“a magnificent array of clouds;
and as the breeze plays on them, they assume
the forms of mountains, castled cliffs, and hills,
and shadowy glens, and groves, and beetling rocks;
and some, that seem far off, are voyaging
their sunbright path in folds of silver.”
“right,” said i to myself, as i lay down the volume of hyperion, in which i had been glancing for repose. “i, too, have a friend, not yet a sexagenary bachelor, but a bachelor notwithstanding. he has one of those well oiled dispositions which turn upon the hinges of the world without creaking, except during east winds, and when there is no butter in the house. the hey-day of life is over with him; but his old age (begging his pardon) is sunny and chirping, and a merry heart still nestles in his tottering frame, like a swallow that builds in a tumble-down chimney. he is a professed squire of dames. the rustle of a silk gown is music to his ears, and his imagination is continually lantern-led by some will-with-the-wisp in the shape of a lady’s stomacher. in his devotion to the fair sex—the muslin, as he calls it—he is the gentle flower of chivalry. it is amusing to see how quickly he strikes into the scent of a lady’s handkerchief. when once fairly in pursuit, there is no such thing as throwing him out. his heart looks out at his eye; and his inward delight tingles down to the tail of his coat. he loves to bask in the sunshine of a smile;39 when he can breathe the sweet atmosphere of kid gloves and cambric handkerchiefs, his soul is in its element; and his supreme delight is to pass the morning, to use his own quaint language, ‘in making dodging calls, and wriggling round among the ladies.’” yet there are a few little points in the picture which want retouching, and beyond all, one great omission to be remedied. it is the pipe. what would the worthy abbot be without his pipe? just as uncomfortable as we should presume a dog to be without his tail. as incomplete as a sketch of napoleon without his boots and cocked-hat. see him in a cloud, and he seems the very premier of cloudland. it was said of staines, lord mayor of london, that he could not forego his pipe long enough to be sworn into office, without a whiff; and a print was published representing his lordship smoking in his state carriage; the sword bearer smoking—the mace bearer smoking—the coachmen smoking—the footmen smoking—the postilions smoking—and, to crown the whole—all the six horses smoking also. the ninth of november on which this event occurred, must needs have been a cloudy day.
another cloudy day arose upon london when the great plague broke out, and on this occasion, the smoke of tobacco mingled with the gloom. in reliqui? hearnian?, it is stated that “none who kept tobacconist’s shops had the plague. it is certain that smoking was looked upon as a most excellent preservative, insomuch, that even children were obliged to smoke. and i remember”, continues the writer,40 “that i heard formerly tom rogers, who was yeoman beadle, say, that when he was that year when the plague raged, a schoolboy at eton, all the boys of that school were obliged to smoke in the school every morning, and that he was never whipped so much in his life as he was one morning for not smoking.” we may imagine the experiences of some of these urchins at their first or second attempt, and in remembrance, it may be, of some similar experience of our own, see no cause for wonder at tom rogers not liking to elevate his yard of clay, and view the curls of smoke arise from the ashes of the smouldering weed. another amateur who flourished after the great fire had burnt out all traces of the great plague, has left us the record of his “day of smoke,” and the cudgelling he received for doing that which tom rogers was whipped for not doing—
41
“i shall never forget the day when i first smoked. it was a day of exultation and humiliation. it was a sunday. my uncle was a great smoker. he dined with us that day; and after the meal, he pulled out his cigar case, took a cheroot, and smoked it. i always liked the fumes of tobacco, so i went near him and observed how he put the cheroot into his mouth, the way he inhaled the smoke, how he puffed it out again, and the other coquetries of a regular smoker. i envied my uncle, and was determined that i would smoke myself. uncle fell asleep. now, thought i, here’s an opportunity not to be lost. i quietly abstracted three cigars from the case which was lying on the table, and sneaked off. being a lad of a generous disposition, i wished that my brothers and cousins should also partake of the benefits of a smoke, so i imparted the secret to them, at which they were highly pleased. when and where to smoke was the next consideration. it was arranged that when the old people had gone to church in the evening, we should smoke in the coach-house. we were six in number. i divided the three cigars into halves, and gave each a piece. oh, how our hearts did palpitate with joy! fire was stealthily brought from the cook-house, and we commenced to light our cigars. such puffing i never did see. after each puff we would open our mouths quite wide, to let the smoke out. at the performance of the first puff we laughed heartily—the smoke coming out of our mouths was so funny. at the second puff we didn’t laugh so much, but began to spit; we thought the cigars were very bitter. after the third puff we looked steadfastly at each other—each thought the other looked pale. i could not give the word of command for another pull. i felt choked, and my teeth began to chatter. there was a dead silence for a second. we were ashamed, or could not divulge the state of our feelings. charlie was the first who gave symptoms of rebellion in his stomach. then there was a general revolt. what occurred afterwards i did not know, till i got up from my bed next morning, to experience the delights of a sound flagellation. after that i abhorred the smell of tobacco—would never look at a cigar or think of it.” all this happened, as the narrator informed us, at the age of seven—an early age, some may imagine, who do not know that in vizagapatam and other places on the same coasts, where the women smoke a great deal, it is a common thing for the mothers to appease their squalling brats by transferring the cigar from their own mouths to that of their infants. these youngsters being accustomed to the art of pulling, suck away gloriously for a second, and then fall asleep.
howard malcom states,42 “that in burmah the consumption of tobacco for smoking is very great, not in pipes, but in cigars or cheroots, with wrappers made of the leaves of the then-net tree. in making them, a little of the dried root, chopped fine, is added, and sometimes a small portion of sugar. these are sold at a rupee per thousand. smoking is more prevalent than ‘chewing coon’ among both sexes, and is commenced by children almost as soon as they are weaned. i have seen,” he continues, “little creatures of two or three years, stark naked, tottering about with a lighted cigar in their mouth. it is not uncommon for them to become smokers even before they are weaned—the mother often taking the cheroot from her mouth and putting it into that of the infant.”
in china, the practice is so universal, that every female, from the age of eight or nine years, as an appendage to her dress, wears a small silken pocket to hold tobacco and a pipe.
the use of tobacco has become universal through the chinese empire; men, women, children, everybody smokes almost without ceasing. they go about their daily business, cultivate the fields, ride on horseback, and write constantly with the pipe in their mouths. during their meals, if they stop for a moment, it is to smoke a pipe; and if they wake in the night, they are sure to amuse themselves in the same way. it may easily be supposed, therefore, that in a country containing, according to m. huc, 300,000,000 of smokers, without counting the tribes of tartary and thibet, who lay in their stocks in the chinese markets, the culture of tobacco has become very important. the cultivation is entirely free, every one being at liberty to plant it in his garden, or in the open fields, in whatever quantity he chooses, and afterwards to sell it, wholesale or retail, just as he likes, without the government interfering with him in the slightest degree. the most celebrated tobacco is that obtained in leao-tong in mantchuria, and in the province of sse-tchouen. the leaves, before becoming articles of commerce, undergo various preparatory processes, according to the practice of the locality. in the south, they cut them into43 extremely fine filaments; the people of the north content themselves with drying them and rubbing them up coarsely, and then stuff them at once into their pipes.
according to etiquette and the custom of the court, persian princes must have seven hours for sleep. when they get up, they begin to smoke the narghilè or shishe, and they continue smoking all day long. when there is company, the narghilè is first presented to the chief of the assembly, who, after two or three whiffs, hands it to the next, and so on it goes descending; but in general, the great smoke only with the great, or with strangers of distinction. the schah smokes by himself, or only with one of his brothers, the tombak, the smoke of which is of a very superior kind, the odour being exquisite. it is the finest tombak of shiraz.
mr. neale says—“talk about the turks being great smokers; why, the siamese beat them to nothing. i have often seen a child only just able to toddle about, and certainly not more than two years of age, quit its mother’s breast to go and get a whiff from papa’s cigaret, or, as they are here termed, borees—cigarets made of the dried leaf of the plantain tree, inside of which the tobacco is rolled up.”
in japan, after tea drinking, the apparatus for smoking is brought in, consisting of a board of wood or brass, though not always of the same structure, upon which are placed a small fire-pan with coals, a pot to spit in, a small box filled with tobacco cut small, and some long pipes with small brass heads, as also another japanned board or dish, with socano—that is, something to eat, such as figs, nuts, cakes, and sweetmeats. “there are no other spitting pots,” says k?mpfer,44 “brought into the room but those which come along with the tobacco. if there be occasion for more, they make use of small pieces of bamboo, a hand broad and high being sawed from between the joints and hollowed.”
in nicaragua, the dress of the urchins, from twelve or fourteen downwards, consists generally of a straw hat and a cigar—the latter sometimes unlighted and stuck behind the ear, but oftener lighted and stuck in the mouth—a costume sufficiently airy and picturesque, and excessively cheap. the women have their hair braided in two long locks, which hang down behind, and give them a school-girly look, quite out of keeping with the cool deliberate manner in which they puff their cigars, occasionally forcing the smoke in jets from their nostrils.7
on the amazon, all persons—men and women—use tobacco in smoking; when pipes are wanting, they make cigarillos of the fine tobacco, wrapped in a paper-like bark, called towarè; and one of these is passed round, each person, even to the little boys, taking two or three puffs in his turn.8
the papuans pierce their ears and insert in the orifice, ornaments or cigars of tobacco, rolled in pandan leaf, of which they are great consumers.
a spaniard knows no crime so black that it should be visited by the deprivation of tobacco. in the havana, the convict who is deprived of the ordinary comforts, or even of the necessaries of life, may enjoy his cigar, if he can beg or borrow it; if he stole it, the offence would be considered venial. at the doorway of most of the shops hang little sheet-iron boxes filled with lighted coals, at which the passer-by may light cigars; and on the balustrade of the staircase of every45 house stands a small chafing dish for the same purpose. fire for his cigar, is the only thing for which a spaniard does not think it necessary to ask and thank with ceremonious courtesy. if he has permitted his cigar to go out, he steps up to the first man he meets—nobleman or galley slave, as the case may be—and the latter silently hands his smoking weed; for it is impossible that two spaniards should meet and not have one lighted cigar between them. the light obtained, the lightee returns the cigar to the lighter in silence. a short and suddenly checked motion of the hand, as the cigar is extended, is the only acknowledgment of the courtesy. this is never, however, omitted. women smoke as well as men; and in a full railroad car, every person, man, woman, and child, may be seen smoking. to placard “no smoking allowed,” and enforce it, would ruin the road.
a regular smoker in cuba will consume perhaps twenty or thirty cigars a day, but they are all fresh. what we call a fine old cigar, a cuban would not smoke.
at manilla, the women smoke as well as the men. one manufactory employs about 9,000 women in making the manilla cheroots; another establishment employs 3,000 men in making paper cigars or cigarettes. the paper cigars are chiefly smoked by men; the women prefer the “puros,” the largest they can get.
the binua of johore, of both sexes, indulge freely in tobacco. it is their favourite luxury. the women are often seen seated together weaving mats, and each with a cigar in her mouth. when speaking, it is transferred to the perforation in the ear. when met paddling their canoes, the cigar is seldom wanting. the mintira women are also much addicted to tobacco, but they do not smoke it.
46
in south america, many of the tribes are free indulgers in tobacco; and this extends also to the female and juvenile sections of the community. a story, which signor calistro narrated to mr. wallace whilst travelling in the interior of brazil, shows that it was nothing but a common occurrence for little girls to smoke. this story is in itself interesting considered apart from all circumstances of veracity. “there was a negro who had a pretty wife, to whom another negro was rather attentive when he had an opportunity. one day the husband went out to hunt, and the other party thought it a good opportunity to pay a visit to the lady. the husband, however, returned rather unexpectedly, and the visitor climbed up on the rafters to be out of sight, among the old boards and baskets that were stowed away there. the husband put his gun by in a corner, and called to his wife to get his supper, and then sat down in his hammock. casting his eyes up to the rafters, he saw a leg protruding from among the baskets, and thinking it something supernatural, crossed himself, and said, ‘lord deliver us from the legs appearing overhead!’ the other, hearing this, attempted to draw up his legs out of sight; but, losing his balance, came down suddenly on the floor in front of the astonished husband, who, half-frightened, asked, ‘where do you come from?’ ‘i have just come from heaven,’ said the other, ‘and have brought you news of your little daughter maria.’ ‘oh, wife, wife! come and see a man who has brought us news of our little daughter maria!’ then, turning to the visitor, continued, ’and what was my little daughter doing when you left?’ ‘oh, she was sitting at the feet of the virgin with a golden crown on her head, and smoking a golden pipe a yard long.’ ‘and did she send any message to us?’ ‘oh, yes; she sent many remembrances, and begged you to send her two pounds47 of your tobacco from the little rhoosa; they have not got any half so good up there.’ ‘oh, wife, wife, bring two pounds of our tobacco from the little rhoosa, for our daughter maria is in heaven, and she says they have not any half so good up there.’ so the tobacco was brought, and the visitor was departing, when he was asked, ‘are there many white men up there?’ ‘very few,’ he replied; ‘they are all down below with the diabo.’ ‘i thought so,’ the other replied, apparently quite satisfied; ‘good night.’”
on the orinoco, tobacco has been cultivated by the native tribes from time immemorial. the tamanacs and the maypures of guiana wrap maize leaves around their cigars as did the mexicans at the time of the arrival of cortes; and, as in chili, is done at the present day. the spaniards have substituted paper for the maize husks, in imitation of them. the little cigarettos of chili are called hojitas. they are about two inches and a half long, filled with coarsely powdered tobacco. as their use is apt to stain the fingers of the smoker, the fashionable young gentlemen carry a pair of delicate gold tweezers for holding them. the cigar is so small that it requires not more than three or four minutes to smoke one. they serve to fill up the intervals in a conversation. at tertulias, the gentlemen sometimes retire to a balcony to smoke one or two cigars after a dance.
the poor indians of the forests of the orinoco know, as well as did the great nobles of the court of montezuma, that the smoke of tobacco is an excellent narcotic; and they use it, not only to procure an afternoon nap, but, also to induce a state of quiescence which they call dreaming with the eyes open. at the court of montezuma the pipe was held in one hand, while the nostrils were stopped with the other, in order that the smoke might be48 more easily swallowed. bernal diaz also informs us, that after montezuma had dined, they presented to him three little canes, highly ornamented, containing liquid amber, mixed with a herb they call tobacco, and when he had sufficiently viewed and heard the singers, he took a little of the smoke of one of these canes, and then laid himself down to sleep. a tribe of indians originally inhabiting panama, improved upon this method, which occupied both hands, and involved considerable trouble; the method adopted by the chiefs and great men of this tribe, was to employ servants to blow tobacco smoke in their faces, which was convenient and encouraged their indolence; they indulged in the luxury of tobacco in no other way.
amongst the rocky mountain indians, it is a universal practice to indulge in smoking, and when they do so they saturate their bodies in smoke. they use but little tobacco, mixing with it a plant which renders the fume less offensive. it is a social luxury, for the enjoyment of which, they form a circle, and only one pipe is used. the principal chief begins by drawing three whiffs, the first of which he sends upward, and then passes the pipe to the person next in dignity, and in like manner the instrument passes round until it comes to the first chief again. he then draws four whiffs, the last of which he blows through his nose, in two columns, in circling ascent, as through a double flued chimney; and their pipes are not of the race stigmatized by knickerbocker as plebeian. none of the smoke of those villanous short pipes, continually ascending in a cloud about the nose, penetrating into and befogging the cerebellum, drying up all the kindly moisture of the brain, and rendering the people who use them vapourish and testy; or, what is worse, from being goodly, burly, sleek-conditioned men, to become like the dutch49 yeomanry who smoked short pipes, a lantern-jawed, smoke-dried, leathern-hided race. the red people, whether of the rocky mountains or of the mississippi, belonged to the aristocracy of the long pipes. let us hope that they have not degenerated, and become followers of the customs of the barbarian ultra-marines.
turn over the leaves of “westward ho!” until you reach the end of the seventh chapter, and then read of salvation yeo and his fiery reputation, and his eulogium—“for when all things were made, none was made better than this; to be a lone man’s companion, a bachelor’s friend, a hungry man’s food, a sad man’s cordial, a wakeful man’s sleep, and a chilly man’s fire, sir; while, for stanching of wounds, purging of rheum, and settling of the stomach, there’s no herb like unto it under the canopy of heaven.” the truth of which eulogium amyas testeth in after years. but, “mark in the meanwhile,” says one of the veracious chroniclers from whom i draw these facts, writing seemingly in the palmy days of good queen anne and “not having (as he says) before his eyes the fear of that misocapnic solomon james i. or of any other lying stuart,” “that not to south devon, but to north; not to sir walter raleigh, but to sir amyas leigh; not to the banks of the dart, but to the banks of torridge, does europe owe the dayspring of the latter age, that age of smoke which shall endure and thrive when the age of brass shall have vanished, like those of iron and of gold, for whereas mr. lane is said to have brought home that divine weed (as spenser well names it), from virginia, in the year 1584, it is hereby indisputable that full four years earlier, by the bridge of pulford in the torridge moors (which all true smokers shall hereafter visit as a hallowed spot and point of pilgrimage) first twinkled that fiery beacon and beneficent loadstar of bidefordian commerce, to spread hereafter from port to port, and peak to peak, like the watch-fires which proclaimed the coming of the armada and the fall of troy, even to the50 shores of the bosphorus, the peaks of the caucasus, and the farthest isles of the malayan sea; while bideford, metropolis of tobacco, saw her pool choked up with virginian traders, and the pavement of her bridgeland street groaning beneath the savoury bales of roll trinidado, leaf, and pudding; and the grave burghers, bolstered and blocked out of their own houses by the scarce less savoury stockfish casks which filled cellar, parlour, and attic, were fain to sit outside the door, a silver pipe in every strong right hand, and each left hand chinking cheerfully the doubloons deep lodged in the auriferous caverns of their trunkhose; while in those fairy rings of fragrant mist, which circled round their contemplative brows, flitted most pleasant visions of wiltshire farmers jogging into sherborne fair, their heaviest shillings in their pockets to buy (unless old aubrey lies) the lotus leaf of torridge for its weight in silver, and draw from thence, after the example of the caciques of dariena, supplies of inspiration much needed then, as now, in those gothamite regions. and yet did these improve, as englishmen, upon the method of those heathen savages; for the latter (so salvation yeo reported as a truth, and dampier’s surgeon, mr. wafer, after him), when they will deliberate of war or policy, 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 hand funnel-wise round their mouths, draw into the sinuosities of the brain, that more51 than delphic vapour 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 flowers of eloquence, and, in due time, the fruit of valiant action.” and with this quaint fact, narrated in the bombastic style of chronicles, closeth the seventh chapter of the voyages and adventures of sir amyas leigh, under the style and title already mentioned, and after which digression the course of our narrative proceedeth as before.
the inhabitants of yemen smoke their well-loved dschihschi pipes, with long stems passed through water, that the smoke may come cold to the mouth; and which, when a few inveterate smokers meet together, keep up a boiling and bubbling noise, not unlike a distant corps of drummers in full performance.
in the austrian dominions, the lovers of the pipe may be found amongst all classes of the community. k?hl writes, that after taking two or three pipes of tobacco with the pasha at new orsova, he went into the market-place, where he found several merchants who invited him to sit down, and again he was presented with a pipe. from this place he went to a mosque, calling in at a school on his way:——“the little turkish students were making a most heathenish noise, which contrasted amusingly with the quiet and sedate demeanour of their teacher, who lay stretched upon a bench, where he smoked his pipe, and said nothing.” he afterwards went to look at the fortifications, and here and there saw a sentinel, with his musket in one hand and pipe in the other.52 “twenty-five soldiers were seen smoking under a shed, and on the ground lay a number of shells or hollow balls, which they assured us were filled with powder and other combustibles, yet the soldiers smoked among them unconcernedly, and allowed us to do the same.” a gentleman from constantinople told him that he had seen worse instances of carelessness, in asia minor. he had there been one day in the tents of a pasha, where some wet powder was drying and being made into cartridges, and the men engaged in the work were smoking all the while.
in the “stettin gazette,” lately appeared a notification that the prussian clergy had privately been requested by the higher authorities to abstain from smoking in public. we are not accustomed to it, and should certainly think it odd to see clergymen perambulating the streets with short pipes in their mouths.
in all parts of the sultan’s dominions, the pipe or narghilè has a stem generally flexible, about six feet in length; and at this the owner will suck for hours. you may see a man travelling, mounted aloft on a tall camel, with his body oscillating to and fro like a sailor’s when he rows, but still that man has his two yards of pipe before him. you may see two men caulking a ship’s side as she lies careened near the shore. up to their waists in water, they act up to the principle of division of labour; for one will smoke as the other plies the hammer, and then the worker takes his turn at the narghilè. arabs sitting at work, fix their pipes in the sand. in the potteries both hands must be employed—how, then, can the potter smoke? necessity is the mother of invention. one end of the pipe is suspended by a cord from the ceiling, the other is in the potter’s mouth.
53
in smoking, lane informs us, the people of egypt and other countries of the east draw in their breath freely, so that much of the smoke descends into the lungs; and the terms which they use to express “smoking tobacco,” signify “drinking smoke,” or “drinking tobacco;” for the same word signifies both smoke and tobacco. few of them spit while smoking; he had seldom seen them do so.
it was something like drinking of smoke that napoleon accomplished in his unsuccessful smoking campaign. he once took a fancy to try to smoke. everything was prepared for him, and his majesty took the amber mouth-piece of the narghilè between his lips; he contented himself with opening and shutting his mouth alternately, without in the least drawing his breath. “the devil,” he replied—“why, there’s no result!” it was shewn that he made the attempt badly, and the proper method practically exhibited to him. at last he drew in a mouthful, when the smoke—which he had discovered the means of drawing in, but knew not how to expel—found its way into his throat, and thence by his nose, almost blinding him. as soon as he recovered breath, he cried out—“away with it! what an abomination! oh! the hog—my stomach turns!” in fact, the annoyance continued for an hour, and he renounced for ever a habit which, he said, was fit only to amuse sluggards.
although napoleon managed to fail, thousands less mighty have managed to succeed. there is a curious kind of legend mentioned in brand’s antiquities, by way of accounting for the frequent use and continuance of taking tobacco, for the veracity of which he declares that he will not vouch.54 “when the christians first discovered america, the devil was afraid of losing his hold of the people there by the appearance of christianity. he is reported to have told some indians of his acquaintance, that he had found a way to be revenged on the christians for beating up his quarters, for he would teach them to take tobacco, to which, when they had once tasted it, they should become perpetual slaves.”
without venturing to authenticate this strange story, in the moral of which napoleon would have concurred—with a mental reservation in favour of snuff—after the above defeat, let us console tobacco lovers, that whilst the success of the first temptation closed the gates of paradise, the success of the second opens them again.
the following from an old collection of epigrams is, in every respect, worthy of the theme.
“all dainty meats i do defie,
which feed men fat as swine;
he is a frugal man indeed
that on a leaf can dine.
he needs no napkin for his hands
his fingers’ ends to wipe,
that keeps his kitchen in a box,
and roast meat in a pipe.”
in hamburg, 40,000 cigars are smoked daily in a population scarcely amounting to 45,000 adult males. and in london, the consumption must be considerable to furnish, from the profits of retailing, a living to 1566 tobacconists. in england, we may presume that the largest smoker of tobacco must be the queen, since an immense kiln at the docks, called the queen’s pipe, is occasionally lighted and primed with hundredweights of tobacco, sea damaged or otherwise spoiled, at the same time blowing a cloud
“which turks might envy, africans adore.”
the total number of cigars consumed in france in 1857 is stated to have been 523,636,000; and55 the total revenue of the french government from the tobacco monopoly is estimated at ￡7,320,000 annually. in russia the revenue is ￡7,200,000 annually; and in austria near ￡3,000,000. these are large sums to pay for the privilege of puffing.
the buffalo democracy estimates the annual consumption of tobacco at 4,000,000,000 of pounds. this is all smoked, chewed, or snuffed. suppose it all made into cigars 100 to the pound, it would produce 400,000,000,000 of cigars. these cigars, at the usual length, four inches, if joined together, would form one continuous cigar 25,253,520 miles long, which would encircle the earth more than 1000 times. cut up into equal pieces, 250,000 miles in length, there would be over 1000 cigars which would extend from the centre of the earth to the centre of the moon. put these cigars into boxes 10 inches long, 4 inches wide, and 3 inches high, 100 to the box, and it would require 4,000,000,000 boxes to contain them. pile up these boxes in a solid mass, and they would occupy a space of 294,444,444 cubic feet; if piled up 20 feet high, they would cover a farm of 338 acres; and if laid side by side, the boxes would cover nearly 20,000 acres. allowing this tobacco, in its unmanufactured state, to cost sixpence a pound, and we have 100,000,000 pounds sterling expended yearly upon this weed; at least one-and-a-half times as much more is required to manufacture it into a marketable form, and dispose of it to the consumer. at the very lowest estimate, then, the human family expend every year ￡250,000,000 in the gratification of an acquired habit, or a crown for every man, woman, and child upon the earth. this sum, the writer calculates, would build 2 railroads round the earth at a cost of ￡5,000 per mile, or 16 railroads the atlantic to the pacific. it would build 100,000 churches, costing ￡2,500 each, or 1,000,00056 dwellings costing ￡25 each (rather small!) it would employ 1,000,000 of preachers and 1,000,000 of teachers, giving each a salary of ￡125. it would support 3? millions of young men at college, allowing to each ￡75 a year for expenses.
what a cloud the “human family” would blow if they had each his share of the 4,000,000,000 pounds dealt out to him in cigars on the morning of the 25th of december, in the year of our lord, 1860. one feels dubious as to the number who would refuse to take their quota, if there were nothing to pay.
dr. dwight baldwin states, that in 1851, the city of new york spent 3,650,000 dollars for cigars alone, while it only spent 3,102,500 dollars for bread. the grand erie canal, 364 miles long, the longest in the world, with its eighteen aqueducts, and eighty-four locks, was made in six years, at a cost of 7,000,000 dollars. the cigar bill in the city of new york would have paid the whole in two years.
the number of cigar manufactories in america is 1,400, and the number of hands employed in them 7,000 and upwards. the total estimated weekly produce of these manufactories is 17? millions, and the yearly 840 millions. at 7 dollars per 1,000, these would be worth 5 million dollars, and adding 50 per cent. for jobber and retailer, the total cost to consumers would be 7? million dollars—add to this the sum paid for imported cigars, 6 million dollars, and we have 13? million dollars, the value of cigars consumed yearly in the united states, without adding profit to the imported cigars; so that, including the amount expended in tobacco for smoking and chewing, and in snuff, the annual cost of the tobacco consumed yearly, is not less than 30 million dollars or ￡6,000,000. this is but little more than is57 realized annually in great britain by the excise duty alone on the tobacco consumed at home; but it must be remembered, that in america tobacco is free of the duty of three shillings and twopence per pound, and free of charges for an atlantic passage, so that the tobacco represented by 6 millions there, would be represented here by at least six times that amount.
cloudland costs something to keep up its dignity after all, but beauty is seductive, and so is tobacco.
yes! st. john (percy, we mean—not “the divine”), there must be “magic in the cigar.” then, to the sailor, on the wide and tossing ocean, what consolation is there, save in his old pipe? while smoking his inch and a half of clay, black and polished, his susan or his mary becomes manifest before him, he sees her, holds converse with her spirit—in the red glare from the ebony bowl, as he walks the deck at night, or squats on the windlass, are reflected the bright sparkling eyes of his sweetheart. the irish fruit-woman, the jarvie without a fare, the policeman on a quiet beat, the soldier at his ease, all bow to the mystic power of tobacco9—all acknowledge the infatuations of cloudland.
