Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1871-03-30
The Force Of Imagination.

An incident, which will be regarded as
rather odd and unique, may serve as ma
teTial for some curious speculations, as to
the force of Imagination, and also the SYM
pathy between our visual and oifaetery
organs. Colonel Flint of the Guards, q
bully and duelist described in the drama
tbs persona as a fireateT, was to stand
with his back to the ed-glowing chimney
piece in wills Coffee House" The
fashionable for great bloods Of the day to
smoke long pipes, designated as q yard
of clay" With such pipe Colonel Flint
had duly provided himself for rehearsal;
an o make his stage business more per-
iect, soft-rolling clouds of smoke b<gan to
issue. from the bowl, and float over the
once famous coffee room. In no time came
the manager, speaking quickly, My dear
F., on no account attempt to smokel
The Queen detests tobacco, and would
leave the box Immediately" '''.'.'
But there is no tobacco in the pipe"
replied the colonel. 5a5 ssa9
"Oh-come-nonsense .-asrr.stf
"Look heref-and the Colonel took
out of his waistcoat pocket handful of
dried herbs az got them in Covent
Garden Market this morning, ON the way
to rehearsal" 5gsTzs
"Well, we smelt tobacco the moment
we came Kithin sight of the stage"
said Mr. Dickens; ",the. pipe must be
foul" - -->1
at is quite anew pipel"
Mark Lemon now came up, and protest
ing that he also had smelt tobacco, and
that the pipe must have been an old one
reburnt, to look clean, the offending clay
was flung aside -l1 9l.j lloEi T5n
Before the next rehearsal, however, an
,4<al
obtained, independent of which it was
placed in the fire, and kept there at white
heat long enough to purify il ten times
over, even had it been one of The unclean.
Again the cloud began to unfold its vol
umes over Wills Coffee Reom; and
this time Sir Joseph Paxtsn came running
| from the seats in front to the stage, declar-
| ing that the Queen 50 detested the smell
OF tobacco that smoking must really not
! be attempted. Once again the Colonel
protested the innocence of his. pipe, in
| proof of which he produced q handful of
/ dried thyme and rose leaves from his
waisteoat pocket In vain. Sir Joseph
insisted that he smelt tobaccol They all
smelt ill' So this second yard of clay was
sent to shivers.
But the Colonel had chanced to see
Model of the Battle of Waterloo" exhib-
| tied some years before in Leicester square,
in which the various miniature platoOns Of
| infantry. as well as the brigades of artil-
| lery, were supposed TO be firing voileys,
| the clouds and wreaths of smoke being
| fragile fixtures These capital limitations
of clouds and wreaths of smoke were dis
covered, on very close examination, TO be
composed of extremely fine and thinly
drawn out webs of cotton, supported on
rings and long twirls of almost invisible
wire, and attached at one end TO the
mouths and muzzles of the miniature
cannon and musketry. This model
for triumph in the art of 'smok-
ing a pipe in the presence of
Queen who abhorred tobacco, was now
adopted by Col Flint, but held inreserve
from the morning rehearsal for the full
dress rehearsal of the same night, when
there would be a preliminary audience.
| He ventured to fiatter himself that all
these delicate considerations and assidui-
ties would be much applauded and COM
plimented. both by the accomplished au-
| thor and the management Far from it.
No sooner was the cloud of apparent smoke
perceived to issue from the pipe, than the
manager, stage manager and Sir Joseph
Paxton hurried together TO the too assidu-
GUS guardsman, begging him on no account
to persist in snOkingi-the smoke-or
this Ton examining the smoke) appearance
of smoking. 1t would be most iDjudicious.
Her Msjesty would think she smelt to-
baccc, and this would be as bad as if Her
Majesty really smelt it. At the same time
they added, collectively, that they them
selves had snleit tobacco, no matter from
what source or what causel OF course,
there was an end to the matter, as we were
all anxious to be harmonious; and the dis
comfitted =" fire. -eater of the company did
the bsst he could to bully the company In
Wills Coffee Room with his empty
bowleo and immaculate yard of clay.