Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-11-19
DRINKING SMOKE.

Charles Warren stoddard, Now in Per-
STA, Tries TO Drive Tobacco Lovers
Mad.
From His Letter to the San Francisco Chronicle.
We gathered in the cosiest corner of
the room. We clapped our hands; q
servant who was nodding in the all en-
tered, and at once began preparing the
pipes. He placed crystal vase before
each Of us, it was mounted with fretted
silver, and was topped with an elaborate
ly gilded earthen bowl: from its neck
the snske-like stem, a fathom long,
wound with threads of gold and silver,
stretched to the lips, upon which rested
a mouthpiece of clouded amber. The
vase was half filed with rose water, and
in eacn vase q handful of fresh rose
leaves was sopped In this water: The
pipe bearer then took handful or tum-
bak, a mild, sweet, Persian weed,
plunged it into basin Of water, and
wrung it out like sponge. We regard
ed with curious eyes the preparation
80 would you. The tumbak is still damp /;
ne presses it into the pipe-bowI and
heaped it up, making little nest in the
center of it. Then live coal is placed
In the nest, where it sends up thin, fra
grant steam. You throw yourself back
upon the cushions of the divan; you
place upon your lips the superb amber
mouthpiece, three or four inches in
iength, and carved, Or girdled with
hoops Of gold. You exhaust your lungs
md draw in, through the glittering coils
,f the stem, volumes OF cool, deoderized
moke. Ii this smoke has any flavor, it
not that of tobacco; it is Infinitely
liner, sweeter, more delicate. Is it the
tose-water through which the smoke has
passed by means of tube that extends
rom the base of the bowl nearly to the
,ottom of the vase and then rises in
bubbles like snoW-balls and enters the
lexible stem near the throat of the vase
'r is it the moist tumbak, exuding some
lbtile essence under the hot breath of
lie glowing Goals? Or is it only fancy
lat possesses one when the nargilich il
ell lighted and the pipe bearer sits by
atching it as if life hung upon the con-
lmption of this solitary smoke? Occas-
'nally ne probes the bowl or places
esh Goals within it, and then he smiles
the white clouds pour forth in immense
olumes and fiji the chamber with
ne incense of the Orient. The
lhalation is complete; one breathes
ne smoke Of tumbak as he breathes the
cry air; the bosom heaves like the rise
nd fall of great wave at sea; you inn
lgine you are doubling your inches across
he chest; pleasurable thrill is commu-
1icated to every nerve in the body.
You food your whole interior with
smoke. A happy thought strikes you,
you laugh, and the cloud that is dis
charged from your mouth is like smoke
belched from cannon. There is some.
thing suggestive of intoxication in all
this. The water bubbles in the cistern
OF The pipe; the rose leaves tumble
about and delight the eye; the gurgle
soothes the ear; the palate is enchanted
with long draughts of an impalpable
essence from source that seems abso
lutely inexhaustible. Drinking
smoke" the Arabs call it. 1t is the only
term they use to express the act. And
pray, why should they not drink it
when it has been tried by fire, filtered in
bath of roses, chilled in its flight
through that writhing step, and slid al
last through handful of glowing am
berp'