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Title: Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce

Author: E. R. Billings

Release date: January 31, 2008 [eBook #24471]
Most recently updated: January 3, 2021

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOBACCO;
ITS HISTORY, VARIETIES, CULTURE, MANUFACTURE AND
COMMERCE ***
Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all other
inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling has been maintained.

Page 62-63: The part between = obviously did not belong in that place and has
been removed, "From this time forward the Plantation seemed to prosper,
Charles granted lands to all the planters and adventurers who would till them,
upon paying the annual sum of two shillings payable to the crown for each
hundred acres. =direction, appointing the governor and council himself, and=
Before the death of King James, however, the cultivation of tobacco had become
so extensive that every other product seemed of but little value in comparison
with it, and the price realized from its sale being so much greater than that
obtained for "Corne," the latter was neglected and its culture almost entirely
abandoned."

Page 115: The verse "And can but end with time;" was missing and has been
added.

TOBACCO:
ITS
HISTORY, VARIETIES, CULTURE,
MANUFACTURE AND COMMERCE,

WITH

AN ACCOUNT OF ITS VARIOUS MODES OF USE, FROM ITS FIRST
DISCOVERY UNTIL NOW.

BY

E. R. BILLINGS.

With Illustrations by Popular Artists.

"My Lord, this sacred herbe which never offendit,
Is forced to crave your favor to defend it."

Barclay.

"But oh, what witchcraft of a stronger kind,
Or cause too deep for human search to find,
Makes earth-born weeds imperial man enslave,—
Not little souls, but e'en the wise and brave!"

Arbuckle.

HARTFORD, CONN.:
AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY,
1875.

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1875, by the
AMERICAN PUBLISHING CO.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D.C.

Is it not wondrous strange that there should be
Such different tempers twixt my friend and me?
I burn with heat when I tobacco take,
But he on th' other side with cold doth shake:
To both 'tis physick, and like physick works,
The cause o' th' various operation lurks
Not in tobacco, which is still the same,
But in the difference of our bodies frame:
What's meat to this man, poison is to that,
And what makes this man lean, makes that man fat;
What quenches one's thirst, makes another dry;
And what makes this man wel, makes that man dye.

Thomas Washbourne, D.
D.

Thy quiet spirit lulls the lab'ring brain,
Lures back to thought the flights of vacant mirth,
Consoles the mourner, soothes the couch of pain,
And wreathes contentment round the humble hearth;
While savage warriors, soften'd by thy breath,
Unbind the captive, hate had doomed to death.

Rev. Walter Colton.

Whate'er I do, where'er I be,
My social box attends on me;
It warms my nose in winter's snow,
Refreshes midst midsummer's glow;
Of hunger sharp it blunts the edge,

And softens grief as some alledge.
Thus, eased of care or any stir,
I broach my freshest canister;
And freed from trouble, grief, or panic,
I pinch away in snuff balsamic.
For rich or poor, in peace or strife,
It smooths the rugged path of life.

Rev. William King.

Hail! Indian plant, to ancient times unknown—
A modern truly thou, and all our own!
Thou dear concomitant of nappy ale,
Thou sweet prolonger of an old man's tale.
Or, if thou'rt pulverized in smart rappee,
And reach Sir Fopling's brain (if brain there be),
He shines in dedications, poems, plays,
Soars in Pindarics, and asserts the bays;
Thus dost thou every taste and genius hit—
In smoke thou'rt wisdom, and in snuff thou'rt wit.

Rev. Mr. Prior.

TO
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER,

Whose rare, good gifts have endeared him to all lovers of the English
tongue, this volume, historically and practically treating of one of the
greatest of plants, as well as the rarest of luxuries, is respectfully dedicated
by

The Author.

PREFACE.

Ever since the discovery of tobacco it has been the favorite theme of
many writers, who have endeavored to shed new light on the origin and
early history of this singular plant. Upwards of three hundred volumes have
been written, embracing works in nearly all of the languages of Europe,
concerning the herb and the various methods of using it. Most writers have
confined themselves to the commercial history of the plant; while others
have written upon its medicinal properties and the various modes of
preparing it for use. For this volume the Author only claims that it is at least
a more comprehensive treatise on the varieties and cultivation of the plant
than any work now extant. A full account of its cultivation is given, not only
in America, but also in nearly all of the great tobacco-producing countries
of the world. The history of the plant has been carefully and faithfully
compiled from the earliest authorities, that portion which relates to its early
culture in Virginia being drawn from hitherto unpublished sources.
Materials for such a work have not been found lacking. European authors
abound with allusions to tobacco; more especially is it true of English
writers, who have celebrated its virtues in poetry and song. All along the
highways and by-paths of our literature we encounter much that pertains to
this "queen of plants." Considered in what light it may, tobacco must be
regarded as the most astonishing of the productions of nature, since it has,
in the short period of nearly four centuries, dominated not one particular
nation, but the whole world, both Christian and Pagan. Ushered into the Old
World from the New by the great colonizers—Spain, England, and France
—it attracted at once the attention of the authors of the period as a fit
subject for their marvel-loving pens. It has been the aim of the writer to
give as much as possible of the existing material to be had concerning the
early persecution waged against it, whether by Church or State. These

accounts, while they invest with additional interest its early use and
introduction, serve as well to show its triumph over all its foes and its vast
importance to the commerce of the world. This work has been prepared and
arranged, not only for the instruction and entertainment of the users of
tobacco, but for the benefit of the cultivators and manufacturers as well. As
such it is now presented to the public for whatever meed of praise or
censure it is found to deserve.

Hartford, Conn., 1875.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page

1. Frontispiece. —
2. Tobacco Stalks. 22
3. Tobacco Leaves. 24
4. Bud and Flowers. 25
5. Capsules. (Fruit Bud.) 27
6. Suckers. 28
7. Primitive Pipe. 33
8. Native Smoking. 35
9. Old Engraving. 40
10. The Contrast. 44
11. John Rolfe. 48
12. Virginia Tobacco Field, 1620. 51
13. Buying Wives. 57
14. Growing Tobacco in the Streets. 64
15. Natives Growing Tobacco. 66
16. Destroying Suckers. 69
17. Carrying Tobacco to Market. 73
18. Enriching Plant-Bed. 75
19. Shipping Tobacco. 78
20. Old Engraving of Tobacco. 86
21. Sir Walter Raleigh. 89
22. English Gallants. 90
23. Smoking in the 17th Century. 94
24. Exhaling through the Nose. 97
25. Old London Ale-house. 101

26. Punishment for Snuff Taking. 104
27. Silver Spittoons. 106
28. The Negro Image. 108
29. Tobacco and Theology. 112
30. Weighing Smoke. 117
31. Indian Pipe. 126
32. Sculptured Pipe. 128
33. Pipe of Peace. 130
34. A Model Cigar. 132
35. South Americans smoking. 135
36. A War Pipe. 139
37. Peace Pipe. 140
38. A Tchuktchi Pipe. 143
39. Turk Smoking. 145
40. Old English Pipes. 148
41. French Pipes. 149
42. Pipe Colorer. 152
43. German Porcelain Pipes. 153
44. A Persian Water Pipe. 156
45. Searching for Amber. 160
46. Fancy Pipes. 162
47. Clay and Reed Pipes. 164
48. Fairy Pipes. 166
49. Female Smoking in Algiers. 168
50. African Pipe. 170
51. Egyptian Pipes. 172
52. Japanese Pipes. 173
53. Engraved Boxes. 177
54. Tobacco Jars. 179
55. Tobacco Stoppers. 181
56. Lord and Lackey. 185
57. The Strange Youth. 190
58. Smokers Reading Epigrams. 193
59. The Explosion. 195
60. Theory against Experience. 199
61. A Faithful Attendant. 203
62. Newton and his Pipe. 207

63. Tennyson, Smoking. 209
64. Modern Smokers. 212
65. The Artist. 215
66. The Yankee Smoker. 216
67. A Tobacco Grater. 220
68. Demi-journées. 222
69. James Gillespie. 224
70. Fops Taking Snuff. (From an old print.) 226
71. Horn Snuff-boxes. 227
72. Scotch Snuff-mills. 232
73. Sweeping from the Pulpit. 235
74. Snuff-mill a Century ago. 240
75. Perfuming Snuff. 242
76. Fuegian Snuff-Takers. 244
77. Snuff-Dipping. 247
78. Snuffers. 248
79. Fancy Snuff-boxes. 251
80. Curing a Headache. 255
81. Highlanders. 257
82. Cigars. 260
83. Cigar-holders. 262
84. Life in Mexico. 266
85. Cuban Cigar Shop. 268
86. Tobacco Leaf. 271
87. Wenches Smoking. 274
88. A Moonlight Reverie in Havana. 275
89. By the Sea. 277
90. An American Smoker. 279
91. "Light, Sir?" 282
92. Bringing a Light. 285
93. Making Cigars. 288
94. Havanas. 301
95. Yara Cigars. 303
96. Manilla Cigar and Cheroot. 304
97. Swiss Cigars. 306
98. Paraguay Cigars. 306
99. Connecticut Tobacco Field. 312

100. Home of the Connecticut Planter. 315
101. Negro Quarters. 317
102. The Planter's Home. 318
103. "Burning the Patch." 322
104. Stringing the Primings. 323
105. Worming. 325
106. Ohio Tobacco Field. 329
107. Tobacco Warehouse. 331
108. Kentucky Tobacco Plantation. 332
109. The Kentucky Planter. 334
110. Florida Tobacco Plantation. 336
111. Louisiana Tobacco Plantation. 338
112. Mexican Tobacco Plantation. 342
113. St. Domingo Tobacco Field, 1535. 345
114. A Cuban vega. 346
115. Killing Bugs by Night. 348
116. Going to Market. 349
117. German Tobacco Field. 351
118. Dutch Planters. 355
119. Success to Von Tromp. 358
120. Tobacco Field in Algiers. 360
121. Tobacco Field in Africa. 361
122. Tobacco Field in Syria. 363
123. Tobacco Field in India. 365
124. Turkish Tobacco going to Market. 370
125. Japan Tobacco Field. 371
126. Transplanting. 372
127. Chinese Tobacco Field. 373
128. Tobacco Field in Persia. 374
129. Growing Tobacco on the Philippine Islands. 377
130. Tobacco Plow. 378
131. Spanish Planters. 380
132. Mexican Dwarf Tobacco. 384
133. Connecticut Seed Leaf. 385
134. Havana Tobacco. 387
135. Virginia Tobacco. 388
136. Ohio White Tobacco. 389

137. Latakia Tobacco (Syria). 393
138. Orinoco Tobacco (Venezuela). 397
139. Shiraz Tobacco (Persia). 398
140. Spanish Tobacco. 400
141. Japan Tobacco. 402
142. Old Connecticut Tobacco Shed. 406
143. Modern Connecticut Tobacco Shed. 407
144. Stripping Room. 408
145. Modern Virginia Shed. 409
146. Virginia Shed, 150 years ago. 410
147. Ohio Tobacco Shed. 412
148. Persian Tobacco Shed. 414
149. Making the Plant Bed in Connecticut. 418
150. Covering Plant Bed. 424
151. A Tobacco Ridger. 430
152. Drawing the Dirt Around the Foot. 432
153. Transplanting. 433
154. Transplanting. 434
155. American Transplanter. 437
156. The Worms. 438
157. Worming Tobacco. 439
158. Topping. 442
159. Suckering. 445
160. Cutting the Plants. 446
161. Putting on Lath. 447
162. Carrying to the Shed. 448
163. Stripping. 456
164. Hands. 457
165. Stemming. 460
166. Packing. 461
167. Prizing in Olden Times. 464
168. Tobacco Press. 467
169. Firing. 470
170. Spanish Seed Tobacco. 473

Page

CHAPTER I.

THE TOBACCO PLANT.

Botanical Description — Ancient Plant-Bed — Description
of the Leaves — Color of Leaves — Blossoms — The
Capsules and Seed — Selection for Seed — Suckers —
Nicotine Qualities — Medicinal Properties —
Improvement in Plants. 17

CHAPTER II.

TOBACCO. ITS DISCOVERY.

Early Use — Origin of its Name — Early Snuff-Taking —
Tobacco in Mexico — Comparative Qualities of Tobacco
— Origin of the Plant — Early Mammoth Cigars —
Sacredness of the Pipe — Early Cultivation — Proportions
of the Tobacco Trade — Variety of Kinds — Tobacco and
Commerce — Original Culture. 32

CHAPTER III.

TOBACCO IN AMERICA.

First General Planter — State of the Colony — Conditions
of Raising Tobacco — Tobacco Fields, 1620 — Increase of

Tobacco-Growing — Restriction of Tobacco-Growing —
Tobacco used as Money — King James opposes Tobacco-
Growing — Buying Wives with Tobacco — Foreign
Tobacco Prohibited — King Charles on Tobacco — King
Charles as a Tobacco Merchant — Tobacco Taxed —
Planting in Maryland — Negro Labor — Competition —
Growing Suckers — Virginia Lands — Picture of Early
Planters — Large Plantations — Getting to Market —
Virginia Plant-Bed — Maryland Plant-Bed — Tobacco
Growing in New York and Louisiana — New England
Tobacco — Commercial Value of Tobacco — Tobacco a
Blessing. 47

CHAPTER IV.

TOBACCO IN EUROPE.

Introduction — The Original Importer — Wonderful Cures
— How the Herb grew in Reputation — Difference of
Opinion — A Smoker's Rhapsody — Old Smokers — The
Queen Herb — Drinking Tobacco — Tobacco on the Stage
— Shakespeare on Tobacco — Smoking Taught — Ben
Jonson on the Weed — Curative Qualities — Modes of
Use — Held up to Ridicule — Tirades against Tobacco —
Tobacco Selling — Royal Haters of Tobacco — Old
Customs — A Racy Poem — A Smoking Divine. 80

CHAPTER V.

TOBACCO IN EUROPE. — Continued.

Popular use of Tobacco — Tobacco Glorified — Weight of
Smoke — Anecdotes — Triumph of Tobacco — A
Government Monopoly — Tobacco a Blessing. 111

CHAPTER VI.

TOBACCO PIPES, SMOKING AND SMOKERS.

Indian Pipes — Material for Pipes — Legend of the Red
Pipe — Chippewa Pipes — Making the Peace Pipes —
South American Pipes — Cigarettes — Tobacco on the
Amazon River — Brazilian Tobacco — Patagonians as
Smokers — Form and Material — Pipe of the Bobeen
Indians — The War Pipe — Pipe Sculpture — Smoking in
Alaska — Smoking in Russia — Smoking in Peru —
Smoking in Turkey — Moderate Smoking — Female
Smoking — Early Manufacture of Pipes — French Pipes.
124

CHAPTER VII.

PIPES AND SMOKERS. — Continued.

Meerschaum Pipes — Coloring Meerschaums — The City
of Smokers — Hudson as a smoker — Persian Water Pipes
— Turkish Pipes — Amber Mouth Pieces — Obtaining
Amber — Its Value — Variety of Pipes — History of Pipes
— Ancient Habit of Smoking — Buried Pipes — Jasmine
Pipes — Smoking in Algiers — Smoking in Africa —
Defence of Smoking — Tea and Tobacco — Chinese Pipes
— Smoking in Japan — Tobacco Boxes — Tobacco Jars
— Musings over a Pipe — Sad Fate of a Chewer —
Triumph of the Anti's — The Smoker's Calendar — Doctor
Parr as a Smoker — Smoking on the Battle-Field —
Literary Smokers — Doctor Clarke on Tobacco — Noted
Smokers — Pleasant Pipe — A Tobacco World — Cruelty
of Smokers — Men like Pipes — Universal Use. 150

CHAPTER VIII.

SNUFF, SNUFF-BOXES AND SNUFF-TAKERS.

Its Introduction — Boxes and Graters — Mode of
Preparation — Snuff-Boxes — A Celebrated Manufacturer
— The Snuffing Period — The Monk and his Snuff-Box
— A Pinch of Snuff — Pleasures of Smelling — Frederick
the Great — Eminent Snuff-Takers — The Story in Verse
— "Come to my Nose" — Snuff Manufacture —
Preparation of Tobacco — Grinding the Leaves —
Flavoring the Snuff — Profits Made — Love of Tobacco
— Chewing and Dipping — Advantages of Dipping —
The First Snuffers — Famous Snuff-Takers — Snuff as a
Pacificator — A National Stimulant — Different Tastes —
Rise and Progress of Snuff-Taking. 218

CHAPTER IX.

CIGARS.

New York Cigars — Havana Cigars — Quality of Havana
Cigars — Relative Value and Size — Cigar-Makers —
Cuban Cigars — Cigar Manufactories — Preparation of
the Tobacco — Sorting the Leaves — Sales, etc. — Large
Factories — Universal Smoking — Cigar Etiquette —
Reveries — Summer-Day Thoughts — American Smokers
— At Home — Sentiment — Ode to a Cigar — Cigar-
Lighters — Smoking an Art — Science of Lighting — Age
of Fusees — "Home-Made Cigars" — Female Cigar-
Makers — A Spicy Article — How to Smoke — Smoking
Christians — Lamb's Poem — Tobacco Compliment —
Cigarette Smoking — Thomas Hood's Cigar — Lord
Byron's Opinion — Kinds of Cigars — Selecting Cigars —
Yara Cigars — Manilla Cigars — Swiss Cigars —
Paraguay Cigars — Brazilian Cigars — American Cigars
— Connecticut Seed Leaf and Havana Cigars — The
Exile's Comfort. 259

CHAPTER X.

TOBACCO PLANTERS AND PLANTATIONS.

The Connecticut Planter — Intelligence of Tobacco
Growers — Best Connecticut Seed Leaf — Love for the
Plant — Virginia Planters — A Virginia Plantation — The
Plant-Patch — Planting, Topping and Priming —
Suckering — Crop-Gathering — Curing and Sorting —
Tobacco Markets — Ohio Tobacco — Mode of Cure —
Kentucky Tobacco-Growing — The Kentucky Planter —
Florida Tobacco — Florida Plantation — Tobacco in
Louisiana — California Tobacco Lands — Mexican
Tobacco — Plants around Vera Cruz — Tobacco in St
Domingo — Cuba Plantations — Mode of Working — Soil
and Climate — Tobacco-Growing in Germany — Method
of Culture — Extent of Culture — Tobacco-Raising in
Prussia — Tobacco in Holland — Dutch Planters — A Plea
for Tobacco — Tobacco Culture in Australia — Arabian
Plantations — Tobacco in Africa — Syrian Tobacco —
Latakia Tobacco — Growing Tobacco in India — Curing
Tobacco in India — Turks Cultivating Tobacco —
Japanese Tobacco — Persian Tobacco — Tobacco Culture,
Philippine Islands — Climate of the Islands — Fragrant
Manillas — Tropical Tobacco. 311

CHAPTER XI.

VARIETIES.

Kinds used for Cigars — Dwarf Tobacco — Havana
Tobacco — Yara and Virginia Tobacco — James River
Tobacco — Ohio Tobacco — South American Tobacco —
Celebrated Brands of Tobacco — Russian Tobacco —
Columbian Tobacco — Tobacco of Brazil — The Orinoco
Tobacco — Persian Tobacco — French Tobacco —

Spanish Tobacco — Japanese Tobacco — Manilla
Tobacco. 382

CHAPTER XII.

TOBACCO HOUSES.

Tobacco Sheds — Stripping Houses — Virginia Tobacco
Sheds — Ordinary Sheds — Superior Sheds — Ohio
Sheds — Kentucky and Tennessee Sheds — Foreign
Tobacco Sheds. 405

CHAPTER XIII.

TOBACCO CULTURE.

Hot Beds — Virginia Plant Patch — Tennessee Plant Bed
— Cuban Plant Bed — Covering Plant Bed — Selection of
Soil — The Soil Affecting Color — Preparing the Soil —
Virginia Methods — Burning Brush — Implements —
Transplanting Plants — Setting — Seasons in Mexico and
Persia — The American Transplanter — Pests — Worming
— Backward Plants — Topping — Suckers — Maturation
— The Harvest — Cutting — Hanging — Cutting time in
Cuba — Harvesting in Virginia — The Season in other
Places — Curing — Curing by Smoke — Yellow Tobacco
— Stripping — Assorting — Shading — Stemming —
Packing — Casing — Old Style — Resistance to
Dampness — Prizing — Marking — Baling — Certificates
— Firing — White Rust — Seed Plants — Maturing of
Seed — Second Growth. 415

CHAPTER XIV.

THE PRODUCTION, COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURE OF
TOBACCO.

Early History of Tobacco — Cultivation by Spaniards at
St. Domingo — Annual Product of Cuba — Amount of
Land under Cultivation in U.S. — Cultivation in the South
— Annual Product of Europe, Asia and Africa —
Government Monopoly — Source of Revenue —
Manufacture of Cigarettes — Increase of Tobacco Culture.
478

CHAPTER I.
THE TOBACCO PLANT.

Tobacco is a hardy flowering annual[1] plant, growing freely in a
moist fertile soil and requiring the most thorough culture in
order to secure the finest form and quality of leaf. It is a native
of the tropics and under the intense rays of a vertical sun
develops its finest and most remarkable flavor which far
surpasses the varieties grown in a temperate region. It however readily
adapts itself to soil and climate growing through a wide range of
temperature from the Equator to Moscow in Russia in latitude 56°, and
through all the intervening range of climate[2].

The plant varies in height according to species and locality; the largest
varieties reaching an altitude of ten or twelve feet, in others not growing
more than two or three feet from the ground. Botanists have enumerated
between forty and fifty varieties of the tobacco plant who class them all
among the narcotic poisons. When properly cultivated the plant ripens in a
few weeks growing with a rapidity hardly equaled by any product either
temperate or tropical. Of the large number of varieties cultivated scarcely
more than one-half are grown to any great extent while many of them are
hardly known outside of the limit of cultivation. Tobacco is a strong
growing plant resisting heat and drought to a far greater extent than most

plants. It is a native of America, the discovery of the continent and the plant
occurring almost simultaneously. It succeeds best in a deep rich loam in a
climate ranging from forty to fifty degrees of latitude. After having been
introduced and cultivated in nearly all parts of the world, America enjoys
the reputation of growing the finest varieties known to commerce. European
tobacco is lacking in flavor and is less powerful than the tobacco of
America.

The botanical account of tobacco is as follows:—

"Nicotiana, the tobacco plant is a genus of plants of the
order of Monogynia, belonging to the pentandria class, order
1, of class V. It bears a tubular 5-cleft calyx; a funnel-formed
corolla, with a plaited 5-cleft border; the stamina inclined;
the stigma capitate; the capsule 2-celled, and 2 to 4 valved."

A more general description of the plant is given by an American writer:
—

"The tobacco plant is an annual growing from eighteen
inches (dwarf tobacco) to seven or eight feet in height[3]. It
bears numerous leaves of a pale green color sessile, ovate
lanceolate and pointed in form, which come out alternately
from two to three inches apart. The flowers grow in loose
panicles at the extremity of the stalks, and the calyx is bell-
shaped, and divided at its summit into five pointed
segments. The tube of the corolla expands at the top into an
oblong cup terminating in a 5-lobed plaited rose-colored
border. The pistil consists of an oval germ, a slender style
longer than the stamen, and a cleft stigma. The flowers are
succeeded by capsules of 2 cells opening at the summit and
containing numerous kidney-shaped seeds."

Two of the finest varieties of Nicotiana Tobacum that are cultivated are
the Oronoco and the Sweet Scented; they differ only in the form of the
leaves, those of the latter variety being shorter and broader than the other.
They are annual herbaceous plants, rising with strong erect stems to the
height of from six to nine feet, with fine handsome foliage. The stalk near

the root is often an inch or more in diameter, and surrounded by a hairy
clammy substance, of a greenish yellow color. The leaves are of a light
green; they grow alternately, at intervals of two or three inches on the stalk;
they are oblong and spear-shaped; those lowest on the stalk are about
twenty inches in length, and they decrease as they ascend.

The young leaves when about six inches, are of a deep green color and
rather smooth, and as they approach maturity they become yellowish and
rougher on the surface. The flowers grow in clusters from the extremities of
the stalk; they are yellow externally and of a delicate red within. They are
succeeded by kidney shaped capsules of a brown color.

Thompson in his "Notices relative to Tobacco" describes the tobacco
plant as follows:—

"The species of Nicotiana which was first known, and
which still furnishes the greatest supply of Tobacco, is the N.
tobacum, an annual plant, a native of South America, but
naturalized to our climate. It is a tall, not inelegant plant,
rising to the height of about six feet, with a strong, round,
villous, slightly viscid stem, furnished with alternate leaves,
which are sessile, or clasp the stems; and are decurrent,
lanceolate, entire; of a full green on the upper surface, and
pale on the under.

"In a vigorous plant, the lower leaves are about twenty
inches in length, and from three to five in breadth,
decreasing as they ascend. The inflorescence, or flowering
part of the stem, is terminal, loosely branching in that form
which botanists term a panicle, with long, linear floral leaves
or bractes at the origin of each division.

"The flowers, which bloom in July and August, are of a
pale pink or rose color: the calyx, or flower-cup, is bell-
shaped, obscurely pentangular, villous, slightly viscid, and
presenting at the margin five acute, erect segments. The
corolla is twice the length of the calyx, viscid, tubular below,
swelling above into an oblong cup, and expanding at the lip

into five somewhat plaited, pointed segments; the seed
vessel is an oblong or ovate capsule, containing numerous
reniform seeds, which are ripe in September and October;
and if not collected, are shed by the capsule opening at the
apex."

In Stevens and Liebault's Maison Rustique, or the Country Farm,
(London, 1606), is found the following curious account of the tobacco
plant:—

"This herbe resembleth in figure fashion, and qualities,
the great comfrey in such sort as that a man woulde deeme it
to be a kinde of great comfrey, rather than a yellow henbane,
as some have thought.

"It hath an upright stalke, not bending any way, thicke,
bearded or hairy, and slimy: the leaves are broad and long,
greene, drawing somewhat towards a yellow, bearded or
hoarrie, but smooth and slimie, having as it were talons, but
not either notched or cut in the edges, a great deale bigger
downward toward the root than above: while it is young it is
leaved, as it were lying upon the ground, but rising to a
stalke and growing further, it ceaseth to have such a number
of leaves below, and putteth forth branches from half foot to
half, and storeth itselfe, by that meanes with leaves, and still
riseth higher from the height of four or five foote, unto three
or four or five cubits according as is sown in a hot and fat
ground, and carefully tilled. The boughs and branches
thereof put out at joints, and divide the stalk by distance of
halfe a foote: the highest of which branches are bigger than
an arme.

"At the tops and ends of his branches and boughs, it
putteth foorth flowers almost like those of Nigella, of a
whitish and incarnate color, having the fashion of a little bell
comming out of a swad or husk, being of the fashion of a
small goblet, which husk becometh round, having the
fashion of a little apple, or sword's pummell: as soon as the

flower is gone and vanished away, it is filled with very small
seedes like unto those of yellow henbane, and they are black
when they be ripe, or greene, while they are not yet ripe.

"In a hot countree it beareth leaves, flowers, and seeds at
the same time, in the ninth or tenth month of the year it
putteth foorth young cions at the roote, and reneweth itself
by this store and number of cions, and great quantity of
sprouts, and yet notwithstanding the roots are little, small,
fine thready strings, or if otherwise they grow a little thick,
yet remaine they still very short, in respect of the height of
the plant. The roots and leaves do yield a glewish and
rosinith kind of juice, somewhat yellow, of a rosinlike smell,
not unpleasant, and of a sharpe, eager and biting taste, which
sheweth that it is by nature hot, whereupon we must gather
that it is no kind of yellow henbane as some have thought.
Nicotiana craveth a fat ground well stird, and well manured
also in this cold countrie (England) that is to say an earth,
wherein the manure is so well mingled and incorporated, as
that it becometh earthie, that is to say, all turned into earth,
and not making any shew any more of dung: which is
likewise moist and shadowie, wide and roomy, for in a
narrow and straight place it would not grow high, straight,
great and well-branched.

"It desireth the South sun before it, and a wall behind it,
which may stand in stead of a broad pair of shoulders to
keep away the northern wind and to beate backe againe the
heat of the sun. It groweth the better if it be oft watered, and
maketh itself sport and jolly good cheer with water when the
time becometh a little dry. It hateth cold, and therefore to
keepe it from dying in winter, it must be either kept in
cellars where it may have free benefit of air, or else in some
cave made on purpose within the same garden, or else to
cover it as with a cloak very well with a double mat, making
a penthouse of wicker work from the wall to cover the head
thereof with straw laid thereupon: and when the southern

sun shineth, to open the door of the covert made for the said
herb right upon the said South sun."

The most ludicrous part of "The discourse on Nicotian" will be found in
that portion which relates to the making of the plant-bed and transplanting:
—

"For to sow it, you must make a hole in the earth with
your finger and that as deep as your finger is long, then you
must cast into the same hole ten or twelve seeds of the said
Nicotiana together, and fill up the hole again: for it is so
small, as that if you should put in but four or five seeds the
earth would choake it: and if the time be dry, you must water
the place easily some five days after: And when the herb is
grown out of the earth, inasmuch as every seed will have put
up his sprout and stalk, and that the small thready roots are
intangled the one within the other, you must with a great
knife make a composs within the earth in the places about
this plot where they grow and take up the earth and all
together, and cast them into a bucket full of water, to the end
that the earth may be seperated, and the small and tender
impes swim about the water; and so you shall sunder them
one after another without breaking of them." * *

THE STALK.
The Tobacco stalk varies with the varieties of the plant. All of the species
cultivated in the United States have stalks of a large size—much larger than
many varieties grown in the tropics. Those of some species of tobacco are
little and easily broken, which to a certain extent is the case with most
varieties of the plant when maturing very fast. The stalks of some plants are
rough and uneven, while those of others are smooth. Nearly all, including
most of those grown in Europe and America, have erect, round, hairy, viscid
stalks, and large, fibrous roots; while that of Spanish as well as dwarf
tobacco is harder and much smaller. The stalk is composed of a wood-like

substance containing a glutinous pith, and
is of about the same shade of color as the
leaves. As the plant develops in size the
stalk hardens, and when fully grown is
not easily broken.

The size of the stalk corresponds with
that of the leaves, and with such varieties
of the plant as Connecticut seed leaf,
Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, St. Domingo,
and some others; both will be found to be
larger than Spanish, Latakia, and Syrian
tobacco, which have a much smaller but
harder stalk. It will readily be seen that
the stalk must be strong and firm in order
to support the large palm-like leaves
which on some varieties grow to a length
of nearly four feet with a corresponding
breadth. The stalk does not "cure down" Tobacco Stalks
as fast as the leaves, which is thought
now to be necessary in order to prevent
sweating, as well as to hasten the curing. Most of the varieties of the plant
have an erect, straight stalk, excepting Syrian tobacco, which near the top
describes more of a semi-circle, but not to that extent of giving an idea of
an entirely crooked plant. The stalk gradually tapers from the base to the
summit, and when deprived of its leaves presents a smooth appearance not
unlike that of a small tree or shrub deprived of its twigs and leaves.

THE LEAVES.
The Plant bears from eight to twenty leaves according to the species of
the plant. They have various forms, ovate, lanceolate, and pointed. Leaves
of a lanceolate form are the largest, and the shape of those found on most
varieties of the American plant. The color of the leaves when growing, as
well as after curing and sweating, varies, and is frequently caused by the

condition of the soil. The color while growing may be either a light or dark
green, which changes to a yellowish cast as the plant matures and ripens.
The ground leaves are of a lighter color and ripen earlier than the rest—
sometimes turning yellow, and during damp weather rotting and dropping
from the stalk. Some varieties of the plant, like Latakia, bear small but thick
leaves, which after cutting are very thin and fine in texture; while others,
like Connecticut seed leaf and Havana, bear leaves of a medium thickness,
which are also fine and silky after curing. But while the color of the plant
when growing is either a light or dark green, it rapidly changes during
curing, and especially after passing through the sweat, changing to a light or
dark cinnamon like Connecticut seed leaf, black like Holland and Perique
tobacco, bright yellow of the finest shade of Virginia and Carolina leaf,
brown like Sumatra, or dark red like that known by the name of
"Boshibaghli," grown in Asia Minor. The leaves are covered with glandular
hairs containing a glutinous substance of an unpleasant odor, which
characterizes all varieties as well as nearly all parts of the plant.

The leaves of all varieties of tobacco grow the entire length of the stem
and clasp the stalk, excepting those of Syrian, which are attached by a long
stem. The size of the leaves, as well as the entire plant, is now much larger
than when first discovered. One of the early voyagers describes the plant as
short and bearing leaves of about the size and shape of the walnut. In many
varieties the leaves grow in a semi-circular form while in others they grow
almost straight and still others growing erect presenting a singular
appearance. The stem or mid-rib running through the leaf is large and
fibrous and its numerous smaller veins proportionally larger which on
curing become smaller and particularly in those kinds best adapted for cigar
wrappers. The leaves from the base to the center of the plant are of about
equal size but are smaller as they reach the summit, but after topping attain
about the same size as the others. The color of the leaf after curing may be
determined by the color of the leaf while growing—if dark green while
maturing in the field, the color will be dark after curing and sweating and
the reverse if of a lighter shade of green.

Tobacco Leaves.

If the soil be dark the color of the leaf will be darker than if grown upon a
light loam. Some varieties of the plant have leaves of a smooth glossy
appearance while others are rough and the surface uneven—more like a
cabbage leaf, a peculiar feature of the tobacco of Syria. The kind of
fertilizers applied to the soil also in a measure as well as the soil itself has
much to do with the texture or body of the leaf and should be duly
considered by all growers of the plant. A light moist loam should be chosen
for the tobacco field if a leaf of light color and texture is desired while if a
dark leaf is preferred the soil chosen should be a moist heavy loam.

THE FLOWER.
The flowers of the tobacco plant grow in a bunch or cluster on the
summit of the plant and are of a pink, yellow, or purple white color
according to the variety of the plant. On most varieties the color of the
flowers is pink excepting Syrian or Latakia which bears yellow flowers
while those of Shiraz or Persian and Guatemala are white while those of the
Japan tobacco, are purple. The segments of the corolla are pointed but on
some varieties unequal, particularly that of Shiraz tobacco. The flowers
impart a pleasant odor doubtless to all lovers of the weed but to all others a
compound of villainous smells among which and above all the rest may be
recognized an odor suggestive of the leaves of the plant.

Bud and Flowers.

When in full blossom a tobacco field forms a pleasant feature of a
landscape which is greatly heightened if the plants are large and of equal
size. The pink flowers are the largest while those of a yellow color are the
smallest. The plant comes into blossom a few weeks before fully ripe when
with a portion of the stalk they are broken off to hasten the ripening and
maturing of the leaves. After the buds appear they blossom in a few days
and remain in full bloom two or three weeks, when they perish like the
blossoms of other plants and flowers. The flowers of Havana tobacco are of
a lighter pink than those of Connecticut tobacco but are not as large—a
trifle larger however than those of Latakia tobacco. Those varieties of the
tobacco plant bearing pink flowers are the finest flavored and are used
chiefly for the manufacture of cigars while those bearing yellow flowers are
better adapted for cutting purposes and the pipe.

The American varieties of tobacco bear a larger number of flowers than
European tobaccos or those of Africa or Asia. The color of the flowers
remain the same whether cultivated in one country or another while the
leaves may grow larger or smaller according to the system of cultivation
adopted. Those varieties of the plant with heart-shaped leaves have
paniculated flowers with unequal cups. The flower stems on the American
varieties are much longer than those of European tobaccos and also larger.
The season has much to do with the size of the flowers; as if very dry they
are usually smaller and not as numerous as if grown under more favorable
circumstances.

THE CAPSULE.
As soon as the flowers drop from the fruit bud the capsules grow very
rapidly until they have attained full size—which occurs only in those plants
which have been left for seed and remain untopped. When topped they are
not usually full grown—as some growers top the plants when just coming
into blossom, while others prefer to top the plants when in full bloom and
others still when the blossoms begin to fall. The fruit is described by
Wheeler

"as a capsule of a nearly oval figure. There is a line on each
side of it, and it contains two cells, and opens at the top. The
receptacles one of a half-oval figure, punctuated and affixed
to the separating body. The seeds are numerous, kidney-
shaped, and rugose."

Most growers of the plant would describe the fruit bud as follows: In
form resembling an acorn though more pointed at the top; in some species,
of a dark brown in others of a light brown color, containing two cells filled
with seeds similar in shape to the fruit bud, but not rugose as described by
some botanists. Some writers state that each cell contains about one
thousand seeds. The fruit buds of Connecticut, Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio
Tobacco as well as of most of the varieties grown within the limits of the
United States are much larger than those of Havana, Yara, Syrian, and
numerous other species of the plant, while the color of these last named
varieties is a lighter shade of brown. The color of the seed also varies
according to the varieties of the plant. The seeds of some species are of a
dark brown while others are of a lighter shade. The seeds, however, are so
small that the variety to which they belong cannot be determined except by
planting or sowing them.

Capsules. (Fruit Bud.)

The plants selected for seed are usually left growing until late in the
season, and at night should be protected from the cold and frost by a light
covering of some kind—this may not be absolutely necessary, as most
growers of tobacco have often noticed young plants growing around the
base or roots of the seed stalk—the seeds of which germinated although
remaining in the ground during the winter. Strong, healthy plants generally
produce large, well filled capsules the only ones to be selected by the
grower if large, fine plants are desired. Many growers of tobacco have
doubtless examined the capsules of some species of the plant and frequently
observed that the capsules or fruit buds are often scarcely more than half-
filled while others contain but a few seeds. The largest and finest capsules
on the plant mature first, while the smaller ones grow much slower and are
frequently several weeks changing from green to brown. Many of the
capsules do not contain any seed at all.

THE SUCKER.
The offshoots or suckers as they are termed, make their appearance at the
junction of the leaves and stalk, about the roots of the plant, the result of
that vigorous growth caused by topping. The suckers can hardly be seen
until after the plant has been topped, when they come forward rapidly and
in a short time develop into strong, vigorous shoots. Tatham describing the
sucker says:

"The sucker is a superfluous sprout which is wont to make
its appearance and shoot forth from the stem or stalk, near to
the junction of the leaves with the stems, and about the root
of the plant, and if allowed to grow, injuring the marketable
quality of the tobacco by compelling a division of its
nutriment during the act of maturation. The planter is
therefore careful to destroy these intruders with the thumb
nail, as in the act of topping. This superfluity of vegetation,
like that of the top, has been often the subject of legislative

care; and the policy of supporting the good name of the
Virginia produce has dictated the wisdom of penal laws to
maintain her good faith against imposition upon strangers
who trade with her."

The ripening of the suckers not only proves injurious to the quality of the
leaf but retards their size and maturity and if allowed to continue, prevents
them from attaining their largest possible growth.

Suckers.

On large, strong, growing plants the growth of suckers is very rank after
attaining a length of from six to ten inches, and when fully grown bearing
flowers like the parent stalk. After growing for a length of time they
become tough and attached so firmly to the stem of the leaf and stalk that
they are broken off with difficulty, frequently detaching the leaf with them.
The growth of the suckers, however, determines the quality as well as the
maturity of the plants.

Weak, spindling plants rarely produce large, vigorous shoots, the leaves
of such suckers are generally small and of a yellowish color. When the
plants are fully ripe and ready to harvest the suckers will be found to be
growing vigorously around the root of the plant. This is doubtless the best
evidence of its maturity, more reliable by far than any other as it denotes the
ripening of the entire plant. Suckering the plants hastens the ripening of the

leaves, and gives a lighter shade of color, no matter on what soil the plants
are grown. Having treated at some length of the various parts of the tobacco
plant—stalk, leaves, flowers, capsules and suckers we come now to its
nicotine properties. The tobacco plant, as is well known, produces a virulent
poison known as Nicotine. This property, however, as well as others as
violent is found in many articles of food, including the potato together with
its stalk and leaves; the effects of which may be experienced by chewing a
small quantity of the latter. The New Edinburgh Encyclopedia says:

"The peculiar effect produced by using tobacco bears
some resemblance to intoxication and is excited by an
essential oil which in its pure state is so powerful as to
destroy life even in very minute quantity."

Chemistry has taught us that nicotine is only one among many principles
which are contained in the plant. It is supposed by many but not
substantiated by chemical research that nicotine is not the flavoring agent
which gives tobacco its essential and peculiar varieties of odor. Such are
most probably given by the essential oils, which vary in amount in different
species of the plant.

An English writer says:

"Nicotine is disagreeable to the habitual smoker, as is
proved by the increased demand for clean pipes or which by
some mechanical contrivance get rid of the nicotine."

The late Dr. Blotin tested by numerous experiments the effects of
nicotine on the various parts of the organization of man. While the
physiological effects of nicotine may be interesting to the medical
practitioner, they will hardly interest the general reader unless it can be
shown that the effects of nicotine and tobacco should be proved to be
identical.

We are loth to leave this subject, however, as it is so intimately connected
with the history of the plant, without treating somewhat of its medicinal
properties which to many are of more interest than its social qualities. The
Indians not only used the plant socially, religiously, but medicinally. Their

Medicine men prescribed its use in various ways for most diseases common
among them. The use thus made of the plant attracted the attention of the
Spanish and English, far more than its use either as a means of enjoyment
or as a religious act. When introduced to the Old World, its claims as a
remedy for most diseases gave it its popularity and served to increase its
use. It was styled "Sana sancta Indorum—" "Herbe propre à tous maux,"
and physicians claimed that it was "the most sovereign and precious weed
that ever the earth tendered to the use of man." As early as 1610, three years
after the London and Plymouth Companies settled in Virginia, and some
years before it began to be cultivated by them as an article of export, it had
attracted the attention of English physicians, who seemed to take as much
delight in writing of the sanitary uses of the herb as they did in smoking the
balmy leaves of the plant.

Dr. Edmund Gardiner, "Practitioner of Physicke," issued in 1610 a
volume entitled, "The Triall of Tobacco," setting forth its curative powers.
Speaking of its use he says:

"Tobacco is not violent, and therefore may in my
judgement bee safely put in practise. Thus then you plainly
see that all medicines, and especially tobacco, being rightly
and rationally used, is a noble medicine and contrariwise not
in his due time with other circumstances considered, it doth
no more than a nobleman's shooe doth in healing the gout in
the foot."

Dr. Verner of Bath, in his Treatise concerning the taking the fume of
tobacco (1637) says that when "taken moderately and at fixed times with its
proper adjunct, which (as they doe suppose) is a cup of sack, they think it
be no bad physick." Dr. William Barclay in his work on Tobacco, (1614)
declares "that it worketh wonderous cures." He not only defends the herb
but the "land where it groweth." At this time the tobacco plant like Indian
Corn was very small, possessing but few of the qualities now required to
make it merchantable. When first exported to Spain and Portugal from the
West Indies and South America, and even by the English from Virginia, the
leaf was dark in color and strong and rank in flavor. This, however, seems

to have been the standard in regard to some varieties while others are
spoken of by some of the early writers upon tobacco as "sweet."

The tobacco (uppowoc) grown by the Indians in America, at the time of
its discovery, and more particularly in North America, would compare
better with the suckers of the largest varieties of the plant rather than with
even the smallest species of the plant now cultivated. At the present time
tobacco culture is considered a science in order to secure the colors in
demand, and that are fashionable, and also the right texture of leaf now so
desirable in all tobaccos designed for wrappers. Could the Indians, who
cultivated the plant on the banks of the James, the Amazon and other rivers
of America, now look upon the plant growing in rare luxuriance upon the
same fields where they first raised it, they could hardly realize them to be
the same varieties that they had previously planted.[Back to Contents]

CHAPTER II.
TOBACCO. ITS DISCOVERY.

Nearly four hundred years have passed away since the tobacco
plant and its use was introduced to the civilized world. It was
in the month of November, 1492, that the sailors of Columbus
in exploring the island of Cuba first noted the mode of using
tobacco. They found the Indians carrying lighted firebrands (as
they at first supposed) and puffed the smoke inhaled from their mouths and
nostrils.

The Spaniards concluded that this was a method common with them of
perfuming themselves; but its frequent use soon taught them that it was the
dried leaves of a plant which they burned inhaling and exhaling the smoke.
It attracted the attention of the Spaniards no less from its novelty than from
the effect produced by the indulgence.

The use of tobacco by the Indians was entirely new to the Spanish
discoverers and when in 1503 they landed in various parts of South
America they found that both chewing and smoking the herb was a
common custom with the natives. But while the Indians and their habits
attracted the attention of the Spanish sailors Columbus was more deeply
interested in the great continent and the luxuriant tropical growth to be seen
on every hand. Columbus himself says of it:—

"Everything invited me to settle here. The beauty of the
streams, the clearness of the water, through which I could
see the sandy bottom; the multitude of palm-trees of
different kinds, the tallest and finest I had ever seen; and an
infinite number of other large and flourishing trees; the
birds, and the verdure of the plains, are so amazingly
beautiful, that this country excelles all others as far as the
day surpasses the night in splendor."

Lowe, gives the following account of the discovery of tobacco and its
uses:—

"The discovery of this plant is supposed to have been
made by Fernando Cortez in Yucatan in the Gulf of Mexico,
where he found it used universally, and held in a species of
veneration by the simple natives. He made himself
acquainted with the uses and supposed virtues of the plant
and the manner of cultivating it, and sent plants to Spain, as
part of the spoils and treasures of his new-found World."

Oviedo[4] is the first author who gives a clear account of smoking among
the Indians of Hispaniola[5]. He alludes to it as one of their evil customs and
used by them to produce insensibility. Their mode of using it was by
inhalation and expelling the smoke through the nostrils by means of a
hollow forked cane or hollow reed. Oviedo describes them as

"about a span long; and when used the forked ends are
inserted in the nostrils, the other end being applied to the
burning leaves of the herb, using the herb in this manner
stupefied them producing a kind of intoxication."

Of the early accounts of the plant and
its use, Beckman a German writer says:
—

"In 1496, Romanus Pane, a
Spanish monk, whom Columbus,
on his second departure from
America, had left in that country,
published the first account of
tobacco with which he became
acquainted in St. Domingo. He
gave it the name of Cohoba
Cohobba, Gioia. In 1535, the Primitive Pipe.
negroes had already habituated
themselves to the use of tobacco, and cultivated it in the
plantations of their masters. Europeans likewise already
smoked it."

An early writer thus alludes to the use of tobacco among the East Indians:
—

"The East Indians do use to make little balls of the juice
of the hearbe tobaco and the ashes of cockle-shells wrought
up together, and dryed in the shadow, and in their travaile
they place one of the balls between their neather lip and their
teeth, sucking the same continually, and letting down the
moysture, and it keepeth them both from hunger and thirst
for the space of three or four days."

Oviedo says of the implements used by the Indians in smoking:—

"The hollow cane used by them is called tobaco and that
that name is not given to the plant or to the stupor caused by
its use."

A writer alluding to the same subject says:—

"The name tobacco is supposed to be derived from the
Indian tobaccos, given by the Caribs to the pipe in which
they smoked the plant."

Others derive it from Tabasco, a province of Mexico; others from the
island of Tobago one of the Caribbees; and others from Tobasco in the gulf
of Florida.

Tomilson says:—

"The word tobacco appears to have been applied by the
caribbees to the pipe in which they smoked the herb while
the Spaniards distinguished the herb itself by that name. The
more probable derivation of the word is from a place called
Tobaco in Yucatan from which the herb was first sent to the
New World."

Humboldt says concerning the name:—

"The word Tobacco like maize, savannah, cacique,
maguey (agave) and manato, belong to the ancient language
of Hayti, or St. Domingo. It did not properly denote the
herb, but the tube through which the smoke was inhaled. It
seems surprising that a vegetable production so universally
spread should have different names among neighboring
people. The pete-ma of the Omaguas is, no doubt, the pety
of the Guaranos; but the analogy between the Cabre and
Algonkin (or Lenni-Lennope) words which denote tobacco
may be merely accidental. The following are the synonymes
in five languages: Aztec or Mexican, yetl; Huron, oyngona;
Peruvian, sayri; Brazil, piecelt; Moxo, sabare."

Roman Pane who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage alludes
to another method of using the herb.

They make a powder of the leaves, which "they take through
a cane half a cubit long; one end of this they place in the

nose, and the other upon the powder, and so draw it up,
which purges them very much."

This is doubtless the first account that we have of snuff-taking; Fairholt
says concerning its use:—

"Its effects upon the Indians in both instances seem to
have been more violent and peculiar than upon Europeans
since."

This may be accounted for from the fact of the imperfect method of
curing tobacco adopted by them and all of the natives up to the period of the
settlement of Virginia by the English. As nearly all of the early voyagers
allude to the plant and especially to its use it would seem probable that it
had been cultivated from time immemorial by all the native people of the
Orinoco; and at the period of the conquest the habit of smoking was found
to be alike spread over both North and South America. The Tamanacs and
the Maypures of Guiana wrap maize leaves round their cigars as the
Mexicans did at the time of the arrival of Cortez. The Spaniards since have
substituted paper for the leaves of maize, in imitation of them.

"The poor Indians of the forests of the Orinoco know as
well as did the great nobles at the court of Montezuma, that
the smoke of tobacco is an excellent narcotic; and they use it
not only to procure their afternoon nap, but also to put
themselves in that state of quiescence which they call
dreaming with the eyes open or day dreaming."

Tobacco at this period was also rolled up in the leaves of the Palm and
smoked. Columbus found the natives of San Salvador smoking after this
manner. Lobel in his History of Plants[6] gives an engraving of a native
smoking one of these rolls or primitive cigars and speaks of their general
use by Captains of ships trading to the West Indies.

But not only was snuff taking and the use of tobacco rolls or cigars noted
by European voyagers, but the use of the pipe also in some parts of
America, seemed to be a common custom especially among the chiefs. Be
Bry in his History of Brazil (1590) describes its use and also some

interesting particulars concerning the
plant. Their method of curing the leaves
was to air-dry them and then packing
them until wanted for use. In smoking he
says:—

"When the leaves are well
dried they place in the open part
of a pipe of which on burning, the
smoke is inhaled into the mouth
by the more narrow part of the
pipe, and so strongly that it flows
out of the mouth and nostrils, and
by that means effectually drives Native Smoking.
out humours."

Fairholt in alluding to the various uses of the herb among the Indians
says:—

"We can thus trace to South America, at the period when
the New World was first discovered, every mode of using
the tobacco plant which the Old World has indulged in ever
since."

This statement is not entirely correct—the mode of using tobacco in
Norway by plugging the nostrils with small pieces of tobacco seems to have
been unknown among the Indians of America as it is now with all other
nationalities, excepting the Norwegians.

When Cortez made conquest of Mexico in 1519 smoking seemed to be a
common as well as an ancient custom among the natives. Benzoni in his
History of the New World[7] describing his travels in America gives a
detailed account of the plant and their method of curing and using it. In both
North and South America the use of tobacco seemed to be universal among
all the tribes and beyond all question the custom of using the herb had its
origin among them. The traditions of the Indians all confirm its ancient
source; they considered the plant as a gift from the Great Spirit for their
comfort and enjoyment and one which the Great Spirit also indulged in,

consequently with them smoking partook of the character of a moral if not a
religious act. The use of tobacco in sufficient quantities to produce
intoxication seemed to be a favorite remedy for most diseases among them
and was administered by their doctors or medicine-men in large quantities.
Benzoni gives an engraving of their mode of inhaling the smoke and says of
its use:—

"In La Espanola, when their doctors wanted to cure a sick
man, they went to the place where they were to administer
the smoke, and when he was thoroughly intoxicated by it,
the cure was mostly effected. On returning to his senses he
told a thousand stories of his having been at the council of
the gods, and other high visions."

It can hardly be supposed that while the custom of using tobacco among
the Indians in both North and South America was very general and the
mode of use the same, that the plant grown was of the same quality in one
part as in another. While the rude culture of the natives would hardly tend to
an improvement in quality; the climate being varied would no doubt have
much to do with the size and quality of the plant. This would seem the more
probable for as soon as its cultivation began in Virginia by the English
colonists it had successful rivals in the tobacco of the West Indies and South
America. Robertson says:—

"Virginia tobacco was greatly inferior to that raised by the
Spaniards in the West Indies and which sold for six times as
much as Virginia tobacco."[8]

But not only has the name tobacco and the implements employed in its
use caused much discussion but also the origin of the plant.

Some writers affirm that it came from Asia and that it was first grown in
China having been used by the Chinese long before the narcotic properties
of opium were known. Tatham in his work on Tobacco says of its origin in
substantial agreement with La Bott:—

"It is generally understood that the tobacco plant of
Virginia is a native production of the country; but whether it

was found in a state of natural growth there, or a plant
cultivated by the Indian natives, is a point of which we are
not informed, nor which ever can be farther elucidated than
by the corroboration of historical facts and conjectures. I
have been thirty years ago, and the greatest part of my time
during that period, intimately acquainted with the interior
parts of America; and have been much in the unsettled parts
of the country, among those kinds of soil which are
favorable to the cultivation of tobacco; but I do not recollect
one single instance where I have met with tobacco growing
wild in the woods, although I have often found a few
spontaneous plants about the arable and trodden grounds of
deserted habitations. This circumstance, as well as that of its
being now, and having been, cultivated by the natives at the
period of European discoveries, inclines towards a
supposition that this plant is not a native of North America,
but may possibly have found its way thither with the earliest
migrations from some distant land. This might, indeed, have
easily been the case from South America, by way of the
Isthmus of Panama; and the foundation of the Choctaw and
Chickasaw nations (who we have reasons to consider as
descendants from the Tloseolians, and to have migrated to
the eastward of the river Mississippi, about the time of the
Spanish conquest of Mexico by Cortez), seems to have
afforded one fair opportunity for its dissemination."

The first knowledge which the English discoverers had of the plant was
in 1565 when they found it growing in Florida, one hundred and seventy-
three years after it was first discovered by Columbus on the island of Cuba.
Sir John Hawkins says of its use in Florida:—

"The Floridians, when they travel, have a kind of herb
dried, which with a cane and an earthen cup in the end, with
fire and the dried herbs put together, do suke through the
cane the smoke thereof, which smoke satisfieth their hunger,
and therewith they live four or five dayes without meat or
drinke, and this all the Frenchmen used for this purpose: yet

do they holde opinion withall, that it causeth water and
steame to void from their stomacks."

This preparation might not have been tobacco as the Indians smoke a
kind of bark which they scrape from the killiconick, an aromatic shrub, in
form resembling the willow; they use also a preparation made with this and
sumach leaves, or sometimes with the latter mixed with tobacco. Lionel
Wafer in his travels upon the Isthmus of Darien in 1699 saw the plant
growing and cultivated by the natives. He says:—

"These Indians have tobacco amongst them. It grows as
the tobacco in Virginia, but is not so strong, perhaps for want
of transplanting and manuring, which the Indians do not
well understand, for they only raise it from the seed in their
plantations. When it is dried and cured they strip it from the
stalks, and laying two or three leaves upon one another, they
roll up all together sideways into a long roll, yet leaving a
little hollow. Round this they roll other leaves one after
another, in the same manner, but close and hard, till the roll
be as big as one's wrist, and two or three feet in length. Their
way of smoking when they are in company is thus: a boy
lights one end of a roll and burns it to a coal, wetting the part
next it to keep it from wasting too fast. The end so lighted he
puts into his mouth, and blows the smoke through the whole
length of the roll into the face of every one of the company
or council, though there be two or three hundred of them.
Then they, sitting in their usual posture upon forms, make
with their hands held together a kind of funnel round their
mouths and noses. Into this they receive the smoke as it is
blown upon them, snuffing it up greedily and strongly as
long as ever they are able to hold their breath, and seeming
to bless themselves, as it were, with the refreshment it gives
them."

In the year 1534 James Cartier a Frenchman was commissioned to
explore the coast of North America, with a view to find a place for a colony.
He observed that the natives of Canada used the leaves of an herb which

they preserved in pouches made of skins and smoked in stone pipes. It
being offensive to the French, they took none of it with them on their return.
But writing more particularly concerning the plant he says:—

"In Hochelaga, up the river in Canada there groweth a
certain kind of herb whereof in Summer they make a great
provision for all the year, making great account of it, and
only men use of it, and first they cause it to be dried in the
Sune, then wear it about their necks wrapped in a little
beast's skine made like a bagge, with a hollow piece of stone
or wood like a pipe, then when they please they make
powder of it, and then put it in one of the ends of the said
Cornet or pipe, and laying a cole of fire upon it, at the other
end and suck so long, that they fill their bodides full of
smoke, till that it commeth out of their mouth and nostrils,
even as out of the Tonnel of a chimney. They say that this
doth keepe them warme and in health, they never goe
without some of this about them."

Be Bry in his History of Brazil 1590 gives an engraving of a native
smoking a pipe and a female offering him a handful of tobacco leaves. The
pipe has a modern look and is altogether unlike those found by the English
in use among the Indians in Virginia.

An English writer says of the Tobacco
using races:—

"From the evidence collected
by travellers and archæologists,
as to the native arts and relics
connected with the use of
Tobacco by the Red Indians, it
would appear that not one tribe
has been found which was
unacquainted with the custom,[9]
Old Engraving.
its use being as well known to the
tribes of the North-west and the

denizens of the snowy wilds of Canada, as to the races
inhabiting Central America and the West India Islands."

Father Francisco Creuxio states that the Jesuit missionaries found the
weed extensively used by the Indians of the Seventeenth Century. In 1629
he found the Hurons smoking the dried leaves and stalks of the Tobacco
plant or petune. Many tribes of Indians consider that Tobacco is a gift
bestowed by the Great Spirit as a means of enjoyment. In consequence of
this belief the pipe became sacred, and smoking became a moral if not a
religious act, amongst the North American Indians. The Iroquois are of
opinion that by burning Tobacco they could send up their prayers to the
Great Spirit with the ascending incense, thus maintaining communication
with the spirit world; and Dr. Daniel Wilson suggests that

"the practice of smoking originated in the use of the
intoxicating fumes for purposes of divination, and other
superstitious rites."

When an Indian goes on an expedition, whether of peace or war, his pipe
is his constant companion; it is to him what salt is among Arabs: the pledge
of fidelity and the seal of treaties. In the words of a Review:

"Tobacco supplies one of the few comforts by which men
who live by their hands, solace themselves under incessant
hardship."

While the presence, and use of tobacco by the natives of America are
among the most interesting features connected with its history, it can hardly
be more so than is its early cultivation by the Spaniards, English and Dutch,
and afterward by the French. The cultivation of the plant began in the West
India Islands and South America early in the Sixteenth Century. In Cuba its
culture commenced in 1580, and from this and the other islands large
quantities were shipped to Europe. It was also cultivated near Varina in
Columbia, while Amazonian tobacco had acquired an enviable reputation as
well as Varinian, long before its cultivation began in Virginia by the
English. At this period of its culture in America the entire product was sent
to Spain and Portugal, and from thence to France and Great Britain and
other countries of Europe. The plant and its use attracted at once the

attention as well as aroused the cupidity of the Spaniards, who prized it as
one of their greatest discoveries.

As soon as Tobacco was introduced into Europe by the Spaniards, and its
use became a general custom, its sale increased as extensively as its
cultivation. At this period it brought enormous prices, the finest selling at
from fifteen to eighteen shillings per pound. Its cultivation by the Spaniards
in various portions of the New World proved to them not only its real value
as an article of commerce, but also that several varieties of the plant
existed; as on removal from one island or province to another it changed in
size and quality of leaf. Varinas tobacco at this time was one of the finest
tobaccos known,[10] and large quantities were shipped to Spain and
Portugal. The early voyagers little dreamed, however, of the vast
proportions to be assumed by the trade in the plant which they had
discovered, and which in time proved a source of the greatest profit not
only to the European colonies, but to the dealers in the Old World.

Helps, treating on this same subject, says:

"It is interesting to observe the way in which a new
product is introduced to the notice of the Old World—a
product that was hereafter to become, not only an unfailing
source of pleasure to a large section of the whole part of
mankind, from the highest to the lowest, but was also to
distinguish itself as one of those commodities for revenue,
which are the delight of statesmen, the great financial
resource of modern nations, and which afford a means of
indirect taxation that has perhaps nourished many a war, and
prevented many a revolution. The importance, financially
and commercially speaking, of this discovery of tobacco—a
discovery which in the end proved more productive to the
Spanish crown than that of the gold mines of the Indies."

Spain and Portugal in all their colonies fostered and encouraged its
cultivation and then at once ranked as the best producers and dealers in
tobacco. The varieties grown by them in the West Indies and South America
were highly esteemed and commanded much higher prices than that grown
by the English and Dutch colonies. In 1620, however, the Dutch merchants

were the largest wholesale tobacconists in Europe, and the people of
Holland, generally, the greatest consumers of the weed.

The expedition of 1584, under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh, which
resulted in the discovery of Virginia, also introduced the tobacco plant,
among other novelties, to the attention of the English. Hariot,[11] who sailed
with this expedition, says of the plant:

"There is an herb which is sowed apart by itselfe, and is
called by the inhabitants uppowoc. In the West Indies it hath
divers names, according to the severall places and countries
where it groweth and is used; the Spaniards generally call it
Tobacco. The leaves thereof being dried and brought into
powder, they use to take the fume or smoke thereof by
sucking it through pipes made of clay into their stomacke
and heade, from whence it purgeth superfluous fleame and
other grosse humors; openeth all the pores and passages of
the body; by which means the use thereof not only
preserveth the body from obstructions, but also if any be so
that they have not beene of too long continuance, in short
time breaketh them; whereby their bodies are notably
preserved in health, and know not many grievous diseases
wherewithall we in England are oftentimes affected. This
uppowoc is of so precious estimation amongest them that
they thinke their gods are marvellously delighted therewith;
whereupon sometime they make halowed fires, and cast
some of the powder therein for a sacrifise. Being in a storme
uppon the waters, to pacifie their gods, they cast some up
into the aire and into the water: so a weave for fish being
newly set up, they cast some therein and into the aire; also
after an escape of danger they cast some into the aire
likewise; but all done with strange gestures, stamping,
sometimes dancing, clapping of hands, holding up of hands,
and staring up into the heavens, uttering there withal and
chattering strange wordes, and noises.

"We ourselves during the time we were there used to suck
it after their manner, as also since our returne, and have
found many rare and wonderful experiments of the virtues
thereof; of which the relation would require a volume of
itselfe; the use of it by so manie of late, men and women, of
great calling as else, and some learned phisitions also is
sufficient witnes."

The natives also when Drake[12] landed in Virginia, "brought a little
basket made of rushes, and filled with an herbe which they called Tobah;"
they "came also the second time to us bringing with them as before had
been done, feathers and bags of Tobah for presents, or rather indeed for
sacrifices, upon this persuasion that we were gods."

William Strachey[13] says of tobacco and its cultivation by the Indians:

"Here is great store of tobacco, which the salvages call
apooke: howbeit it is not of the best kynd, it is but poor and
weake, and of a byting taste; it grows not fully a yard above
ground, bearing a little yellow flower like to henbane; the
leaves are short and thick, somewhat round at the upper end;
whereas the best tobacco of Trynidado and the Oronoque, is
large, sharpe, and growing two or three yardes from the
ground, bearing a flower of the breadth of our bell-flower, in
England; the salvages here dry the leaves of this apooke
over the fier, and sometymes in the sun, and crumble yt into
poudre, stalk, leaves, and all, taking the same in pipes of
earth, which very ingeniously they can make."

It would seem then, if the account given by Strachey be correct, that the
tobacco cultivated by the Indians of North America was of inferior growth
and quality to that grown in many portions of South America, and more
particularly in the West India islands. As there are still many varieties of the
plant grown in America, so there doubtless was when cultivated by the
Indians. While most probably the quality of leaf remained the same from
generation to generation, still in some portions of America, owing more to
the soil and climate than the mode of cultivating by them, they cured very
good tobacco. We can readily see how this might have been, from numerous

experiments made with both American
and European varieties. Nearly all of the
early Spanish, French and English
voyagers who landed in America were
attracted by the beauty of the country.
Ponce De Leon, who sailed from Spain to
the Floridas, was charmed by the plants
and flowers, and doubtless the first sight
of them strengthened his belief in the
existence somewhere in this tropical
region of the fountain of youth.

The Contrast. The discovery of tobacco proved of the
greatest advantage to the nations who
fostered its growth,—and increased the
commerce of both England and Spain, doing much to make the latter what
it once was, one of the most powerful nations of Europe and possessor of
the largest and richest colonies, while it greatly helped the former, already
unsurpassed in intelligence and civilization, to reach its present position at
the commercial head of the nations of the world.

As Spain, however, has fallen from the high place she once held, her
colonial system has also gone down. And while England, thanks to her
more liberal policy, still retains a large share of the territory which she
possessed at first, Spain, which once held sway over a vast portion of
America, has been deprived of nearly all of her colonies, and ere long may
lose control of the island on which the discoverer of America first saw the
plant.[14]

It is an historical fact that wherever in the English and Spanish colonies
civilization has taken the deepest root, so has also the plant which has
become as famous as any of the great tropical products of the earth. The
relation existing between the balmy plant and the commerce of the world is
of the strongest kind. Fairholt has well said, that "the revenue brought to
our present Sovereign Lady from this source alone is greater than that
Queen Elizabeth received from the entire customs of the country."

The narrow view of commercial policy held by her successors, the
Stuarts, induced them to hamper the colonists of America with restrictions;
because they were alarmed lest the ground should be entirely devoted to
tobacco. Had not this Indian plant been discovered, the whole history of
some portions of America would have been far different. In the West Indies
three great products—Coffee, Sugar-Cane, and Tobacco,—have proved
sources of the greatest wealth—and wherever introduced, have developed
to a great extent the resources of the islands. Thus it may be seen that while
the Spaniards by the discovery and colonization of large portions of
America strengthened the currency of the world, the English alike, by the
cultivation of the plant, gave an impetus to commerce still felt and
continued throughout all parts of the globe.

An English writer has truthfully observed that "Tobacco is
like Elias' cloud, which was no bigger than a man's hand,
that hath suddenly covered the face of the earth; the low
countries, Germany, Poland, Arabia, Persia, Turkey, almost
all countries, drive a trade of it; and there is no commodity
that hath advanced so many from small fortunes to gain
great estates in the world. Sailors will be supplied with it for
their long voyages. Soldiers cannot (but) want it when they
keep guard all night, or upon other hard duties in cold and
tempestuous weather. Farmers, ploughmen, and almost all
labouring men, plead for it. If we reflect upon our
forefathers, and that within the time of less than one hundred
years, before the use of tobacco came to be known amongst
us, we cannot but wonder how they did to subsist without it;
for were the planting or traffick of tobacco now hindered,
millions of this nation in all probability must perish for the
want of food, their whole livelihood almost depending upon
it."

When first discovered in America, and particularly by the English in
Virginia, the plant was cultivated only by the females of the tribes, the
chiefs and warriors engaging only in the chase or following the warpath.
They cultivated a few plants around their wigwams, and cured a few pounds
for their own use. The smoke, as it ascended from their pipes and circled

around their rude huts and out into the air, seemed typical of the race—the
original cultivators and smokers of the plant. But, unlike the great herb
which they cherished and gave to civilization, they have gradually grown
weak in numbers and faded away, while the great plant has gone on its way,
ever assuming more and more sway over the commercial and social world,
until it now takes high rank among the leading elements of mercantile and
agricultural greatness.[Back to Contents]

CHAPTER III.
TOBACCO IN AMERICA.

We do not find in any accounts of the English voyagers made
previous to 1584, any mention of the discovery of tobacco, or
its use among the Indians. This may appear a little strange, as
Captains Amidas and Barlow, who sailed from England under
the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584, on returning from
Virginia, had brought home with them pearls and tobacco among other
curiosities. But while we have no account of those who returned from the
voyage made in 1602 taking any tobacco with them, it is altogether
probable that those who remained took a lively interest in the plant and the
Indian mode of use; for we find that in nine years after they landed at
Jamestown tobacco had become quite an article of culture and commerce.

Hamo in alluding to the early cultivation of tobacco by the colony, says,
that John Rolfe was the pioneer tobacco planter. In his words:

"I may not forget the gentleman worthie of much
commendations, which first took the pains to make triall
thereof, his name Mr. John Rolfe, Anno Domini 1612, partly
for the love he hath a long time borne unto it, and partly to
raise commodities to the adventurers, in whose behalfe I

intercede and vouchsafe to hold my testimony in beleefe that
during the time of his aboade there, which draweth neere
sixe years no man hath laboured to his power there, and
worthy incouragement unto England, by his letters than he
hath done, witness his marriage with Powhatan's daughter
one of rude education, manners barbarous, and cursed
generation merely for the good and honor of the plantation."

John Rolfe.

The first general planting of tobacco by the colony began according to
this writer—

"at West and Sherley Hundred (seated on the north side of
the river, lower than the Bermudas three or four myles)
where are twenty-five commanded by capten Maddeson—
who are imployed onely in planting and curing tobacco."

This was in 1616, when the colony numbered only three hundred and
fifty-one persons. Rolfe, in his relation of the state of Virginia, written and
addressed to the King, gives the following description of the condition of
the colony in 1616:

"Now that your highness may with the more ease
understand in what condition the colony standeth, I have
briefly sett downe the manner of all men's several
imployments, the number of them, and the several places of
their aboad, which places or seates are all our owne ground,
not so much by conquest, which the Indians hold a just and
lawfull title, but purchased of them freely, and they verie
willingly selling it. The places which are now possessed and
inhabited are sixe:—Henrico and the lymitts, Bermuda
Nether hundred, West and Sherley hundred, James Towne,
Kequoughtan, and Dales-Gift. The generall mayne body of
the planters are divided into Officers, Laborers, Farmors.

"The officers have the charge and care as well over the
farmors as laborers generallie—that they watch and ward for
their preservacions; and that both the one and the other's
busines may be daily followed to the performance of those
imployments, which from the one are required, and the other
by covenant are bound unto. These officers are bound to
maintayne themselves and families with food and rayment
by their owne and their servant's industrie. The laborers are
of two sorts. Some employed onely in the generall works,
who are fedd and clothed out of the store—others, specially
artificers as smiths, carpenters, shoemakers, taylors, tanners,
&c., doe worke in their professions for the colony, and
maintayne themselves with food and apparrell, having time
lymitted them to till and manure their ground.

"The farmors live at most ease—yet by their good
endeavors bring yearlie much plentie to the plantation. They
are bound by covenant, both for themselves and servants, to
maintaine your Ma'ties right and title in that kingdom,

against all foreigne and domestique enemies. To watch and
ward in the townes where they are resident. To do thirty-one
dayes service for the colony, when they shalbe called
thereunto—yet not at all tymes, but when their owne busines
can best spare them. To maintayne themselves and families
with food and rayment—and every farmor to pay yearlie
into the magazine for himself and every man servant, two
barrells and a halfe of English measure.

"Thus briefly have I sett downe every man's particular
imployment and manner of living; albeit, lest the people—
who generallie are bent to covett after gaine, especially
having tasted of the sweete of their labors—should spend
too much of their tyme and labor in planting tobacco, known
to them to be verie vendible in England, and so neglect their
tillage of corne, and fall into want thereof, it is provided for
—by the providence and care of Sir Thomas Dale—that no
farmor or other, who must maintayne themselves—shall
plant any tobacco, unless he shall yearely manure, set and
maintayne for himself and every man servant two acres of
ground with corne, which doing they may plant as much
tobacco as they will, els all their tobacco shalbe forfeite to
the colony—by which meanes the magazine shall yearely be
sure to receave their rent of corne; to maintayne those who
are fedd thereout, being but a few, and manie others, if need
be; they themselves will be well stored to keepe their
families with overplus, and reape tobacco enough to buy
clothes and such other necessaries as are needful for
themselves and household. For an easie laborer will keepe
and tend two acres of corne, and cure a good store of
tobacco—being yet the principall commoditie the colony for
the present yieldeth.

"For which as for other commodities, the councell and
company for Virginia have already sent a ship thither,
furnished with all manner of clothing, household stuff and
such necessaries, to establish a magazine there, which the

people shall buy at easie rates for their commodities—they
selling them at such prices that the adventurers may be no
loosers. This magazine shalbe yearelie supplied to furnish
them, if they will endeavor, by their labor, to maintayne it—
which wilbe much beneficiall to the planters and
adventurers, by interchanging their commodities, and will
add much encouragement to them and others to preserve and
follow the action with a constant resolution to uphold the
same."

The colony at this time was engaged in planting corn and tobacco,
"making pitch and tarr, potashes, charcole, salt," and in fishing. Of
Jamestown he says:

"At James Toune (seated on the north side of the river,
from West and Sherley Hundred lower down about thirty-
seven miles) are fifty, under the command of lieutenant
Sharpe, in the absence of capten Francis West, Esq., brother
to the right ho'ble the L. Lawarre,—whereof thirty-one are
farmors; all theis maintayne themselves with food and
rayment. Mr. Richard Buck minister there—a verie good
preacher."

Rev. Hugh Jones "Chaplain to the Honourable Assembly, and lately
Minister of James-Towne and in Virginia," in a work entitled—"The Present
State of Virginia," gives the following account of the cultivation of tobacco:

"When a tract of land is seated, they clear it by felling the
trees about a yard from the ground, lest they should shoot
again. What wood they have occasion for they carry off, and
burn the rest, or let it lie and rot upon the ground. The land
between the logs and stumps they hoe up, planting tobacco
there in the spring, inclosing it with a slight fence of cleft
rails. This will last for tobacco some years, if the land be
good; as it is where fine timber, or grape vines grow. Land
when hired is forced to bear tobacco by penning their cattle
upon it; but cowpen tobacco tastes strong, and that planted
in wet marshy land is called nonburning tobacco, which

smoaks in the pipe like leather, unless it be of a good age.
When land is tired of tobacco, it will bear Indian Corn or
English Wheat, or any other European grain or seed with
wonderful increase.

Virginia Tobacco Field, 1620.

"Tobacco and Indian Corne are planted in hills as hops,
and secured by worm fences, which are made of rails
supporting one another very firmly in a particular manner.
Tobacco requires a great deal of skill and trouble in the right
management of it. They raise the plants in beds, as we do
Cabbage plants; which they transplant and replant upon
occasion after a shower of rain, which they call a season.
When it is grown up they top it, or nip off the head, succour
it, or cut off the ground leaves, weed it, hill it; and when
ripe, they cut it down about six or eight leaves on a stalk,
which they carry into airy tobacco houses, after it is
withered a little in the sun, there it is hung to dry on sticks,
as paper at the paper-mills; when it is in proper case, (as
they call it) and the air neither too moist, nor too dry, they

strike it, or take it down, then cover it up in bulk, or a great
heap, where it lies till they have leisure or occasion to strip it
(that is pull the leaves from the stalk) or stem it (that is to
take out the great fibres) and tie it up in hands, or streight
lay it; and so by degrees prize or press it with proper engines
into great Hogsheads, containing from about six to eleven
hundred pounds; four of which Hogsheads make a tun by
dimention, not by weight; then it is ready for sale or
shipping.

"There are two sorts of tobacco, viz., Oroonoko the
stronger, and sweet-scented the milder; the first with a
sharper leaf like a Fox's ear, and the other rounder and with
finer fibres: But each of these are varied into several sorts,
much as Apples and Pears are; and I have been informed by
the Indian traders, that the Inland Indians have sorts of
tobacco much differing from any planted or used by the
Europeans. The Indian Corn is planted in hills and weeded
much as tobacco. This grain is of great increase and most
general use; for with this is made good bread, cakes, mush,
and hommony for the negroes, which with good pork and
potatoes (red and white, very nice and different from ours)
with other roots and pulse, are their general food."

The cultivation of tobacco increased with the growth of the colony and
the increase of price which at this time was sufficient to induce most of the
planters to neglect the culture of Corn and Wheat, devoting their time to
growing their "darling tobacco." The first thirty years after the colonization
of Virginia by the English, the colony made but little progress owing in part
to private factions and Indian wars. The horrid massacres by the Indians
threatened the extermination of the colony, and for a time the plantations
were neglected and even tobacco became more of an article of import than
of export, which is substantiated by an early writer of the colony who says:
—"A vast quantity of tobacco is consumed in the country in smoking,
chewing, and snuff." Frequent complaints were made by the colony of want
of strength and danger of imminent famine, owing in part to the presence of

a greater number of adventurers than of actual settlers,—such being the
case the resources of the country were in a measure limited.

The demand for tobacco in England increasing each year, together with
the high price paid for that from Virginia (3 s. per lb.), stimulated the
planters to hazard all their time and labor upon one crop, neglecting the
cultivation of the smaller grains, intent only upon curing "a good store of
tobacco." The company of adventurers at length found it necessary to check
the excessive planting of the weed, and by the consent of the "Generall
Assemblie" restraining the plantations to "one hundred plants[15] ye headd,
uppon each of wich plantes there are to bee left butt onely nyne leaves wich
portions as neare as could be guessed, was generally conceaved would be
agreable with the hundred waight you have allowed."

In 1639 the "Grand Assembly" (summoned the sixth of January) passed a
law restricting the growth of the colony to 1,500,000 lbs., and to 1,200,000
in the two years next ensuing. The exporting of the poorer qualities of
tobacco by the colony caused much dissatisfaction as will be seen by a
letter of the Company dated 11th September, 1621:

"We are assured from our Factor in Holland that except
the tobacco that shall next come thence prove to be of more
perfection and goodnesse than that was sent home last, there
is no hope that it vend att all, for albeit itt passed once yett
the wary buyer will not be againe taken, so that we heartily
wish that youe would make some provision for the burninge
of all base and rotten stuff, and not suffer any but very good
to be cured at least sent home, whereby these would
certainly be more advanced in the price upon lesse in the
quantity; howsoever we hope that no bad nor ill conditioned
tobacco shall be by compelling authoritie (abusing its power
given for public good to private benefit) putt uppon or
Factor, and very earnestly desire that he may have the helpe
of justice to constraine men to pay their debts unto him both
remaining of the last yeares accompt and what shall this
yearse growth deue, and that in Comodities of the same
vallew and goodness as shalbe by him contracted for."

At this period it appears that tobacco was used as money, and as the
measure of price and value. The taxes whether public, county, or parish,
were payable in tobacco.

Tatham says, "Even the tavern keepers were compelled to exchange a
dinner for a few pounds of tobacco." The law for the regulation of payments
in tobacco was passed in the year 1640. From these facts and incidents
connected with the culture and commerce of the plant we see how
intimately it was connected with both Church and State. Jones well said
"the Establishment is indeed tobacco;" the salary of ministers was payable
in it according to the wealth of the parish. In most parishes 16000 lbs. was
the yearly amount,

"and in some 20,000 lbs. of Tobacco; out of which there is a
deduction for Cask, prizing, collecting, and about which
allowance there are sometimes disputes, as are also
differences often about the place, time, and manner of
delivering it; but all these things might easily be regulated.
Tobacco is more commonly at 20 s. per cent. than at 10; so
that certainly it will bring 12 s. 8 d. a hundred, which will
make 16000 (the least salary) amount to 100£ per Ann.
which it must certainly clear, allowing for all petty charges,
out of the lowness of the price stated which is less than the
medium between ten and twenty shillings; whereas it might
be stated above the medium, since it is oftener at twenty
than ten shillings. Besides the payment of the salary, the
surplice fees want a better regulation in the payments; for
though the allowance be sufficient, yet differences often and
illwill arise about these fees, whether they are to be paid in
money or tobacco, and when; whereas by a small alteration
and addition of a few laws in these and the like respects, the
clergy might live more happy, peaceable, and better beloved;
and the people would be more easy, and pay never the more
dues.

"Some parts of the country make but mean and poor
tobacco so that Clergymen don't care to live in such

parishes; but there the payment might be made in money, or
in the produce of those places, which might be equivalent to
the tobacco payments; better for the minister, and as
pleasing to the people."

We find further complaints from the London Company of the poor
quality of the tobacco "sent home," in a letter addressed to the Governor,
bearing date 10th June, 1622:—

"The tobacco sent home by the George for the company
proved very meane and is yett unsold although it hath been
offered at 3s. the pound. This we thought fitt to advise you
concerning the quantity and the manner how it is raised, in
both wich being done contrarie to their directors and
extreamly to theire prejudice, the Companie is very ill
sattisfied, will write by the next, more largely."

In the year 1620 the difficulties seem first to have been publicly avowed,
(though perhaps before felt,) arising from attaching men as permanent
settlers to the colony without an adequate supply of women, to furnish the
comforts of domestic life; and to overcome the difficulty "a hundred young
women" of agreeable persons and respectable characters, were selected in
England and sent out, at the expense of the Company, as wives for the
settlers. They were very speedily appropriated by the young men of the
colony, who paid for the privilege of choice considerable sums as purchase
money, which went to replenish the treasury of the Company, from whence
the cost of their outfit and passage had been defrayed.

This speculation proved so advantageous to that body, in a pecuniary
sense, that it was soon followed up by sending out sixty more, for whom
larger prices were paid than for the first consignment; the amount paid on
the average for the first one hundred being 120 pounds of tobacco apiece
for each, then valued at 3s. per lb., and for the second supply of sixty, the
average price paid was 150 lbs. of tobacco, this being the legal currency of
the colony, and the standard value by which all contracts, salaries, and
prices were paid. In one of the Companies letters dated in London this 12th
of August, 1621, we find this account of a portion of the goods sent over in
the ship Marmaduke:—

"We send you in this ship one widdow and eleven maids
for wives for the people in Virginia; there hath been
especiall care had in the choise of them for their hath not
any one of them beene received but upon good
comendations, as by a note herewith sent you may perceive:
we pray you all therefore in generall to take them into your
care, and most especially we recommend them to you, Mr.
Pountes, that at their first landing they may be housed,
lodged and provided for of diet till they be marryed for such
was the haste of sending them away, as that straightned with
time, we had no meanes to putt provisions aboard, which
defect shalbe supplied by the magazine shipp; and in case
they cannot be presently marryed we desire they may be putt
to several householders that have wives till they can be
provided of husbands. There are neare fifty more which are
shortly to come, we sent by our most honoble Lord William
the Earle of Southampton and certain worthy gentlemen who
taking into these considerations, that the Plantation can
never flourish till families be planted and the respect of
wives and children fix the people in the soil; therefore have
given this fair beginning for the reimbursing of whose
charges, itt is ordered that every man that marries them give
120 lb. waight of best leafe tobacco for each of them, and in
case any of them dye that proportion must be advanced to
make it upp to those that survive; and this certainly is sett
down for that the price sett upon the bages sent last yeare
being 20 lb. which was so much money out of purse here,
there was returned 66 lb. of tobacco only, and that of the
worst and basest, so that fraight and shrinkage reconed
together with the baseness of the comoditie there was not
one half returned, which injury the company is sensible of as
they demand restitution, which accordingly must be had of
them that took uppon them the dispose of them the rather
that no man may mistake himself, in accomptinge tobacco to
be currant 3s. sterling contrary to express orders.

"And though we are desirous that marriadge be free
according to the law of nature, yett undervow not to have
these maids deterred and married to servants, but only to
such freemen or tenants as have means to maintaine them;
we pray you therefore to be fathers to them in this business,
not enforcing them to marrie against their wills; neither send
we them to be servants, but in case of extremitie, for we
would have their condition so much better as multitudes may
be allured thereby to come unto you; and you may assure
such men as marry those women that the first servants sent
over by the company shall be consigned to them, it being
our intent to preserve families and proper married men
before single persons. The tobacco that shall be due uppon
the marriadge of these maids we desire Mr. Pountes to
receive and returne by the first, as also the little quantities of
Pitzarn Rock and Piece of Oare, the copie of whose bill is
here returned. To conclude, the company for some weighty
reasons too long to relate, have ordered that no man
marrying these women expect the proportion of land usually
allotted for each head, which to avoid clamor or other
trouble hereafter you shall do well to give them notice of."

Buying Wives.

In another letter written by the company and dated London, September
11th, 1621, they write:—

"By this Shipp and Pinace called the Tyger, we also send
as many maids and young women as will make up the
number of fifty, with those twelve formerly sent in the
Marmaduke, which we hope shalbe received with the same
Christian pietie and charitie as they were sent from hence;
the providing for them at their first landing and disposing of
them in marriage (which is our chief intent), we leave to
your care and wisdom, to take that order as may most
conduce to their good, and satisfaction of the Adventurers,
for the charges disbursed in setting them forth, which
coming to twelve pounds and upwards, they require one
hundred and fiftie of the best leafe tobacco for each of them;
and if any of them dye there must be a proportionable
addition uppon the rest; this increase of thirty pounds is
weight since those sent in the Marmaduke, they have
resolved to make, finding the great shrinkage and other
losses uppon the tobacco from Virginia will not leave lesse,
which tobacco as it shalbe received, we desire may be
delivered to Mr. Ed. Blany, who is to keep thereof a
particular account. We have used extraordinary care and
dilligence in the choice of them, and have received none of
whom we have not had good testimony of their honest life
and cariadge, which together with their names, we send
them inclosed for the satisfaction of such as shall marry
them; for whose further encouragement we desire you to
give public notice that the next spring we purpose to send
over as many youths for apprentices to those that shall now
marry any of them and make us due satisfaction.

"This and theire owne good deserts together with your
favor and care, will we hope, marry them all unto honest and
sufficient men, whose means will reach to present

repayment; but if any of them shall unwarily or fondly
bestow herself (for the liberty of marriadge we dare not
infrindge) uppon such as shall not be able to give present
sattisfaction, we desire that at least as soon as ability shalbe,
they be compelled to pay the true quantity of tobacco
proportioned, and that this debt may have precedence of all
other to be recovered.

"For the rest, which we hope will not be many, we desire
your best furtherance for providing them fitting services till
they may happen uppon good matches, and are here
persuaded by many old planters that there will be good
maisters now found there, who will readily lay down what
charges shall be required, uppon assurance of repayment at
their marriadges, which as just and reasonable we desire
may be given them. But this and many other things in this
business we must refer to your good considerations and
fruitful endeavors in opening a work begun here out of pity,
and tending so much to the benefitt of the plantation, shall
not miscarry for any want of good will or care on your part."

In 1622 a monopoly of the importation of tobacco was granted to the
Virginia and Somers Island, companies.

"But now at last it hath pleased God for the confirmation
no doubt of our hopes and redoubling of our and your
courage, to incline His Majestie's Royall heart to grant the
sole importation of Tobacco (a thing long and earnestly
desired), to the Virginia and Somers Island Companies, and
that upon such conditions as the private profit of each man is
likely to be much improved and the general state of the
plantation strongly secured, while his Majestie's revenue is
so closely joyned as together with the colonie it must rise
and faile, grow and impair, and that not a small matter
neither, but of twenty thousand pounds per annum, (for the
offer of so much in certainty hath his majestie been pleased
to refuse in favor of the Plantations)."

On Friday the 22d of March 1622 the Indians attacked the plantations

"and attempted in most places under the color of
unsuspected amytie, and by surprise to have cut us all off
and to have swept us all away at once throughout the whole
lande had itt not pleased God of his abundant mercy to
prevent them in many places, for which we can never
sufficient magnifie his blessed, name."

But notwithstanding this terrible massacre in which nearly four hundred
persons were slain the colony increased in wealth and numbers as
plantations were laid out and the colonists developed the various resources
of the country. From the first planting of tobacco in Virginia by the colony it
seemed to meet the royal displeasure of King James the First who falsely
and frivolously sought to establish a connection between the balmy plant,
and the influences of the Evil One.

In 1622 King James still opposing the cultivation of tobacco sought by
every means in his power to discourage its growth and culture. He urged the
growing of mulberry trees and the propagation of silk worms, as being of
more value than tobacco. In a letter dated 10th June 1622, addressed to the
Governor and Council of Virginia by the London Company we find this
reproof for neglecting the cultivation of "mulberrie trees":

"His Matie (Majesty) above all things requires from us a
proof of silke; sharply reproving the neglect thereof,
wherefore we pray you lett that little stock you have be
carefully improved, the mulberrie trees preserved and
increased, and all other fitt preparations made for, God
willing before Christmas you shall receive from us one
hundred ounces of Silkworme seed at least, which coming
too late from Valentia we have been forced to hatch it here."

In 1623 a letter was prepared for the colony by order of privy council of
the king and addressed to Sir Francis Wyatt Knight and Captain General of
Virginia and to the rest of the Council of State in which the colony is
admonished to pay more attention to "Staple Commodities." That part
relating to it reads:

"The carefull and diligent prosecution of Staple
Commodities which we promist; we above all things pray
you to performe so as we may have speedily the real proof
of your cares and endeavors therein, especially in that of
Iron, of Vines and Silk the neglect and delay whereof so
long is to us here cause of infinit grief and discontent,
especially in regard of his Majesties just resentment therein
that his Royall grace and love to the Plantation, which after
so long a time and long a supply of his Majesties favor hath
brought forth no better fruit than Tobacco.

"Yett by the goodness of God inclyning his princely heart,
we have received not only from the Lords of his Privy
Counsell, but from his Royal mouth such assurance not only
of his tender love and care but also of his Royal intentions
for the advancement of the Plantation; that we cannot but
exceedingly rejoice therein and persuade you with much
more comfort and encouragement to go on in the building up
of his Royal worke with all sincerity, care and diligence, and
that with that perfect love and union amongst yourselves as
may really demonstrate that your intentions are all one, the
advancement of God's glorie and the service of his Royall
Majestie: for the particularities of his Majesties gratious
intentions for the future good, you may in part understand
them by the courses appointed by the Lords, whereof we
here inclosed send the orders.

"And we are further to signifie unto you that the Lords of
his Majesties Privy Counsell, having by his Majesties order
taken into their considerations the contract made last
Sommer by the Company have dissolved the same; and
signified that his Majestie out of his gracious and Royall
intention and princely favor to the Plantation hath resolved
to grant a sole Importion of Tobacco to the two Plantations,
with an exception only of 40,000 weight of ye best Spanish
Tobacco to be yearly brought in.

"And it hath also pleased his Majesty in favor of the
Plantation to reduce ye custom and importing of tobacco to
9d. per pound: And last of all we are to signifie unto you that
their Lordships have ordered that all the Tobacco shall be
brought in from both Plantations as by their Lordship order
whereof we send you a copy, you may perceive."

In 1624 King James prohibited the importation of foreign tobacco as well
as the planting of tobacco in England or Ireland. The following is a portion
of the proclamation:—

"Whereas our commons, in their last sessions of
parliament became humble petitioners to us, that, for many
weighty reasons, much concerning the interest of our
kingdom, and the trade thereof, we would by our royal
power utterly prohibit the use of all foreign tobacco, which
is not of the growth of our own dominions: And whereas we
have upon all occasions made known our dislike we have
ever had of the use of tobacco in general, as tending to the
corruption both of the health and manners of our people.

"Nevertheless because we have been often and earnestly
importuned by many of our loving subjects, planters, and
adventurers in Virginia and the Somer isles; that, as those
colonies are yet but in their infancy, and cannot be brought
to maturity, unless we be pleased, for a time, to tolerate unto
them the planting and vending of their own growth; we have
condescended to their desires: and do therefore hereby
strictly prohibit the importation of any tobacco from beyond
sea, or from Scotland, into England or Ireland other than
from our colonies before named; moreover we strictly
prohibit the planting of any tobacco either in England or
Ireland."

Thus King James by Proclamation and Prohibition set his face sternly
against the growth and traffic in the plant, which opposition knew no
alteration and continued till his death, which occurred in 1625. James was
succeeded by his son Charles I. On ascending the throne Charles manifested

the same hostility towards the plant which his father had. He prohibited the
importation of all tobacco excepting that grown by the colony, and
throughout his reign made no change in the restrictive laws against its
growth and sale. He continued its sale, however, as a kingly monopoly,
allowing only those to engage in it who paid him for the privilege. The
Company had now raised a capital of two hundred thousand pounds, but
falling into dispute and disagreeing one with another, Charles thought best
to establish a royal government.

Accordingly he dissolved the Company in 1626,

"reducing the Country and Government into his own
immediate ordering all patents and processes to issue in his
own name, reserving to himself a quit-rent of two shillings
for every hundred acres of land."

The first act was by proclamation as follows:—

"That whereas, in his royal father's time, the charter of the
Virginia Company was by a quo warranto annulled; and
whereas his said father was, and he himself also is, of
opinion, that the government of that Colony by a company
incorporated, consisting of a multitude of persons of various
dispositions, amongst whom affairs of the greatest moment
are ruled by a majority of votes, was not so proper, for
carrying on, prosperously, the affairs of the colony;
wherefore, to reduce the government thereof to such a
course as might best agree with that form which was held in
his royal monarchy; and considering also, that we hold those
territories of Virginia and Somer isles, as also that of New
England, lately planted, with the limits thereof, to be a part
of our royal empire; we ordain that the government of
Virginia shall immediately depend on ourself, and not be
committed to any company or corporation, to whom it may
be proper to trust matters of trade and commerce, but cannot
be fit to commit the ordering of state affairs.

"Wherefore our commissioners for those affairs shall
proceed as directed, till we establish a council here for that
colony; to be subordinate to our council here for that colony.
And at our charge we will maintain those public officers and
ministers and that strength of men, munition, and
fortification, which shall be necessary for the defence of that
plantation. And we will also settle and assure the particular
rights and interests of every planter and adventurer. Lastly,
whereas the tobacco of those plantations (the only present
means of their subsisting) cannot be managed for the good
of the plantations, unless it be brought into one hand,
whereby the foreign tobacco of those plantations may yield a
certain and ready price to the owners thereof: to avoid all
differences between the planters and adventurers
themselves, we resolve to take the same into our own hands,
and to give such prices for the same as may give reasonable
satisfaction, whereof we will determine at better leisure."

From this time forward the Plantation seemed to prosper, Charles granted
lands to all the planters and adventurers who would till them, upon paying
the annual sum of two shillings payable to the crown for each hundred
acres. direction, appointing the Governor and Council himself, and Before
the death of King James, however, the cultivation of tobacco had become so
extensive that every other product seemed of but little value in comparison
with it, and the price realized from its sale being so much greater than that
obtained for "Corne," the latter was neglected and its culture almost entirely
abandoned.

Arthur and Carpenter, in their History of Virginia, give a graphic and
truthful picture of its cultivation during the reign of King James:—

"The first articles of commerce to the production of which
the early settlers almost exclusively devoted themselves,
were potash, soap, glass and tar. Distance, however, and a
want of the proper facilities to enable them to manufacture
cheaply, rendered the cost of these commodities so great,
that exports of a similar character from Russia and Sweden

were still enabled to maintain their old ascendency in the
markets of Europe. After many fruitless and costly
experiments in the cultivation of the vine, the growing
demand for tobacco enabled the planters to turn their labor
into a profitable channel. As the demand increased the
profits became correspondingly great, and every other
species of labor was abandoned for the cultivation of
tobacco.

"The houses were neglected, the palisades suffered to rot
down, the fields, gardens and public squares, even the very
streets of Jamestown were planted with tobacco. The
townspeople, more greedy of gain than mindful of their own
security, scattered abroad into the wilderness, where they
broke up small pieces of rich ground and made their crop
regardless of their proximity to the Indians, in whose good
faith so little reliance could be placed."

During the reign of Charles I. many families of respectable connection
joined the colony, and from this time forward the colony increased in
wealth as well as numbers. King Charles, to use the language of another,
had now commenced "as a tobacco merchant and monopolist," and in 1627
issued a proclamation renewing his already strong monopoly more
effectually, by appointing certain officers of London

"to seize all foreign tobacco, not of the growth of Virginia or
Bermudas, for his benefit, agreeable to a former
commission: also to buy up for his use all the tobacco
coming from our said plantations, and to sell the same again
for his benefit."

Growing Tobacco in the Streets.

Again in 1630 King Charles issued another proclamation, and among
other restrictions limited the importation of it from the colony. Quickly
following this the King issued in 1632 another proclamation regulating the
retailing of tobacco. In 1634 he also prohibited the landing of tobacco any
where except at the quay near the custom house in London.

In 1636 Charles appointed Sir John Harvey to be continued governor of
the Plantation. In 1643 parliament laid a tax for the year 1644, calling it
Excise, and also laid a duty of four shillings per pound on foreign, and two
shillings per pound on English tobacco. From what has already been
written, it will be seen that both King James and his son Charles I. enacted
the most stringent laws against its importation, nearly suppressing the trade,
which caused the English farmers to cultivate it for home use; but another
law was now added to suppress its growth on English soil.

Fairholt in speaking of the hostility of King James to the plant says:

"When Kings make unnecessary and unjust laws, subjects
naturally study how to evade them: it is a mere system of
self-defence; and as James nearly suppressed the importation
of tobacco the English began to grow it on their own land.
But the Scottish Solomon who was on the alert, added
another law restraining its cultivation 'to misuse and
misemploy the soil of this fruitful Kingdom.' As this
enforced the trade with the English colony of Virginia alone,
it was soon found that Spanish and Portuguese tobacco
might be brought into port on the payment of the old duty of
twopence a pound; thus a large trade was carried on with
their planters to the injury of the British colonists.

"Its use increased in spite of all legislative laws and
enactments and James ended by prohibiting any person from
dealing in the article who did not hold his letters patent. By
this means the trade was monopolized, the consumers
oppressed, importation diminished, and the London
Company of Virginia traders ultimately ruined. Those who
are fond of excusing the evil acts of one of the worst of
English Kings, pretend to see James' care for his subjects'
health and wealth in these restrictions, totally regardless of
the fact that James cared for neither when the monopoly
brought large sums into his own pocket."

In 1632 Charles I. granted to Sir George Calvert (who about this time
was made Lord Baltimore) the territory now known as Maryland; soon after
receiving the grant he died, when his son took the grant in his own name.
The next year he sailed from England with two hundred persons and settled
in his new possessions. The colony from the first, prospered far better than
the colony of Virginia and soon laid the foundation of a strong and
substantial government. Like the Virginians they soon engaged in the
cultivation of tobacco which seemed as well adapted to the soil as the other
products, corn and English wheat. The Indians were found here as in the
Plantation of Virginia planting tobacco as they did Indian corn and
cultivating little patches of it near their wigwams choosing the most fertile
soil the females of the tribe being the actual cultivators.

Natives Growing Tobacco.

From this time forward both colonies developed into strong and
flourishing plantations and with each succeeding year increased the
cultivation of tobacco which had now become more extensively cultivated
than all the other products combined. Its culture however was looked upon
with the same disapproval by Charles II. who confirmed the old laws
against its sale and cultivation. But notwithstanding the remonstrances of
the Stuarts the plant grew in use and favor and could not be uprooted even
by a kingly hand. The early cultivators of the plant received a fresh impetus
from the importation of a new species of labor in the form of Negro slaves
brought from the West India islands. They arrived in the Ship Treasurer
"being manned by the best men of the colony who set out on roving in ye
Spanish dominions in the West Indies" and after a successful cruise against
the Spaniards returned with their spoils including a certain number of
Negroes. Rolfe in alluding to the importation of Negroes says:

"About the last of August came in, a Dutch man-of-warre
that sold us twenty negars."

Most writers are of the opinion that this was in 1620, one of whom says
"in the same year that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, slaves landed in
Virginia." Another writer says of the introduction of slave labor into the
Plantations,

"Is there not a probability that the vessel was under control
of Argall, if not the ship Treasurer? If twenty negroes came
in 1619, as alleged, their increase was very slow, for
according to a census of 16th of February, 1624, there were
but twenty-two then in the colony, distributed as follows:
eleven at Flourdiew Hundred, three at James City, one at
James Island, one at the plantation opposite James City, four
at Warisquoyok, and two at Elizabeth City."

About the same time that "negars" landed in the colony, commenced the
arrival of starving boys and girls picked up out of the streets of London.
The "negars" are described as follows by an early writer of the colony.

"The negroes live in small cottages called quarters, in about
six in a gang, under the direction or an overseer or baliff;
who takes care that they tend such land as the owner allots
and orders, upon which they raise Hogs and Cattle, plant
Indian Corn (or maize) and Tobacco for the use of their
Master; out of which the overseer has a dividend (or share)
in proportion to the number of hands including himself; this
with several privileges in his salary, and is an ample
recompense for his pains, and encouragement of his
industrious care, as to the labor, health, and provision of the
negroes. The negroes are very numerous, some gentlemen
having hundreds of them of all sorts, to whom they bring
great profit; for the sake of which they are obliged to keep
them well, and not overwork, starve, or famish them, besides
other inducements to favor them, which is done in a great
degree, to such especially that are laborious, careful, and
honest; though indeed some Masters, careless of their own
interest and reputation, are too cruel and negligent.

"The negroes are not only increased by fresh supplies
from Africa and the West India Islands, but also are very
prolific among themselves; and they that are born there talk
good English, and effect our language, habits, and customs;
and tho' they be naturally of a barbarous and cruel temper,
yet are they kept under by severe discipline upon occasion,
and by good laws are prevented from running away, injuring
the English or neglecting their business. Their work (or
chimerical hard slavery) is not very laborious; their greatest
hardship consisting in that they and their posterity are not at
their own liberty or disposal, but are the property of their
owners; and when they are free they know not how to
provide so well for themselves generally; neither did they
live so plentifully nor (many of them) so easily in their own
country where they are made slaves to one another, or taken
captive by their enemies. Their work is to take care of the
stock, and plant Corn, Tobacco, Fruits and which is not
harder than thrashing, hedging, or ditching; besides, though
they are out in the violent heat, wherein they delight, yet in
wet or cold weather there is little occasion for their working
in the fields, in which few will let them be abroad, lest by
this means they might get sick or die, which would prove a
great loss to their owners, a good Negroe being sometimes
worth three (nay four) score pounds sterling, if he be a
tradesmen; so that upon this (if upon no other account) they
are obliged not to overwork them, but to clooth and feed
them sufficiently, and take care of their health."

The planters, supplied with greater facilities for the work, now increased
the size of their tobacco plantations, "taking up new ground" (clearing the
land) and planting a much larger area. The first exportation of the colony's
tobacco was brought into competition with that of much finer flavor, which
had acquired an established reputation long before the English began the
culture of the plant in the New World. The Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese
had long monopolized its culture and trade, and brought from St. Domingo,
Jamaica, St. Thomas, the Philippine Islands, West Florida, and various parts
of South America, several varieties of tobacco of excellent quality, and

which sold at an exorbitant price. On testing the tobacco grown by the
London and Plymouth companies it was found to be sweet and mild in
flavor, of a light color, and well adapted for smoking. On its first
introduction into England it sold for 3s. per pound, but as its culture
increased the price lessened, until it was sold at one-half this amount.

Destroying Suckers.

The planters, who at first cultivated small patches, now planted large
fields of tobacco, and such was the greed for gain that some planters
gathered a second crop upon the same field from the suckers left growing
upon the parent stalk. Tatham[16] says in regard to it:—

"It has been customary in former ages to rear an inferior
plant from the sucker which projects from the root after the
cutting of an early plant; and thus a second crop has often
been obtained from the same field by one and the same
course of culture; and although this scion is of a sufficient
quality for smoking, and might become preferred in the
weaker kinds of snuff, it has been (I think very properly)
thought eligible to prefer a prohibitory law, to a risk of
imposition by means of similitude. The practice of
cultivating suckers is on these accounts not only
discountenanced as fraudulent, but the constables are strictly
enjoyned ex officio to make diligent search, and to employ
the posse commitatus in destroying such crops; a law indeed

for which, to the credit of the Virginians, there is seldom
occasion; yet some few instances have occurred, within my
day, where the constables have very honorably carried it into
execution in a manner truly exemplary, and productive of
public good."

Fairholt says of the same subject:—

"It was sometimes the custom with planters to reset the
suckers, and thus grow a double crop on one field, such
conduct was disallowed; for the reason that the crop was
inferior, and the more honest grower, who conscientiously
cleared his plants, and gave them abundance of room to
grow, was dishonestly competed with; and the first rate
character of the Virginian crop prejudiced by the action."

Fairholt makes a mistake in speaking of the planter as re-setting the
suckers, and his statement shows him to be entirely unacquainted with the
habits of the plant. As soon as the plants are harvested, the stump of the
plant remaining in the ground puts forth one or more vigorous suckers or
shoots, which often in a good season grow almost as high as the parent
stalk. In some tobacco-growing sections one or two crops of suckers are
gathered besides the first crop.

The Creole planters in Louisiana are said to grow three crops in this
manner, the first or parent crop and two growths of suckers. The quality of
leaf, however, is greatly inferior, as it is small and thin and lacking in all the
qualities necessary for a fine leaf. The planters now adopted new methods
of culture, and cultivated several species of the plant known as Oronoko
and little Frederick, although they did not fertilize the fields, even when the
soil became impoverished, but simply took new fields for its culture.

Hugh Jones says of the kinds of tobacco grown in Virginia:—

"The land between the James and York rivers seemes
nicely adapted for sweet scented tobacco; for 'tis observed
that the goodness decreaseth the farther you go to the
northward of the one, and the southward of the other; but

this may be (I believe) attributed in some measure to the
seed and management, as well as to the land and latitude:
For on York river in a small tract of land called Diggens
neck, which is poorer than a great deal of other land in the
same latitude, by a particular seed and management, is made
the famous crop known by the name of E Dees, remarkable
for its mild taste and fine smell." He speaks of the planters
and their plantations as follows:—"Neither the interests nor
inclinations of the Virginians induces them to cohabit in
towns: so that they are not forward in contributing their
assistance towards the making of particular places, every
plantation affording the owner the provision of a little
market; wherefore they most commonly build upon some
convenient spot or neck of land in their own plantation,
though towns are laid out and established in each county.

"The whole country is a perfect forest, except where the
woods are cleared for plantations, and old fields, and where
have been formerly Indian towns, and poisoned fields and
meadows, where the timber has been burnt down in fire
hunting and otherwise; and about the creeks and rivers are
large rank morasses or marshes, and up the country are poor
savannahs. The gentlemen's seats are of late built for the
most part of good brick, and many of timber very handsome,
commodious, and capacious; and likewise the common
planters live in pretty timber houses, neater than the farm
houses are generally in England: With timber also are built
houses for the overseers and out-houses; among which is the
kitchen apart from the dwelling house, because of the smell
of hot victuals, offensive in hot weather.

"The habits, life, customs, computations of the Virginians,
are much the same as about London, which they esteem their
home; and for the most part have contemptible notions of
England, and wrong sentiments of Bristol, and the other out-
posts, which they entertain from seeing and hearing the
common dealers, sailors, and servants that come from those

towns, and the country places in England and Scotland,
whose language and manners are strange to them; for the
planters and even the native negroes generally talk good
English without idiom and tone, and can discourse
handsomely upon most common subjects: and conversing
with persons belonging to trade and navigation from
London, for the most part they are much civilized, and wear
the best of clothes according to their station; nay, sometimes
too good for their circumstances, being for the generality,
comely handsome persons of good features and fine
complexions (if they take care) of good manners and
address.

"They are not very easily persuaded to the improvement
of useful inventions (except a few, such as sawing mills)
neither are they great encouragers of manufactures, because
of the trouble and certain expense in attempts of this kind,
with uncertain prospect of gain; whereas by their staple
commodity, tobacco, they are certain to get a plentiful
provision; nay, often very great estates. Upon this account
they think it folly to take off their hands (or negroes) and
employ their care and time about anything that may make
them lessen their crop of tobacco. So that though they are
apt to learn, yet they are fond of and will follow their own
ways, humors and notions, being not easily brought to new
projects and schemes; so that I question if they would have
been improved upon by the Mississippi or South sea, or any
other such monstrous bubbles. The common planters leading
easy lives without much labor, or any manly exercise, except
horse-racing, nor diversion, except cock-fighting, in which
some greatly delight.

"This easy way of living, and the heat of the summer,
makes some very lazy, who are then said to be climate-
struck. They are such lovers of riding, that almost every
ordinary person keeps a horse; and I have known some
spend the morning in ranging several miles in the woods to

find and catch their horses to ride only two or three miles to
the Church, to the Court-House or to a Horse-Race, where
they generally appoint to meet upon business; and are more
certain of finding those that they want to speak or deal with,
than at their home. No people can entertain their friends with
better cheer and welcome; and stranger and traveler is here
treated in the most free, plentiful, and hospitable manner; so
that a few Inns or Ordinaries on the road are sufficient."

This is no doubt a correct picture of the early planters of Virginia. Many
of them became the owners of large plantations and all those who were
successful growers of tobacco became wealthy in proportion to the quality
of leaf produced.

The merchants, factors or store-keepers bought up the tobacco of the
planters paying in goods or "current Spanish money, or with sterling bills
payable in Great Britain." At first the cultivation of tobacco by the colony
was confined to Jamestown and the immediate vicinity, but as the colony
increased and the country became more densely populated, plantations were
laid out in the various counties and a large quantity was produced some
ways from the great center Jamestown; accordingly various methods were
adopted to get the tobacco to market, some of which was sent by boats or
canoes down the rivers, while some was conveyed in carts and wagons
while another method was by rolling in hoops.

Tatham in his interesting work on tobacco, gives the following
description of the method:

"I believe rolling tobacco the distance of many hundred
miles, is a mode of conveyance peculiar to Virginia; and for
which the early population of that country deserve a very
handsome credit. Necessity (that very prolific mother of
invention), first suggested the idea of rolling by hand; time
and experience have led to the introduction of horses, and
have ripened human skill, in this kind of carriage, to a
decree of perfection which merits the adoption of the mother
country, but which will be better explained under the next
head of this subject.

Carrying Tobacco to Market.

"The hogsheads, which are designed to be rolled in
common hoops, are made closer in the joints than if they
were intended for the wagon; and are plentifully hooped
with strong hickory hoops (which is the toughest kind of
wood), with the bark upon them, which remains for some
distance a protection against the stones. Two hickory
saplings are affixed to the hogshead, for shafts by boring an
auger-hole through them to receive the gudgeons or pivots,
in the manner of a field rolling-stone; and these receive pins
of wood, square tapered points, which are admitted through
square mortises made central in the heading, and driven a
considerable depth into the solid tobacco. Upon the hind part
of these shafts, between the horses and the hogshead, a few
light planks are nailed, and a kind of little cart body is
constructed of a sufficient size to contain a bag or two of
provender and provision, together with an axe, and such
other tools as may be needed upon the road, in case of
accident. In this manner they set out to the inspection in
companies, very often joining society with the wagons, and
always pursuing the same method of encamping."

The methods of making the plant bed, cultivating and harvesting, by the
early planters may be interesting to all growers of the plant and are here

described as showing the progress made in cutting tobacco from that time
until now.

"In spring red seed, in preference to the white, is put into
a clean pot; milk or stale beer is poured upon it, and it is left
for two or three days in this state; it is then mixed with a
quantity of fine fat earth, and set aside in a hot chamber, till
the seeds begin to put out shoots. They are then sown in a
hot-bed. When the young plants have grown to a finger's
length, they are taken up between the fifteenth and twenty-
second of May, and planted in ground that has been
previously well manured with the dung of doves or swine.
They are placed at square distances of one and a half-foot
from one another. In dry weather, they are now to be watered
with lukewarm water softly showered upon them, between
sunset and twilight. When these plants are full two feet high,
the top of the stems are broken off, to make the leaves grow
thicker and broader. Here and there are left a few plants
without having their tops broken off, in order that they may
afford seeds for another year. Throughout the summer the
other plants are from time to time, pruned at the top, and the
whole field is carefully weeded to make the growth of the
leaf so much the more vigorous.

"In the month of September, from the sixteenth day, and
between the hours of ten in the morning and four in the
afternoon, the best leaves are to be taken off. It is more
advantageous to pluck the leaves when they are dry than
when they are moist. When plucked they are to be
immediately brought home, and hung upon cords within the
house to dry, in as full exposure as is possible to the
influence of the sun and air; but so as to receive no rain. In
this exposure they remain till the months of March and April
following; when they are to be put up in bundles, and
conveyed to the store-house, in which they may be kept, that
they may be there till more perfectly dried by a moderate
heat. Within eight days they must be removed to a different

place, where they are to be sparingly sprinkled with salt
water, and left till the leaves shall be no longer warm to the
feeling of the hand. A barrel of water with six handfuls of
salt are the proportions. After all this the tobacco leaves may
be laid aside for commercial exportation. They will remain
fresh for three years."

Enriching Plant-Bed.

In Maryland they formerly prepared the land for a plant-bed by burning
upon it a great quantity of brush-wood, afterwards raking the surface fine;
the seed was then sowed broadcast. The young plants were kept free from
weeds, and were transplanted when about two inches high. The cultivation
of tobacco gradually spread from one State to another. From Virginia it was
introduced into North Carolina and Maryland and finally Kentucky which is
now the largest producing tobacco State in the Union. The demand for
Virginia tobacco continued to increase and long before the Revolutionary
war, Virginia exported annually thousands of hogsheads of leaf tobacco.
Half a century ago the plant began to be cultivated in Ohio and from the
first grew remarkably well, producing a leaf adapted for both cutting and
cigar purposes.

Tobacco was planted in New Netherland (New York) by the early Dutch
settlers and in 1638 "had become a staple production." In 1639 "from
Virginia numbers of persons whose terms of service had expired, were
attracted to Manhattan, where they introduced improved modes of
cultivating tobacco." Van Twiller was himself a grower of the plant and had
his tobacco farm at Greenwich. Soon after its cultivation began it was
subjected to Excise; and regulations were published to check the abuses
which injured "the high name" it had gained in foreign countries.[17]

Wailes says of the early cultivation of tobacco in Mississippi:

"When the country came under the dominion of Spain, a
market was opened in New Orleans; a trade in tobacco was
established, and a fixed and remunerating price was paid for
it, delivered at the king's warehouses. Tobacco thus became
the first marketable staple production of Mississippi."[18]

An English writer has the following account of the culture of tobacco in
Louisiana by the French:

"Tobacco is another plant indigenous to this part of
America; the French colonists cultivated it with such success
that had they received any encouragement from their
government they might soon have rivalled Virginia and
Maryland; but instead of this they were taxed heavily for
cultivating it, by duties laid on the trade; what they produced
was of so excellent a quality, as to sell some at five shillings
a pound. There is one advantage in this culture here which
ought not to be forgotten; in Louisiana the French planters
after the tobacco is cut, weeded and cleaned the ground on
which it grew the roots, push forth fresh shoots, which are
managed in the same manner as the first crop. By this means
a second crop is made on the same ground, and sometimes a
third. These seconds indeed, as they are called, do not
usually grow so high as the first plant, but notwithstanding
they make very good tobacco."

During the reign of the Stuarts, the plant was first cultivated in New
England but only in small quantities[19] and used solely for smoking. About
1835 the plant received more attention from the farmers living in the
Connecticut valley containing some of the finest tobacco land in the
country. They found by repeated trials that the soil was well adapted to the
production of a finer leaf tobacco than any they had ever seen. At this time
Kentucky and Havana tobacco were used in the manufacture of cigars, but
on testing American tobacco or as it is now known "Connecticut seed leaf"
it was found to make the finest wrappers yet produced, and consequently
the best looking cigars. From that time its reputation has kept pace with its
cultivation, until it now enjoys a world wide popularity. As a wrapping
tobacco it towers far above the seed products of other states and can never
have a successful competitor in the other varieties now cultivated in the
Middle and Western States. Doubtless America furnishes the finest varieties
of the plant now cultivated, suited for all kinds of manufacturing, and
adapted to all the various forms in which it is used.

The great diversity of soil and climate renders this probable while actual
experiments and improved methods of culture have demonstrated it to a
certainty. Thousands of hogsheads, cases, and bales are annually shipped to
all parts of the world and the demand for American tobacco is greater than
for the varieties grown in the Old World. More than two hundred and fifty
years have passed since the London and Plymouth Companies began its
cultivation in the Old Dominion, and on the same soil where the red man
grew his "uppowac." Virginia leaf still continues to flourish, and to-day it is
the great agricultural product of the State.

From a small beginning, like the plant itself it has developed into a great
and increasing industry and its culture become a source of wealth
unprecedented in agricultural history. Could the sapient James I. and his
successors the Stuarts, now look upon this cherished production of the
world, they would discover a commercial prosperity connected with those
nations which have fostered and encouraged its growth far in advance of
those who have frowned upon the plant and prohibited or hindered its
cultivation. Saint Pierre alluding to the beneficence of nature and of the
folly and cruelty of man as contrasted says:

"When the princes of Europe went Gospel in hand, to lay
waste Asia, they brought back the plague, the leprosy and
the small-pox, but nature showed to a Dervish the coffee tree
in the mountains of Yemen, and at the moment when nature
brought curses on us through the Crusaders, it brought
delights to us through the cup of a Mohammedan Monk. The
descendants of those princes took possession of America,
and transmitted to us by this conquest, an inexhaustible
succession of wars and maladies. While they were
exterminating the inhabitants of America with cannon, a
Carib invited sailors to smoke his Calumet as a signal of
peace. The perfume of the tobacco vanquished their
torments and their troubles, and the use of tobacco was
spread all over the earth. While the afflictions of the two
worlds came from artillery, which kings call their last resort,
the consolations of civilized nations flowed from the pipe of
a savage."

Shipping Tobacco.

It seems hardly possible to draw a more graphic picture of the blessings
diffused by the balmy plant, than that just given. Its peculiar charms and

soothing influence are well calculated to inspire in the breast of man,
feelings of peace and happiness, rather than elements of discord and strife.
The pipe of a king burns not more freely the shreds of the plant, than it does
the last remnant of hostile feelings and the recollections of bitter wrongs;
while the snuff-box of the diplomat contains the precious dust that has
soothed the fierce hatred of rival houses and cemented the divided factions
of a tottering throne.[Back to Contents]

CHAPTER IV.
TOBACCO IN EUROPE.

The discovery of the tobacco plant in America by European
voyagers aroused their cupidity no less than their curiosity.
They saw in its use by the Indians a custom which, if engrafted
upon the civilization of the Old World, would prove a source of
revenue commensurate with their wildest visions of power and
wealth. This was particularly the case with the Spanish and Portuguese
conquerors, whose thirst for gold was gratified by its discovery. The finding
by the Spaniards of gold, silver, and the balmy plant, and by the Portuguese
of valuable and glittering gems, opened up to Spain and Portugal three great
sources of wealth and power. But while the Spaniards were the first
discoverers of the plant there seems to be conflicting opinions as to which
nation first began its culture, and whether the plant was cultivated first in
the Old World or in the New. Humboldt says:—

"It was neither from Virginia nor from South America, but
from the Mexican province of Yucatan that Europe received
the first tobacco seeds about the year 1559.[20] The
Spaniards became acquainted with tobacco in the West India
Islands at the end of the 15th Century, and the cultivation of
Tobacco preceded the cultivation of the potato in Europe

more than one hundred and twenty years. When Sir Walter
Raleigh brought tobacco from Virginia to England in 1586,
whole fields of it were already cultivated in Portugal.[21] It
was also previously known in France."

Another author says of its introduction into Europe:—

"The seeds of the tobacco plant were first brought to
Europe by Gonzalo Hernandez de Oviedo, who introduced it
into Spain, where it was first cultivated as an ornamental
plant, till Monardes[22] extolled it as possessed of medicinal
virtues."[23]

Murray says of the first cultivation of tobacco and potatoes in the Old
World:—

"Amidst the numerous remarkable productions ushered
into the Old Continent from the New World, there are two
which stand pre-eminently conspicuous from their general
adoption. Unlike in their nature, both have been received as
extensive blessings—the one by its nutritive powers tends to
support, the other by its narcotic virtues to soothe and
comfort the human frame—the potato and tobacco; but very
different was the favor with which these plants were viewed.
The one long rejected, by the slow operation of time, and,
perhaps, of necessity, was at length cherished, and has
become the support of millions, but nearly one hundred and
twenty years passed away before even a trial of its merits
was attempted; whereas, the tobacco from Yucatan, in less
than seventy years after the discovery, appears to have been
extensively cultivated in Portugal, and is, perhaps, the most
generally adopted superfluous vegetable product known; for
sugar and opium are not in such common use. The potato by
the starch satisfies the hunger; the tobacco by its morphia
calms its turbulence of the mind. The former becomes a
necessity required, the latter a gratification sought for."

It would appear then that the year 1559 was about the period of the
introduction of tobacco into Europe. Phillip II. of Spain sent Oviedo to visit
Mexico and note its productions and resources; returning he presented "His
Most Catholic Majesty" with the seeds of the plant. In the following year it
was introduced into France and Italy. It was first brought to France by Jean
Nicot of Nismes in Languedoc, who was sent as ambassador to Sebastian,
King of Portugal, and who obtained while at Lisbon some tobacco seed
from a Dutch merchant who had brought it from Florida.[24] Nicot returned
to France in 1561, and presented the Queen, Catherine de Medicis, with a
few leaves of the plant.[25]

As the history of Nicot is so intimately connected with that of the plant, a
short sketch of this original importer will doubtless be interesting to all
lovers of the weed:—

"John Nicot, Sieur de Villemain, was born at Nismes in
1530, and died at Paris in 1600. He was the son of a notary
at Nismes, and started in life with a good education, but with
no fortune. Finding that his native town offered no suitable
or sufficient field for his energies, he went to Paris and
strove hard to extend his studies as a scholar and his
connections as an adventurer. He made the acquaintance of
some courtiers, who felt or affected an interest in learning
and in learned men. His manners were insinuating; his
character was pliable. When presented at court he succeeded
in gaining the esteem and confidence of Henry II., the
husband of Catherine de Medicis. Francis II., the son of
Henry II., and the first husband of Mary Stuart, continued to
Nicot the favor of which Henry II. had deemed him worthy,
and sent him in 1560 as ambassador to Sebastian, King of
Portugal. He was successful in his mission. But it was
neither his talents as a diplomatist, nor his remarkable mind,
nor his solid erudition, which made Nicot immortal. It was
by popularizing tobacco in France that he gained a lasting
fame.

"It is said that it was at Lisbon that Nicot became
acquainted with the extraordinary properties of tobacco. But
it is likewise stated with quite as much confidence, that a
Flemish merchant, who had just returned from America,
offered Nicot at Bordeaux, where they met, some seeds of
the tobacco, telling him of their value. The seeds Nicot sent
to Catherine de Medicis, and on arriving in Paris he gave her
some leaves of tobacco. Hence, when tobacco began to
creep into use in France it was called Queen's Herb or
Medicean Herb.[26] The cultivation of tobacco, except as a
fancy plant, did not begin in France till 1626; and John
Nicot could have had no presentiment of the agricultural,
commercial, financial and social importance which tobacco
was ultimately to assume. Nicot published two works. The
first was an edition of the History of France or of the Franks,
in Latin, written by a Monk called Aimonious, who lived in
the tenth century. The second was a 'Treasury of the French
Language, Ancient and Modern.'"

Stevens and Liebault in the "Country Farm"[27] give the following
account of its early introduction into France and the wonderful cures
produced by its use:

"Nicotiana though it have (has) beene but a while knowne
in France yet it holdeth the first and principall place amongst
Physicke herbs, by reason of his singular and almost diuine
(divine) vertues, such as you shall heare of hereafter,
whereof (because none either of the old or new writers that
have written of the nature of plants, have said anything), I
am willing to lay open the whole history, as I have come by
it through a deere friend of mine, the first author, inventor,
and bringer of this herb into France: as also of many both
Spaniards, Portugals, and others which have travelled into
Florida, a country of the Indians, from whence this herbe
came, to put the same in writing to relieve such griefe and
travell, as have heard of this herbe, but neither know it nor
the properties thereof. This herbe is called Nicotiana of the

name of an ambassador which brought the first knowledge
of it into this realme, in like manner as many plants do as yet
retaine the names of certaine Greekes and Romans, who
being strangers in divers countries, for their common-
wealth's service, have from thence indowed their own
countree with many plants, whereof there was no knowledge
before. Some call it the herbe of Queen mother, because the
said ambassador Lord Nicot did first send the same unto the
Queen mother,[28] (as you shall understand by and by) and
for being afterwards by her given to divers others to plant
and make to grow in this country. Others call it by the name
of the herbe of the great Prior, because the said Lord a while
after sailing into these western seas, and happening to lodge
neere unto the said Lord ambassador of Lisbone, gathered
divers plants thereof out of his garden, and set them to
increase here in France, and there in greater quantitie, and
with more care than any other besides him, he did so highly
esteeme thereof for the exceeding good qualities sake.

"The Spaniards call it Tobaco, it were better to call it
Nicotiana, after the name of the Lord who first sent it into
France, to the end that we may give him the honor which he
hath deserved of us, for having furnished our land with so
rare and singular an herbe: and thus much for the name, now
listen unto the whole historie: Master John Nicot, one of the
king's counsell, being ambassador for his Maiestie (Majesty)
in the realme of Portiugall, in the yeere of our Lord God,
1559. 60. and 61. went on a day to see the monuments and
northie places of the said king of Portiugall: at which time a
gentleman keeper of the said monuments presented him with
this herbe as a strange plant brought from Florida. The
nobleman Sir Nicot having procured it to growe in his
garden, where it had put forth and multiplied very greatly,
was aduertifed (notified) on a daie by one of his pages, that a
yoong boie kinsman of the said page, had laide (for triall
sake) the said herbe, pressed, the substance and juice and
altogether, upon an ulcer which he had upon his cheeke,

neere unto his nose, next neighbor to a Noli me tangere, (a
cancer) as having already seazed upon the cartilages, and
that by the use thereof it was become marvellous well: upon
this occasion the nobleman Nicot called the boie to him, and
making him to continue the applying of this herbe for eight
or ten days, the Noli me tangere became thoroughly kild:
nowe they had sent oftetimes unto one of the king's most
famous phisitions, the said boie during the time of this
worke and operation to make and see the proceeding and
working of the said Nicotiana, and having in charge to do
the same until the end of ten days, the said phisition then
beholding him, assured him that the Noli me tangere was
dead, as indeed the boie never felt anything of it at any time
afterward.

"Some certain time after, one of the cooks of the said
ambassador having almost all his thombe (thumb) cut off
from his hand, with a great kitchin knife, the steward
running unto the said Nicotiana, made to him use of it five
or six dressings, by the ende of which the wounde was
healed. From this time forward this herbe began to become
famous in Lisbon, where the king of Portiugal's court was at
that time, and the vertues thereof much spoken of, and the
common people began to call it the ambassador's herbe.
Now upon this occasion there came certain days after, a
gentleman from the fields being father unto one of the pages
of the said Lord ambassador, who was troubled with an ulcer
in his legge of two years continuance, and craved of the said
Lord some of his herbe, and using it in manner afore
mentioned, he was healed by the end of ten or twelve daies.
After this yet the herbe grewe still in greater reputation,
inasmuch as that many hasted out of all corners to get some
of this herbe. And among the rest, there was one woman
which had a great ring worme, covering all her face like a
mask, and having taken deepe roote, to whom the said Lord
caused this Petum to be given, and withall the manner of
using it to be told her, and at the end of eight or ten daies,

this woman being thoroughly cured, came to shewe herself
unto the said Lord, and how that she was cured. There came
likewise a captain bringing with him his son diseased with
the king's evill, unto the said Lord Ambassador, for to send
him into France, upon whom there was some triall made of
the said herbe, whereupon within four daies he began to
show great signs and tokens of healing, and in the end was
thoroughly cured of his king's evil."

Italy received the first plant from Santa Croce,[29] who, like Nicot,
obtained the seed in Lisbon. In 1575 first appeared a figure of the plant in
Andre Theret's "Cosmographie," which was but an imperfect representation
of the plant. It was supposed by many on its discovery to grow like the
engraving given—in form resembling a tree or shrub rather than an herb.
Tobacco was first brought to England by Sir John Hawkins, who obtained
the plant in Florida in 1565, and afterwards by Sir Francis Drake.[30] The
first planters of it in England were said to be Captain Grenfield and Sir
Francis Drake. One account of its introduction into England is as follows:

"The plant was first used by Sir Walter Raleigh and
others, who had acquired a taste for it in Virginia.[31] Among
the natives the usual mode employed in smoking the plant
was by means of hollow canes, and pipes made of wood and
decorated with copper and green stones. To deprive it of its
acidity, some of the natives were wont to pass the smoke
through bulbs containing water, in which aromatic and
medicinal herbs had been infused."

Neander ascribes this invention to the Persians; but Magnenus rather
attributes it to the Dutch and English, to the latter of whom attaches the
credit of having invented the clay pipes of modern times. Some writers have
concluded that the plant served as a narcotic in some parts of Asia. Liebault
thinks it was known in Europe[32] many years before the discovery of the
New World, and asserts that the plant had been found in the Ardennes.
Magnenus, however, claims its origin as transatlantic and affirms as his
belief that the winds had doubtless carried the seeds from one continent to
the other. Pallos says that among the Chinese, and among the Mongol tribes

who had the most intercourse with them,
the custom of smoking is so general, so
frequent, and has become so
indispensable a luxury; the tobacco purse
affixed to their belt so necessary an
article of dress; the form of the pipes,
from which the Dutch seem to have taken
the model of theirs, so original; and,
finally, the preparation of the leaves so
peculiar, that they could not possibly
derive all this from America by way of
Europe, especially as India, where the
practice of smoking is not so general,
intervenes between Persia and China.
Meyen also states that the consumption
of tobacco in the Chinese empire is of
immense extent, and the practice seems
to be of great antiquity, "for on very old
sculptures I have observed the very same
tobacco pipes which are still used."
Old Engraving of Tobacco.
Besides, we now know that the plant
which furnishes the Chinese tobacco is
even said to grow wild in the East Indies.

"Tobacco," says Loudon, "was introduced into the county
of Cork, with the potatoe, by Sir Walter Raleigh." A quaint
writer of this period says of the plant: "Tobacco, that
excellent plant, the use whereof (as of fifth element) the
world cannot want, is that little shop of Nature, wherein her
whole workmanship is abridged; where you may see earth
kindled into fire, the fire breathe out an exhalation, which
entering in at the mouth walks through the regions of a
man's brain, drives out all ill vapors but itself, draws down
all bad humors by the mouth, which in time might breed a
scab over the whole body, if already they have not; a plant of
singular use; for, on the one side Nature being an enemy to
vacuity and emptiness and on the other, there being so many

empty brains in the world as there are, how shall Nature's
course be continued? How shall those empty brains be filled
but with air, Nature's immediate instrument to that purpose?
If with air, what so proper as your fume; what fume so
healthful as your perfume, what perfume so sovereign as
tobacco. Besides the excellent edge it gives a man's wit, as
they but judge that have been present at a feast of tobacco,
where commonly all good wits are consoled; what variety of
discourse it begets, what sparks of wit it yields?"[33]

The name of Sir Walter is intimately connected with the history of
tobacco, and is associated with many of the brilliant exploits and
explorations during the reign of the illustrious Elizabeth.[34] His name has
come down to us as being that of the first smoker of tobacco in England,[35]
and many amusing anecdotes are told of him and the new custom which he
introduced and sanctioned. Dixon has given us the following vivid picture
of the great Elizabethan navigator:

"In a pleasant room of Durham House, in the Strand,—a
room overhanging a lovely garden, with the river, the old
bridge, the towers of Lambeth Palace, and the flags of Paris
Garden and the Globe in view,—three men may have often
met and smoked a pipe in the days of Good Queen Bess,
who are dear to all readers of English blood; because, in the
first place, they were the highest types of our race in genius
and in daring; in the second place because the work of their
hands has shaped the whole after-life of their countrymen in
every sphere of enterprise and thought. That splendid
Durham House, in which the nine-days queen had been
married to Guilford Dudley, and which had afterwards been
the town-house of Elizabeth, belonged to Sir Walter Raleigh,
by whom it was held on leave from the queen. Raleigh, a
friend of William Shakespeare and the players, was also a
friend of Francis Bacon and the philosophers. Raleigh is said
to have founded the Mermaid Club; and it is certain that he
numbered friends among the poets and players. The proofs
of his having known Shakespeare, though indirect, are

strong. Of his long intercourse with Bacon every one is
aware. Thus it requires no effort of the fancy to picture these
three men as lounging in a window of Durham House,
puffing the new Indian weed from silver bowls, discussing
the highest themes in poetry and science, while gazing on
the flower-beds and the river, the darting barges of dames
and cavalier, and the distant pavilions of Paris Garden and
the Globe."

Its use by so distinguished a person as Raleigh was equivalent to its
general introduction.[36] Aubrey says:

"He was the first that brought tobacco into England, and
into fashion. In our part—Malmsbury Hundred—it came
first into fashion by Sir Walter Long. They had first silver
pipes. The ordinary sort made use of a walnut shell and a
strawe. I have heard my grandfather Lyte say that one pipe
was handed from man to man round the table. Sir Walter
Raleigh standing in a stand at Sir Ro. Poyntz parke at Acton
tooke a pipe of tobacco, which made the ladies quitte it till
he had donne."

Sir Walter Raleigh.

A writer has truthfully said in regard to associating the name and use of
the plant with the primitive users of it.

"The ambitious sought fame by associating themselves
with the introduction of the plant and its cultivation; hence
we find it named after cardinals, legates, and embassadors,
while in compliment to Catherine, wife of Henry the
Second, it was called the Queen's herb."

Kings now rushed into the tobacco trade. Those of Spain took the lead,
and became the largest manufacturers of snuff and cigars in Christendom,
and the royal workshops of Seville are still the most extensive in Europe.
Other monarchs monopolized the business in their dominions, and all began
to reap enormous profits from it, as most do at this day. In the year 1615
tobacco was first planted in Holland; and in Switzerland in 1686. As soon

as its cultivation became general in Spain and Portugal the tobacco trade
was "farmed out," bringing an enormous revenue to those kingdoms. About
the beginning of the Seventeenth Century the Portuguese introduced into
Hindostan and Persia[37] two things, pine-apples and tobacco. To the pine-
apples no objection seems to have been made; but to the tobacco the most
strenuous resistance was offered by the sovereigns of the two countries.
Spite, however, of punishments and prohibitions the use of tobacco spread
with the rapidity of lightning.

English Gallants.

In England, tobacco taking soon became a favorite custom not only with
the loiterers about taverns and other public places, but among the courtiers

of Elizabeth. Smoking was called drinking tobacco, as the fashionable
method was to "put it through the nose" or exhale it through the nostrils. At
this period tobacco seemed to have nearly the same effect as it did upon the
Indian, producing a sort of intoxication; thus in "The Perfuming of
Tobacco" (1611) it is said:

"The smoke of tobacco drunke or drawen by a pipe, filleth
the membranes of the braine, and astonisheth and filleth
many persons with such joy and pleasure, and sweet losse of
senses, that they can by no means be without it."

The term "drinking tobacco" was not confined to England, but was used
in Holland, France, Spain and Portugal, as the same method of blowing the
smoke through the nostrils, seemed to be everywhere in vogue.

The use of tobacco increased very rapidly soon after its importation from
Virginia. The Spaniards and Portuguese had hitherto monopolized the trade,
so that it brought enormous prices, some kinds selling for its weight in
silver. As soon as its culture commenced in Virginia the demand for West
India tobacco lessened and Virginia leaf soon came into favor, owing not
more to the lowering of price than to the quality of the leaf.[38] This was
about 1620, which some writers have called the golden age of tobacco. It
had now become a prime favorite and was used by nearly all classes. Poets
and dramatists sung its praises, while others wrote of its wonderful
medicinal qualities.[39] Fops and knaves alike indulged in its use.

"About the latter end of the sixteenth century, tobacco was
in great vogue in London, with wits and 'gallants,' as the
dandies of that age were called. To wear a pair of velvet
breeches, with panes or slashes of silk, an enormous
starched ruff, a gilt handled sword, and a Spanish dagger; to
play at cards or dice in the chambers of the groom-porter,
and smoke tobacco in the tilt-yard or at the play-house, were
then the grand characteristics of a man of fashion.
Tobacconists' shops were then common; and as the article,
which appears to have been sold at a high price, was
indispensable to the gay 'man about town,' he generally
endeavored to keep his credit good with his tobacco-

merchant. Poets and pamphleteers laughed at the custom,
though generally they seem to have no particular aversion to
an occasional treat to a sober pipe and a poute of sack. Your
men of war, who had served in the Low Countries, and who
taught young gallants the noble art of fencing, were
particularly fond of tobacco; and your gentlemen
adventurers, who had served in a buccaneering expedition
against the Spaniards, were no less partial to it. Sailors—
from the captain to the ship-boy—all affected to smoke, as if
the practice was necessary to their character; and to 'take
tobacco' and wear a silver whistle, like a modern boatswain's
mate, was the pride of a man-of-war's man.

"Ben Jonson, of all our early dramatic writers, most
frequently alludes to the practice of smoking. In his play of
'Every Man in his Humour,' first acted in 1598, Captain
Bobadil thus extols in his own peculiar vein the virtues of
tobacco; while Cob, the water carrier, with about equal truth,
relates some startling instances of its pernicious effects.

"'Bobadil. Body o' me, here's the remainder of seven
pound since yesterday was seven-night! 'Tis your right
Trinadado! Did you never take any, Master Stephen?

"'Stephen. No, truly, Sir; but I'll learn to take it since you
commend it so.

"'Bobadil. Sir, believe me upon my relation,—for what I
tell you the world shall not reprove. I have been in the Indies
where this herb grows, where neither myself, nor a dozen
gentlemen more of my knowledge, have received the taste of
any other nutriment in the world, for the space of one and
twenty weeks, but the fume of this simple only. Therefore, it
cannot be but 'tis most divine. Further, take it, in the true
kind, so, it makes an antidote, that had you taken the most
deadly poisonous plant in all Italy, it should expel it and
clarify you with as much ease as I speak. And for your
greenwound, your balsamum, and your St. John's-wort, are

all mere gulleries and trash to it, especially your Trinidado:
your Nicotian is good too. I could say what I know of it for
the expulsion of rheums, raw humours, crudities,
obstructions, with a thousand of this kind, but I profess
myself no quack-salver: only thus much, by Hercules; I do
hold it, and will affirm it before any prince in Europe, to be
the most sovereign and precious weed that ever the earth
tendered to the use of man.'

Cob. "'By gad's me, I mar'l what pleasure or felicity they
have in taking this roguish tobacco! It's good for nothing but
to choke a man and fill him full of smoke and embers. There
were four died out of one house last week with taking of it,
and two more the bell went for yesternight; one of them,
they say, will ne'er 'scape it: he voided a bushel of soot
yesterday, upward and downward. By the stocks! an' there
were no wiser men than I, I'd have it present whipping, man
or woman that should but deal with a tobacco-pipe; why, it
will stifle them all in the end, as many as use it; it's little
better than rats-bane or rosaker.'"[40]

From the first announcement that English navigators had discovered
tobacco in Virginia, until the London and Plymouth companies sailed for
the New World, the deepest interest was taken in the voyagers. Drayton, the
poet, wrote of "The Virginian Voyage," while Chapman and other
dramatists wrote plays in which allusions were made to Virginia. In the
"Mask of Flowers," performed at White Hall upon Twelfth Night, 1613-14,
one of the characters challenges another, and asserts that wine is more
worthy than tobacco. The costumes were exceedingly grotesque and
suggestive of the New rather than of the Old World. Kawosha one of the
principal characters rode in, wearing on his head a cap of red-cloth of gold,
from his ears were pendants, a glass chain was about his neck, his body and
legs were covered with olive-colored stuff, in his hands were a bow and
arrows, and the bases of tobacco—colored stuff cut like tobacco leaves. The
play abounds with allusions to the "Indian weed."

"Silenus.—Kawosha comes in majestie,
Was never such a God as he;
He's come from a far countrie
To make our nose a chimney.

Kawosha.—The wine takes the contrary way
To get into the hood;
But good tobacco makes no stay
But seizeth where it should.
More incense hath burned at
Great Kawoshae's foote
Than to Silen and Bacchus, both,
And take in Jove to boote.

Silenus.—The worthies they were nine tis true,
And lately Arthur's knights I knew;
But now are come up Worthies new,
The roaring boys Kawoshae's crew.

Kawosha.—Silenus toppes the barrel, but
Tobacco toppes the braine
And makes the vapors fire and soote,
That mon revise againe.
Nothing but fumigation
Doth charm away ill sprites,
Kawosha and his nation
Found out these holy rites."

The writers of this period abound in allusions to tobacco and its use. The
poets and dramatists found in it a fertile field for the display of their satire,
and from 1600 to 1650 stage plays introduced many characters as either
tobacco drinkers or sellers. It had now become so great a custom and had
increased so fast after the importation of Virginia tobacco that it afforded
them no insignificant theme for the display of their genius.[41] The plays of
Jonson, Decker, Rowland, Heywood, Middleton, Fields, Fletcher, Hutton,
Lodge, Sharpham, Marston, Lilly (court poet to Elizabeth), the Duke of
Newcastle and others are full of allusions to the plant and those who
indulged in its use. Shakespeare,[42] however, does not once allude to its

use, and his silence on this then curious custom has provoked much
conjecture and inquiry. Some affirm that he wrote to please royalty, but if so
why did he not condemn the custom to appease the wrath of a sapient king.
Others say he kept silence because he was the friend of Raleigh, and though
he would have gladly held up the great smoker and his favorite indulgence,
feared to add to the popularity of the custom by displeasing his royal
master. Another class affirm that as the stories of his plays are all antecedent
to his own time, therefore he never mentions either the drinking of tobacco,
or the tumultuous scenes of the ordinary which belonged to it, and which
are so constantly met with in his contemporary dramatists. Says one:

Smoking in the Seventeenth Century.

"How is it that our great dramatist never once makes even
the slightest allusion to smoking? Who can suggest a
reason? Our great poet knew the human heart too well, and
kept too steadily in view, the universal nature of man to be
afraid of painting the external trapping and ephemeral
customs of his own time. Does he not delight to moralize on
false hair, masks, rapiers, pomandens, perfumes, dice,
bowls, fardingales, etc? Did he not sketch for us, with
enjoyment and with satire, too, the fantastic fops, the

pompous stewards, the mischievous pages, the quarrelsome
revellers, the testy gaolers, the rhapsodizing lovers, the sly
cheats, and the ruffling courtiers that filled the streets of
Elizabethan London, persons who could have been found
nowhere else nor in any other age? No one can dispute that
he drew the life that he saw moving around him. He
sketched these creatures because they were before his eyes
and were his enemies or his associates; they live still
because their creator's genius was Promethean, and endowed
them with immortality. Bardolph, Moth, Slender, Abhorson,
Don Armado, Mercutio, etc., are portraits, as everyone
knows and feels who is conversant with the manners of the
Elizabethan times as handed down in old plays.

"If Shakespeare's contemporaries were silent about the
then new fashion of smoking, we should not so much
wonder at Shakespeare's taciturnity. But Decker's and Ben
Jonson's works abound in allusions to tobacco, its uses and
abuses. The humorist and satirist lost no opportunity of
deriding the new fashion and its followers. The tobacco
merchant was an important person in London of James the
First's time—with his Winchester pipes, his maple cutting-
blocks, his juniper-wood charcoal fires, and his silver tongs
with which to hand the hot charcoal to his customers,
although he was shrewdly suspected of adulterating the
precious weed with sack lees and oil. It was his custom to
wash the tobacco in muscadel and grains, and to keep it
moist by wrapping it in greased leather, and oiled rags, or by
burying it in gravel. The Elizabethan pipes were so small
that now when they are dug up in Ireland the poor call them
'fairy pipes' from their tininess. These pipes became known
by the nickname of 'the woodcock's heads.' The
apothecaries, who sold the best tobacco, became masters of
the art, and received pupils, whom they taught to exhale the
smoke in little globes, rings, or the 'Euripus.' 'The slights'
these tricks were called. Ben Jonson facetiously makes these
professors boast of being able to take three whiffs, then to

take horse, and evolve the smoke—one whiff on Hounslow,
a second at Staines, and a third at Bagshot.

"The ordinary gallant, like Mercutio, would smoke while
the dinner was serving up. Those who were rich and foolish
carried with them smoking apparatus of gold or silver—
tobacco-box, snuff-ladle, tongs to take up charcoal, and
priming irons. There seems, from Decker's "Gull's Horn-
Book," to have been smoking clubs, or tobacco ordinaries as
they were called, where the entire talk was of the best shops
for buying Trinidado, the Nicotine, the Cane, and the
Pudding, whose pipe had the best bore, which would turn
blackest, and which would break in the browning. At the
theatres, the rakes and spendthrifts who, crowded the stage
of Shakespeare's time sat on low stools smoking; they sat
with their three sorts of tobacco beside them, and handed
each other lights on the points of their swords, sending out
their pages for more Trinidado if they required it. Many
gallants 'took' their tobacco in the lords room over the stage,
and went out to (Saint) Paul's to spit there privately. Shabby
sponges and lying adventurers, like Bobadil, bragged of the
number of packets of 'the most divine tobacco' they had
smoked in a week, and told enormous lies of living for
weeks in the Indies on the fumes alone. They affirmed it was
an antidote to all poison; that it expelled rheums, sour
humours, and obstructions of all kinds. Some doctors were
of opinion that it would heal gout[43] and the ague, neutralise
the effects of drunkenness, and remove weariness and
hunger. The poor on the other hand, not disinclined to be
envious and detracting when judging rich men's actions,
laughed at men who made chimneys of their throats, or who
sealed up their noses with snuff.

"Ben Jonson makes that dry, shrewd, water carrier of his,
Cob, rail at the 'roguish tobacco:' he would leave the stocks
for worse men, and make it present whipping for either man
or woman who dealt with a tobacco-pipe. But King James,

in his inane 'Counterblast,' is more violent than even Cob.
He argues that to use this unsavory smoke is to be guilty of a
worse sin than that of drunkenness, and asks how men, who
cannot go a day's journey without sending for hot coals to
kindle their tobacco, can be expected to endure the
privations of war. Smoking, the angry and fuming king
protests, had made our manners as rude as those of the fish-
wives of Dieppe. Smokers, tossing pipes and puffing smoke
over the dinner-table, forgot all cleanliness and modesty.
Men now, he says, cannot welcome a friend but straight they
must be in hand with tobacco. He that refused a pipe in
company was accounted peevish and unsociable. 'Yea,' says
the royal coxcomb and pedant, 'the mistress cannot in a more
mannerly kind entertain her servant than by giving him out
of her fair hand a pipe of tobacco.' The royal reformer (not
the most virtuous or cleanly of men) closes his denunciation
with this tremendous broadside of invective:

'Have you not reason, then' he says, 'to be shamed and to
forbear this filthy novelty, so basely grounded, so foolishly
received, and so grossly mistaken in the right use thereof?
To your abuse thereof sinning against God, harming yourself
both in persons and goods, and taking also thereby the notes
and marks of vanity upon you by the custom thereof, making
yourselves to be wondered at by all, foreign civil nations and
by all strangers that come among you, and be scorned, and
contemned; a custom both fulsome 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 horrible
Stigian smelle of the pit that is bottomless."

Exhaling through the Nose.

The supposed curative virtues of the tobacco plant had much to do with
its use in Europe while the singular mode of exhaling through the nostrils
added to its charms, and doubtless led to far greater indulgence. Spenser in
his Fairy Queen makes one of the characters include it with other herbs
celebrated for medicinal qualities.

"Into the woods thence-forth in haste she went,
To seek for herbes that mote him remedy;
For she of herbes had great intendiment,
Taught of the Nymph which from her infancy,
Had nursed her in true nobility:
There whether it divine Tobacco were,
Or Panachæ, or Polygony,
She found and brought it to her patient deare,
Who all this while lay bleeding out his heart-blood neare."

Lilly also a little later, in his play of The Woman in the Moone (1597),
speaks of it (through one of the characters) as being a medicinal herb—

"Gather me balme and cooling violets
And of our holy herbe nicotian,
And bring withall pure honey from the hive
To heale the wound of my unhappy hand."

Barclay, in his tract on "The Vertues of Tobacco," recommends its use as
a medicine. The following is one of the modes of use:

"Take of leafe Tobacco as much as, being folded together,
may make a round ball of such bignesse that it may fill the
patient's mouth, and inclyne his face downwards toward the
ground, keeping the mouth open, not mouthing any whit
with his tongue, except now and then to waken the
medicament, there shall flow such a flood of water from his
brain and his stomacke, and from all the parts of his body
that it shall be a wonder. This must he do fasting in the
morning, and if it be for preservation, and the body be very
cacochyme, or full of evil humors, he must take it once a
week, otherwise once a month. He gives the plant the name
of 'Nepenthes,' and says of it, that 'it is worthy of a more
loftie name.'" He writes the following verse addressed to:

"The Abusers of Tobacco."

"Why do you thus abuse this heavenly plant,
The hope of health, the fuel of our life?
Why do you waste it without fear of want,
Since fine and true tobacco is not ryfe?
Old Enclio won't foul water for to spair,
And stop the bellows not to waste the air."

He also alludes to the quality of tobacco and says: "The finest Tobacco is
that which pearceth quickly the odorat with a sharp aromaticke smell, and
tickleth the tongue with acrimonie, not unpleasant to the taste, from whence
that which draweth most water is most veituous, whether the substance of it
be chewed in the mouth, or the smoke of it received."

He speaks of the countries in which the plant grows, and prefers the
tobacco grown in the New World as being superior to that grown in the Old.
In his opinion, "only that which is fostered in the Indies, and brought home
by Mariners and Traffiquers, is to be used." But not alone were Poets and
Dramatists inspired to sing in praise or dispraise of tobacco, Physicians and
others helped to swell in broadsides, pamphlets and chap-books, the loudest
praises or the most bitter denunciation of the weed. Taylor, the water poet,
who lost his occupation as bargeman when the coach came into use, thought
that the devil brought tobacco into England in a coach. One of the first
tracts wholly devoted to tobacco is entitled Nash's "Lenten Stuffe." The
work is dedicated to Humphrey King, a tobacconist, and is full of curious
sayings in regard to the plant. Another work, entitled "Metamorphosis of
Tobacco," and supposed to have been written by Beaumont, made its
appearance about this time. Samuel Rowlands, the dramatist, wrote two
works on tobacco; the first is entitled "Look to it, for I'll Stabbe Ye," written
in 1604; the other volume is a small quarto, bearing this singular title: "A
whole crew of Kind Gossips, all met to be Merry." This is a satire on the
time and manners of the period, and is written in a coarse style worthy of
the author. In 1605 there appeared a little volume bearing for its title,
"Laugh and Lie Down, or the World's Folly." This work describes the fops
and men of fashion of its time, and shows how popular the custom of
tobacco taking had become. In 1609, in "The Gull's Horne Book," a gallant
is described as follows:

"Before the meate comes smoaking to the board our
Gallant must draw out his tobacco box, the ladle for the cold
snuff into his nostrils, the tongs and the priming iron. All
this artillery may be of gold or silver, if he can reach to the
price of it; it will be a reasonable, useful pawn at all times
when the current of his money falles out to rune low. And
here you must observe to know in what state tobacco is in
town, better than the merchants, and to discourse of the
potecaries where it is to be sold as readily as the potecary
himself."

One of the severest tirades against tobacco appeared in 1612, "The
Curtain Drawer of the World." In speaking of the users of the weed, and

especially noblemen, he says:

"Then noblemen's chimneys used to smoke, and not their
noses; Englishmen without were not Blackamoores within,
for then Tobacco was an Indian, unpickt and unpiped,—now
made the common ivy-bush of luxury, the curtaine of
dishonesty, the proclaimer of vanity, the drunken colourer of
Drabby solacy."

In the "Soule's Solace, or Thirty-and-One Spiritual Emblems," by
Thomas Jenner, occurs the following verses:

"The Indian weed, withered quite,
Greene at noone, cut down at night,
Shows thy decay; all flesh is hay;
Thus thinke, then drinke Tobacco.

The Pipe that is so lily-white,
Show thee to be a mortal wight,
And even such, gone with a touch,
Thus thinke, then drinke Tobacco.

And when the smoake ascends on high,
Thinke thou beholdst the vanity
Of worldly stuffe, gone with a puffe,
Thus thinke, then drinke Tobacco.

And when the Pipe grows foul within,
Thinke on thy soul defiled with sin,
And then the fire it doth require;
Thus thinke, then drinke Tobacco.

The ashes that are left behind,
May serve to put thee still in mind,
That unto dust return thou must;
Thus thinke, then drinke Tobacco."

Buttes, in a little volume entitled "Dyets Dry Dinner," (1599) says that

"Tobacco was translated out of India in the seede or roote;
native or sative in our own fruitfullest soils. It cureth any
griefe, dolour, imposture, or obstruction proceeding of colde
or winde, especially in the head or breast. The fume taken in
a pipe is good against Rumes, ache in the head, stomacke,
lungs, breast; also in want of meate, drinke, sleepe, or rest."

The introduction of tobacco from the colony of Virginia was followed
soon after by a reduction of price that led to more frequent use among the
poorer classes, such as grooms and hangers on at taverns and ale-houses,
who are alluded to in Rich's "Honestie of this Age":

"There is not so base a groome that comes into an ale-
house to call for his pott, but he must have his pipe of
tobacco; for it is a commodity that is nowe as vendible in
every tavern, wine and ale-house, as eyther wine, ale or
beare; and for apothecaerie's shops, grocer's shops,
chandler's shops, they are never without company, that from
morning till night, are still taking of tobacco. What a number
are there besides, that doe keepe houses, set open shoppes,
that have no other trade to live by, but by selling of tobacco.
I have heard it told, that now very lately there hath been a
catalogue of all those new erected houses that have sett up
that trade of selling tobacco in London, and neare about
London; and if a man may believe what is confidently
reported, there are found to be upwards of seven thousand of
houses that doth live by that trade.

Old London Ale-house.

"If it be true that there be seven thousand shops in and
about London, that doth vend tobacco, as it is credibly
reported that there be over and above that number, it may
well be supposed to be but an ill customed shop, that taketh
not five shillings a day, one day with another throughout the
whole year; or, if one doth take lesse, two other may take
more; but let us make our account, but after two shillings
sixpence a day, for he that taketh lesse than that would be ill
able to pay his rent, or to keepe open his shop windows;
neither would tobacco houses make such a muster as they
do, and that almost in every lane, and in every by-corner
round about London."

"A Tobacco seller is described after this manner by Blount in a volume
"Micro-Cosmographie; Or A Piece of the World discovered; in Essays and
Characters" (1628).

"A tobacco seller is the only man that finds good in it
which others brag of, but doe not, for it is meate, drinke, and
clothes to him. No man opens his ware with greater
seriousness, or challenges your judgment more in the
operation. His Shop is the Randenvous of spitting, where
men dialogue with their noses, and their conversation is
smoke. It is the place only where Spain is commended, and
preferred before England itself.

"He should be well experienced in the World; for he has
daily tryall as men's nostrils, and none is better acquainted
with humour. His is the piecing commonly of some other
trade, which is bawd to his Tobacco, and that to his wife,
which is the flame that follows the smoke."

Early in the Seventeenth Century began the persecution by royal haters of
the plant, others, however, had denounced the weed and its use and users,
but venting nothing more than a tirade of words against it, had but little
effect in breaking up the trade or the custom.[44] James I. sent forth his

famous "Counterblast" and in the strongest manner condemned its use. A
portion of it reads thus:

"Surely smoke becomes a kitchen fane better than a
dining chamber: and yet it makes a kitchen oftentimes in the
inward parts of men, soyling and injecting with an unctuous
oyly kind of roote as hath been found in some great tobacco
takers, that after death were opened. A custom loathsome to
the eye, harmful to the braine, dangerous to the lungs, and
the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the
horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless."[45]

Quaint old Burton in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," recognizes the
virtues of the plant while he anathematizes its abuse. He says:—

"Tobacco, divine, rare, superexcellent tobacco, which
goes far beyond all their panacetas, potable gold, and
philosophers' stones, a soveraign remedy to all diseases. A
good vomit, I confesse, a vertuous herb, if it be well
qualified, opportunely taken, and medicinally used; but, as it
is commonly abused by most men, which take it as tinkers
do ale, 'tis a plague, a mischief, a violent purger of goods,
lands, health, hellish, divelish and damned tobacco, the ruine
and overthrow of body and soul."

The duty on importation had been only twopence per pound, a moderate
sum in view of the prices realized by the sale of it.

The King now increased it to the enormous sum of two shilling and ten
pence. James termed the custom of using tobacco an "evil vanitie"
impairing "the health of a great number of people their bodies weakened
and made unfit for labor, and the estates of many mean persons so decayed
and consumed, as they are thereby driven to unthriftie shifts only to
maintain their gluttonous exercise thereof."[46] Brodigan says of the
"Counterblast:"

"However absurd his reasoning may appear, it
unfortunately happened that he possessed the power to

reduce his aversion to practice, and he may be considered as
the author of that unwarrantable persecution of the tobacco
plant, which under varying circumstances, has been
injudiciously continued to the present time."

Other royal haters of the plant issued the most strenous laws[47] and
affixed penalties of the severest kind, of these may be mentioned the King
of Persia, Amuroth IV. of Turkey, the Emperor Jehan-Gee and Popes Urban
VIII. and Innocent XII., the last of whom showed his dislike to many other
customs beside that of tobacco taking.

One of the edicts which he issued was against the taking of snuff in St.
Peters, at Rome; this was in 1690; it was, however, revoked by Pope
Benedict XIV., who himself had acquired the indulgence.

Punishment for Snuff Taking.

Early in the Seventeenth Century tobacco found its way to
Constantinople. To punish the habit, a Turk was seized and a pipe transfixed

through his nose.

The death of King James, followed by its occupancy of the throne by his
son Charles I., did not lessen the persecution against tobacco.[48] In 1625,
the year of his accession, he issued a proclamation against all tobaccos
excepting only the growth of Virginia and Somerites. Charles II. also
prohibited the cultivation of tobacco in England and Ireland, attaching a
penalty of 10£ per rood. Fairholt, in alluding to the Stuarts and Cromwell as
persecutors of tobacco, says:

"Cromwell disliked the plant, and ordered his troops to
trample down the crop wherever found."

It is an historical fact that both James I. and the two Charleses as well as
Cromwell had the strongest dislike against the Indian weed.

With such powerful foes it seems hardly possible that the custom should
have increased to such an extent that when William ascended the throne the
custom was said to be almost universal.[49] "Pipes grew larger and ruled by
a Dutchman, all England smoked in peace." From this time forward the
varieties used served only to increase the demand for the tobacco of the
colonies, and as its culture became better understood the leaf grew in favor,
until the demand for it was greater than the production.

During the reign of Anne, the custom of smoking appears to have
attained its greatest height in England; the consumption of tobacco was then
proportionally greater, considering the population, than it is at the present
time. Spooner, in his "Looking-Glass for Smokers," 1703, says of the
custom:

"The sin of the kingdom in the intemperate use of
tobacco, swelleth and increaseth so daily, that I can compare
it to nothing but the waters of Noah, that swell'd fifteen
cubits above the highest mountains. So that if this practice
shall continue to increase as it doth, 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."

When tobacco was first introduced into England its sale was confined to
apothecaries, but afterwards it was dealt in by tobacconists, who sold other
goods besides tobacco.

About the middle of the Seventeenth Century the culture of tobacco
commenced in England; it continued, however, only for a short time, for the
rump parliament in 1652 prohibited the planting of it, and two years later
Cromwell and his council appointed commissioners for strictly putting this
act in execution: and in 1660 it was legally enacted, that from the first of
January, 1660-1, no person whatever should sow or plant any tobacco in
England, under certain penalties.

In England drinking or smoking tobacco seems to have met with more
success (as a mode of use) rather than chewing (now so popular). It was
principally confined to the lower classes, and was common among soldiers
and sailors. When used by gentlemen it was common to carry a silver basin
to spit in.

Silver Spittoons.

The habit of smoking or using tobacco in any form was then more
constant than now, and its use was common in almost all places of public
gathering. It was the custom to smoke in theatres; stools being provided for
those who paid for their use and the privilege of smoking on the stage.
Tobacco was also sold at some of the play-houses, and proved a source of
profit, doubtless, beyond even the representation of the plays. We should
infer also from some of the early stage plays, that the "players" used the
weed even when acting their parts. Rowlands gives the following poem on
tobacco in his "Knave of Clubs," 1611:—

"Who durst dispraise tobacco whilst the smoke is in my nose,
Or say, but fah! my pipe doth smell, I would I knew but those
Durst offer such indignity to that which I prefer.
For all the brood of blackamoors will swear I do not err,
In taking this same worthy whif with valiant cavalier,
But that will make his nostrils smoke, at cupps of wine or beer.
When as my purse can not afford my stomach flesh or fish,
I sop with smoke, and feed as well and fat as one can wish.
Come into any company, though not a cross you have,
Yet offer them tobacco, and their liquor you shall have.
They say old hospitalitie kept chimnies smoking still;
Now what your chimnies want of that, our smoking noses will.
Much vituals serves 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.
This is the way to help down years, a meal a day's enough:
Take out tobacco for the rest, by pipe, or else by snuff,
And you shall find it physical; a corpulent, fat man,
Within a year shall shrink so small that one his guts shall span.
It's full of physic's rare effects, it worketh sundry ways,
The leaf green, dried, steept, burnt to dust, have each their several
praise,
It makes some sober that are drunk, some drunk of sober sense.
And all the moisture hurts the brain, it fetches smoking thence.
All the four elements unite when you tobacco take.
For earth and water, air and fire, do a conjunction make.

The pipe is earth, the fire's therein, the air the breathing smoke;
Good liquor must be present too, for fear I chance to choke.
Here, gentlemen, a health to all, 'Tis passing good and strong.
I would speak more, but for the pipe I cannot stay so long."

In 1602 appeared a sweeping tirade
entitled, "Work for Chimney Sweepers,
or a Warning against Tobacconists." It
abounds with threats against all who
indulge in tobacco. The most singular
work, however, appeared in 1616,
bearing the following singular title: "The
Smoking Age, or the Man in the Mist;
with the Life and Death of Tobacco.
Dedicated to Captain Whiffe, Captain
Pipe, and Captain Snuffe." A frontispiece
is given representing a tobacconist's shop
with shelves, counters, pipes and
tobacco; a carved figure of a negro stands
upon the counter, which shows how soon
such figures were used by dealers in
pipes and tobacco. The title-page
The Negro Image. contains the following epigram:

"This some affirme, yet yield I not to
that,
'Twill make a fat man lean, a lean man fat;
But this I'm sure (howse'ere it be they meane)
That many whiffes will make a fat man lean."

The following effusion resembles many of the verses of the day on the
fruitful subject:

"Tobacco's an outlandish weed,
Doth in the land strange wonders breed,
It taints the breath, the blood it dries,
It burns the head, it blinds the eyes;
It dries the lungs, scourgeth the lights,

It numbs the soul, it dulls the sprites;
It brings a man into a maze,
And makes him sit for other's gaze;
It makes a man, it mars a purse,
A lean one fat, a fat one worse;
A sound man sick, a sick man sound,
A bound man loose, a loose man bound;
A white man black, a black man white,
A night a day, a day a night;
The wise a fool, the foolish wise,
A sober man in drunkard's guise;
A drunkard with a drought or twain,
A sober man it makes again;
A full man empty, and an empty full,
A gentleman a foolish gull;
It turns the brain like cat in pan,
And makes a Jack a gentleman."

The well-known song of "Tobacco is an Indian Weed," was written most
probably the last half of the Seventeenth Century, Fairholt gives the best
copy we have seen of it. It is taken from the first volume of "Pills to Purge
Melancholy," and reads thus:

"Tobacco's but an Indian weed,
Grows green at morn, cut down at eve,
It shows our decay, we are but clay;
Think of this when you smoke tobacco.

"The pipe, that is so lily white,
Wherein so many take delight,
Is broke with a touch—man's life is such;
Think of this when you smoke tobacco.

"The pipe, that is so foul within,
Shews how man's soul is stained with sin,
And then the fire it doth require;
Think of this when you smoke tobacco.

"The ashes that are left behind
Do serve to put us all in mind
That unto dust return we must;
Think of this when you smoke tobacco.

"The smoke, that does so high ascend,
Shews us man's life must have an end,
The Vapor's gone—man's life is done;
Think of this when you smoke tobacco."

One of the strongest objections against the use of the "Indian novelty"
was its ruinous cost at this period. During the reign of James The First and
Charles The Second, Spanish tobacco sold at from ten to eighteen shillings
per pound while Virginia tobacco sold for a time for three shillings. In no
age and by no race excepting perhaps the Indians was the habit so universal
or carried to such a length as in the Seventeenth Century—its supposed
virtues as a medicine induced many to inhale the smoke constantly. This
was one reason why tobacco was condemned by so many of the writers and
playwrights of the day yet many of them used the weed in some form from
Ben Johnson to Cibber the one fond of his pipe the other of his snuff.

In 1639 Venner published a volume entitled "A Treatise" concerning the
taking of the fume of tobacco. His advice is "to take it moderately and at
fixed times." Many of the clergy were devoted adherents of the pipe. Lilly
says of its use among them:

"In this year Bredon vicar of Thornton a profound divine,
but absolutely the most polite person for nativities in that
age, strictly adhering to Ptolemy, which he well understood;
he had a hand in composing Sir Christopher Heydon's
defence of judicial astrology, being that time his chaplain; he
was so given over to tobacco and drink, that when he had no
tobacco, he would cut the bell-ropes and smoke them."[Back
to Contents]

CHAPTER V.
TOBACCO IN EUROPE. (Continued.)

Neander in his work "Tobacologia," (1622) gives a list of the
various kinds of tobacco then used and where they were
cultivated, among them are the following well known now as
standard varieties of tobacco: Brazilian, St. Domingo, Orinoco,
Virginia, and Trinidad tobacco. Fairholt says of the latter that it
was most popular in England and is frequently named by early authors.[50]
Tobacco when prepared for use was made into long rolls or large balls
which often answered for the tobacconist's sign. What we now call cut
tobacco was not as popular then as roll. Smokers carried a roll of tobacco, a
knife and tinder to ignite their tobacco. At the close of the Sixteenth
Century tobacco was introduced into the East. In Persia and Turkey where
at first its use was opposed by the most cruel torture it gained at length the
sanction and approval of even the Sultan himself. Pallas gives the following
account in regard to its first introduction into Asia:

"In Asia, and especially in China, the use of tobacco for
smoking is more ancient than the discovery of the New
World, I too scarcely entertain a doubt. Among the Chinese,
and among the Mongol tribes who had the most intercourse
with them, the custom of smoking is so general, so frequent,
and become so indispensable a luxury; the tobacco purse
affixed to their belt, so necessary an article of dress; the
form of the pipes from which the Dutch seem to have taken
the model of theirs so original; and, lastly the preparation of
the yellow leaves, which are merely rubbed to pieces and
then put into the pipe, so peculiar, that we cannot possibly
derive all this from America by way of Europe; especially as
India, (where the habit of smoking is not so general,)
intervenes between Persia and China. May we not expect to
find traces of this custom in the first account of the Voyages
of the Portugese and Dutch to China? To investigate this

subject, I have indeed the inclination but not sufficient
leisure."

We find by research that smoking was
the most general mode of using tobacco
in England when first introduced. In
France the habit of snuffing was the most
popular mode and to this day the custom
is more general than elsewhere. In the
days of the Regency snuff-taking had
attained more general popularity than any
other mode of using the plant leaves; the
clergy were fond of the "dust" and carried
the most expensive snuff boxes, while
Tobacco and Theology.
many loved the pipe and indulged in
tobacco-smoking. The old vicar restored
to his living enjoyed a pipe when seated
in his chair musing on the subject of his next Sunday's discourse, "with a
jug of sound old ale and a huge tome of sound old divinity on the table
before him, for the occasional refreshment as well of the bodily as the
spiritual man."

The cultivation of tobacco in Europe was begun in Spain and Portugal.
Its culture in these kingdoms as well as by their colonies brought to the
crown enormous revenues. In 1626, its culture began in France and is still
an important product. A little later it began to be cultivated in Germany
where it had already been used as a favorite luxury. From this time its use
and cultivation extended to various parts of Europe. The Persecutors
whether kings, popes, poets, or courtiers at length gave up their opposition
while many of them joined in the use and spread of the custom. It has been
said with much truth:

"History proves that persecution never triumphs in its
attempted eradications. Tobacco was so generally liked that
no legislative measures could prevent its use."

At first the use of tobacco was confined to fops and the hangers on at ale
houses and taverns but afterwards by the "chief men of the realm." Soon

after the importation of the "durned weed" from Virginia the tobacco muse
gave forth many a lay concerning the custom. The following verses describe
the method of smoking then in vogue:

Nor did that time know
To puff and to blow
In a peece of white clay,
As they do at this day
With fier and coole,
And a leafe in a hole;
As my ghost hath late seen,
As I walked betwene
Westminister Hall
And the church of St. Paul,
And so thorow the citie
Where I saw and did pitty
My country men's cases,
With fiery-smoke faces,
Sucking and drinking
A filthie weede stinking,
Was ne'r known before
Till the devil and the More
In th' Indies did meete,
And each other there greete
With a health they desire,
Of stinke, smoke and fier.
But who e're doth abhorre it.
The citie smookes for it;
Now full of fier shop,
And fowle spitting chop,
So sneezing and coughing,
That my ghost fell to scoffing.
And to myself said:
Here's filthie fumes made;
Good phisicke of force
To cure a sicke horse.

The Puritans, from the first introduction of the plant, were sincere haters
of tobacco, not only in England but in America. Cromwell had as strong a
dislike of the plant as King James, and ordered the troopers to destroy the
crops by trampling them under foot. Hutton describes a Puritan as one who

"Abhors a sattin suit, a velvet cloak,
And sayes tobacco is the Devill's smoke."

Probably no other plant has ever met with such powerful determined
opposition, both against its use and cultivation, as the tobacco plant. It was
strenuously opposed by all possible means, governmental, legislative, and
literary. When tea and coffee were first introduced both were denounced in
unmeasured terms, but the opposition was not so bitter or as lasting.

The following verses bearing the nom de plume of an "Old Salt," record
much of the history of the plant:—

"Oh muse! grant me the power
(I have the will) to sing
How oft in lonely hour,
When storms would round me lower,
Tobacco's prov'd a King!

"Philanthropists, no doubt
With good intentions ripe,
Their dogmas may put out,
And arrogantly shout
The evils of the pipe.

"Kind moralists, with tracts,
Opinions fine may show:
Produce a thousand facts—
How ill tobacco acts
Man's system to o'erthrow.

"Learn'd doctors have employed
Much patience, time and skill,
To prove tobacco cloyed

With acrid alkaloid,
With power the nerves to kill!

"E'en Popes have curst the plant;
Kings bade its use to cease;
But all the Pontiff's rant
And Royal Jamie's cant
Ne'er made its use decrease.

"Teetotallers may stamp
And roar at pipes and beer;
But place them in a swamp,
When nights are dark and damp—
Their tune would change, I fear.

"No advocate am I
Of excess in one or t'other,
And ne'er essayed to try
In wine to drown a sigh,
Or a single care to smother.

"Yet, in moderation pure,
A glass is well enough;
But, a troubled heart to cure,
Kind feelings to insure,
Give me a cheerful puff.

"How oft a learn'd divine
His sermons will prepare,
Not by imbibing wine,
But, 'neath th' influence fine
Of a pipe of "baccy" rare!

"How many a pleasing scene,
How many a happy joke,
How many a satire keen,
Or problem sharp, has been
Evolved or born of smoke!

"How oft, amidst the jar
Of storms on ruin bent,
On ship-board, near or far,
To the drenched and shiv'ring tar
Tobacco's solace lent!

"Oh! tell me not 'tis bad,
Or that it shortens life.
Its charms can soothe the sad,
And make the wretched glad,
In trouble and in strife.

"Tis used in every clime,
By all men, high and low;
It is praised in prose and rhyme,
And can but end with time;
So let the kind herb grow!

"'Tis a friend to the distress'd,
'Tis a comforter in need;
It is social, soothing, blest;
It has fragrance, force, and zest;
Then hail the kingly weed!"

While Raleigh[51] and many of Elizabeth's courtiers indulged frequently
in a pipe, some have imagined that even Queen Bess herself tested the rare
virtues of tobacco. This is hardly based upon sufficient proof to warrant a
very strong belief in it; but the following account of "How to weigh smoke"
taken from Tinsley's Magazine shows that the Queen was acquainted at least
with Raleigh's use of the weed:

"One day it happened that Queen Elizabeth, wandering
about the grounds and alleys at Hampton with a single maid
of honour, came upon Sir Walter Raleigh indulging in a pipe.
Smoking now is as common as eating and drinking, and to
smoke amongst ladies is a vulgarity. But not so then: it was
an accomplishment, it was a distinction; and one of the
feathers in Sir Walter's towering cap was his introduction of

tobacco. The all-accomplished hero rose and saluted the
Queen in his grand manner, and the Queen, who was in her
daintiest humour, gave him her white hand to kiss, and took
the seat he had left.

"Now, Sir Walter, I can puzzle you at last." "I suppose I
must not be so rude as to doubt your Majesty." "You are bold
enough for that, but your boldness will not help you, Sir
Walter, this time. You cannot tell me how much the smoke
from your pipe weighs." "Your Majesty is mistaken. I can
tell you to a nicety. Will your Majesty allow me to call
yonder page, and send for a pair of scales and weights?" "By
my honour," said the Queen, "were any other subject in our
realm to make request so absurd, we should very positively
deny it. But you are the wisest of our fools, and, though we
expect to see but little use made of these weights when
brought, your request shall be granted. And, supposing you
fail to weigh the smoke, what penalty will you pay?" "I will
be content," said Sir Walter, "to lose my head." "You may
chance to lose it on a graver count than this;" answered the
Queen. "If the head shall have done some slight service to
your Majesty and the realm," replied the courteous knight,
"thee will be well content nevertheless."

"But your Majesty will soon
see that I fail not. First, madam, I
place this empty pipe in the
scales, and I find that it weighs
exactly 2 ounces. I now fill it with
tobacco, and the weight is
increased to 2-1/10th ounce. I
must now ask your Majesty to
allow me to smoke the pipe out. I
shall then turn out the ashes, and
place them together with the pipe
in the scale once more. The Weighing Smoke.
difference between the weight of

the pipe with the unsmoked tobacco, and weight of the pipe
with the ashes, will be the weight of the smoke." "You are
too clever for us, Sir Walter. We shall expect you to-night at
supper, and if the conversation grow dull, you shall tell our
courtiers the story of the pipe."

Many other anecdotes have been told of the adventures of Raleigh with
his pipe. One is that while taking a quiet smoke his servant entered and
becoming alarmed on seeing the smoke coming from his nose threw a mug
of ale in his face.

The same anecdote is also related of others including Tarlton. He gives
an account of it in his Jests 1611. It is told in this manner:

"Tarlton as other gentlemen used, at the first coming up of
tobacco, did take it more for fashion's sake than otherwise,
and being in a roome, sat betweene two men overcome with
wine, and they never seeing the like, wondered at it, and
seeing the vapour come out of Tarlton's nose, cryed out,
'Fire, fire!' and threw a cup of wine in Tarlton's face. 'Make
no more stirre,' quoth Tarlton, 'the fire is quenched; if the
sheriffs come, it will turne a fine as the custom is.' And
drinking that againe, 'Fie,' says the other: 'what a stinke it
makes. I am almost poysoned.' 'If it offend,' quoth Tarlton,
'let's every one take a little of the smell, and so the savor,
will quickly go;' but tobacco whiffes made them leave him
to pay all."

Rich gives the following account of a similar scene:—

"I remember a pretty jest of tobacco which was this: A
certain Welchman coming newly to London, and beholding
one to take tobacco, never seeing the like before, and not
knowing the manner of it, but perceiving him vent smoke so
fast, and supposing his inward parts to be on fire, cried out,
'O Jhesu, Jhesu man, for the passion of Cod hold, for by
Cod's splud ty snowt's on fire,' and having a bowle of beere

in his hand, threw it at the other's face, to quench his
smoking nose."

The following anecdote is equally ludicrous. Before tobacco was much
known in Germany, some soldiers belonging to a cavalry regiment were
quartered in a German village. One of them, a trumpeter, happened to be a
negro. A peasant, who had never seen a black man before, and who knew
nothing about tobacco, watched, though at a safe distance, the trumpeter,
while the latter groomed and fed his horse. As soon as this business was
dispatched, the negro filled his pipe and began to smoke it. Great had been
the peasant's bewilderment before; great was his terror now. The terror
reached an intolerable point when the negro took the pipe from his mouth,
offered it to the peasant, and asked him, in the best language he could
command, to take a whiff. "No, no!" cried the peasant, in exceeding alarm;
"no, no! Mr. Devil; I do not wish to eat fire."

Henry Fielding, in "The Grub Street Opera" written about a century ago,
has the following verses on Tobacco:—

"Let the learned talk of books,
The glutton of cooks,
The lover of Celia's soft smack—O!
No mortal can boast
So noble a toast,
As a pipe of accepted tobacco.

"Let the soldier for fame,
And a general's name,
In battle get many a thwack—O!
Let who will have most
Who will rule the rooste,
Give me but a pipe of tobacco.

"Tobacco gives wit
To the dullest old cit,
And makes him of politics crack—O!
The lawyers i' th' hall

Were not able to bawl,
Were it not for a whiff of tobacco.

"The man whose chief glory
Is telling a story,
Had never arrived at the smack—O!
Between every heying,
And as I was saying,
Did he not take a whiff of tobacco.

"The doctor who places
Much skill in grimaces,
And feels your pulse running tic tack—O!
Would you know his chief skill?
It is only to fill
And smoke a good pipe of tobacco.

"The courtiers alone
To this weed are not prone;
Would you know what 'tis makes them so slack—O?
'Twas because it inclined
To be honest the mind,
And therefore they banished tobacco."

One of the most curious pieces of verse ever written on tobacco is the
following by Southey, entitled "Elegy on a Quid of Tobacco:"—

"It lay before me on the close-grazed grass,
Beside my path, an old tobacco quid:
And shall I by the mute adviser pass
Without one serious thought? now Heaven forbid!

"Perhaps some idle drunkard threw thee there—
Some husband spendthrift of his weekly hire;
One who for wife and children takes no care,
But sits and tipples by the ale-house fire.

"Ah! luckless was the day he learned to chew!
Embryo of ills the quid that pleased him first;
Thirsty from that unhappy quid he grew,
Then to the ale-house went to quench his thirst.

"So great events from causes small arise—
The forest oak was once an acorn seed;
And many a wretch from drunkenness who dies,
Owes all his evils to the Indian weed.

"Let no temptation, mortal, ere come nigh!
Suspect some ambush in the parsley hid;
From the first kiss of love ye maidens fly,
Ye youths, avoid the first Tobacco-quid!

"Perhaps I wrong thee, O thou veteran chaw,
And better thoughts my musings should engage;
That thou wert rounded in some toothless jaw,
The joy, perhaps of solitary age.

"One who has suffered Fortune's hardest knocks,
Poor, and with none to tend on his gray hairs;
Yet has a friend in his Tobacco-box,
And, while he rolls his quid, forgets his cares.

"Even so it is with human happiness—
Each seeks his own according to his whim;

One toils for wealth, one Fame alone can bless,
One asks a quid—a quid is all to him.

"O, veteran chaw! thy fibres savory, strong,
While aught remained to chew, thy master chewed,
Then cast thee here, when all thy juice was gone,
Emblem of selfish man's ingratitude!

"O, happy man! O, cast-off quid! is he
Who, like as thou, has comforted the poor;
Happy his age who knows himself, like thee,
Thou didst thy duty—man can do no more."

Another well known song of the Seventeenth Century is entitled "The
Tryumph of Tobacco over Sack and Ale:"—

Nay, soft by your leaves,
Tobacco bereaves
You both of the garland; forbear it;
You are two to one,
Yet tobacco alone
Is like both to win it, and weare it.
Though many men crack,
Some of ale, some of sack,
And think they have reason to do it;
Tobacco hath more
That will never give o'er
The honor they do unto it.
Tobacco engages
Both sexes, all ages,
The poor as well as the wealthy;
From the 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.
And worthily too,
For what they undo
Tobacco doth help to regaine,
On fairer conditions
Than many physitians,
Puts an end to much griefe and paine;
It helpeth digestion,
Of that there's no question,
The gout and the tooth-ache it easeth:
Be it early, or late,
'Tis never out of date,
He may-safely take it that pleaseth.
Tobacco prevents
Infection by scents,
That hurt the brain, and are heady.
An antidote is,
Before you're amisse,
As well as an after remedy.
The cold it doth heate,
Cools them that do sweate,
And them that are fat maketh lean:
The hungry doth feed,
And if there be need,
Spent spirits restoreth again.
The poets of old,
Many fables have told,
Of the gods and their symposia;
But tobacco alone,
Had they known it, had gone
For their nectar and ambrosia.
It is not the smack
Of ale or of sack,
That can with tobacco compare:
For taste and for smell,
It beares away the bell

From them both, wherever they are:
For all their bravado,
It is Trinidado,
That both their noses will wipe
Of the praises they desire,
Unless they conspire
To sing to the tune of his pipe.

The history of the rise and progress of tobacco in England, is one of the
most interesting features connected with the use and cultivation of the plant.
In Spain, Portugal, Germany and Holland the plant was sustained and
encouraged by the throne, and royalty was the strongest and most devoted
defender it had. It saw in the encouragement of its use, an income of
revenue and a source of profit far greater than that received from any other
product. Soon after its cultivation began in France, Spain, and Portugal, the
tobacco trade was farmed out.

From its first cultivation in these countries it has been a government
monopoly. In 1753, the King of Portugal farmed out the tobacco trade, and
from that time until now, the annual amount received has been one of the
principal sources of revenue to the crown. In France, as early as 1674, a
monopoly of the trade was granted to Jean Breton, for six years, for the sum
of 700,000 francs.

In 1720 the Indian Company paid for the privilege 1,500,000 francs per
annum; and in 1771 the price was increased to 25,000,000 francs. Besides
France there are thirteen other European states where the tobacco trade is a
government monopoly, namely, Austria, Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, Poland,
Papal States, Portugal, Tuscany, Modena, Parma, San Marino, Lichtenstein.

From the first cultivation of the plant, its growers saw in the tobacco
trade a vast and constantly increasing source of wealth. They doubtless in
some measure comprehended the close relation existing between it and
commerce and realized how extensive would be its use.

From the nature of the plant, it affords states and nations an opportunity
to engage either in its culture or commerce with the prospect of the largest
success. In this respect it is far different from any other tropical plant, and

unlike them is capable of being cultivated in portions of the earth far remote
from the tropics. In Switzerland and in the Caucassias it attains to a
considerable size, but is nevertheless tobacco although it may possess but
few of the excellences of some varieties, still it affords some enjoyment to
the user, from the fact that it is the Indian weed. Fairholt speaking of the
tobacco trade says:

"The progress of the tobacco trade from the earliest
introduction of the plant into Europe until now, is certainly
one of the most curious that commerce presents. That a plant
originally smoked by a few savages, should succeed in spite
of the most stringent opposition in church and state, to be
the cherished luxury of the whole civilized world; to
increase with the increase of time, and to end in causing so
vast a trade, and so large an outlay of money; is a statistical
fact, without an equal parallel."

The tobacco plant notwithstanding its fascinating powers, has suffered
many romantic vicissitudes in its fame and character; having been
successively opposed and commended by physicians, condemned and
eulogized by priests, vilified and venerated by kings, and alternately
proscribed and protected by governments, this once insignificant production
of a little island or an obscure district, has succeeded in diffusing itself
throughout every clime, and—exhilarating and enriching its thousands—
has subjected the inhabitants of every country to its dominion. And every
where it is a source of comfort and enjoyment; in the highest grades of
civilized society, at the shrine of fashion, in the depths of poverty, in the
palace and in the cottage, the fascinating influence of this singular plant
demands an equal tribute of devotion and attachment.[Back to Contents]

CHAPTER VI.
TOBACCO-PIPES, SMOKING AND SMOKERS.

The implements used in smoking tobacco, from the rude pipe of
the Indian to the elaborate hookah of the Turk, show a far
greater variety than even the various species of the tobacco
plant. The instruments used by the Indians for inhaling the
tobacco smoke were no less wonderful to Europeans than the
plant itself.

The rude mode of inhaling the smoke and the intoxication produced by
its fumes suggested to the Spaniards a better method of "taking tobacco."
Hariot, however, found clay pipes in use by the Indians of Virginia, which
though having no resemblance to the smoking implements discovered by
Columbus, seem to have afforded a model for those afterward manufactured
by the Virginia colony. The sailors of Columbus seemed to have first
discovered cigar, rather than pipe-smoking, inasmuch as the simple method
used by the natives, consisted of a leaf of maize, which enwrapped a few
leaves of the plant.

The next instruments discovered in use among the Indians were straight,
hollow reeds and forked canes. Their mode of use was to place a few leaves
upon coals of fire and by placing the forked end in the nostrils and the other
upon the smoking leaves, to inhale the smoke until they were stupified or
drunken with the fumes. Their object in inhaling the fumes of tobacco
seemed to be to produce intoxication and insensibility rather than a mode of
enjoyment, although the enjoyment with them consisted of seeing the most
remarkable visions when stupefied by its fumes. Such were the modes of
smoking among the Indians when Columbus planted the banner of Spain in
America.

A writer in The Tobacco Plant has given a very interesting description of
Indian pipes in use among the natives of both North and South America. He
says:

"In the tumuli or Indian grave mounds of the Ohio and
Scioto valleys, large quantities of pipes have been found,
bearing traces of Indian ingenuity. That their burial mounds
are of great antiquity, is proved by the fact that trees several
centuries old are to be found growing upon them. About
twenty-five years ago, two distinguished archeologists

Squier and Davis—made extensive exploration of these
mounds, the results of which were published in an elaborate
memoir by the Smithsonian Institution. The mounds indicate
that an immense amount of labor has been expended upon
them, as the earthworks and mounds may be counted by
thousands, requiring either long time or an immense
population; and there is much probability in the supposition
of Sir John Lubbock that these parts of America were once
inhabited by a numerous and agricultural population. It may
be asked, have the races who erected these extensive
mounds become extinct, or do they exist in the poor
uncivilized tribes of Indians whom Europeans found
inhabiting the river valleys of Ohio and Illinois? Many of
these mounds are in the form of serpents and symbolic
figures, and were evidently related to the sacrificial worship
of the mound builders."

Squier and Davis are of the opinion that:—

"The mound builders were inveterate smokers, if the great
numbers of pipes discovered in the mounds be admitted as
evidence of the fact. These constitute not only a numerous,
but a singularly interesting class of remains. In their
construction the skill of the maker seems to have been
exhausted. Their general form, which may be regarded as
the primitive form of the implement, is well exhibited in the
accompanying sketch. They are always carved from a single
piece, and consist of a flat carved bore of variable length and
width, with the bowl rising from the centre of the convex
side. From one of the ends, and communicating with the
hollow of the bowl, is drilled a small hole, which answers
the purpose of a tube; the corresponding opposite division
being left for the manifest purpose of holding the implement
to the mouth.

"The specimen here represented is finely carved from a
beautiful variety of brown porphyry, granulated with

various-colored materials, the
whole much changed by the
action of fire, and somewhat
resembling porcelain. It is
intensely hard, and successfully
resists the edge of the finest-
tempered knife. The length of the
Indian Pipe. base is five inches; breadth of the
same one inch and a-quarter. The
bowl is one inch and a-quarter high, slightly tapering
upwards, but flaring near the top. The hollow of the bowl is
six-tenths of an inch in diameter. The perforation answering
to the tube is one-sixth of an inch in diameter, which is about
the usual size. This circumstance places it beyond doubt that
the mouth was applied directly to the implement, without the
intervention of a tube of wood or metal."

This is an account of a simple pipe, with a small bowl; but most of the
pipes found in the mounds are highly ornamented with elaborate
workmanship, representing animals such as the beaver, otter, bear, wolf,
panther, raccoon, squirrel, wild-cat, manotee, eagle, hawk, heron, swallow,
paroquet, etc. One of the most interesting of the spirited sculptures of
animal forms to be found on the mound pipes, is the representation of the
Lamantin, or Manotee, a cetacean found only in tropical waters, and the
nearest place which they at present frequent is the coast of Florida—at least
a thousand miles away. According to Sir John Lubbock, these are no rude
sculptures, for the characteristics of the animal are all distinctly marked,
rendering its recognition complete. Many modern Indians are possessed of a
wonderful aptitude for sculpture, and they appear to gladly exchange their
work for the necessaries of life.

The material most prized for the purpose of pipe-making is the beautiful
red pipe-stone of the Coteau des Prairies, which is an indurated aluminous
stone, highly colored with red oxide of iron. It is frequently called
"Catlinite," out of compliment to George Catlin, the distinguished collector
of Indian traditions, who claims to be the first European that ever visited the
Red Pipe-stone Quarry, which is situated amongst the upper waters of

Missouri. Catlin gives the following legend as the Indian version of the
birth of the mysterious red pipe:—

"The Great Spirit, at an ancient period, here called
together the Indian warriors, and standing on the precipice
of the red pipe-stone rock, broke from its wall a piece, and
made a huge pipe by turning it in his hand, which he smoked
over them, and to the north, the south, the east and the west;
and told them that this stone was red, that it was their flesh,
that they must use it for their pipes of peace, that it belonged
to them all, and that the war club and the scalping knife must
not be raised on its ground. At the last whiff of his pipe his
head went into a great cloud, and the whole surface of the
rock for several miles was melted and glazed. Two great
ovens were opened beneath, and two women, guardian
spirits of the place, entered them in a blaze of fire, and they
are heard there yet, answering to the invocations of the
priests and medicine-men."

At the pipe-stone quarry there is a row of five huge, granite boulders,
which the Indians regard with great reverence, and when they visit the spot
to secure some red stone to make pipes, they seek to propitiate the guardian
spirits by throwing plugs of Tobacco to them. Some admirable pieces of
pipe-sculpture are produced by the Boheen Indians, who are found on the
coast of the Pacific to the south of the Russians. These pipes are made from
a soft blue clay stone which is found only in slabs, and the sculptures are
wrought on both sides, the pipes being generally covered with singular
groups of human and animal forms, grotesquely intermingled.

The Chippewas are also celebrated for their pipes, which are cut out of a
close-grained stone of a dark color; and Professor Wilson, of Toronto, states
that Pobahmesad, or the Flier, one of the famed pipe-sculptors, resides on
the Great Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron. The old Chippewa has never
deviated from the faith of his fathers, as he still adheres to all their rites and
ceremonies. He uses the red pipe-stone and other materials in the
production of his pipes, which are ingenious specimens of sculpture. The
calumet, or pipe of peace, is still an object of special reverence with the

Indian tribes, and the pipe-stem is ornamented with six or eight eagle's
feathers. Each tribe has an official who takes charge of the calumet, which
he keeps rolled up in a bearskin robe; and it's never exposed to view or
used, except when the chief enters into a treaty with some neighboring
chief. On these occasions the pipe is taken out of its covering by the Indian
dignitary, ready charged with the "holy weed," when it is smoked by all the
chiefs, each one taking only a single breath of smoke, which is regarded as
implementing the treaty. The pipe is then rolled up in its robe of fur, and
stowed away in the lodge of its keeper until it is again required. The war
pipe is simply a tomahawk, with a perforated handle communicating with
the bowl, which is opposite the sharp edge of the weapon. When the Indians
joined the British as allies during the American war, they had to be supplied
with iron tomahawks of the native pattern, before they could enter the field
as allies.

Sculptured Pipe.

Many tribes of Indians use herbs of various kinds to mix with tobacco to
reduce its strength, as they are in the habit of exhaling the smoke from the
nostrils, and not from the mouth. By the adoption of this means a much
smaller quantity of tobacco suffices to produce the soothing influence on
the nervous system so well known to votaries of the weed.

Longfellow, in his great Indian epic of the Song of Hiawatha, has
portrayed with graphic power in pleasing verse the mysterious legends
describing the birth or institution of the peace-pipe by Gitche Manito, "The
Master of Life;" and a few extracts from "Hiawatha" may be interesting to
illustrate the deep significance of the ideas which the Indian holds regarding
his relations to the Great Spirit of the Universe, and of the esteem with

which he views the peace-pipe, which in the words of Catlin "has shed its
thrilling fumes over the land, and soothed the fury of the relentless savage."

Longfellow, in the opening of his poem, says:—

Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple,
Who have faith in God and Nature,
Who believe that in all ages
Every human heart is human,
That in even savage bosoms
There are longings, yearnings, strivings,
For the good they comprehend not,
That the feeble hands and helpless,
Groping blindly in the darkness,
Touch God's right hand in that darkness
And are lifted up and strengthened;—
Listen to this simple story,
To the song of Hiawatha.

He then describes the making of the pipe from the great Red Pipe-Stone
Quarry, as follows:—

"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 his foot-prints flowed a river,
Leaped into the light of morning,
O'er the precipice plunging downward
Gleamed like Ishkoodah, the comet.
And the Spirit stooping earthward,
With his finger on the meadow
Traced a winding pathway for it,
Saying to it, 'Run in this way!'

"From the red stone of the quarry
With his hand 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;
Breathed upon the neighboring forest,
Made its great boughs chafe together,
Till in flame they burst and kindled;
And erect upon the mountains,
Gitche Manito, the mighty,
Smoked the calumet, the Peace-Pipe,
As a signal to the nations."

Pipe of Peace.

The next verses describe the assembling of the nations at the call of
Gitche Manito, who proceeds to speak to his children words of wisdom and
announces that he:

"'Will send a prophet to you,
A Deliverer of the nations,
Who shall guide you and shall teach you,

Who shall toil and suffer with you.
So you listen to his counsels,
You will multiply and prosper;
If his warnings pass unheeded,
You will fade away and perish!

"'Bathe now in the stream before you,
Wash the war-paint from your faces,
Wash the blood-stains from your fingers,
Bury your war-clubs and your weapons,
Break the red stone from this quarry,
Mould and make it into Peace-Pipes,
Take the reeds that grow beside you,
Deck them with your highest feathers,
Smoke the calumet together,
And as brothers live henceforward!'

* * * * *

"And in silence all the warriors
Broke the red stone of the quarry,
Smoothed and formed it into Peace-Pipes,
Broke the long reeds 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 doorways of the heavens,
Vanished from before their faces,
In the smoke that rolled around him,
The Pukwana of the Peace-Pipe!"

Along the northern parts of America, are to be found the Esquimaux
population, estimated to number about 60,000.

They are votaries of the weed, making their pipes either out of driftwood,
or of the bones of animals they have used for food.

Tobacco is found growing along the whole western sea-board of South
America until we reach the northern boundaries of Patagonia. Far inland on
the banks of the Amazon, Rio Niger, and other great rivers, the weed has
been found in luxurious abundance, with a delightful fragrance.

Stephens, in his "Travels in Central America," says that
"the ladies of Central America generally smoke—the
married using tobacco, and the unmarried, cigars formed of
selected tobacco rolled in paper or rice straw. Every
gentleman carries in his pocket a silver case, with a long
string of cotton, steel and flint, and one of the offices of
gallantry is to strike a light. By doing it well, he may help to
kindle a flame in a lady's heart; at all events, to do it
bunglingly would be ill-bred. I will not express my
sentiments on smoking as a custom for the sex. I have
recollections of beauteous lips profaned. Nevertheless, even
in this I have seen a lady show her prettiness and refinement,
barely touching the straw on her lips, as it were kissing it
gently and taking it away. When a gentleman asks a lady for
a light, she always removes the cigar from her lips."

The Rev. Canon Kingsley, in his fascinating novel of "Westward Ho!"
has some quaint remarks on the method of smoking described by Lionel
Wafer, surgeon to Dampier, which are well worth quoting. He says,

"When they, (the Darien Indians,) will deliberate on war or
policy, they sit round in the hut of the chief; where being
placed, enter to them a small boy with a cigarro of the
bigness of a rolling-pin, and puffs the smoke thereof into the
face of each warrior, from the eldest to the youngest; while
they, putting their hands funnel-wise round their mouths,
draw into the sinuosities of the brain that more than Delphic
vapor of prophecy; which boy presently falls down in a
swoon, and being dragged out by the heels and laid by to
sober, enter another to puff at the sacred cigarro, till he is
dragged out likewise, and so on till the Tobacco is finished,
and the seed of wisdom has sprouted in every soul into the

tree of meditation, bearing the flower of eloquence,
and in due time the fruit of valiant action."

Tobacco in the form of cigarettes, is extensively used by
the inhabitants of Nicaragua, Guiana, and the dwellers on
the banks of the Orinoco, and the use of the weed is not
confined to the male sex, but is freely used both by the
female and juvenile portions of the community. Mr. Squier,
in his "Travels in Nicaragua," states that the dress of the
young urchins consists mainly of a straw hat and a cigar—
the cigar when not in use being stuck behind the ear, in the
manner in which our clerks place their pens. The natives of
Guiana use a tube or pipe not unlike a cheroot, made from
the rind of the fruit of a species of palm. This curious pipe
is called a "Winna," and the hollow is filled with tobacco,
the smoking of which affords much enjoyment to the
denizens of the swampy regions of Guiana.

Mr. Cooke, in "The Seven Sisters of Sleep," states that a
tube much resembling the "Winna" of Guiana was some
years ago to be met with in the Tobacconists' Shops in
London. The Indian dwelling in the dense forests in the
region of Orinoco has found that tobacco is an excellent
solace to relieve the monotony of his life; he uses it "not
only to procure an afternoon nap, but also to induce a state
of quiescence which they call dreaming with their eyes
A Model Cigar. open." We find from voyagers up the Amazon, that smoking
prevails not merely amongst the natives inhabiting the
regions which skirt that great river, but also amongst the people on the
banks of its numerous tributaries. Mr. Bates the distinguished Naturalist,
when making researches far up one of the tributaries of the Amazon, found
tobacco extensively cultivated, and some distinguished makers of
cigarettes. One maker, Joan Trinidade, was noted for his Tobacco and Tauri
cigarettes. This cigar is so named from the bark in which the tobacco is
rolled. Some of the tribes inhabiting the district of the lower Amazon
indulge in snuff-taking. This snuff is not made from tobacco, it is the
produce of a plant of the leguminous order, the seeds being carefully

collected and thoroughly dried in the sun before they are pounded in a
mortar, when the powder is ready for use. The snuff-making season is quite
an event in a Brazilian village, the week or so during which it lasts forming
a kind of religious festival mingled with a good deal of indulgence of
fermented liquors, chiefly of native origin.

Humboldt, when traveling in South America, found in use among the
Ottomac Indians a powder called Niopo, or "Indian snuff." Niopo is a
powerful stimulant, a small portion of it producing violent sneezing in
persons unaccustomed to its use. Father Gumilla says:—"This diabolical
powder of the Ottomacs, furnished by an adolescent tobacco plant,
intoxicates them through the nostrils, deprives them of reason for some
hours, and renders them furious in battle." Humboldt, however, has shown
that this stimulating snuff is not the product of the tobacco plant, but of a
species of acacia, Niopo being made from the pods of the plant after they
have undergone a process of fermentation. Captain Burton, when traveling
in the Highlands of Brazil, found the tobacco plant growing spontaneously,
which made him conclude that it is indigenous to Brazil. He found the
"Aromatic Brazilian" a kind of tobacco with thin leaves and a pink flower,
which is "much admired in the United States, and there found to lose its
aroma after the second year." It is usually asserted that the tobacco grown in
Brazil contains only two per cent. of nicotine, but Captain Burton is
disposed to doubt this, as he states that some varieties of the "holy herb"
grown at Sa'a' Paulo and Nimos suggests a larger proportion. In the small
towns in the Highlands of Brazil, Captain Burton found that excellent
cigars, better than many "Havannas," were retailed at a halfpenny each. In
La Plata, Paraguay, and other countries to the south of Brazil, nearly every
person smokes, and an American traveler quoted by Mr. Cooke states that
women and girls above thirteen years of age use the weed in the form of
quids. A magnificent Hebe, arrayed in satin and flashing in diamonds, "puts
you back with one delicate hand, while with the fair taper fingers of the
other she takes the tobacco out of her mouth previous to your saluting her."
A European visiting Paraguay for the first time is rather astonished at the
conduct of the fair beauty, but such is the force of custom that the
squeamishness of the new-comer is soon overcome, when he finds that he
has to kiss every lady to whom he is introduced; and the traveler says that

"one half of those you meet are really tempting enough to render you
reckless of consequences."

Smoking is practised by the natives of Patagonia, who are a tall and
muscular class of men, though not such giants as represented by the early
voyagers. Hutchinson, in a valuable paper on the Indians of South America
has an account of the Pehuenches, one of the principal tribes of Patagonia,
in which he states that

"their chief indulgence is smoking. The native pipes are
fabricated out of a piece of stone, fashioned into the shape of
a bowl, into which is inserted a long brass tube. The latter is
obtained by barter at Bohia Blanca. The tobacco in the bowl
being lighted, each man of a party takes a suck at the pipe in
his turn."

Tilston, who witnessed the operation, describes it as a most ludicrous one.

"The smoker gives a pull at the pipe, gulping in a quantity of
Tobacco vapour, the cubic measurement of which my
informant would be afraid to guess at. All the muscles of the
body seem in a temporary convulsion whilst it is being taken
in, and the neighbour to whom the pipe is transferred
follows suit by inhaling as if he were trying to swallow
down brass tube, bowl, Tobacco, fire, and all. Meanwhile,
there issues from the nose and mouth of the previous smoker
such a cumulus of cloud as for a few seconds to render his
face quite invisible."

Tobacco is more used in Chili than in the other countries on the Pacific side
of South America; this is owing to the extensive use of the leaves of the
Cocoa plant as a narcotic by the natives of Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia.

South Americans smoking.

We refrain from enlarging on the nature and use of this narcotic, as on
some future occasion we may take an opportunity of making some
observations on Cocoa, which according to Jonson, holds an undisputed
sway over some seven or eight millions of the inhabitants of South
America. The Indians formerly inhabiting the high table-lands of what is
now called Peru and Bolivia appear prior to the invasion of the Spaniards to
have been much further advanced in civilization than the races occupying
the other portions of South America; and there is a strong probability that
they are of a different origin from the races occupying Chili, Patagonia,
Brazil, and the great district washed by the waters of the West Indian Sea.
Science as yet cannot give anything like an accurate idea of the time man
has existed in these widely-diversified countries, but we cannot go wrong in
accepting the statement of Darwin, who observes that

"we must admit that man has inhabited South America for an
immensely long period, inasmuch as any change in climate,
effected by the elevation of the land must have been
extremely gradual."

Another writer says of the pipes of the Indians of North America:

"Great variety of form and material distinguishes the
pipes of the modern Indians; arising in part from the local
facilities they possess for a suitable material from which to
construct them; and in part also from the special style of art

and decoration which has become the traditional usage of
the tribes. The favorite red pipe-stone of the Coteau des
Prairies, has been generally sought after, both from its
easiness of working and the beauty of its appearance. A pipe
of this favorite and beautiful material, found on the shores of
Lake Simcoe, and now in my possession, measures five
inches and three-quarters in length, and nearly four inches in
greatest breadth, yet the capacity of the bowl hollowed in it
for the reception of tobacco is even less than in the smallest
of the "Elfin Pipes." In contrast to this, a modern Winnebago
pipe recently acquired by me, made of the same red pipe-
stone, inlaid with lead, and executed with ingenious skill,
has a bowl of large dimensions illustrative of Indian
smoking usages modified by the influence of the white man.
From the red pipe-stone, as well as from the lime stone and
other harder rocks, the Chippeways, the Winnebagos, and
the Sioux, frequently make a peculiar class of pipes, inlaid
with lead.

"The Chincok and Puget Sound Indians, who evince little
taste in comparison with the tribes surrounding them, in
ornamenting their persons or their warlike and domestic
implements, commonly use wooden pipes. Sometimes these
are elaborately carved, but most frequently they are rudely
and hastily made for immediate use; and even among these
remote tribes of the flat head Indians, the common clay pipe
of the fur trader begins to supersede such native arts. Among
the Assinaboin Indians a material is used in pipe
manufacture altogether peculiar to them. It is a fine marble,
much too hard to admit of minute carving, but taking a high
polish. This is cut into pipes of graceful form, and made so
extremely thin, as to be almost transparent, so that when
lighted the glowing tobacco shines through, and presents a
singular appearance when in use at night or in a dark lodge.
Another favorite material employed by the Assinaboin
Indians is a coarse species of jasper also too hard to admit of
elaborate ornamentation."

This also is cut into various simple but tasteful designs, executed chiefly
by the slow and laborious process of rubbing it down with other stones. The
choice of the material for fashioning the favorite pipe is by no means
invariably guided by the facilities which the location of the tribe affords. A
suitable stone for such a purpose will be picked up and carried hundreds of
miles. Mr. Kane informs me that, in coming down the Athabaska River,
when drawing near its source in the Rocky Mountains, he observed his
Assinaboin guides select the favorite bluish jasper from among the water-
worn stones in the bed of the river, to carry home for the purpose of pipe
manufacture, although they were then fully five hundred miles from their
lodges. Such a traditional adherence to a choice of material peculiar to a
remote source, may frequently prove of considerable value as a clue to
former migrations of the tribes. Both the Cree and the Winnebago Indians
carve pipes in stone of a form now more frequently met with in the Indian
curiosity stores of Canada and the States than any other specimens of native
carving. The tube, cut at a sharp right angle with the cylindrical bowl of the
pipe, is ornamented with a thin vandyked ridge, generally perforated with a
row of holes, and standing up somewhat like the dorsal fin of a fish. The
Winnebagos also manufacture pipes of the same form, but of a smaller size,
in lead, with considerable skill.

Among the Cree Indians a double pipe is occasionally in use, consisting
of a bowl carved out of stone without much attempt at ornament, but with
perforations on two sides, so that two smokers can insert their pipe-stems at
once, and enjoy the same supply of tobacco. It does not appear, however,
that any special significance is attached to this singular fancy. The Saultaux
Indians, a branch of the great Algonquin nation, also carve their pipes out of
a black stone found in their country, and evince considerable skill in the
execution of their elaborate details. But the most remarkable of all the
specimens of pipe sculpture executed by the Indians of the north-west are
those carved by the Bobeen, or Big-lip Indians,—so called from the
singular deformity they produce by inserting a piece of wood into a slit
made in the lower lip.

The Bobeen Indians are found along the Pacific coast, about latitude 54°,
40', and extend from the borders of the Russian dominions eastward nearly
to Frazer River. The pipes of the Bobeen, and also of the Clalam Indians,

occupying the neighboring Vancouver's Island, are carved with the utmost
elaborateness and in the most singular and grotesque devices, from a soft
blue clay-stone or slate. Their form is in part determined by the material,
which is only procurable in thin slabs, so that the sculptures, wrought on
both sides, present a sort of double bas-relief. From this, singular and
grotesque groups are carved without any apparent reference to the final
destination of the whole as a pipe. The lower side is generally a straight
line, and in the specimens I have examined they measure from two or three
to fifteen inches long; so that in these the pipe-stem is included. A small
hollow is carved out of some protruding ornament to serve as the bowl of
the pipe, and from the further end a perforation is drilled to connect with
this. The only addition made to it when in use is the insertion of a quill or
straw as a mouth-piece. The Indians have both war and peace pipes.

The War pipe is a true tomahawk of
ordinary size with a perforated handle the
tobacco being placed in the receptacle
above the hatchet the handle serving as a
pipe-stem and used for either pipe or
tomahawk. Many varieties of Indian
Pipes have been found not only in the
Western and Southern mounds but in
Mexico and Central America. Fine
specimens are found in Florida and some
elaborately carved have been unearthed A War Pipe.
in Virginia. Wilson says of the pipes used
by the Indians: "The pipe stem is one of the characteristics of modern race,
if not distinctive of the Northern tribes of Indians." In alluding to the pipes
more particularly he says:

"Specimens of another class of clay pipes of a larger size,
and with a tube of such length as obviously to be designed
for use without the addition of a "pipe-stem,"

most of the ancient clay pipes that have been discovered are stated to have
the same form; and this, it may be noted, bears so near a resemblance to that

of the red clay pipe used in modern Turkey, with the cherry-tree pipe stem,
that it might be supposed to have furnished the model.

The bowls of this class of ancient clay pipes are not of the miniature
proportions which induce a comparison between those of Canada and the
early examples found in Britain; neither do the stone pipe-heads of the
mound-builders suggest by the size of the bowl either the self-denying
economy of the ancient smoker, or his practice of the modern Indian mode
of exhaling the fumes of the tobacco, by which so small a quantity suffices
to produce the full narcotic effects of the favorite weed. They would rather
seem to confirm the indications derived from the other sources, of an
essential difference between the ancient smoking usages of Central America
and of the mound-builders, and those which are still maintained in their
primeval integrity among the Indians of the North West.

Of the mound-builders Foster says:

"The mound-builders were well aware of the narcotic
properties of tobacco, a plant which indigenous to America,
and which since the discovery of the western continent has
been domesticated in every region of the earth where the soil
and climate are favorable to its cultivation. No habit at this
day, it may be said, is more universal or more difficult to
eradicate than that of smoking. With the mound-builder
tobacco was the greatest of luxuries; his solace in his hours
of relaxations, and the choicest offering he could dedicate to
the Great Spirit. Upon his pipe he lavished all the skill he
possessed, in the lapidary's art.

"From the red stone of the quarry
With his hand he broke a fragment
Moulded it into a pipe head
Shaped and fashioned it with figures."

Many of these pipes are sculptured from the most obdurate stones and
display great delicacy of workmanship. The features of animals are so
truthfully cut that often there is no difficulty in their identification, and even
the plumage of birds is delineated by curved or straight lines which show a

close adherence to nature. The bowl and stem piece wrought from a single
block, are as accurately drilled as they could be at this day, by the lapidary's
art. Both the War pipe and Peace pipe are the most sacred and the most
highly valued of all the various kinds.

"The calumet, or
pipe of peace,
ornamented with the
war eagles quill, is a
sacred pipe, and
never used on any
other occasion than
Peace Pipe. that of peace making,
when the chief brings
it into treaty, and unfolding the many bandages which are
carefully kept around it, has it ready to be mutually smoked
by the chiefs, after the terms of the treaty are agreed upon,
as the means of solemnizing it; which is done by passing the
sacred stem to each chief, who draws one breath of smoke
only through it. Nothing can be more binding than smoking
the pipe of peace and is considered by them to be an
inviolable pledge. There is no custom more uniformly in
constant use amongst the poor Indians than that of smoking
nor any more highly valued. His pipe is his constant
companion through life—his messenger of peace; he pledges
his friends through its stem and its bowl, and when its care-
drowning fumes cease to flow, it takes a place with him in
his solitary grave with his tomahawk and war-club
companions to his long-fancied 'happy hunting grounds.'"

From specimens of clay pipes found at the South from Virginia to Florida
it would seem that the Indians had a great variety of pipes some of which
were beautifully carved while others are perfectly plain. Many of them
however are of rude workmanship and might have been fashioned by some
of the tribe unacquainted with pipe-making.

Dall gives the following account of smoking among the natives of
Alaska:

We broke camp about five o'clock in the morning.
Nothing occurred to break the monotony of constant steady
plodding. Two Indians in the bow of the boat would row
until tired, and then we would stop for a few minutes to rest,
and let them smoke. The last operation takes less than a
minute; their pipes are so constructed as to hold but a very
small pinch of tobacco. The bowl, with ears for tying it to
the stem is generally cast out of lead. Sometimes it is made
of soft stone, bone or even hard wood. The stem is made of
two pieces of wood hollowed on one side, and bound to the
bowl and each other by a narrow strip of deerskin. In
smoking the economical Indian generally cuts up a little
birch wood, or the inner bark of the poplar, and mixes it with
his tobacco. A few reindeer hairs pulled from his paska, are
rolled into a little ball, and placed in the bottom of the bowl
to prevent the contents from being drawn into the stem. A
pinch of tobacco cut as fine as snuff is inserted and two or
three whiffs are afforded by it.

The smoke is inhaled into the lungs, producing a momentary stupor and
the operation is over. A fungus which grows on decayed birch trees, or
tinder manufactured from the down of the poplar rubbed up with charcoal is
used with flint and steel for obtaining a light. Matches are highly valued
and readily purchased. The effect of the Circassian tobacco on the lungs is
extremely bad, and among those tribes who use it many die from asthma
and congestion of the lungs. This is principally due to the saltpetre with
which it is impregnated. The Indian pipe is copied from the Eskimo, as the
latter were the first to obtain and use tobacco. Many of the tribes call it by
the Eskimo name.

The Kutchin and Eastern Finneh were modeled after the clay pipes of the
Hudson Bay Company, but they also carve very pretty ones out of birch
knots and the root of the wild rose-bush. The Chukchees use a pipe similar
to those of the Eskimo, but with a much larger and shorter stem. This stem

is hollow, and is filled with fine birch shavings. After smoking for some
months these shavings impregnated with the oil of tobacco, are taken out
through an opening in the lower part of the stem and smoked over. The
Hudson Baymen make passable pipe-stems by taking a straight-grained
piece of willow or spruce without knots, and cutting through the outer
layers of bark and wood. This stick is heated in the ashes and by twisting
the end in contrary directions the heart-wood may be gradually drawn out,
leaving a hollow tube.

The Kutchin make pretty pipe-stems out of goose-quills wound about
with porcupine-quills. It is the custom in the English forts to make every
Indian who comes to trade, a present of a clay pipe filled with tobacco. We
were provided with cheap brown ones, with wooden stems, which were
much liked by the natives, and it is probable that small brier-wood pipes,
which are not liable to break, would form an acceptable addition to any
stock of trading goods". The Tchuktchi of north-eastern Asia are devoted
worshipers of tobacco, and is one of the chief articles of trade with them.
Their pipes are large, much larger at the stem than the bowl. In smoking,
they swallow the fumes of the tobacco which causes intoxication for a time.
"The desire to procure a few of its narcotic leaves induces the American
Esquimaux from the Ice Cape to Bristol Bay, to send their produce from
hand to hand as far as the Guosden Islands in Behrings Straits, where it is
bartered for the tobacco of the Tchuktchi, and there again principally resort
to the fair of Ostrownoje to purchase tobacco from the Russians. Generally
the Tchuktchi receive from the Americans as money skins for half a pond,
or eighteen pounds of tobacco leaves as they afterwards sell to the Russians
for two ponds of tobacco of the same quality.

The Russians also are great lovers of the weed. A writer says:—

"Everybody smokes, men, women, and children. They
smoke Turkish tobacco, rolled in silk paper—seldom cigars
or pipes. These rolls are called parporos. The ladies almost
all smoke, but they smoke the small, delicate sizes of
parporos, while the gentlemen smoke larger ones. Always at
morning, noon and night, comes the inevitable box of
parporos, and everybody at the table smokes and drinks their

coffee at the same
time. On the cars are
fixed little cups for
cigar ashes in every
seat. Ladies
frequently take out
their part parporos,
and hand them to the
gentlemen with a
pretty invitation to
smoke. Instead of
A Tchuktchi Pipe.
having a smoking car
as we do, they have a
car for those who are
so 'pokey' as not to smoke."

Throughout the German States the custom of smoking is universal and
tobacco enters largely into their list of expenditures. A writer says of
smoking in Austria:—

"We have been rather surprised to find so few persons
smoking pipes in Austria. Indeed, a pipe is seldom seen
except among the laboring classes. The most favorite mode
of using the weed here is in cigarettes, almost every
gentleman being provided with a silver box, in which they
have Turkish tobacco and small slips of paper, with
mucilage on them ready for rolling. They make them as they
use them, and are very expert in the handling of the tobacco.
The chewing of tobacco is universally repudiated, being
regarded as the height of vulgarity. The Turkish tobacco is of
fine flavor, and commands high prices. It is very much in
appearance like the fine cut chewing tobacco so extensively
used at home."

The cigars made by the Austrian Government, which are the only
description to be had are very inferior, and it is not to be wondered that the
cigarette is so generally used in preference.

The smoking of cigarettes by the ladies is quite common, especially
among the higher classes. In no part of the world is smoking so common as
in South America; here all classes and all ages use the weed. Smoking is
encouraged in the family and the children are early taught the custom. A
traveler who has observed this custom more particularly than any other,
says of the use of tobacco in Peru:—

"Scarcely in any regions of the world is smoking so
common as in Peru. The rich as well as the poor, the old man
as well as the boy, the master as well as the servant, the lady
as well as the negroes who wait on her, the young maiden as
well as the mother—all smoke and never cease smoking,
except when eating, or sleeping, or in church. Social
distinctions are as numerous and as marked in Peru as
anywhere else, and there is the most exclusive pride of color
and of blood. But differences of color and of rank are wholly
disregarded when a light for a cigar is requested, a favor
which it is not considered a liberty to ask, and which it
would be deemed a gross act of incivility to refuse. It is
chiefly cigarritos which are smoked.

"The cigarrito, as is well known, is tobacco cut fine and
dexterously wrapped in moist maize leaves, in paper, or in
straw. Only the laborers on the plantations smoke small clay
pipes. Dearer than the cigarritos are the cigars, which are not
inferior to the best Havanna. Everywhere are met the
cigarrito-twisters. Cleverly though they manipulate,
cleanliness is not their besetting weakness. But in Peru, and
in other parts of South America, cleanliness is not held in
more esteem than in Portugal and Spain."

The Turks have long been noted as among the largest consumers of
tobacco as well as using the most magnificent of smoking implements. The
hookah is in all respects the most expensive and elaborate machine (for so it
may be called) used for smoking tobacco. A traveler gives the following
graphic description of smoking among them:

Turk Smoking.

"As each man smokes only out of his own pipe, it is not
surprising that this instrument is an indispensable
accompaniment of every person of rank. Men of the higher
classes keep two or three servants to attend to their pipes.
While one looks after things at home, the other has to
accompany his master in his walks and rides. The long stem
is on such occasions packed in a finely embroidered cloth
cover, while the bowl, tobacco, and other accessories are
carried by the servant in a pouch at his side. A stranger in
Constantinople will often regard with curiosity and surprise,
a proud Osmanli on foot or horseback, followed by an
attendant who, through the long, carefully-packed
instrument which he carries, gives one the idea that he is a
weapon-bearer of some heroic period following his lord to
some dangerous rendezvous. So are the times altered. What
the armor-bearer was for the warlike races of old, such is the
tchbukdi for their degenerate descendants.

"To smoke from sixty to eighty pipes a day is by no
means uncommon; for whatever be the business, no matter
how serious, in which the Turk is engaged, he must smoke at
it. In the divan, where the grandees of the empire consult
together on the most delicate affairs of State, the question
was once mooted whether the tchbukdes should not be
excluded from such debates as were of a strictly private
nature. There was a great diversity of opinion on the subject.
Politics and reason were on opposite sides. At last it was
decided that they would not disgrace an ancient national
usage, but would allow the harmless attendants to enter the
council-room every now and then to change the pipes. In
Turkey, pipes and tobacco afford means of distinguishing
not only the different classes of the community, but even the
several graduates of rank in the same class. A mushir
(marshal) would find it derogatory to his dignity to smoke
out of a stem less than two yards in length. The artisan or
official of a lower rank, would consider it highly
unbecoming on his part to use one which exceeded the
proper proportions of his class. A superior stretches his pipe
before him to his inferior; while the latter must hold his
modestly on one side, only allowing the end of the mouth-
piece to peep out of his closed fist.

"The pasha has the right to puff out his smoke before him
like a steam engine, while his inferiors are only allowed to
breathe forth a light curl of smoke, and that must be let off
backwards. Not to smoke at all in the presence of a superior,
is held the most delicate homage which can be paid him. A
son, for instance, acts in this manner in the presence of his
father, and only such a one is considered to be well brought
up who declines to smoke even after his father has
repeatedly invited him to do so. The fair sex in the East is
scarcely less addicted to the use of this weed.

"The girl of twelve years old smokes a cigarette of the
thickness of pack-thread. When she has attained her

fourteenth or fifteenth year, and is already marriageable, she
is allowed to indulge her penchant at will, which is
forbidden when younger. After this age the diameter of the
cigarette increases year by year; and when a lady has
reached the mature age of twenty-four, no one sees anything
remarkable in her smoking a modest little chibouque as she
sits on the lower divan of the harem. Elderly matrons—and
in Turkey every lady is an elderly matron in her fortieth year
—are passionately devoted to this enjoyment. The pipe-
bowls and stems always remain of the size appropriated by
etiquette to the use of the harem; but the strongest and most
pungent sorts of tobacco are not unseldom smoked, until the
mouth, which, according to the assurance of the poet, in the
bloom of its youth breathed forth ambergiris and musk, in its
fortieth year acquires so strong a smell that the lady can be
scented from a distance.

"Like their lords, the hanyrus of rank have also their
tchbukdes, of course of their own sex, who accompany them
when out walking or on a visit. In this case, however, the
cover in which the pipe-stem is made, not of cloth, but of
silk. The habit of refreshing oneself with a pipe on some
elevated spot which commands a fine view, is common to
both sexes. Men can indulge this taste whenever their fancy
may suggest, but ladies only in retired spots; for, whenever a
Turkish fair one removes the yas mak (veil) from her lips, as
she does to smoke, all around her must be harem (sacred).

"Sometimes an eunuch stands guard at a little distance off,
and if a stranger of the male sex approaches, gives a signal;
the pipe is held aside, while the mouth is kept covered by the
veil, until the unexpected Acteon has passed by. But where
the pipe plays the most important part is in the bath. It is
well known that the Turkish ladies are accustomed to
frequent the hommams assiduously, and to remain there for
hours together. They enter the bath about eight o'clock in the
morning; take their midday meal there, and return home

between three and four in the afternoon. During these hours
of leisure, the most agreeable in a Mohammedan woman's
life, the pipe is their constant resource. In the middle of the
warmest room is a round terrace-like elevation, called
Gobek-tosh.

"Here are clustered old and young, the snow white
daughters of Circassia and the coal-black beauties of
Soudan, and beguile the hours with never ending gossip,
while around them rise the dense fumes of their pipes. Now
one of the elders of the party tells a story, now a learned lady
holds a discourse on religion, or extols the beauty and virtue
of 'Aisha Fatima.'"

The Fairy, or Dane's pipe is the most ancient form of the tobacco pipe
used in Great Britain and of about the same size as the "Elfin pipes" of the
Scottish peasantry. A great variety of pipes both in form and size have been
found in the British Islands some of which are of ancient origin bearing
dates prior to the Seventeenth Century. Some of these ancient pipes are
formed of very fine clay and although they held but a small quantity of
tobacco were doubtless considered to be fine specimens in their time.

The manufacture of pipes commenced soon after the custom of using
tobacco had become fashionable and soon after the Virginians commenced
its cultivation. Fairholt says:

Old English Pipes.

"The early period at which tobacco pipes were first
manufactured, is established by the fact that the
incorporation of the craft of tobacco-pipe makers took place

on the 5th of October, 1619. Their privileges extending
through the cities of London and Westminster, the kingdom
of England and dominion of Wales. They have a Master,
four Wardens, and about twenty-four Assistants. They were
first incorporated by King James in his seventeenth year,
confirmed again by King Charles I., and lastly on the
twenty-ninth of April in the fifteenth year of King Charles
II., in all the privileges of their aforesaid charters.

"The London Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers was
incorporated in the reign of Charles II (1663); it had no hall
and no livery but was governed by a Master two wardens,
and eighteen assistants. The first pipes used in the British
Islands were made of silver while 'ordinary ones' were made
of a walnut shell and a straw. Afterwards appeared the more
common clay pipes in various forms and which are in use at
the present time."

During the reign of Anne and George I. the pipes assumed a different
form and greater length so long were the stems of some of them that they
were called yards of clay. The French pipe is one of the finest manufactured
and is made of a fine red clay especially those made by Fiolet of St. Omer,
one of the best designers of pipes. Many of these like German pipes are
made of porcelain, adorned with portraits and landscapes. Others are made
of rare kinds of wood turned in the lathe or artistically carved, and lined
with clay to resist the action of fire.

The French also make pipes of agate, amber, crystal, carnelian and ivory,
as well as the various kinds of pure or mixed metals. Many of the French
and German pipes while they are beautiful in design and made of the most
costly materials are often exceedingly grotesque, representing often the
most ludicrous scenes and all possible attitudes. Many of them have been
termed as satirical pipes taking off some public character a la Nast.

Fairholt says of satirical pipes:

"England has occasioned the production of one satirical
pipe for sale among ourselves. The late Duke of Wellington

toward the close of his life, took a strong dislike to the use
of tobacco in the army, and made some ineffectual attempts
to suppress it. Benda, a wholesale pipe importer in the city
employed Dumeril, of St. Omer, to commemorate the event,
and the result was a pipe head, in which a subaltern, pipe in
hand, quietly 'takes a sight' at the great commander who is
caricatured after a fashion that must have made the work a
real pleasure to a Frenchman."

Many of the French pipes are exceedingly quaint representing all manner of
comical scenes. One is formed like a steam-engine the smoke passing
through the funnel. Another is fashioned after a potato or a turnip while
others often represent some military subjects. In England and Ireland also
pipes of a whimsical form are common.

French Pipes.[Back to Contents]

CHAPTER VII.
PIPES AND SMOKERS. (Continued.)

In Russia and Denmark as also in Norway and Sweden the pipes are more
simple and are principally formed of wood sometimes tipped with copper

but usually of inferior material and work when compared with
French and German pipes. The German pipes considered as
works of art are doubtless the finest made. Many are made of
meerschaum (sea foam). This material is found in various parts
of Asia Minor. When first obtained it is capable of forming a
lather like soap, and is used by the Tartars for washing purposes. The Turks
use it for pipes which are made in the same way that pottery is and
afterwards soaked in wax and is then ready for smoking. It heats slowly and
is capable of greater absorption than any other material used in pipe
making. To properly color a meerschaum is now considered as one of the
fine arts and when completed is considered quite a triumph. When the pipe
takes on a rich deep brown tint it is considered a valuable pipe and is
watched and guarded as a most valuable treasure.

M. Ziegler thus describes the source whence the considerable annual
supply of meerschaum for meerschaum pipes is derived:

"Large quantities of this mineral so highly esteemed by
smokers, comes from Hrubschitz and Oslawan in Austrian
Moravia where it is found embedded between thick strata of
serpentine rock. It is also found in Spain at Esconshe,
Vallecas and Toledo; the best however comes from Asia
Minor. The chief places are the celebrated meerschaum
mines from six to eight miles southeast of Eskis chehr, on
the river Pursak chief tributary to the river Sagarius. They
were known to Xenophon, and are now worked principally
by Armenian Christians, who sink narrow pits, to the beds of
this mineral, and work the sides out until water or imminent
danger drives them away to try another place. Some
meerschaum comes from Brussa, and in 1869 over 3,000
boxes of raw material were imported from Asia Minor at
Trieste, with 345,000 florins. The pipe manufacture and
carving is principally carried on in Vienna and in Rhula,
Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The commercial value of
meerschaum carving at these places may be estimated at
$2,000,000 annually. However very large quantities of them
are not made from genuine but artificial material. The waste

from these carvings is ground to a very fine powder, and
then boiled with linseed oil and alum. When this mixture has
sufficient cohesion, it is cast in molds and carefully dried
and carved, as if these blocks of mineral had been natural. It
is said that about one-half of all pipes now sold are made
from artificial meerschaum. Meerschaum is one of the
lightest of minerals and it is said that in Italy bricks have
been made of it so light that they would float on the top of
the water. Some pipes (doubtless owing to the quality of
meerschaum) take on more color in a given time than others
this is owing in a great measure however to the thickness of
the bowl."

Pipe-colorers, who go around coloring pipes or meerschaums, pride
themselves on the rapidity with which they are enabled to color a pipe. The
following, on "Pipe Colorers," is from "The Tobacco Plant":

"There are men who
pride themselves upon the
skill with which they are
able to color the pipes they
smoke. Some of these are
amateurs, who smoke
Tobacco only with the view
of gratifying that taste for
color which is satisfied
when a bowl of clay or
meerschaum is sufficiently
yellowed, browned, or
blacked. There are men
who care nothing for
Tobacco of itself, and
would be much more easily
and rationally pleased were
they to set their pipes upon
Pipe Colorer.
an easel and paint them
with oils and camel's-hair.

Others of the class are professional colorers, who hire
themselves to pipe-sellers or connoisseurs by the week, or
day, or hour, to smoke so many ounces or pounds of strong
Tobacco through such and such pipes in such and such a
time, with the view of causing such and such stains of
Tobacco-juice to make themselves visible on the bowls or
stems of those specified pipes. These are mostly old, well-
seasoned smokers, to whose existence the weed has become
essential; who smoke their own old pipes, which lack artistic
coloring, in the intervals when they lay aside the pipes they
are employed to color. Another and much smaller section of
the class are those who smoke for smoking's sake, and yet
are weak enough to nurse some special pipes for show. To
such it is a joy to say, when friends are gathered at the
festive board 'Look! is not that well colored? I colored it
myself.' In such an age as this, when the learned cannot tell
us which of our various branches of knowledge and inquiry
are sciences and which are not, it may not seem a great
anomaly that this pipe-coloring should, by some, be called
'an art.' Nor is it, when we think that there is such an 'art' as
blacking shoes; and when we must perforce admit that he
who, barber fashion, cuts our hair—and he who, cook-wise,
broils the kidney for our mid-day dinner—is an artist. We
have not come as yet to give this title to the weaver who
watches the loom that weaves our stockings, or to the
hammer-man who beats the red-hot horse-shoe on the anvil
in a smithy; but even there we designate 'artisans,' and
'artists' may come next. So, hey! for the art of coloring
pipes!

"It may not be denied that there is beauty in a well-
colored meerschaum; but in the admission lies the
contradiction of Keats' well-known line—

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever."

For, your meerschaum is a fragile thing, and eminently
frangible. This present writer once did see four beauties
break within a single moon. And when they break, what
previous joy of coloring can over-top the sorrow of their dire
destruction? It is a singular difficulty in the way of those
who most desire to beautify utility or utilize the beautiful, or
show that beauty is most lovely when made practical, that
these artistic colorers of pipes are always those who make
least use of Tobacco, save for the immediate purpose of
obtaining the clay in which it is smoked. Ask such an artist
why he smokes, and he will scarcely tell you. His best
reason certainly will be, that others smoke, and, as a custom,
it becomes him. And when you find an ardent smoker—one
who smokes because he likes Tobacco for itself, or finds it
useful—who spends his time in tinting pipes, you will have
found a rara avis, or a monstrosity. Apart from taste, there
are some practical objections to this custom of coloring
pipes. Smoking, to be worthy, should be free and
unrestrained; while he who colors his pipe is tied by system
and confined to rule.

"A pipe to be enjoyable, should be its master's slave; but
he who keeps a 'well-colored' pipe is slave thereto. He
cannot smoke it as, or when, or where he will. He must not
smoke it in a draught, or near a fire; he must not lay it down,
or finger it; he must not puff too fast, nor yet too slow. In
short, he is the creature of this 'Joss'—this home-made deity
—to which he bows down and worships. The pipe-colorers
are the Sabbatarians of smoking. Whereas, the pipe was
made for man, they treat man as made for the pipe. And
thus, as in all cases where the cart is expected to draw the
horse, the economy of nature is reversed, and mischief is
evolved."

Dibdin, in his "Tour in France and Germany," says of Vienna, that it is a
city of smokers,—"a good Austrian thinks he can never pay too much for a
good pipe." Many of the Germans use a kind of pipe carved from the root of

the dwarf oak; wooden pipes of a
similar kind are made of brier root,
and are very common, as are also
those made from maple and sweet-
brier. One of the favorite pipes
used by Germans is the porcelain
pipe, which consists of a double
bowl—the upper one containing German Porcelain Pipes.
the tobacco, which fits into another
portion of the pipe, allowing the oil
to drain into the lower bowl, which may be removed and the pipe cleaned.
The bowls are sometimes painted beautifully, representing a variety of
subjects, and in no way inferior to the painted porcelain for the table.

The Dutch are famous smokers and are constantly "pulling at the pipe."
They use those with long, straight stems, and both their clay and porcelain
pipes are of the finest form and finish. Irving, in "The History of New York
from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty," has
given a good description of the smoking powers of the Dutch. Speaking of
his grandfather's love for the weed, he says:

"My great-grandfather, by the mother's side, Hermanns
Van Clattercop, when employed to build the large stone
church at Rotterdam, which stands about three hundred
yards to your left, after your turn from the Boomkeys; and
which is so conveniently constructed that all the zealous
Christians of Rotterdam prefer sleeping through a sermon
there to any other church in the city. My great-grandfather, I
say, when employed to build that famous church, did, in the
first place, send to Delft for a box of long pipes; then,
having purchased a new spitting-box and a hundred weight
of the best Virginia, he sat himself down and did nothing for
the space of three months but smoke most laboriously.

"Then did he spend full three months more in trudging on
foot, and voyaging in the Trekschuit, from Rotterdam to
Amsterdam—to Delft—to Hærlem—to Leyden—to the

Hague—knocking his head and breaking his pipe against
every church in his road. Then did he advance gradually
nearer and nearer to Rotterdam, until he came in full sight of
the identical spot whereon the church was to be built. Then
did he spend three months longer in walking round it and
round it, contemplating it, first from one point of view, and
then from another,—now would he be paddled by it on the
canal—now would he peep at it through a telescope from the
other side of the Meuse, and now would he take a bird's-eye
glance at it from the top of one of those gigantic windmills
which protect the gates of the city.

"The good folks of the place were on the tip-toe of
expectation and impatience. Notwithstanding all the turmoil
of my great-grandfather, not a symptom of the church was
yet to be seen; they even began to fear it would never be
brought into the world, but that its great projector would lie
down and die in labor of the mighty plan he had conceived.
At length, having occupied twelve good months in puffing
and paddling, and talking and walking,—having traveled
over all Holland, and even taken a peep into France and
Germany,—having smoked five hundred and ninety-nine
pipes and three hundred weight of the best Virginia tobacco,
—my great-grandfather gathered together all that knowing
and industrious class of citizens who prefer attending to
anybody's business sooner than their own, and having pulled
off his coat and five pair of breeches he advanced sturdily up
and laid the corner-stone of the church, in the presence of
the whole multitude,—just at the commencement of the
thirteenth month."

He also alludes to Hudson whom he says was:

"A seafaring man of renown, who had learned to smoke
tobacco under Sir Walter Raleigh, and is said to have been
the first to introduce it into Holland, which gained him much
popularity in that country, and caused him to find great favor

in their High Mightinesses, the lords and states general, and
also of the honorable West India Company. He was a short,
square, brawny old gentleman, with a double chin, a mastiff
mouth, and a broad copper nose, which was supposed in
those days to have acquired its fiery hue from the constant
neighborhood of his tobacco pipe. * * * As chief mate and
favorite companion, the commander chose Master Robert
Juet, of Limehouse, in England. By some his name has been
spelled Chewit, ascribed to the circumstance of his having
been the first man that ever chewed tobacco. * * * * Under
every misfortune he comforted himself with a quid of
tobacco, and the truly philosophical maxim, 'that it will be
all the same a hundred years hence!'"

Further on he alludes to the attempt to subjugate New Amsterdam to the
British crown and the effect produced by the burghers lighting their pipes.

"When" he says "Captain Argol's vessel hove in sight, the
worthy burghers were seized with such a panic, that they fell
to smoking their pipes with astonishing vehemence,
insomuch that they quickly raised a cloud, which, combining
with the surrounding woods and marshes, completely
enveloped and concealed their beloved village; and
overhung the fair regions of Pavonia:—so that the terrible
Captain Argol passed on, totally unsuspicious that a sturdy
little Dutch settlement lay snugly couched in the mud, under
cover of all this pestilent vapor."

The Persians[52] are said to be the first to invent the mode of drawing
tobacco smoke through water thereby cooling it before inhaling it. Fairholt
says "it is to smoking what ice is to Champagne." The London Review gives
the following description of pipes and smoking apparatus:

"The hookah of India is the most splendid and glittering
of all pipes; it is a large affair, on account of the
arrangements for causing the smoke to pass through water
before it reaches the lips of the smoker, as a means of

rendering it cooler and of
extracting from it much of
its rank and disagreeable
flavor.

"On the top of an air-
tight vessel, half filled with
water, is a bowl containing
tobacco; a small tube
descends from the bowl
into the water, and a
flexible pipe, one end of
which is between the lips of
the smoker, is inserted at
the other end into the
vessel, above the level of
A Persian Water Pipe. the water. Such being the
adjustment, the philosophy
of the inhalation may be easily understood. The smoker
sucks the air out of the vessel, and makes a partial vacuum;
the external air, pressing on the burning tobacco, drives the
smoke through the small tube into the water beneath;
purified from some of its rank qualities, the smoke bubbles
up into the vacant part of the vessel above the water, and
passes through the flexible pipe to the smoker's mouth.
Sometimes the affair is made still more luxurious by
substituting rose-water for water pur et simple. The tube is
so long and flexible that the smoker may sit (or squat) at a
small or great distance from the vessel containing the water.
In the courts of princes and wealthy natives the vessels and
tubes are lavishly adorned with precious metals. One mode
of showing hospitality in the East is to place a hookah in the
center of the apartment, range the guests around, and let all
have a whiff of the pipe in turn; but in more luxurious
establishments a separate hookah is placed before each
guest. Some of the Egyptians use a form of hookah called
the narghile or nargeeleh—so named because the water is

contained in the shell of a cocoanut of which the Arabic
name is nargeeleh. Another kind, having a glass vessel, is
called the sheshee—having, like the other, a very long tube.
Only the choicest tobacco is used with the hookah and
nargeeleh; it is grown in Persia.

"Before it is used, the tobacco is washed several times,
and put damp into the pipe-bowl, two or three pieces of live
charcoal are put on the top. The moisture gives mildness to
the tobacco, but renders inhalation so difficult that weak
lungs are unfitted to bear it. The dry tobacco preferred by the
Persians does not involve so much difficulty in 'blowing a
cloud.'"

TURKISH CHIBOUQUES AND WOOD PIPES.
"The stiff-stemmed Turkish pipes, quite different from the
flexible tube of the hookah and narghile, are of two kinds,
the kablioun or long pipe, and the chibouque or short pipe.
Some of the stems of the kablioun, made of cherry tree,
jasmine, wild plum, and ebony, are five feet in length, and
are bored with a kind of gimlet. The workman, placing the
gimlet above the long, slender branchlet of wood, bores half
the length, and then reverses the position to operate upon the
other half. The wild cherry tree wood, which is the most
frequently employed, is seldom free from defects in the
bark, and some skill is exercised in so repairing these
defective places that the mending shall be invisible."

The tubes or pipe-bowls used with these stems are mostly a combination
of two substances—the red clay of Nish and the white earth of Rustchuk;
they are graceful in form and sometimes decorated with gilding. It is
characteristic of some of the Turks that they estimate the duration of a
journey, and with it the distance traveled, by the number of pipes smoked, a

particular size of pipe-bowl being understood. Dodwell, in his "Tour
through Greece," says that

"a Turk is generally very clean in his smoking apparatus,
having a small tin dish laid on the carpet of his apartment,
on which the bowl of the pipe can rest, to prevent the
tobacco from burning or soiling the carpet. The tubes of the
kabliouns are often as much as seven or eight feet long.
Some of the gardens of Turkey and Greece contain jasmine
trees purposely cultivated to produce straight stems for these
pipes."

Of those Turkish pipes which are used in Egypt, Mr. Lane, after
mentioning the narghile and the chibouque or "shibuk," says:—

"The most common kind used in Egypt is made of wood
called garmashak (I believe it is maple). The greater part of
the stick, from the mouth-piece to three-fourths of its length,
is covered with silk, which is confined at each extremity by
gold thread, often intertwined with colored silks, or by a
tube of gilt or silver; and at the lower extremity of the
covering is a tassel of silk. The covering was originally
designed to be moistened with water in order to cool the
pipe, and consequently the smoke by evaporation; but this is
only done when the pipe is old or not handsome. These stick
pipes are used by many persons, particularly in winter; in
summer the smoke is not so cool from them as from the kind
before mentioned. The bowl is of baked earth, colored red or
brown."

AUSTRIAN AND HUNGARIAN PIPE STEMS.
Before passing to the subject of the costly mouth-pieces of Oriental
pipes, we must say a few words concerning the extraordinary care bestowed
on some kinds of plain wood sticks for stems or tubes. Cherry-tree stems,

under the name of agriots, constitute a specialty of Austrian manufacture.
The fragrant cherry (prunus makaleb) is a native of that country; and the
young trees are cultivated with special reference to this application. They
are all raised from seed. The seedlings, when two years old, are planted in
small pots, one in each; as they grow, every tendency to branching is
choked by removing the bud; and as they increase in size from year to year,
they are shifted into larger pots or into boxes. Great care is taken to turn
them round daily, so that every part shall be equally exposed to sunshine.
When the plants have attained a sufficient height they are allowed to form a
small bushy head; but the daily care is continued until the stems grow to a
proper thickness. They are then taken out of the ground, the roots and
branches removed, and the stem bored through after being seasoned for
some time. The care shown in rearing insures a perfect straightness of stem,
and an equable diameter of about an inch or an inch and a half. The last
specimens, when cut from the tree, are as much as eight feet in length, dark
purple-brown in color, and highly fragrant. At Pesth are made pipes about
eighteen inches in length, of the shoots of the mock orange, remarkable for
their quality in absorbing the oil of tobacco, they are flexible without being
weak. The French make elegant pipe-bowls of the root of the tree-heath, but
their chief attention is directed, as far as concerns wood pipes, to those of
brier-root, which are made by them in large quantities. The bowl and the
short stems are carried out of one piece, and the wood is credited with
absorbing some of the rank oil of tobacco.

Amber—the only kind of resin that rises to the dignity of a gem—is
unfitted for the bowl of a tobacco-pipe, because it cannot well bear the heat;
but it is largely used for mouth-pieces, especially by wealthy Oriental
smokers. The Turks have a belief that amber wards off infection; an opinion
which, whether right or wrong, tells well for the amber workers. There has
always been a mystery connected with this remarkable substance. So far
back as the Phenicians, amber was picked up on the Baltic shore of what is
now called Prussia; and the same region has ever since been the chief store-
house for it. Tacitus was not far wrong when he conjectured that amber is a
gum or resin exuded from certain trees, although other authorities have
preferred a theory that it is a kind of wax or fat which has undergone slow
petrifaction. At any rate, it must at one time have been liquid or semi-liquid;
for insects, flies, detached wings and legs, and small fragments of various

kinds, are often found imbedded in it—those odds and ends of which Pope
said:—

"The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare;
The wonder's how the devil they got there!"

Whether new stores of amber are now being formed, or whether, like
coal, it was the result of causes not now in operation, is an unsolved
problem. The specimens obtained differ considerably; some are pale as
primrose, some deep orange or almost brown; some nearly as transparent as
crystal, some nearly opaque. Large pieces, uniform in color and
translucency, fetch high prices; and there are fashions in this matter for
which it is not easy to account,—seeing that the Turks and other Orientals
buy up, at prices which Europeans are unwilling to give, all the specimens
presenting a straw-yellow color and a sort of cloudy translucency. The
Russians, on the contrary, prefer orange-yellow transparent specimens. The
amber is seldom obtained by actual mining.

It is usually found on sea-
coasts, after storms, in
rounded nodules; or, if
scarce on shore, it is sought
for by men clad in leather
garments, who wade up to
their necks in the sea, and
scrape the sea-bottom with
hooped nets attached to the
end of long poles; or (rather
dangerous work) men go out
in boats, and examine the
Searching for Amber. faces of precipitous cliffs,
picking off, by means of iron
hooks, the lumps of amber which they may see here and there. Sometimes a
piece weighing nearly a pound is found, and a weight of even ten pounds is
recorded. As small pieces can easily be joined by smoothing the surfaces,
moistening them with linseed oil, and pressing them together over a
charcoal fire, and as gum copal is sometimes very like amber, there is much

sophistication indulged in, which none but an expert can guard against. In
fashioning the nodules of amber, whether genuine or fictitious, into pipe
mouth-pieces, they are split on a leaden plate in a turning lathe, smoothed
into shape by whet-stones, rubbed with chalk and water, and polished with a
piece of flannel. It is an especially difficult kind of work; for unless the
amber is allowed frequent intervals for cooling, it becomes electrically
excited by the friction and shivers into fragments; the men, too, are put into
nervous tremors if kept too long at work at one time. Amber is one of the
most electrically excitable of all known substances; in fact, the name
electricity itself was derived from electron, the Greek name for amber.
Hookahs, chibouques, narghiles, meerschaums, all are largely adorned with
amber mouth-pieces. The mouth-piece often consists of two or three pieces
of amber, interjoined with ornaments of gold and gems; it is in such case
the most costly part of the pipe.

At one of the greater industrial exhibitions four Turkish amames, or
amber mouth-pieces, were shown, illustrating clearly enough the value
attached to choice specimens; two of them were worth £350 each, two £200
each, diamond studded. The Turkish and Persian pipes have often a small
wooden tube inside the amber mouth-piece. They require frequent cleaning
with a long wire and a bit of tow, and in some large towns there are
professional pipe-cleaners.

The natives of British Guiana have a curious kind of pipe, made of the
rind of the fruit of the areca-palm, coiled up into a kind of cheroot, with an
internal hollow to hold the tobacco. The poorer Hindoos make a simple pipe
of two pieces of bamboo,—one cut close to a knot for the bowl, and a more
slender piece for the tube. A lower class of natives in India make two holes
of unequal length, with a piece of stick, in a clay soil; the holes are
unequally inclined so as to meet at the bottom; the tobacco is placed in the
shorter hole, and the smoker, applying his mouth to the longer, inhales the
fumes in this primitive fashion. The pipes used for opium-smoking in
various parts of the East have small bowls; the drug is too costly to be used
otherwise than in small portions at a time, and too powerful to need more
than a few whiffs to produce the opium-smoker's dreary delirium.

The Tunisians use reeds for pipes. Stone pipes are found among the
natives of Vancouver; while Strong Bow, the North American Indian chief,
has his long wooden pipe of peace, decked out with tassels and fringes, but
with an ominous-looking sharp steel cutting instrument near the end most
remote from the bowl.

Chinese, Japanese, Philippine Islanders, Madagascans, Central Africans,
Algerine Arabs, Mexicans, Paraguayans, Siamese, Tahitians, South
American Indians, Mongols, Malays, Tartars, Turcomans, as well as the
nations of Europe and the chief nations of Southern Asia, all have their
smoking-pipes, plain or ornate, as the case may be, and made of wood,
reeds, bamboo, bone, ivory, stone, earthenware, glass, porcelain, amber,
agate, jade, precious metals and common metals, according to the
civilization of the country and the pecuniary means of the smoker.

"The French clay
pipes have quite a
special character;
they are well made,
and great ingenuity is
shown in the
preparation of the
moulds in which they
Fancy Pipes.
are pressed; but
being mostly
intended for a class of purchasers who prefer grotesque ideas
to refined taste, the bowls are often ornamented with queer
shaped heads, having bead-like eyes; sometimes imaginary
beings, sometimes caricature portraits of eminent persons.
Where more than the head is represented, license is given to
a certain grossness of idea; but this is not a general
characteristic. The clay of which these French pipes are
made is admitted to be superior to that of England, due to
the careful mixture of different kinds, and to skilful
manipulation.

"We need not say much about Dutch pipes as distinct
articles of manufacture, because the process adopted in their
production are pretty much like those in use elsewhere. The
Dutch are famous clay-pipe smokers, not countenancing the
cigar so much as their neighbors the Belgians, nor the
meerschaum so largely as their German neighbors on the
Rhine frontier. A notable bit of sharp practice is on record in
connexion with the pipe-smokers of Holland—a dodge only
to be justified on the equivocal maxim that all is fair in trade
provided it just keeps within the margin we need not speak.
A pipe manufactory was established in Flanders about the
middle of the last century.

"The Dutch makers, alarmed at the competition which this
threatened, cunningly devised a stratagem for nipping it in
the bud. They freighted a large worn-out ship with an
enormous quantity of pipes of their own make, sent it to
Ostend, and wrecked it there. By the municipal laws of that
city the wreck became public property; the pipes were sold
at prices so ridiculously low that the town was glutted with
the commodity; the new Flemish factory was thereby
paralyzed, ruined, and closed."

The Turks (especially those of the lower orders) use a kind of clay pipe
made of red earth decorated with gilding. The stem of the pipe is made from
a branch of jasmine, cherry tree or maple and is sufficiently long to rest on
the floor when used by the smoker. A writer in the Tobacco Plant says of
Old English Clay pipes:

"Of all the various branches of the subject of tobacco, that
of the history of pipes is one of the most interesting, and one
that deserves every attention that can possibly be given.
Whether considered ethnographically, historically,
geographically, or archæologically, pipes present food for
speculation and research of at least equal importance to any
other set of objects that can be brought forward. Some
branches of the subject have already been treated in these

columns, and others, in what is intended shall follow, will
hereafter be discussed. The present article will be devoted to
'Fairy Pipes' and the history of the earliest pipes of this
country. Smoking is an old and venerable institution in this
kingdom of ours, and dates far back beyond the introduction
of tobacco to our shores. Long before Sir Walter Raleigh
was thought of, there is reason to believe herbs and leaves of
one kind or other—coltsfoot, yarrow, mouse-lax, sword-
grass, dandelion, and other plants, and even dried cow-dung
—were smoked for one ailment or other, and in some
instances for relaxation and pleasure, and thus, no doubt,
became habitually used. These are still, in some of our rural
districts, smoked by people as cures for various ailments,
and are considered not only highly efficacious but very
pleasant. I have known these or other herbs smoked through
a stick from which the pith had been removed, the bowl
being formed of a lump of clay moulded by the fingers at the
time, and baked in the household fire.

"The small
branches of the elder
tree, or sometimes
the stem of the briar
and bramble, are
what I have seen
used, but even the
stem of the hemlock
and keckse are
sometimes brought
Clay and Reed Pipes.
into requisition for
the purpose.

"I believe that long before the time Dr. Wilson states on
the authority of Sharpe, that it was common within memory,
for the old wives of Annandale to smoke a dried white moss
gathered on the neighboring moors, which they declared to
be much sweeter than tobacco, and to have been in use long

before the American weed was heard of; before Sir Walter
Raleigh wooed and won Elizabeth Throgmorton, or Sir
Richard Granville voyaged to Virginia with Masters Ralph
Layne, Thomas Candish, John Arundell, Master Stukely,
Bremize, Vincent, Heryot, and John Clarke; before Sir
Francis Drake made his first voyage, or the Spanish Armada
was dreamed of; before Sir John Hawkins, Captain Price,
Coft, Keat or others for whom the honor of the introduction
of tobacco has been claimed, drew breath—smoking was to
some extent indulged in by our forefathers and (still
medicinally, of course) in this country. In mediæval times,
when the Ceramic art was but little practiced, and when all
the domestic vessels that were produced were of the rudest
and coarsest character both in material, form, and
decoration, it is not to be expected that pipes for the
smoking of herbs would be manufactured as a matter of sale,
and those of the people who wished for such an indulgence
would naturally be thrown on their own primitive resources
such as I have described, for instruments for the purpose.

"A portion of a very rude pipe-head, formed of common
red clay—a lump of clay moulded by hand, and ornamented
with small circles pressed into it as from the end of a stick—
has come under my notice, as have also others of an equally
primitive character, found in different parts of this kingdom.
These I have no hesitation in ascribing to a pre-Raleigh
period. It is not to these, however, but to the small pipes
formerly used in this kingdom for smoking tobacco, and
tobacco alone, that I wish to draw attention. Most people,
especially in the Midland and Northern counties of England,
as well as in Scotland and Ireland, will have heard the name
of Fairy Pipes applied to the small, old-fashioned, and
sometimes oddly-shaped tobacco pipes which are not
infrequently turned up in digging and plowing and other
operations. To these and the general forms of old English
pipes, I purpose confining myself in the present article.
Many years ago I collected together a large number of these

'Fairy Pipes' from all parts of the kingdom. Since then, my
own researches have, with the aid of inquiries carried on for
me, enabled me to bring forward many interesting points, so
as to verify dates of manufacture and more fully to carry out
their classification. Like their Irish brethren and sisters,
English people were formerly apt to ascribe everything
unusually small to the fairies, and anything out of the
common way to the people of very remote ages.

"Thus, these small pipes are commonly in England called
'fairy pipes,' or 'Carl's pipes,' or 'old man's pipes;' in Ireland,
where they are likewise known as 'fairy pipes,' they are also
called 'Dane's pipes;' and in Scotland, where their common
name is 'elf pipes,' or 'elfin pipes,' they are, in like manner,
known as 'Celtic pipes.' They are also sometimes named
'Mab pipes,' or 'Queen's pipes,' from the same fairy majesty,
Queen Mab. Thus, while in each country they are ascribed to
the elfin race—the 'small people' of Cornish folk-lore—their
secondary names attach to them a popular belief in their
extreme antiquity. Anything apparently old is at once, by the
Irish, set down to the 'Danes;' by the Scots to the 'Celts;' and
by people in the rural districts of our own country to the
'carls,' or 'old men'—carl being indicative of extreme
antiquity. In Ireland, the pipes are believed to have belonged
to the cluricaunes—a kind of wild, ungovernable,
mischievous fairy-demon—who were held in awe by the
'pisantry;' and whenever found, these pipes were, with much
superstitious feeling, immediately broken up, so as to
destroy and break up the spell their finding might have cast
around the finder. But it was not only among the peasantry
that this belief in the extreme antiquity of tobacco pipes
existed.

"Serious essays were written to prove their pre-historic
origin, and to claim for them a history that in our day reads
as arrant nonsense. In 1784, a short pipe was asserted to
have been found between the jaws of the skull of an ancient

Milesian exhumed at Bannockstown, county Kildare. Upon
this discovery, an elaborate and learned paper was written in
the 'Anthologia Hibernica,' setting forth this pipe as a proof
of the use of tobacco in Ireland long before that country was
invaded by the Danes. This pipe has been proved by
comparison to be probably quite late in the reign of
Elizabeth. They also have a more modern pipe, the stem of
which describes one or more circles, while another is tied in
a knot, yet allows a free passage of air. At another time, in
opening an Anglo-Saxon grave mound, some of the men
employed came across a fairy pipe which evidently had
rolled down from among the surface-soil, and, being turned
out in juxtaposition with undoubted Anglo-Saxon remains,
was immediately set down by the learned director of the
proceedings as a relic of that period. At another time I had
brought to me, as a great curiosity, two 'Roman pipes,' as I
was informed—the finders jumping to the conclusion that
because they had dug them up at little Chester (the Roman
station Derventio), they must be Roman pipes! I believe they
expected to receive a large sum from these relics: how
grievously they were disappointed I need not tell. Instances
of this kind are far from rare.

"I remember a man once
bringing me some
fragments of Roman
pottery and other things of
the same period, which he
had turned up in the course
Fairy Pipes.
of excavations, and among
them was a Tobacco
stopper formed of a Sacheverell medal! and a George II.
half-penny, all of which he was ready to swear he had found
"all of a heap together," inside a hypocaust tile, which, on
examination, certainly had remained in situ from Romano-
British times! The cupidity of a man had evidently led him
to collect together these odds and ends, and try to turn them

to profitable account. Some twenty years ago, a large
number of "elfin pipes" were dug up at Bomington, near
Edinburgh, along with a quantity of placks or bodles of
James VI., which thus gave trustworthy evidence of their
true date. Others were found in the ancient cemetery at
North Berwick, adjoining to which is a small Romanesque
building of the Twelfth Century, close upon the shore.
Within the last half-century, the sea has made very great
inroads upon this ancient burial-place, carrying off a
considerable ruin, and exposing the skeletons, and bringing
to light many interesting relics at almost every spring-tide.
Among these, many pipes have been washed down. A
similar circumstance has occurred on the seashore at Hoy
Lake, Cheshire, where several "fairy pipes" have been
found.

"Notices of several discoveries occur. Dr. Wilson says, in
the statistical accounts of Scotland, many of which are
suggestive of a pre-Raleigh period. Thus, 'in an ancient
British encampment in the parish of Kirk Michael,
Dumfriesshire, on the farm of Gilrig, a number of pipes of
burnt clay were dug up, with heads smaller than the modern
tobacco-pipes, swelled at the middle and straighter at the
top. Again, in the vicinity of a group of standing stones at
Cairney Mount, in the parish of Carluke Lanarkshire, a celt
or stone hatchet, elfin bolts (flint and bone arrow-heads),
elfin pipes, numerous coins of the Edwards and of later date,
and other things are all stated to have been found.' An
example is also recorded of the discovery of a tobacco-pipe
in sinking a pit for coal, at Misk, in Ayrshire, after digging
through many feet of sand. All these notes are pregnant with
significant warnings of the necessity for cautious
discrimination in determining the antiquity of such buried
relics."

In Turkey the jasmine is cultivated for the purpose of pipe smoking.
Barillet describes the growing of the common jasmine near Constantinople.

He says:

"The object sought is a long straight stem, free from
leaves and side branches. For this purpose the plants are
grown quickly in a rich soil, and drawn up by being grown
in a sheltered situation, to which the sun has little access at
the sides, but only at the top. Pinching is resorted to, and
during the second year's growth one end of a thread is
attached to the top of the jasmine stem. This thread passes
over a pulley attached to the post to which this jasmine is
trained, and from it is suspended a weight, the effect of
which is to keep the stem always in a vertical direction.
When the jasmine stem is about two centimeters (say three
quarters of an inch) in diameter a cloth is wrapped around it
to prevent access of dust and of the sun's rays. Twice or
thrice in the year the stem is washed with citron-water,
which is said to give the clear color so much esteemed.
When the stem has acquired a length of some fifteen feet, it
is cut down and perforated by the workmen, and fitted with
a terra-cotta bow and an amber mouth-piece."

Blackburn, in his work entitled "Artists and Arabs," gives the following
picture of life and manners in Algiers:—

Female Smoking in Algiers.

"There is one difficulty here, however, for the artist—that
of finding satisfactory models. You can get one at last, and
here is her portrait. Her costume, when she throws off her
haik (and with it a tradition of the Mohammedan faith, that
forbids her to show her face to an unbeliever), is a rich,
loose, crimson jacket embroidered with gold, a thin white
bodice, loose silk trousers reaching to the knee and fastened
round the waist by a magnificent sash of various colors, red
morocco slippers, a profusion of rings on her little fingers,
and bracelets and anklets of gold filagree work. Through her
waving black hair are twined strings of coins and the folds
of a silk handkerchief, the hair falling at the back in plaits
below the waist. She is not beautiful, she is scarcely
interesting in expression, and she is decidedly unsteady. She
seems to have no more power of keeping herself in one
position or of remaining in one part of the room, or even of
being quiet, than a humming-top. The whole thing is an
unutterable bore to her, for she does not even reap the
reward—her father, or husband, or other male attendant
always taking the money. She is petite, constitutionally

phlegmatic, and as fat as her parents can manage to make
her; she has small hands and feet, large rolling eyes—the
latter made to appear artificially large by the application of
henna or antimony black; her attitudes are not ungraceful,
but there is a want of character about her, and an utter
abandonment to the situation, peculiar to all her race. In
short, her movements are more suggestive of a little caged
animal that had better be petted and caressed, or kept at a
safe distance, according to her humor. She does one thing—
she smokes incessantly, and makes cigarettes with a skill
and rapidity which are wonderful. Her age is thirteen, and
she has been married six months; her ideas appear to be
limited to three or four, and her pleasures, poor creature, are
equally circumscribed. She had scarcely ever left her father's
house, and had never spoken to a man until her marriage.
There seems to be in the Moorish nature a wonderful sense
of harmony and contrasts of color. Two Orientals will hardly
walk down a street side by side unless the colors of their
costumes harmonize. You find a negress selling oranges or
citrons; an Arab boy with red fez and white turban, carrying
purple fruit in a basket of leaves—always the right
juxtaposition of colors. The sky furnishes them a superb
background of deep blue, and the repose of these solemn
Orientals, who sit here like bronze statues, save that they
smoke incessantly, inspires you with a curious respect. They
are men who believe in fate—what need that they should
make haste?"

In Africa the pipes are made of clay and horn, and are mostly rude affairs,
but well suited to their ideas of implements used for holding tobacco. King
gives the following description of smoking among them:—

"A party of headmen and older warriors, seated cross-
legged in their tents, ceremoniously smoked the daghapipe,
a kind of hookah, made of bullock's horn, its downward
point filled with water, and a reed stem let into the side,
surmounted by a rough bowl of stone, which is filled with

the dagha, a species of hemp, very nearly, if not the same, as
the Indian bang. Each individual receives it in turn, opens
his jaws to their full extent, and placing his lips to the wide
mouth of the horn, takes a few pulls and passes it on.
Retaining the last draught of smoke in his mouth, which he
fills with a decoction of bark and water from a calabash, he
squirts it on the ground by his side through a long
ornamented tube in his left hand, performing thereon, by the
aid of a reserved portion of the liquid, a sort of boatswain's
whistle, complacently regarding the soap-like bubbles, the
joint production of himself and neighbor. It appeared to be a
sign of special friendliness and kindly feeling to squirt into
the same hole."

We give an engraving of a
kind of pipe used by the
natives of interior Africa. It
is made of clay, and holds
but a small portion of the
weed. The natives are great
African Pipe. smokers and indulge in it
almost constantly, but their
love for it can hardly exceed that of the more hardy Laplanders, who are
described as "passionately fond of the plant." Nothing is so indispensable as
tobacco to their existence. A Laplander who cannot get Tobacco sucks chips
of a barrel or pieces of anything else which has contained it. Tobacco gives
the Laplanders a pleasure which often rises to ecstacy. They both chew and
smoke, and they are certainly the dirtiest chewers in the world. When they
chew they spit in their hands, then raise them to their nose that they may
inhale from the saliva the irritating principles of the plant. Thus they satisfy
two senses at the same time. They regularly smoke after their meals. If their
supply of Tobacco falls short, they sit down in a circle and pass the pipe
round, so that every one in his turn may have a whiff.[53]

"A Painter's Camp in the Highlands" defends the custom of smoking in
the following well chosen words:

"People who don't smoke—especially ladies—are
exceedingly unfair and unjust to those who do. The reader
has, I daresay, amongst his acquaintances ladies who, on
hearing any habitual cigar-smoker spoken of, are always
ready to exclaim against the enormity of such an expensive
and useless indulgence; and the cost of Tobacco-smoking is
generally cited by its enemies as one of the strongest reasons
for its general discontinuance. One would imagine, to hear
these people talk, that smoking was the only selfish
indulgence in the world. When people argue in this strain, I
immediately assume the offensive. I roll back the tide of war
right into the enemy's intrenched camp of comfortable
customs; I attack the expensive and unnecessary indulgences
of ladies and gentlemen who do not smoke. I take cigar-
smoking as an expense of, say, half-a-crown a-day, and pipe-
smoking at threepence.

"I then compare the cost of these indulgences with the
cost of other indulgences not a whit more necessary, which
no one ever questions a man's right to if he can pay for them.
There is luxurious eating, for instance. A woman who has
got the habit of delicate eating will easily consume dainties
to the amount of half-a-crown a-day, which cannot possibly
do her any good beyond the mere gratification of the palate.
And there is the luxury of carriage-keeping, in many
instances very detrimental to the health of women, by
entirely depriving them of the use of their legs. Now, you
cannot keep a carriage a-going quite as cheaply as a pipe.
Many a fine meerschaum keeps up its cheerful fire on a
shilling a-week. I am not advocating a sumptuary law to put
down carriages and cookery; I desire only to say that people
who indulge in these expensive and wholly superfluous
luxuries, have no right to be so hard on smokers for their
indulgence.

"Nearly every gentleman who drinks good wine at all will
drink the value of half-a-crown a-day. The ladies do not

blame him for this. Half-a-dozen glasses of good wine are
not thought an extravagance in any man of fair means, but
women exclaim when a man spends the same amount in
smoking cigars. The French habit of coffee-drinking and the
English habit of tea-drinking are also cases in point. They
are quite as expensive as ordinary Tobacco-smoking, and,
like it, defensible only on the ground of the pleasurable
sensation they communicate to the nervous system. But
these habits are so universal that no one thinks of attacking
them, unless now and then some persecuted smoker in self-
defence.

"Tea and tobacco are alike seductive, delicious, and
deleterious. The two indulgences will, perhaps, become
equally necessary to the English world. It is high treason to
the English national feeling to say a word against tea, which
is now so universally recognized as a national beverage that
people forget it comes from China, and that it is both alien
and heathen. Still, I mean no offence when I put tea in the
same category with Tobacco. Now, who thinks of lecturing
us on the costliness of tea? And yet it is a mere superfluity.
The habit of taking it as we do is unknown across the
Channel, and was quite unknown amongst ourselves a very
little time ago, when English people were no less proud of
themselves and their customs than they are now, and perhaps
with equally good reason. A friend of mine tells me that he
smokes every day, at a cost of about sixpence a-week. Now,
I would like to know in what other way so much enjoyment
is to be bought for sixpence. Fancy the satisfaction of
spending sixpence a-week in wine! It is well enough to
preach about the selfishness of this expenditure; but we all
spend more selfishly, and we all love pleasure, and I should
very much like to see that cynic whose pleasures cost less
than sixpence a-week."

Egyptian Pipes.

The Egyptian pipes, especially those of modern date are exceedingly
fanciful in shape and resemble somewhat the pipes used by the Persians.
Many of them are made of clay and are sold very cheap.[54] The Chinese
use a variety of pipes but all of them have small bowls for the tobacco.
Some of their pipes are made of brass and attached to the pipe is a
receptacle for water, so as to cool the smoke before it passes into the mouth.
The Japanese use both copper and silver pipes, most of them similar in
shape and size to those used by the Chinese.

A writer says of smoking among the
Japanese:

"Let us sit down to a good
Japanese dinner—down on the
floor. Food on the floor. Fire and
cigars or pipes on the floor. Sit on
your heels, waiting. Enter first
course—Fish-skin soup. Smoke.
Third—Fish, cake and bean-
cheese. Smoke. Fourth—Row
fish and horse-radish. Smoke.
Japanese Pipes.
Fifth—Broiled fish. Smoke again,
Sixth—Custard soup. Smoke.
Seventh—Chicken stew, turnips and onions. Smoke a little.
Eighth—Cuttle-fish, wafer cakes, Nipon tea. Here, if tired
you can stop at the end of about two hours' ankle-ache. All is

cleanly, well spiced with talk, and served with the utmost
politeness. Sipping tea may be substituted for the
infinitesimal whiffs of polite smoking. A grand dinner is
much more elaborate; at least, so far as the variety of
smokes is concerned. After dinner, rest and smoke."

An English writer could very appropriately call this a cloud of smoke as
he has another scene herein described.

"'Tis all smoke, possibly, but what cannot we discern,
through a cloud of smoke? Objects dim, but

'Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks
In Vallambrosa.'

Be the medium of the smoke an honest 'churchwarden,' a
short clay, or a costly meerschaum; does the smoke emanate
from a refined Havana, a neat Manilla, or a dainty cigarette,
such as we are at this moment enjoying as a sequel to a
modest breakfast, 'tis all smoke."

We have thus given a somewhat lengthy description of the custom and
implements used in smoking, from the first discovery of the plant until now,
and turn to other implements used in connection with the pipe. We,
however, give the following from Cop's "Tobacco Plant," descriptive of the
part played by tobacco on the stage two centuries ago:

"The 'Return from Parnassus' was published
anonymously, and the copy I have used is dateless. It was
'publicly acted by the students of St. John's College in
Cambridge.' In Act I., Scene 2d, characters are given of
Spenser, Ben Jonson, Marlow, Drayton, Marston and
Shakespeare, together with some other of the known poets
and dramatists of the Elizabethan age. It contains many
references to tobacco. In 'Act IV., Scene 1st,' the characters
are thus placed: 'Sir Rodericke and Prodigo at one corner of
the stage, Recorder and Amaretto at the other. Two pages
scouring of Tobacco pipes.' Actual smoking from tobacco-

pipes was introduced on the stage afterwards; and instances
from the early dramas have been given by the writers on
tobacco history. In the second scene of Act III. smoking is
alluded to as one of the marks of the current man of fashion,
and is coupled with that of wearing love-locks, which was to
prove such a scandal to the Puritans. 'He gins to follow
fashions. He wore thin sireduelt in a smooky roofe, must
take tobacco and must weare a locke.' 'Work for Chimney
Sweepers, or a Warning against Tobacconists, by J. H.,' was
published in quarto in the year 1602.

"It was answered in the same year by the anonymous
'Defence of Tobacco,' a quarto of seventy pages. The author
of the attack followed the line of King James, or, I should
rather say, showed him the line to take, for the King's
'Counterblast' did not appear until he had been King of
England for some years. The book is divided into sections,
each section being called 'A Reason.' The seventh 'Reason'
against the use of tobacco is, that the devil is the discoverer
and suggester of smoking. 'It was first used and practised,'
says J. H., 'by devils, priests, and, therefore, not to be used
by us Christians. That the devil was the first author hereof.
Monardus, in his 'Treatise of Tabaco,' dooth sufficiently
witnesse, saying: The Indian priests, who, no doubt, were
instruments of the devil, whom they serve, even before they
answer to questions propounded to them by their princes,
drinke of this tobacco-fume, with the vigour and strength
whereof they fall suddenly to the ground as dead men,
remaining so according to the quantity of smoke that they
had taken. And when the hearbe hath done his worke, they
revive and wake, giving answers according to the vissions
and illusions which they saw while they were wrapt in that
order.' It is not unlikely that J. H.'s authority had confused
opium with tobacco.

"It was the opinion of the age that every Pagan deity had a
real existence in the world of evil spirits. After further

quotations of Monardus, to prove that the devil is 'the author
of Tobacco, and of the knowledge thereof,' J. H. concludes
his seventh reason by declaring, 'Wherefore in mine opinion
this practice is more to be excluded of us Christians, who
follow Veritie and Truth, and detest and abhor the devil as a
lyar and deceiver of mankind.' In the first year of this
century, pipes were not only exhibited, but were used upon
the stage. They seem at first to have been smoked, not
during 'the induction.' In the induction to Ben Jonson's
'Cynthia's Revels' (1601), the Third Child says: 'Now, sir,
suppose I am one of your genteel auditors, that am come in,
having paid my money at the door, with much ado; and here
take my place, and sit down, I have my three sorts of
tobacco in my pocket, my light by me, and thus I begin.' The
Third Child thereupon smokes; but it seems as if the
smoking on the stage was a kind of protest against a prior
smoking in the pit. In John Webster's 'Malcontent,' as
augmented by John Marston in 1604, Sly says in the
introduction: 'Come, coose, (coz or goose!) let's take some
tobacco.'

"In 'The Puritan, or the Widow of Watling Street,'
published in 1607, and attributed by some to Shakespeare,
tobacco-taking or tobacco-drinking (as smoking was then
usually called) appears no longer in the induction, but in the
play itself, Idle, the highwayman, says to the old soldier,
Skirmish, 'Have you any tobacco about you?' Idle being
supplied, smokes a pipe on the stage. These extracts,
however, may have been cited before, together with others
of like character in the great days of the English Drama.
Pipes continued to appear upon the stage until its abolition
(in company with the Prayer Book) by the Puritan rulers.
They reappeared on the stage of the Restoration. In Thomas
Shadwell's 'Virtuos' (1676),—to take one instance,—
Mirando and Clarinda fling away Snarl's cane, hat and
periwig, and break his pipes, because he 'takes nasty tobacco
before ladies.'"

There is printed evidence, however, in this same period to show not only
that all the English ladies of the time were not enemies to tobacco, but that
some of them were themselves smokers. In 1674 an anonymous quarto
appeared under the title of "The Women's Petition against Coffee." It was a
protest against the growing influence of the coffee-houses in seducing men
away from their homes to sit together making mischief and drinking "this
boiled soot." It was answered in the same year by "The Men's Answer to the
Women's Petition." After speaking of the providential introduction of coffee
into England in the midst of the Puritan epoch, when Englishmen wanted
some kind of drink which would "at once make them sober and merry," the
writer glorifies the coffee-house.

John Taylor, "the Water Poet," made a kind of compromise when he
attributed the introduction of tobacco, not to the devil, but to Pluto,
—"Pluto's Proclamation concerning his Infernal Pleasure for the
Propagation of Tobacco." It appears in the folio collection of his works of
the year 1628. The confusion of tobacco with opium and such destructive
drugs seems to have been common with the travelers of the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth centuries. Camerarius, in his "Historical Meditations,"
translated into English by John Malle (folio, 1621), speaks of tobacco as to
be seen growing in many gardens throughout Europe. He quotes Jerome
Benzo as saying that in Hispaniola "there be among them some that take so
much of it, as their senses being all overcome and made drunke with the
same, they fell down flat to the ground as if they were dead, and there lie
without sense or feeling most part of the day or of the night."

The tobacco-box, during the reign of Elizabeth, was no unimportant part
of a dandy's outfit; sometimes a pouch or bag was used. Tobacco-boxes
came into general use in England soon after the introduction of tobacco, and
were much sought after by all who "drank" tobacco. Marston, the Duke of
New Castle, and other dramatists, alluded to the tobacco-box as a part of the
smoker's outfit; thus in the play of "The Man in the Moone" (1609), one
character, in answer to an inquiry who one of the company is, answers: "I
know not certainly, but I think he cometh to play you a fit of mirth, for I
behelde pipes in his pocket; now he draweth forth his tinder-box and his
touchwood, and falleth to his tacklings; sure his throate is on fire, the smoke
flyeth so fast from his mouth; blesse his beard with a bason of water, lest he

burn it; some terrible thing he taketh, it maketh him pant and look pale, and
hath an odious taste, he spitteth so after it."

The tobacco boxes of the Seventeenth Century were much larger than
those of the present. Some of them held a pound of tobacco besides space
for a number of pipes.

Many of them were made of brass while others were fashioned from
horn:

"There is also a simple and ingenious tobacco-box used
frequently in ale-houses, 'which keeps its own account,' with
each smoker and acts also as a money-box. It is kept on
parlor tables for the use of all comers; but none can obtain a
pipe-full, till the money is deposited through a hole in the
lid. A penny dropped in, causes a bolt to unfasten, and allow
the smoker to help himself from a drawer full of tobacco.
His honor is trusted so far as not to take more than his pipe-
full, and he is reminded of it by a verse engraved on the lid:
—

'The custom is, before you fill,
'To put a penny in the till.'"

Engraved Boxes.

Some of the tobacco boxes were made of silver and beautifully engraved
with fancy sketches, historical scenes, or representations of personages,
landscapes, flowers, etc. The late Duke of Sussex had a large collection of
pipes and tobacco boxes.

A journal describing them says of the collection:

"The Duke of Sussex had a wonderful collection of these,
the values attached to some of them being almost fabulous.
One example from the work-shop of Vienna—long
celebrated for this description of art,—represented the
combat of Hector and Achilles, the cover of the pipe being a
golden hemlet cristatus of the Grecian type."

Swiss and Tyrolean artists also produce exquisite carving, but use wood as a
material; and in the famous collection of Baron de Watteville will be found
a marvelous piece of carving representing Bellerophon overturning the
Chimera. But French pipes are the most interesting of all to collectors, from
the fact that tobacco was introduced into that country long before it was
known in England, and also from the ingenuity of a people who can give
interest of various kinds to what might seem a simple and prosaic branch of
manufacture. In the sentiment of the following lines on "A pipe of Tobacco"
by John Usher, all lovers of the plant will heartily join:

"Let the toper regale in his tankard of ale,
Or with alcohol moisten his thropple,
Only give me I pray, a good pipe of soft clay,
Nicely tapered, and thin in the stopple;
And I shall puff, puff, let who will say enough,
No luxury else I'm in lack o',
No malice I hoard, 'gainst Queen, Prince, Duke or Lord,
While I pull at my pipe of Tobacco.

"When I feel the hot strife of the battle of life,
And the prospect is aught but enticin',
Mayhap some real ill like a protested bill,
Dims the sunshine that tinged the horizon;
Only let me puff, puff,—be they ever so rough,
All the sorrows of life I lose track o',
The mists disappear, and the vista is clear,
With a soothing mild pipe of Tobacco.

"And when joy after pain, like the sun after rain,
Stills the waters, long turbid and troubled,
That life's current may flow, with a ruddier glow,
And the sense of enjoyment be doubled,—
Oh! let me puff, puff, till I feel quantum suff,
Such luxury still I'm in lack o',
Be joy ever so sweet, it would be incomplete,
Without a good pipe of tobacco.

"Should my recreant muse,—Sometimes apt to refuse
The guidance of bit and of bridle,
Still blankly demur, spite of whip and of spur,
Unimpassioned, inconstant, or idle;
Only let me puff, puff, till the brain cries enough,
Such excitement is all I'm in lack o',
And the poetic vein soon to fancy gives reign,
Inspired by a pipe of Tobacco.

"And when with one accord, round the jovial board,
In friendship our bosoms are glowing;
While with toast and with song we the evening prolong,
And with nectar the goblets are flowing;
Still let us puff, puff—be life smooth, be it rough,
Such enjoyment we're ever in lack o';
The more peace and goodwill will abound as we fill
A jolly good pipe of Tobacco."

Tobacco Jars.

The tobacco jar is another accessory of more recent date than tobacco
pipes but interesting from the varieties of style and shapes. The finest are
made of porcelain and are lavish in design and enrichment. Of all the
articles of the smokers' paraphernalia none however exhibit more fanciful
designs than Tobacco-stoppers used by smokers for crowding the tobacco
into the pipe while smoking. The author of "A Paper of Tobacco" says:

"This was the only article on which the English smoker
prided himself. It was made of various materials—wood,
bone, ivory, mother-of-pearl, and silver: and the forms
which it assumed were exceedingly diversified. Out of a
collection of upwards of thirty tobacco-stoppers of different
ages, from 1688 to the present time, the following are the
most remarkable: a bear's tooth tipped with silver at the
bottom, and inscribed with the name of Captain James
Rogers of the Happy Return whaler, 1688; Dr. Henry
Sacheverel in full canonicals, carved in ivory, 1710; a boat, a
horse's hind leg, Punch, and another character in the same
Drama, to wit: his Satanic majesty; a countryman with a
flail; a milkmaid; an emblem of Priopus; Hope and Anchor;
the Marquis of Granby; a greyhound's head and neck; a
paviour's rammer; Lord Nelson; the Duke of Wellington; and
Bonaparte. The tobacco-stopper was carried in the pocket or
attached to a ring worn on the finger."

In Butler's Hudibras it is alluded to in connection with the astronomer's
sign.

"——Bless us! quoth he,
It is a planet now I see;
And if I err not, by his proper
Figure that's like tobacco-stopper,
It should be Saturn!"

In James Boswell's "Shrubs of Parnassus" (1760) a description in verse of
the various kinds of tobacco-stoppers is given:

"O! let me grasp thy waist, be thou of wood
Or levigated steel, for well 'tis known
Thy habit is disease. In iron clad
Sometimes thy feature roughen to the sight,
And oft transparent art thou seen in glass,
Portending frangibility. The son
Of laboring mechanism here displays
Exuberance of skill. The curious knot,
The motley flourish winding down the sides,
And freaks of fancy pour upon the view
Their complicated charms, and as they please,
Astonish. While with glee thy touch I feel,
No harm my fingers dread. No fractured pipe
I ask, or splinters aid, wherewith to press
The rising ashes down. Oh! bless my hand,
Chief when thou com'st with hollow circle crowned
With sculptured signet, bearing in thy womb
The treasured Cork-screw. Thus a triple service
In firm alliance may'st thou boast."

Tobacco-stoppers were often made of wood from some relic like a
celebrated tree or mansion which gave additional value by its historic
associations. Taylor alludes to several made from the well known
Glastonbury thorn. He says:—

Tobacco Stoppers.

"I saw the sayd branch, I did take a dead sprigge from it,
wherewith I made two or three tobacco-stoppers, which I
brought to London."

Pipes and tobacco-stoppers have often been favorite testimonials of
friendship and reward. Fairholt says:—

"It was the custom during the last century to present
country churchwardens with tobacco-boxes, after the faithful
discharge of their duties."

The following lines from "The Tobacco Leaf," penned by some favored
one on receiving a rare pipe, are no doubt as neat as the object that called
them forth:—

"I lifted off the lid with anxious care,
Removed the wrappages, strip after strip,
And when the hidden contents were laid bare,
My first remark was: "Mercy, what a pipe!"

A pipe of symmetry that matched its size,
Mounted with metal bright—a sight to see—

With the rich umber hue that smokers prize,
Attesting both its age and pedigree.

A pipe to make the royal Freidrich jealous,
Or the great Teufelsdrockh with envy gripe!
A man should hold some rank above his fellows
To justify his smoking such a pipe!

What country gave it birth? What blest of cities
Saw it first kindle at the glowing coal?
What happy artist murmured "Nunc dimittis,"
When he had fashioned this transcendent bowl!

Has it been hoarded in a monarch's treasures?
Was it a gift of peace, or price of war?
Did the great Khalif in his "Houre of Pleasures,"
Wager and lose it to the good Zaafar?

It may have soothed mild Spenser's melancholy,
While musing o'er traditions of the past,
Or graced the lips of brave Sir Walter Raleigh,
Ere sage King Jamie blew his "Counterblast."

Did it, safe hidden in some secret cavern,
Escape that monarch's pipoclastic ken?
Has Shakespeare smoked it at the Mermaid Tavern,
Quaffing a cup of sack with rare old Ben?

Ay, Shakespeare might have watched his vast creation
Loom through its smoke—the spectre-haunted Thane,
The Sisters at their ghostly invocations,
The jealous Moor and melancholy Dane.

Round its orbed haze and through its mazy ringlets,
Titania may have led her elfin rout,
Or Ariel fanned it with his gauzy winglets,
Or Puck danced in the bowl to put it out.

Vain are all fancies—questions bring no answer;
The smokers vanish, but the pipe remains;
He were indeed a subtle necromancer,
Could read their records in its cloudy stains.

Nor this alone: its destiny may doom it
To outlive e'en its use and history—
Some ploughman of the future may exhume it
From soil now deep beneath the eastern sea.

And, treasured by some antiquarian Stultus,
It may to gaping visitors be shown,
Labelled: "The symbol of some ancient Cultus,
Conjecturally Phallic, but unknown."

Why do I thus recall the ancient quarrel
'Twixt Man and Time, that marks all earthly things?
Why labor to re-word the hackneyed moral,
Ως φυλλωνγενεη, as Homer sings?

For this: Some links we forge are never broken:
Some feelings claim exemption from decay;
And Love, of which this pipe was but the token,
Shall last, though pipes and smokers pass away."

The verse that has been written in praise as well as dispraise of the
"Indian Novelty" would of itself fill a volume of no "mean pretentions." The
following clever lines from The Tobacco Plant entitled "Puffs from a Pipe,"
convey much advice to all smokers of tobacco.

Sage old friend! with judgment ripe;
Come and join me in a pipe.

Brother student! brother joker,
Thee I greet, O! brother smoker.

Smoke, O! men of every station,
Every climate, every nation.

East and West, and South and North,
Recognize Tobacco's worth.

Red man! let thy warfare cease:
Smoke the calumet of peace.

Chinaman! shun opium-grief:
Use the pure Tobacco leaf.

Frenchmen! no more foes provoke:
Follow arts of peace—and smoke!

German victors! crowned with laurel,
Smoke, content; and seek no quarrel.

Americans no one needs bid
To blow a cloud, or take a quid.

Though rows shake Dame Europa's school,
Johnny Bull smokes, calm and cool.

Toffy, it will ease thy brain, man!
Smoke and snuff, and smoke again, man!

Paddy, light of heart and gay,
Smoke thy dhudeen: short black clay.

Sawney, on thy Hielen' hill,
Tak' thy sneishin'; tak' thy gill!

Tourist, thou hast journey'd far;
Rest, and light a mild cigar.

Sailor, from the stormy seas,
Take a quid, and take thine ease.

"Soldier tired," put off thy shako;
Prepare to fire, and burn tobacco.

Workman, prize thine honest labor;
Burn thy weed, and love thy neighbor!

Evil-doers, when ye burn
The weed; think how soon 'twill be your turn.

Artist, let thy "coloring" be
Of a pipe; thy "drawing," free!

Miser, moderate thy greed!
Mend thy life, and take a weed.

Lawyer, loose thy bitter gripe!
Burn thy writ—to light a pipe.

Statesman, harassed night and day,
Blow a cloud; puff care away!

Hardy tiller of the soil!
Light a pipe; 'twill lighten toil.

Usurer, we surely know
Thou wilt have thy quid pro quo.

Merchant, smoke thy pipe; hang care!
Draughts are always honored there.

Gentle friend, whom troubles fret!
Smoke a soothing cigarette.

Preacher! take a pinch with me:
Snuff is dust, and so are we.

Hence with moralizings musty!
I say life is "not so dusty."

Smoke in gladness; smoke in trouble;
Soothe the last, the former double!

Teach the Fiji Indians, then,
To chew their quids, instead of men.

Pain from heart and brain to wipe,
Pass the weed, and fill your pipe!

Prince and peasant, lord and lackey,
All in some form take their 'Baccy.

Lord and Lackey.

The evil effects occasioned by man's indulging too frequently in tobacco
have been the subject of many a fierce debate between the friends and foes
of the "great plant." Many, however, are not aware of the fatality attending
its use by the brute creation. A modern English poet on hearing of the result
produced on a cow from chewing tobacco, penned the following sad lines
which he entitles—"An elegy on somebody's Cow."

Weep! weep, ye chewers! Lowly bend, and bow;
Here lieth what was once a happy cow.
No more her voice she'll raise, now low, now high,
In amber fields, beneath an autumn sky;
No more she'll wander to the milking-pail,
While swine stand by to see her chew "pig-tail;"
No more round her the bees, a busy crew,

Shall linger, eager after "honey-dew;"
No more for her shall smoking grains be spread:
All bellowless remains her empty shed.

Sad was her fate. Reflect, all ye who read:
Life's flower destroyed by the accursed weed.
When first the yellow juice streamed o'er her lip,
One might have said, "This is a sad cow-slip."
To chew the peaceful cud by nature bid,
Degraded man taught her to chew a quid.
Sad the effect on body and on mind:
Her coat grew "shaggy," her milk nicotined;
Over her head shall naught but clover grow,
While o'er her peaceful grave the clouds shall blow.

No invalid shall ask for her cow-heel,
To heal his ailments with the simple meal;
Her whiskful tail into no soup shall go;
Mother of "weal" that would but bring us woe.
Her tripe shall honor not the festive meal,
Where smoking onions all their joys reveal;
Nor shall those shins that oft lagged on the road,
Be sold in cheap cook-shops as "a la mode,"
Her tongue must soon be sandwiched under ground,
Nor at pic-nics with cheap champagne go round;
Yea, even her poor bones are past all hope—
Not fit to be boiled down for scented soap.

Ah! hide her hide, poor beast. Her stomachs five
Dyed with the chewing she could not survive;
The very worms from her will turn away,
To seek some anti-chewer for their prey.
Ye chewers! be ye pilgrims to her tomb;
Lament with us o'er her untimely doom.
Awhile she stood the anti-chewer's butt,
Till scythe-arm'd Time gave her an "ugly cut."
She stagger'd to her death, and feebly cried,
And sneezed, "Achew! achew!" and chewing died.

There are many parodies of popular poems written in praise of the weed;
of which the following in imitation of Tennyson's "Charge of the Light
Brigade," entitled "The Charge of the Tobacco Jar Brigade," is one of the
best.

"Epigrams, epigrams,
Pour'd in, and numbered—
Good, bad, indifferent—
More than Six Hundred.
"Epigrams potters want,"
Quoth The Tobacco Plant:
Write! you for fame who pant;
Write! we'll three prizes grant."
Wrote for Tobacco-Jars,
Over Six Hundred.

Postmen, ere morning's light;
Postmen, whilst day was bright;
Postmen, as closed in night,
Ran—tan'd and thunder'd
Loud at our office door;
Brought letters, many score—
Contents of bags—to pour
Table and desk all o'er:
Handfuls and armfuls bore,
Casting them on the floor.
Then through the town they tore,
Hastening back for more—
More than Six Hundred.

Letters to right of us,
Letters to left of us,
Letters in front of us,
Seeming unnumbered!
Envelopes every size
Met our astonish'd eyes.
Writer with writer vies!

Which wins the chiefest prize
Out of Six Hundred.

How did each writer strain
After a happy vein!
Pegasus, spurning rein,
Shied, jibb'd, and blunder'd.
Reverend writers, then
Took up the winged pen;
Suff'rers on beds of pain
Sought the bright muse again;
Lawyer and barrister
Courted and harassed her;
M. D.s and editors;
Debtors and creditors;
Artists and artisans,
Nicotine's partisans;
Nurses and gentle dames
Call'd it endearing names;
Poets, ship-masters, too;
Ay! poetasters, too;
Wooing fair Nicotine,
Six hundred scribes were seen.
Anti-Tobacco cant,
Bigoted, bilious rant,
Bursting to vent their spleen,
Joined the Six Hundred.

Flash'd many fancies rare;
Flash'd like Aurora's glare;
Quick jotted down with care;
Some the reverse of fair;
Some that we well could spare;
Some that were made to bear
Blunders unnumbered.
Plunging in metaphor,
Not a bit better for—
Pardon the Cockney rhyme!—

Similies plunder'd.
Praising Tobacco smoke,
Heeding not grammar's yoke,
Prosody's rules they broke.
Many a rhyming moke,
Sense from rhyme sundered:
Many wrote well, but not—
Not the Six Hundred.
Honour Tobacco! roll'd,
Cut, press'd, however sold.
Alpha and Beta, bold,
Ye shall be tipp'd with gold.
Omega shall be sold,
Others in type behold
Nearly Six Hundred."

The following poem entitled "Weedless," after Byron's "Darkness," gives
a vivid description of the world without tobacco.

"I had a dream, and it was all a dream:
Tobacco was abolish'd, and cigars
Were flung by "Antis" fearsome space—
The foreign and the British fared alike—
And the blue smoke was blown beyond the moon.
Night came and went and came, and brought no "weed,"
And men forgot their suppers, in the dread
Of the dire desolation; and all tongues
Were tingling with the taste of empty pipes;
And they did live all wretched; old hay bands,
And street-door mats, and clover brown and dry;
Carpets, rope-yarn, and such things as men sell,
Were burnt for 'bacca; haystacks were consumed,
And men were gathered round each blazing mass,
To have another makeshift sniff.
Happy were those who smoked, with smould'ring logs,
The harmless Yarmouth bloater after death—
Another pipe not all the world contain'd;
The furze was set on fire, but, hour by hour,

The stock diminish'd; all the prickly points
Quivered to death, and soon it all was gone.
The lips of men by the expiring stuff
Drew in and out, and all the world had fits.
The cinders fell upon them; some sprang up,
And blew their noses loud, and some did stand
Upon their heads, and sway'd despairing feet;
And others madly up and down the world
With "two-pence" hurried, shouting out for "Shag;"
And wink'd and blink'd at th' unclouded sky,
The "Anti's" smokeless banner—then again
Flung all their halfpence down into the dust,
And chewed their tainted pockets; snuffers wept,
And, flatt'ning noses on the dreary ground,
Inhaled the useless dust; the biggest "rough"
Came mild, tobacco-begging; p'licement came,
And mix'd themselves among the multitude,
"Run in" forgotten; uniforms were chew'd,
And teeth which for a moment had had rest,
Did move themselves again; old beaver hats
Fetch'd little fortunes; they were torn in bits,
And smok'd or chew'd at will; no bits were left.
All earth was but one thought, and that was smoke,
Immediate and glorious; and a pang
Of horror came at intervals, and men
Cried; and the boys were restless as themselves,
Till by degrees their stockings were devour'd;
E'en pipes were dropp'd despairing—all, save one,
One man was faithful to his pipe, and kept
Despair and deeper misery at bay,
By seeking ever for a "topper," dropped
From some spurned pipe, but that he could not find;
So, with a piteous and perpetual glare,
And a quick dissolute word, sucking the pipe,
Which answer'd never with a whiff, he slept;
The crowd dispersed by slow degrees, but two
Of all the dreary company remain'd,

And they kept 'bacca shops; they sat upon
The scanted lid of a tobacco tub,
Wherein was heap'd a mass of coined bronze—
Profits of 'bacca, sold—they were sold out;
They, grinning, scraped with their warm, eager hands
The little halfpence and the bigger pence,
Counted a little time, and cried "Haw! haw!"
Like a whole rookery; then lifted up
The tub as it grew lighter, and beheld
Each other's profits; saw, and smiled, and winked,
Uncaring that the world was poor indeed,
So they were rich in pence. The world was mad,
The populace and peerage both alike
Birds—Eyeless, Shagless, and returnless, too—
Oh! day of death, oh! chaos of hard times!—
And princes, dukes, and lords, they all stood still,
Feeling within their pockets' silent depths;
And sailors went a-moaning out to sea,
And chew'd their cables piecemeal: then they wept,
And slept on the abyss without a quid.
All quids were gone, cigars were in their graves;
The plant, their mother, had been rooted up;
Pawnbrokers had a ton of pipes apiece,
And "Antis" triumph'd. Then they had no need
To keep a "Sec.," so Reynolds got the "sack."

One of the best of all parodies is one in imitation of Longfellow's
"Excelsior," entitled "Tobacco." It is from "Copis' Tobacco Plant."

The Strange Youth.

"The summer blight was falling fast,
When straight through dirty London passed
A youth, who bore, through road and street,
A packet, thereon written neat;
"Tobacco!"

His brow was glad, his laughing eye
Flashed like a gooseberry in a pie;
And like a penny whistle rung
The piping notes of that strange tongue—
"Tobacco!"

In dusty homes he saw the light
Of supper fires gleam warm and bright;
Above, the ruddy chimneys smoked:
He from his lips the word evoked—
"Tobacco!"

"Try not the weed," good Reynolds said;
"I've smoked it 'till I'm nearly dead:
Take not the juice in thy inside;"
But loud the jovial voice replied—
"Tobacco!"

"Oh! stay," the maiden said, "and rest;
I have got on my Sunday best:"
A wink stood in his bright blue eye,
And answered he, without a sigh—
"Tobacco!"

"Beware the briar's poison'd root;
Beware the birds-eye put into 't."
This was the Anti's latest greet.
A voice replied, far up the street—
"Tobacco!"

At break of day, on Clapham Rise.
A pot-boy opened both his eyes,
And to himself did gently swear,
To hear a voice call through the air—
"Tobacco!"

A traveler up a tree he found,
Who smoked and spat upon the ground;
And then among the blossoms ripe
He cried, while puffing at his pipe—
"Tobacco!"

There in the grayish twilight, "What's
That you say?" cried eager Pots,
And from the branch so green and far,
A voice fell like a broken jar—
"Tobacco."

The following lines from the same source have been very appropriately
called "The Smoker's Calendar."

When January's cold appears,
A glowing pipe my spirit cheers;
And still it glads the length'ning day,
'Neath February's milder sway.
When March's keener winds succeed,
What charms me like the burning weed?
When April mounts the solar car,
I join him, puffing a cigar;
And May, so beautiful and bright,
Still finds the pleasing weed a-light.
To balmy zephyrs it gives zest,
When June in gayest livery's drest.
Through July Flora's offspring smile,
But still Nicotia's can beguile;
And August, when its fruits are ripe,
Matures my pleasure in a pipe.
September finds me in the garden,
Communing with a long churchwarden.
Ev'n in the wane of dull October,
I smoke my pipe and sip my "robur,"
November's soaking show'rs require
The smoking pipe and blazing fire:
The darkest day in drear December's—
That's lighted by their glowing embers.

The Hon. "Sunset" Cox in his lecture on American Humor alluded to the
national characteristics of the French, Spanish, German, and other
nationalities, says:—

"The highest enjoyment of a Frenchman is to hear the last
cantatrice, the Spaniard enjoys the most skillful thrust of the
matador in the bull arena, the Neapolitan the taste of the
maccaroni, the German his beer and metaphysics, the darkey
his banjo, and the American—

'To the American there's nothing so sweet
As to sit in his chair and tilt up his feet,

Enjoy the Cuba, whose flavor just suits,
And gaze at the world through the toes of his boots.'"

This would seem to be a feature of the Dutch according to a late traveler,
who says:—

"I like Holland—it is the antidote of France. No one is
ever in a hurry here. Life moves on in a slow, majestic
stream, a little muddy and stagnant, perhaps, like one of their
own canals; but you see no waves, no breakers; not an eddy,
nor even a froth bubble, breaks the surface. Even a Dutch
child, as he steals along to school, smoking his short pipe,
has a mock air of thought about him."

The following epigrams for tobacco jars from "The Tobacco Plant" evince
much "taste, wit, and ingenuity."

Fill the bowl, you jolly soul,
And burn all sorrow to a coal.
Henry Clay.

That man is frugal and content indeed,
Who finds food, solace, pleasure in a weed.
The "Weed".

Behold! this vessel hath a moral got,
Tobacco-smokers all must go to pot.
Epigrammatic.

A weed you call me, but you'll own
No rose was e'er more fully blown.
Sic Itur ad Nostra.

Great Jove, Pandora's box with jars did fill
This Jar alone has power those jars to still.
In Nubilus.

Tobacco some say, is a potent narcotic,
That rules half the world in a way quite despotic;
So to punish him well for his wicked and merry
tricks,
We'll burn him forthwith, as they used to do heretics.
Zed.

Smoker Reading Epigrams.

No use to draw upon a bank if no effects are there,
But a draw of this Tobacco is quite a safe affair;
And a pipe with fragrant weed (such as I hold) neatly
stuffed,
Is just the only thing on earth that ought to be well
puffed.
R. S. Y. P.

Poor woman "pipes her eye,"
When in affliction's gripe;
But man, far wiser grown,
Just eyes his pipe.
In Nubilus.

Sir Walter Raleigh! name of worth,
How sweet for thee to know
King James, who never smoked on earth,
Is smoking down below.
Ex Fumo dare Lucem.

Travelers say Tobacco springs
From the graves of Indian kings:
Fill your pipe, then—smoke will be
Incense to their memory.
Though the weed's nor rich nor rare,
'Tis a balm for every care.
Peter Piper.

Give me the weed, the fragrant weed,
My wearied brain to calm;
In a wreath of smoke, while I crack my joke,
I'll find a healing balm.

Day after day, let come what may,
The pipe of peace I'll fill;
I readily pay for briar or clay,
To save a doctor's bill.
Pompone.

Great men need no pompous marble
To perpetuate their name;
Household gear and common trinkets
Best remind us of their fame.

Raleigh's glory rests immortal
On ten thousand thousand urns,
Every jar is in memoriam,
Every fragrant pipe that burns.
At an Ash.

There are jars of jelly, jars of jam,
Jars of potted-beef and ham;

But welcome most to me, by far,
Is my dear old Tobacco-Jar.
There are pipes producing sounds divine,
Pipes producing luscious wine;
But when I consolation need,
I take the pipe that burns the weed.
Jars.

Friend of my youth, companion of my later days,
What needs my muse to sing thy various praise?
In country or in town, on land or sea,
The weed is still delightful company.
In joy or sorrow, grief or racking pain,
We fly to thee for solace once again.
Delicious plant, by all the world consumed,
'Tis pity thou, like man, to ashes too art doom'd.
Erutxim.

Hail plant of power, more than king's renown,
Beloved alike in country and in town;
In hotter climes oft mingled with the jet
Of falling fountains; whilst the cigarette
Kisses the fair one's lips, and by thy breath
Redeems the wearied heart from ennui's death.
Theta.

If e'er in social jars you join,
Seek this, and let them cease:
Let all your quarrels end in smoke,
And pass the pipe of peace.
Fumigator.

The Explosion.

Many a jar of old outbroke
Into fire and riot;
This will yield, with fragrant smoke,
Happy thought, and quiet.
41,911.

The moralist, philosopher, and sage.
Have sought by every means, in every age,
That which should cause the strife of men to cease,
And steep the world in fellowship and peace;
But all their toil and diligence were vain,
'Till Raleigh, noble Raleigh! crossed the main,
And brought to Britain's shores the wish'd-for prize,
The sovereign balm of life—within it lies.
Dum Spiro Fumigo.

To rich men a pastime, to poor men a treat,
To all a true tonic most bracing and sweet,
To talent a pleasure, to genius a joy,
To workmen a comfort, to none an alloy,

The tyrant it softens; it soothes him if mad,
The king who may rule if he smokes not, is sad.
Kit.

Sacred substance! sweet, serene;
Soothing sorrow's saddest scene:
Scent-suffusing, silv'ry smoke,
Softly smoothing suffering's stroke;—
Solacing so silently—
Still so swift, so sure, so sly:
Smoke sublimated soars supreme,
Sweetest soul-sustaining stream!
Similia Similibus.

Why should men reek, like chimneys, with foul
smoke,
Their neighbors and themselves to nearly choke?
Avoid it, ye John Bulls, and eke ye Paddies!
Avoid it, sons of Cambria, and Scottish laddies!
Let reason convince you that it very sad is,
And far too bad is,
And enough to make one mad is
To be smoked like a red herring or rank Finedon
haddies.
J. S.

No punishment save hanging's too severe
For those who'd rob the poor man of his beer;
But for the wretch who'd take away his pipe,
I think he's fully execution ripe!
Pipe Clay.

Weeds are but cares! Well, what of that!
There's one weed bears a goodly crop;
And this exception, then, 'tis flat,
Doth give that rule a firmer prop.
Tobacco brings the genial mood,
Warm heart, shrewd thought, and while we reap

From this poor weed such harvest good,
We'll hold more boasted harvests cheap.
Festus.

To poets give the laurel wreath, let heroes have their lay,
Of roses twine for lovely youth the garland fresh and gay;
But we poor mortals, quite content, life's fev'rish way
pursue,
Can we but crown our foolish pates with wreaths of fragrant
blue,
Convinced that all terrestrial things which please us or
provoke,
Of ashes come, to ashes go, and only end in smoke.
Pocosmipo.

Whilst cannon's smoke o'erwhelms with deadly cloud
The soldier's comrades in a common shroud,
And whilst the conflagration in the street,
With crushing roar the ruin makes complete,
Tobacco's smoke like incense seeks the skies—
Blesses the giver, and in silence dies!
Theta.

Use me well, and you shall see
An excellent servant I will be;
Let me once become your master,
And you shall rue the great disaster!

As coin does to he who borrows,
I'll soothe your cares and ease your sorrows;
Abuse me, and your nerves I'll shatter,
Your heart I'll break, your cash I'll scatter,
Use, not Abuse.

The savage in his wild estate,
When feuds and discords cease,
Soothes with the fragrant weed his hate,
And smokes the pipe of peace.

Long may the plant good-will create,
And banish strife afar:
Our only cloud its incense sweet,
And this our only jar.
Scire Facias.

Breathes there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said;
I'll have to smoke, or I'll be dead?
If so, then let the caitiff dread!
My wrath shall fall upon his head.
'Tis plain he ne'er the Plant hath read;
But "goody" trash, perchance, instead.
Dear Cope, good night!—Yours, Master Fred.

That tobacco in one form or another has been patronized from the cottage
to the throne, no one will deny who is at all acquainted with the history of
the plant. And while it has had many a royal hater, it can also boast of
having many a kingly user. A favorite of king and courtier, its use was alike
common in the palace and the courtyard. It can claim, also, many celebrated
physicians who have been its patrons, and among them the noted Dr. Parr.
We give an anecdote of him showing his love of weed and wit.

The partiality this worthy Grecian always manifested for smoking is well
known. Whenever he dined he was always indulged with a pipe. Even His
Majesty, when Dr. Parr was his guest at Carlton Palace, condescended to
give him a smoking-room and the company of Colonel C——, in order that
he might suffer no inconvenience. "I don't like to be smoked myself,
doctor," said the royal wit, "but I am anxious that your pipe should not be
put out." One day, Dr. Parr was to dine at the house of Mr. ——, who
informed his lady of the circumstance, and of the doctor's passion for the
pipe. The lady was much mortified by this intimation, and with warmth said,
"I tell you what, Mr. ——, I don't care a fig for Dr. P.'s Greek; he shan't
smoke here." "My dear," replied the husband, "he must smoke; he is allowed
to do so everywhere." "Excuse me, Mr. ——, he shall not smoke here; leave
it to me, my dear, I'll manage it." The doctor came; a splendid dinner
ensued; the Grecian was very brilliant. After dinner, the doctor called for his
pipes. "Pipes!" screamed the lady. "Pipes! For what purpose?" "Why, to

smoke, madam!" "Oh! my dear doctor, I can't have pipes here. You'll spoil
my room; my curtains will smell of tobacco for a week." "Not smoke!"
exclaimed the astonished and offended Grecian. "Why, madam, I have
smoked in better houses." "Perhaps so, sir," replied the lady, with dignity;
and she added with firmness, "I shall be most happy, doctor, to show you the
rights (rites?) of hospitality; but you cannot be allowed to smoke." "Then,
madam," said Dr. Parr, looking at her ample person; "then, madam,—I must
say, madam,—" "Sir, sir, are you going to be rude?" "I must say, madam,"
he continued, "you are the greatest tobacco-stopper in all England." Of the
clergy, Whatley was one of the greatest in intellect, and, as a smoker was
devotedly attached to tobacco; his pipes, when out, served him for a book-
marker. In summer-time he might be seen, of an evening, sitting on the
chains of Stephen's Green, thinking of "that," as the song says, and of much
more, while he was "smoking tobacco." In winter he walked and smoked,
vigorously in both cases, on the Donnybrook road; or he would be out with
his dogs, climbing up the trees to hide amid the branches a key or a knife,
which, after walking some distance, he would tell the dogs he had lost, and
bid them look for it and bring it to him.

Theory against Experience.

Of many warriors, none have been more devoted to the plant than
Napoleon, Frederick of Prussia and Blücher the Bold. The following
anecdote of the latter is one of the best of its kind: "As is well-known, Field-
Marshal Blücher, in addition to his brave young 'fellows' (as he called his
horsemen), loved three things above all, namely, wine, gambling, and a pipe
of Tobacco. With his pipe he would not dispense, and he always took two or
three puffs, at least, before undertaking anything. 'Without Tobacco, I am
not worth a farthing,' he often said. Though so passionately fond of
Tobacco, yet old 'Forwards' was no friend of costly smoking apparatus; and
he liked best to smoke long, Dutch clay pipes, which, as everybody knows,
very readily break. Therefore, from among his 'young fellows' he had
chosen for himself a Pipe-master, who had charge of a chest well packed
with clay pipes; and this chest was the most precious jewel in Blücher's field
baggage. If one of the pipes broke, it was, for our hero, an event of the
greatest importance. On its occurrence, the 'wounded' pipe was narrowly

examined, and if the stem was not broken off too near the head, it was sent
to join the corps of Invalids, and was called 'Stummel' (Stump, or Stumpy).
One of these Stumpies the Field-Marshal usually smoked when he was on
horseback, and when the troops were marching along or engaged in a
reconnoissance, and eye-witnesses record that many a Stumpy was shot
from his mouth by the balls of the enemy—nothing but a piece of the stem
then remaining between his lips. Blücher's Pipe-master, at the time of the
Liberation War, was Christian Hennemann, a Mecklenburg and Rostock
man, like Blücher himself, and most devotedly attached to the Field-
Marshal. He knew all the characteristic peculiarities of the old hero, even
the smallest, and no one could so skillfully adapt himself to them as he. His
duties as Pipe-master, Hennemann discharged with great fidelity; yea, even
with genuine fanatical zeal. The contents of the pipe-chest he thoroughly
knew, for often he counted the pipes. Before every fierce fight, Prince
Blücher usually ordered a long pipe to be filled. After smoking for a short
time, he gave back the lighted pipe to Hennemann, placed himself right in
the saddle, drew his sabre, and with the vigorous cry, 'Forward, my lads!' he
threw himself into the fierce onset on the foe.

On the ever-memorable morning of the battle of Belle-Alliance
(Waterloo), Hennemann had just handed a pipe to his master, when a
cannon-ball struck the ground near, so that earth and sand covered Blücher
and his gray horse. The horse made a spring to one side, and the beautiful
new pipe was broken before the old hero had taken a single puff. 'Fill
another pipe for me,' said Blücher; 'keep it lighted, and wait for me here a
moment, till I drive away the French rascals. Forwards, lads!' Thereupon
there was a rush forwards; but the chase lasted not only 'a moment,' but a
whole hot day. At the Belle-Alliance Inn, which was demolished by shot,—
the battle having at last been gained,—the victorious friends, Blücher and
Wellington, met and congratulated each other on the grand and nobly
achieved work, each praising the bravery of the other's troops. 'Your fellows
slash in like the very devil himself!' cried Wellington. Blücher replied, 'Yes;
you see, that is their business. But brave as they are, I know not whether one
of them would stand as firmly and calmly in the midst of the shower of balls
and bullets as your English.' Then Wellington asked Blücher about his
previous position on the field of battle, which had enabled him to execute an
attack so fatal to the enemy.

Blücher, who could strike tremendous blows, but was by no means a
consummate orator, and could not paint his deeds in words, conducted
Wellington to the place itself. They found it completely deserted; but on the
very spot where Blücher had that morning halted, and from which he had
galloped away, stood a man with his head bound up, and with his arm
wrapped in a handkerchief. He smoked a long, dazzling white clay pipe.
'Good God!' exclaimed Blücher, 'that is my servant, Christian Hennemann.
What a strange look you have, man! What are you doing here?' 'Have you
come at last?' answered Christian Hennemann, in a grumbling tone; 'here I
have stood the whole day, waiting for you. One pipe after another have the
cursed French shot away from my mouth. Once even a blue bean (a bullet)
made sad work with my head, and my fist has got a deuce of a smashing.
That is the last whole pipe, and it is a good thing that the firing has ceased;
otherwise, the French would have knocked this pipe to pieces, and you must
have stood there with a dry mouth.' He then handed the lighted pipe to his
master, who took it, and after a few eagerly-enjoyed whiffs, said to his
faithful servant, 'It is true, I have kept you waiting a long time; but to-day
the French fellows could not be forced to run all at once.' With
astonishment, Wellington listened to the conversation. Amazed, he looked
now at the Field-Marshal, now at the 'Pipe-master,' and now at the branches
of trees and the balls scattered all round, which made it only too evident
what a dangerous post this spot must have been during the battle. The
wound in Hennemann's head proved to be somewhat serious; his hand was
completely shattered; and yet, in the midst of the tempest of shot, he had
stood there waiting for his beloved master."[55]