That's small compared to the more than 400,000 deaths attributed to cigarettes each year, but more than the number of male deaths in 1991 in the United States from Hodgkin's disease, bone cancer or tuberculosis. Pipes have to be loaded, tamped, coaxed into lighting, nurtured into staying lit, cleaned and rotated. I think if Hitler had been a pipe smoker, he would have stayed an artist. The patience needed for pipe smoking means it will never see the fadlike, celebrity-driven revival that cigars have enjoyed recently, pipe fans say. But some of the revived interest in pipe smoking may be a spillover from the cigar craze.
Pipe smoking can be more rewarding and economical than cigar smoking, say pipe smokers.
You could cough up a couple of hundred dollars for a box of high-quality cigars, but after the smoke clears, all that is left of the cigars is a cardboard box. The pipe smoker still has a nice pipe. But some smokers are willing to pay a lot for what they regard as miniature sculptures in briar wood or meerschaum. At the Great Northern club meeting, Brown showed off part of his collection, a seven-pipe set made by Charatan, a renowned English pipe company.