers
of, 289

Pipes, Lancet on choosing, 175
Pipes, varieties of, 139 ; manu-
facture of, 162 ; evolution of,
2, S, 138; first English, 60, 147;
Indian stone pipes, 141 ; fairy
and elfin pipes, 148 ; meer-

Index

schaum, 152, 165; clay, 164;

wooden, 153
Plague, Great, tobacco in, 78
Plant, names of tobacco, 41 ;

cultivation, loi, 182
Poetry of tobacco, 229
Poison, tobacco as, so tea and

coffee, 301
Politics and smoking, 240, 246,

257. 273. 279
Polynesia, tobacco in, 49
Popes and tobacco, 35, 38, 40,

255

Popular use of tobacco, increase
of, 90

Population, amount consumed per
head in England, 212 ; in
Europe, 216
Prehistoric smoking, 4, 18, 139
Price of tobacco, 60, 68, 85, 117,
134, 191

Prophylactic virtues of tobacco,
304

Puritans and tobacco, 71
Purity of tobacco, Lancet on, 133,
309

Railways, smoking on, first per-
mitted, 93

Raleigh and tobacco, 17, 25, 27,
237

Rapid increase of smoking in
nineteenth century, 76, 211

Religious origin of smoking, 2, 5,
138

Renascence of smoking, 91

' Returns,' 125

Revenue from tobacco, 212

Richardson, SirB.W.,on smoking,

3"
Ruskin, 252

Russia, tobacco in, 36, 45

Sacrificial origin of smoking, 2
Satanic origin of tobacco, 36, 221,
226

School for smoking, 47, 62, 80
Scott's, Sir Walter, meerschaum,

153
Shag, 125
Shiraz, 116

Siam, tobacco in, 51
Silence of tobacco, Carlyle on,
318

Sleights of smoking, 63
Smoke from mouth blue, 299
Smoking, effects of, 303, 309
Smoking : first seen by Columbus,
6; described, 7; religious origin
of, 2 ; persecution for, 35
Smoking in England before six-
teenth century, 19 ; introduction,
57 ; popularity under James I.,
61 ; the fashion, 81 ; discussed
by Parliament, 70 ; decline, 86 ;
revival, 90, 197
Snuff: Indian mode of taking, 259 ;
introduced into Europe, 258 ;
fashionable in France, 261 ; in
England, 85, 264; age of snufiF,
263 ; in Ireland, 261 ; decline,
276

Snuff and clergy, 35, 260, 283
Snuff and statesmanship, 247
Snuff-boxes, 266
Snuffers, famous, 271
Snuff, manufacture of, 261, 268,
274

Snuff, medical uses of, 260, 270
Soil for tobacco culture, 100
Sowing tobacco, loi
Spain, smoking in, 44
Spenser and tobacco, 237
Spurgeon, 254

Status of smoking, social, 65, 92
Stevenson, R. L., 253
Stoppers, tobacco, 161
Storing tobacco, 124
' Stripping ' leaf, 122
'Sweating ' or curing tobacco, 106
Swinburne, Algernon, 251
Switzerland, tobacco in, 37 ; pipes
of, 156

Talleyrand on snuff, 247
Teaching to smoke, 62, 79
Tennyson's love for tobacco, 249
Theology and tobacco, 35, 81,

87, 241, 243, 254, 260, 283
Thompson, Sir Hy., on cigarettes,

205

' Throat, smoker's,' 303

Tobacco : ash of, 297 ; vawfeties.

of plant, 98 ; constitutioiNtjf

leaf, 297 ; culture of, loi, 182 ;

manufacture of, 1 19
Tobacco boxes and stoppers, 160
Tobacco, duty on, 119, 209
Tobacco, Lancet on pure, 309
Tobacco, revenue from, 214
Tobacco, various names of, 8, 41
'Tobacconist,' original meaning of,

61

Tobago, first pipe, 5
Tolstoi on smoking, 253, 314
Turkey, tobacco in, 37
Turkish leaf, 116; cigarettes, 201
Twain, Mark, 254
Tyranny and tobacco, 44, 62, 240,
246, 278

Unmanufactured tobacco, 118
Urban VIII., bull against tobacco,
35

Valuable pipes, 151
Value of tobacco consumed in
England, 213

ex

Van Klaes, king of smokers, 285
Varieties of tobacco plant, 98 ;

of leaf, 113
Vega or tobacco farm, 182
Virginia founded in smoke, 73
Vuelta Abajo, 181, 186
Vulcanite mouthpieces, 176

Walton, Izaak, 241

War, pipe of, 146 ; tobacco in,

293. 309
Water in tobacco, 122, 134
WeUington, Duke of, 89
Wetting down, 121
Why men smoke, 253, 314
William III., smoking under,

81

Wilson, Dr. Andrew, on smoking,
312

Woman and tobacco, 6b, 73,
95

Wooden pipes, 153, 169
World's consumption of tobacco,
215

Zola's theory, 253

THE END

BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD

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