Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-05-12
THE SMOKE CLUB.
A Jolly Way I'm which TO Pun Away
an Hour.

are enJOymchts io' s""''S i"'N"i y"
{ comforts of old folks lie in unreserve
chat and unconventional lounge, envel
oped in hazy atmosphere of halfin
cense and half alcohol. This mixture o
paradise and smith forge can be foun'
in Club, which DIR. Johnson defines a
IAN assemblage of good fellows meeting
under certain conditions AS there
were various kinds of fire mentioned il
the hard-shell preachers sermon, so the
annals of ages mention
VARIOUS KINDS OF cfUBs.
There was old Ben Jonson's Club, which
met at the Devils Tavern; the King Is
Head Club, frequented by Charles III; the
Brothers Club, where Swift, Bolingbroke
and Harley spent their leisure hours; the
Hanoverian Club, visited by George /;
the Beefsteak Club, where Peg Voting
ton was queen of the revels; the Kit-Kat
Club, patronized by painters and men of
letters; the Literary Club, famous for the
chats of Sam johnson, Oliver Goldsmith
and Edmund Burke; the Carlton Club,
still visited by members of Parliament;
the Wisrar Club of Philadelphia the old
est in America; the Manhattan Club,
where the big bugs of Gotham meet; and
the Tammany Club, where the sachems
ofDemocracy congregate when occasion
calls. But the club we need is
THE SMOKE CLUB,
where the various properties of the
weed grown in Virginia and Tennessee
may be tasted and discussed ad Hbitum.
This we believe to be the only way in
which we can create spirit of enter
prise in commerce and manufactures
among the sages who inhabt the Bluff.
When Il is fully organized and in a
working way we intend to form Swill
Milk Club, into which dairymen are to
be admitted gratis; and after that
Chiclery Club, wherein all who sell
South Sea Island nuts for coffee will have
an opportunity of showing that mixture
of castor bean and North Carolina pea |
is more wholesome than the beans of
Java and Rio For the present it will
do to sing
Return, We days, when endless pleasure
We found in reading or in leisure;
When calm around the common room
We pulled our daily pipes perfume"
In the way of an inaugural address we
of course must say something about the
THE WEED.
Old Stowe in his Chronicle" says Sir
John Hawkins carried it to England
from Florida in the year 1865. The
wondered at it, asked what it
meant, and at that time considered it a
mere drug. Hackluyt, in his account,
called it "a kind of dried herb, which,
when set on FIRE in an earthen cup, men
10 suck through a cane the smoke
thereof, which smoke satis6eth their
hunger No wonder it was looked upon
as curiosity. No man nowadays can
live on smoke alone; it is necessary to
have some cheese, bread, butter, coffee
and beefsteak with it, In 1884, it is
stated, Captain Barlow grandfather to
he famous Billy Barlow, under the aus
pieces of Sir Walter Raleigh latter whom
he former county seat of Shelby is
,alled), took the first cargo Of the weed
% London; but Camden asserts that the
first cargo was taken to England by
Ralph Lane, Governor of Virginia, in
1886 The Indians, wrote Harlott,
who accompanied Lane, used to take
he fume thereof by smoking it in Pipes
If clay; and we ourselves, during the
line we we're there, used to suck it after
heir fashion, as we do since our return"
That is the way we intend to take it in
he Smoke Club. John Smith, who
lidn't marry Pocahontas, but left a great
many namesakes behind him. says in
lis time noble ladies. and noble men
made no scruples to take a pipe.
Why should they?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
rave her countenance and encourage
nent to the weed She was jolly fair
,uffer, and said the vegetable had sin
.ular strength which might prove ben
fit to mankind and an advantage to
he nation and she was right Raleigh's
wager with the virgin queen that he could
the exact weight of the smoke
hat went off in pipe of tobacco is
old in thousand old books He
irst weighed the weed and afterward
weighed the ashes, and Bess granted that
What was wanting in prime weight must
rave evaporated in smoke So Walter
Won the wager, and the glorious Gloriana,
IS Spenser called her, said she had heard
If many laborers in fire who had turned
heir gold into smoke, but Raleigh was
he first who turned smoke into gold.
ANOTHER AYEcDOTE
$ told Of Walter, or rather of Walters
nan. 1t is stated that a servant Of
aaleighs brought him a tankard of ale
md a nutmeg into his study, while the
icholar was engaged in reading book
md smoking a pipe The servant was
10 frightened at seeing smoke issuing
rom his masters mouth that he threw
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