Nicotiana Part 8

_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 sh.o.r.e by the sea in Germany, and being called _Ec.u.me 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 ta.s.sels.

_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 gla.s.s, 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.

FINISH.

London: Printed by Littlewood and Co. Old Bailey.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Memoires Philosophiques, Historiques, Physiques, concernant la Decouverte de l'Amerique, &c. Par Don Ulloa. Traduit avec des observations par M----._ Paris, 1787. Vol. II. p. 58.

[2] _M. Valmont de Bomare_, formerly director of the cabinets of Natural History, Medicine, &c. to the prince of Conde.

[3] The British Historian.

[4] A well-known perfumer in his day who resided in Beaufort's Buildings, London, A. D. 1740.

[5] Scrows are the untanned hides of buffaloes, sewed with thongs of the same, and made up into bags or bales for the exportation of several kinds of American produce, as indigo, snuff, tobacco, &c. &c. The fleshy side of the skin is turned outwards, whilst the hairy side, partly sc.r.a.ped, comes into anything but an agreeable contact with the commodity.

[6] Independent of His Royal Highness's attachment to the Columbian weed, the Duke has a repository where are to be seen, in curious arrangement, all the smoking tubes in use by the civilized inhabitants of the world, from the slender pipe used by the Hollander, to the magnificent Hookah used by the Indian prince in his Court, or on the back of his elephant; and so attentive is the prince to this healthy amus.e.m.e.nt, that even in his travelling carriage a receptacle is formed for the pipe, the tinder, the flint, and the steel.

[7] The Pipe of Peace.

[8] The two celebrated anglers.

[9] See Walton's complete Angler. Charles Cotton of Beresford Hall, his little Fishing House.

[10] Except from British possessions in America, and then it is 2_s._ 9_d._

[11] A short pipe smoked by the lower orders, and generally rendered black by time and the frequent use of the commonest s.h.a.g tobacco.

[12] Sterne's Tristram Shandy.

[13] Sterne's Sentimental Journey.

[14] By Goldsmith.

[15] Smollett's Peregrine Pickle.

[16] Antiquarian fact: The identical Pipe and Chair used by the celebrated author of the Rambler are still in being, and are exhibited as relics of no ordinary value, at the house he used formerly to frequent in Bolt-court, Fleet-street. It now goes under the very appropriate appellation of Dr. Johnson's Coffee-house.

[17] We more particularly refer to this fact from the reports concerning the Cholera Morbus that are now in circulation.

[18] Discourse on the Plague, A. D. 1678--recommends tobacco smoked in a pipe.

[19] Physician to the General Infirmary of the county of Stafford, A. D.

1785.

[20] At that time frequently so called.

[21] Vide Experiments on the Effects of Oil of Tobacco on Pigeons, &c.

&c.--Phil. Trans. Vol. xx. Part I. Append, p. 38. Fonbine sur les poissons, Florence. Quarto.

[22] Treatise on the Culture of Tobacco.

[23] I am sorry to say our leading black primer is all out; I have been down below, but they cannot spare any there.--_Printer's Devil._