_(For the Mirror.)_
As snuff-taking seems to increase, the following plan might be adopted by
the patrons of that art, to ease _John Bull_ of his _weight_, and make
him feel as _light_ and _easy_, as if he had taken a _pinch of the
"Prince Regent's Mixture_.'"
Lord Stanhope says, "Every professed, inveterate, and incurable
snuff-taker, at a moderate computation, takes one pinch in ten minutes.
Every pinch, with the agreeable ceremony of blowing and wiping the nose,
and other incidental circumstances, consumes a minute and a half. One
minute and a half out of every ten, allowing sixteen hours and a half to
a snuff-taking day, amounts to two hours and twenty-four minutes out of
every natural day, or one day out of every ten. One day out of every ten
amounts to thirty-six days and a half in a-year. Hence, if we suppose the
practice to be persisted in forty years, two entire years of the
snuff-taker's life will be dedicated to tickling his nose, and two more
to blowing it. The expense of snuff, snuff-boxes, and handkerchiefs, will
be the subject of a second essay, in which it will appear, that this
luxury encroaches as much on the income of the snuff-taker as it does on
his time; and that by a proper application of the time and money thus
lost to the public, a fund might be constituted for the discharge of the
national debt."
Queries.--Is not this subject worthy the attention of the finance
committee? Might not the _cigar gentlemen add_ to the discharge of the
debt?