Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-05-04
AN UNLIGHTED CIGAR.
ACTIONS OF TWO SMOKERS MEET
ING ON THE STREET.

True Equality of the American People
Shown-Etiquette of Cigar Lighting in
Cuba - Street Politeness in Spain.
Smokers in England.
1t is in small matters that national charac-
teristics are best seen. Nothing, for instance,
could better show the true republican equal
ity of the American people than the actions
of two smokers meeting on the street. The
one is a well dressed, well to do citizen, carry
ing an unlighted cigar. Toward him is
coming seedy looking individual, socially
and peculiarly the very antipodes of the first,
but he is putting away contentedly at weed,
the materials of whose composition would
puzzle the state analyst to discover The
first man stops. "Can you oblige me with
some fireE he asks. "Why, certainly"
responds the seedy one, and with the courte-
GUS action of Brummel he removes his cignr
from his lips, knocks off the ash and hands it
to the well to do citizen. Then and there the
'two for" and the straight Havana meet
and mingle their fires and aromas, and with
more polite bows the two men pass on.
In the Cuban islands there are special and
strict forms of etiquette relative to this uni
versal practice of smoking. Should gentle
man stop another on the street to ask a light
he would construe a refusal to oblige him
into direct and Intentional insult. But hav-
ing once held between his fingers the partly
consumed cigar of whose fire he has been bor-
rowing, the owner thereof would be as deeply
hurt and offended were he to offer to return
it. No, he must, instead, open his cigar case
and proffer fresh weed in return for the
fire.
THE REASON FOR IT.
To connoisseurs in cigars the reason for
this act is obvious. A cigar which has been
bruised against another in the act of lighting
it loses considerable portion of the delicacy
of its flavor, and should that one against
which it is thus rubbed be of an inferior
flavor and aroma, these qualities in itself
are, to delicate taste, completely destroyed.
1t must be rather irritating under these lattsr
circumstances to have to lose an exquisite
"weed" for the sake of strange etiquette
which commands the acceptation of cigar
of much inferior flavor and value. How
ever, a breach of this point is never made,
and well bred Cuban would die sooner than
show any irritation.
In most European countries, with the ex-
ception, perhaps, of cigarette smoking Spain,
the street etiquette of smoking is much less
severe. The majority of smokers in Eng
land, for instance, carry matches in their
pockets, and should a passing smoker, with
unlt pipe or cigar request light, it is a
match that is handed to him. Small boys
throng the streets of all big English towns
selling boxes containing $50 wax vesta
matches for two cents; there is consequently
very little excuse for smoker to be without
light. The rainy and windy conditions of
the climate are equally well provided against
for smokers by "fusees," ''vesuvians, p 'flam-
ers,n which are varieties of matches having
large heads composed of gunpowder paste,
which will remain ignited until consumed i'll
any kind of weather.-New York Press.