Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-04-17
Washington Correspondence Inter Ocean

HOW lTREAl NFENE4IN&AIoo O-uOhb.
The use Of tobacco is supposed to be
an essential to military success, but
there is a curious difference in the
manner In which great generals han
die a cigar General Grant, for ex-
ample, who is the greatest smoker of
the age. uses his as if he enjoyed it. He
cuts off the tip with his pocket-knife.
and, once lighted, the cigar never
leaves his lips until the fire gets so
close to his mustache as to SINCE it.
and then he sticks it on a wooden
tOOthplck and hangs on until the last
Whit can be drawn. He is a connois
seur IN tobacco, and always mokes a
medium strength cigar, which he i'm
ports himself from Havana. He
smokes slowly and deliberately, with
the greatest enjoyment, and believes
that to knock off the ashes spoils the
flavor of the cigar He does not use a
great many day, although he is con
stantly smoking. A box of fifty will
last him a week or ten days.
HOW SHERMAN SMOKES.
General Sherman's habits are the
evry reverse. He smokes quite as con
stantly as General Grant, but uses
i've cigars to Grants one, and he isn't
particular about the quality. He knows
a good cigar when he tastes it, but is
Indifferent whether he has a Wheel
ing stoga or Reina Victoria III his
moHth. He smokes as if it was dis
agreeable duty to perform as rapidly
as possible, chews the end that is in
his mouth, and bites it off in chunks,
so that his cigar is consumed at one
end as it is at the other.
Grant always talks with cigar in
his mouth; Sherman never does. He
LAYS 1t down somewhere when he
starts to make a remark, fOrgets where
he put it, and lights a fresh one when
he has finished what he wanted to
say. The result is that his desk or the
furniture around the room in which
he happens to be smoking is usually
loaded with several half consumed
stubs At his headquarters when he
was in Washington, 1t was generally
the case that these stubs were to be
found IN every room that he frequent
ed, and the staff officers called them
'Sherman's old soldiers.
The General is an absent minded in
dividual, and his carelessness of the
forms Of etiquette is the result of pre-
occupation rather than indifference to
propriety. He has frequently been
known to borrow a cigar to get light
and then throw the other mans
cigar away without regard to cOnse-
quences.
GENERAL SHERIDAN IS FOND OF To-
BACCO,
RI into N7rNl-C hut han
do anything else while ne has q cigar
in his mouth without losing his fire
He breathes through his nose, and
unless he pays attention to the bust
ness Of smoking his cigar goes out
every other minute. The result is
that the carpet around hiS desk and
tho cuspidor beside him is usually
streWn with half burned matches, for
he generally needs full box Of them.
for every cigar he smokes. | called his
attention to the fact the other day and
he said: Eyes, that's the only extrav-
agance | am guilty of. Somehow |
never could keep my cigar lighted,
and If | had dollar for every match
/ have wasted | would be as rich as
Vanderbilt"
1t is interesting to see Grant and
Sheridan smoke together, the one as
II he came by it naturally, and the
other as if he enjoyed it, but didn't
know how to do it very well. Grant
never relights cigar, but if he had
Sheridan's habit he would use up a
box of fifty IN an hour.
GENERAL BUTLER
always takes what is called a "cold
smoke" He never lights cigar, but
always carries one with the wrong
end in his mouth thrust way down in
his throat until only an inch or sol
visible. He doesn't chew it, but rolls
his tongue around the tobacco as if he
enjoyed the taste. When ne dictates
letters or speeches to his sEenographer
he keeps his cigar in his mouth, tips
his chair back, puts his feet on the
table and shuts hls eyes. When he
finishes the dictation, if he wants the
notes written out at once, ne goes to
sleep until the stenographer has I'm
lshed writing, when he wakes up,
signs his name, and goes about othe
business. He has the happy facility
that IS also attributed to De Lesseps.
the famous French engineer, of going
10 sleep whenever he desires to, re
CARELESS of time, place or crrcumstan-
ces. Sleep with him is as much a
matter of will power as walking or
talking, and it is said that he can
wake himself whenever he wants to.
He looks at his watch, finds that he
has fifteen minutes unoccupied, shuts
his eyes, takes a snooze, and wakes
up at the end of time as promptly as if
he had an alarm clock striking beside
him.
LOGAN SMOKES BY SPELLS.
For weeks he will not light a cigar,
and then he will smoke constantly
During the period of abstinence he
usually carries a cigar in his pocket
and gnaws off a chunk to chew when
he feels like smoking. He likes a
pipe better than a cigar, and owns
several handsome meerschaums, but
Mrs. Logan doesn't like that sort of
thing. and the General never TSeS