Cigars.--The best and most approved cigars consumed among our nobility and
gentry, are those brought from the Havanah in the West Indies. The
Woodville, so called from the name of the importer, are held in the
greatest estimation. In form, these should gradually decline from the
middle to long and tapering ends. Color, a clear raw sienna brown,
variegated with bright brown yellow spots. In flavour they should be light
and spicy, draw free, leaving a firm white ash. An excellence too, that
should distinguish these cigars from the common kind, independent of their
taste, should be the length of time they are capable of retaining their
light without being drawn.
The strong flavoured Cuba, by smokers of long standing, when indeed a pipe
has not altogether superseded the cigar, are in the greatest request.
These vary in color from black to brown, according to the strength or age
of the leaf; and like the Woodville, are also distinguished when properly
seasoned, and kept by mildew spots, though of a darker hue.
The tobacco of the Cubas growth is very frequently made up into cheroots,
a form some prefer to the cigar, and are sold under the denomination of
Manilla.
Without entering into a description of the numerous kinds of cigars vended
in the United Kingdom, we can only remark, as a fact well authenticated,
that the greater and more common part, sold from eight to thirteen
shillings the hundred; are prepared from the cabbage-leaf, soaked in a
strong solution of tobacco-water. Cigars, so composed, are generally
passed off under the names of _Hambro'_, _Maryland_, and _Virginia_. The
same deceptions may be said to exist, in respect to the small cheroots,
whether scented or not: they are, with comparatively trifling exceptions,
nearly all of British make.
The reason is obvious, why these deceits are practised: in a former part
of this little work, we stated the duty on the imported raw leaf of
tobacco to be three shillings per lb., while on the _manufactured_, it is
just thrice that amount: at once a reason why a good price must needs be
given for the genuine foreign article.
A great saving is effected in purchasing cigars by the weight or box as
imported, while from a respectable shop you may be always sure of their
being made abroad, as they are sent under seal in boxes from the West
Indies.
_Tobaccos._--An idea prevails among young smokers, that tobacco,
independent of its fancied vulgarity, is always much stronger than cigars;
an error that is very common. Like cigars, indeed, it is of various growth
and quality, and like them, may be had weak, or strong. The smoker, if he
desires it, can have tobacco as weak as the mildest Havanahs. The only
difference in their manufacture is, the leaf is cut into shreds to form
the one, and wrapt up to form the other. The Persian, Turkish, and
Maryland tobacco, are the mildest. The shag and twists, the strongest; the
latter of which, as its name implies, is manufactured uncut; its
excellence may always be told by a shining cut and an agreeable smell.
Besides these, we have tobaccos under an infinite number of appellations,
with all the variations in their nature, incident to climate, growth,
age, and method of being prepared for use.
The tobacco held in the greatest esteem in the East, is the Persian. The
Turks, notwithstanding their own excellent growth of the plant, give very
high prices to possess it; especially that which comes from, _Shiraz_.
This is accounted the best. The moslems are also much in the habit of
smoking a composition of opium and rose leaves with their tobacco through
scented waters. A similar practice is common in India among the higher
class; the same materials are made into a thick consistency and rolled
into balls, which they term _Jugeny_. To the unpractised palate, the
smoking of this composition has a strangely exhilarating and intoxicating
effect.
A singular habit also prevails in the island of Ceylon. Some of the
natives wrap the leaf of a strong tobacco they call _Kapada_ into a
lengthened form, and then covering it with the leaf of the _Wattakan_
tree, light one end of it, and smoke by the other, till the whole is
consumed.
Besides the tobacco of the West Indies, Persia and Turkey, considerable
quantities are cultivated in the Levant, the coasts of Greece, the
Archipelago, the island of Malta, and Italy.
_Pipes._--In reference to these essentials to smoking tobacco, a great
variety of tastes are displayed, while that of each country forms an
amusing contrast to that of its neighbour. In the Eastern portion of the
globe, the gorgeous hookah or superb chibouque with their serpent train
are caressed: in France, the short twisted pipe: in Germany, the
merschaum: in Holland, the long slender black pipe: in America, the short
red clay pipe, or the ingeniously manufactured, yet murderous tomahawk,
bears the tube of comfort; while in England--happy England--all, or any of
these, are attainable.
The portable pipes the Turks are in the habit of using have their bowls
generally made of a peculiar kind of red clay; and the tube part of
jasmine and cherry sticks. The most expensive and those which from their
exceeding size, and costliness, are regarded as the most sumptuous
furniture of the mansion, are composed of a variety of materials.
The tubes, which sometimes have been known to exceed twenty yards in
length, are commonly made of leather covered with the richest velvets,
and bound with gold or silver wire; this is generally terminated at the
one end by a gold, silver, or amber mouth-piece; while the other (when
used as it almost always is with scented water) tipped with a reed of a
foot long, is placed in a decanter containing the water, through which the
smoke is to be drawn; it is then met and joined by a similar reed, bearing
the chafing dish; this is of silver, very large, with a fretwork cover of
the same metal, through which the fumes of the aromatics used arise.
It is by no means an uncommon thing in the East to have these tubes (which
are remarkably flexible) carried through the wall of one apartment into
another, that the apparatus may not be in the way of the smoker.
The merschaum or German pipes, in Europe, are celebrated for the virtues
of their bowls, which are of a very porous quality. These are composed of
a substance thrown upon the shore by the sea in Germany, and being called
_Ecume de Mer_ form the origin of the word Merschaum. In Germany they are
commonly set in copper, with leather and horn tubes, but in England they
are variously formed and ornamented with chains and tassels.
_Tubes_, when they are used for cigars (whose flavour we think they
greatly tend to spoil) should be short, and composed of amber.
_Lights for Smoking._--The advantage of obtaining an instantaneous light,
is perhaps seldom more appreciated than by smokers. The articles used
until lately for the purpose of igniting cigars, when out, or travelling,
were the Amadou, with the flint and steel--the phosphorus box, and
pneumatic cylinder:--all of which were, more or less, uncertain or
inconvenient, until the ingenious invention of Jones's Prometheans. These
may very fairly be said to possess a never-failing facility in producing
an instantaneous light.
The Promethean is composed of a small bulb of glass, hermetically sealed,
containing a small part of sulphuric acid, and surrounded by a composition
of chlorate of potash and aromatics. This is enclosed in paper prepared
for the purpose. The light is simply effected by giving the promethean a
smart tap that breaks the bulb, when the acid, coming in contact with the
composition, causes instant ignition. It must be remarked however, the
Lucifers or chlorate matches that ignite, by drawing the match through
sand paper, introduced by the same inventor, is decidedly bad for a cigar;
the fumes arising from the combustion being offensive, are too apt to
spoil the flavour of the leaf.
In divans, burners called Jos-sticks, are generally used for lighting
cigars, as they smoulder in their light, like the promethean.