THE CABINET OF CLOUDLAND.
“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;
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
Reliquiæ Hearnianæ, 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, “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—
“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, “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 into 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 Kœmpfer, “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 every 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.
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 pounds
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 be 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 Dutch 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 the
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 more
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. Köhl 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.
“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.
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. “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; and 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 1,000,000 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 3⅓ 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 17½ 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 7½ million dollars—add to this the sum
paid for imported cigars, 6 million dollars, and we have 13½ 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 is 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 tobacco[9]—all acknowledge the infatuations of
CLOUDLAND.