The daily clarion. [volume] (Meridian, Miss.) 1863-1866, 1866-02-02
Pipe of Perique.

Clouds ascend from the rich Favored weed,
and as they lift and roll upwards leave an
armona behind exhilarant as ambrosla. The
stranger TO Louisiana says it is favored by
white wine, it is tinctured with essence, 1t is
prepared with agreeable oders-mistaken
man 1t is the native favor of the weed that
is inhaled, the aroma that pervades all II
! touches-is as native to perique as the odor
to the rose. Generous weed. 1t enfoIds
within its easy, good-natured grasp all the
soothing excellence of the incense yet burn
ing in the tabled East Its rich brown
leaves unmatched by the dark hazel of the
beautiful Creole eyes. 1t does not part with
its color by preparation-it grows browner
deepens into black. 1t is native to Louis
lana here the first lifted its head above the
soil; here the last of its kind will live and
die; for no part of earth nourishes periqne
but that of our good old State.
Perique is famous. The nut brown deni-
zens of the East eagerly entreat its caresses.
1t is exported from Louisiana everywhere
ship sails. Perique to ourselves is what
champagne is to France. 1t is raised only
in St James, and the quantity is not sufi-
cient to supply our own demand. Fifteen
thousand carrots, sixty thousand pounds, is
/ all our native soil can yield in year. Its
Odor and favOrs, its richness and quality, its
aroma is stolen by Europe and incorporated
in inferior tobacco But the genuine leaf
grows solely in Louisiana 1t is the best
tobacco in the world 1t possesses the gen
tleness of opium, the spice of the betel, the
eXhilaration of India hemp. 1t is as rich III
oil as our own pecans. Aromatic in flavor,
strong bodied in aroma, eloquent in odOr.
searching in pungency, heavy i'll richness,
peTique is unequaled in the world. 1t may
not have the light texture OfNuelta AbajO,
nor own the "drowsy syrups of the Turk
( ish leaf; ii may not be capable of manufac-
ture as tie Virginia or Kentucky; it has an
excellence emphatically its Own-it is per
ique.
St James is the only soil that yields it
NatchitOches does not match or approach it
in qnality. Nowhere in the State is it
grown but i'll st. James. The mode of prep
aratiOn is borrowed from the East, and Is as
primitive as pounding grain to grind it.
No complicated machinery is required to
roll it, no hydraulic apparatus to press it,
no machine to stem it. A pair of hands and
piece of rope is all the machinery. The
/ green leaf is hung up and dried until it is
/ yellow. The Leaf is stemmed and manipu-
lated into rolls The loose roofs are wound
in the coils of small rope that is rolled round
and round it, the coils close fitting to each
other. The roll is then worked by strong
pull at each end of the rope. Bind man in
the coil of a rope, and pull determinedly at
each end his bones will snap like pipe-stems
while bones, muscles and tissue will be
rolled into a cOmmingled mass of flesh. The
strain ofthese coils on the roll is not allowed
to relax, or the weed to recover from the
strength of the thews that grasp it in iron
strength. Strain after strain is given, until
the roll is pressed into a cigar shape-twO
truncated cones placed base to base. Then
it israllOwed to remain within the folds for
some time, until the sweat of fermentation
takes place-a period known only to the
manufacturer. The coils are unwOund and
the roll is free. 1t is again wound with
stronger pressure than before the coils are
fixed, and the roll, coils and all laid away.
When the tobacco becomes easy in the grasp
of rope-when the coils fit loose and can be
slipped off, it is carrot of perique tobacco
that is seen, the aromatic OdOr shut up
inside-N. o. Times