Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-11-16
TASTE IN TOBACCO.
Eeccntrieities of Users of the Nicottan
Weed.

The Beers grow and manufacture tobac-
co of their own which is Of such detesta-
BILE edor to civilized man that l remember
during the Zulu war we used to tip the
KafIir or Afrikander drivers of mail-carts
not to smoke except during the halts of
stages, and then always to leeward. 1t
was no use to offer them our superior arti-
cle for the dreadful Dutchmen scorned it
as trash. Equally odious is the ordinary
tobacco Of the Chinese. The Boer stuff
Celestial has heavy, clinging, clogging
odor that suggests opium in the compost
ton. The South African leaf when ready
for consumption looks like crumpled hay,
with miscellaneous dead garden-rubbish
and the swccpings of conservatory add
cd. 1t is full of twigs and knots and
threads of vegetable matter, and is of u
general grcenish-gray tint. The Chinese,
on the other hand, is curiousy soft it
lifts up in silky skcins Of exquisitely fiuc
hair-like strands, and is OF deep chicory-
color, and resembles some vegetable fibre
stepped in jaggcry ratLcr than tobacco
leaf
The Boor tobacco blows out of the pipe
it is 80 dry and vagrant but the other
and the bowl has to be filled as lightly as
possible in order to obtain any draught at
all. To smoke n pipe Of the former is to
scorch the tongue and to 60 about all day
with the taste of Turkey rhubarb in your
mouth TO venture on the latter is to en-
| joy cool, highly aromatic pipe, with the
subsequent penalty of giddlness and sick
headache, as after laundering admins
tration of chloroform. 1t requires only an
effort Of the stomach 10 return to Bocr to-
bacco n second time to return To Chinese
n second time you must turn Chinaman
In singular contrast to both these dsa-
greeablo herbs is the tobacco of the red
Indian, which is both light aud fragran
even when thele is no tobacco in it,
For the savage cannot always obtain the
precious leaf !; and very often when he
can, economy and it may be, taste, leads
him to adulterate 1t with various vegeta-
BILE substances OF pleasant flavor. The
most useful is the inner bark of the red
willow, which l have helped Navajo Indi.
ans, in the valley Of the Rio Virgin, to
prepare in the following way: The young
withes of the willow are cut into lengths
of about two feet the outer bark is re-
moved, and the inner is then peeled up in
long strips, one end being left adhcling to
the withes.
These are then stuck into the ground
around charcoal fire, and kept there till
the strips of bark, hanging down in n
fringe, shrivel up with the heat and curl
themselves into crisp ringlets round the
upper ends. When they seem sufficiently
dry they are crumbled up in the hand in
to pieces the size of ordinary bran. To
this, if the shrub grows in the vicinity
the smoked leaves of species of sumacll
are added, which are simply prepared by
roasting them over the cindors and thoi
crumbling them. If, finally, leaf of to-
bacco be crushedup and mingled with tho
willow and sumach, smoking mixture
OF an agreeable aromatic flavor and fra,
: GRUNGE, and of harmless milduess is oh
= tanned. 1t is smoked, to correct the heat
in long-stemmed pipe, ending in a ca
pacious cylindrical bowl of clay, which
compared with the small reed.stemmet
; opium pipe kind of instrument which tn,
. Celestial fayors, or the villainously un