The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-10-27
THE USE OF TOBACCO
The Habit of a Dozen Different
Nations.
THE BABY SMOKERS OF INDIA.
The Betel Chewers of Siam and the Little
Pipes of the Japanese Cigar
cites in the East.
FOR THE SUNDAY HERALD-COpyrghted. |

was unknown until America was discov-
cred. A half-century later it had been in
PRODUCED into China, and within few gen
erati0ns the whole world was using it.
You will hardly find place on this big,
round earth where the people do not now
smoke, and the Orient has become
THE HOME OF TOBACCO.
The almond-eyed Japanese swallow more
smoke than they do rice; the pig tailed
Chinamau glOries in his cheap pig tail plug,
and some of the biggest and best cigars in
the world are made by the women of Bur
NAH The Queen of benighted Korea
smokes American cigarettes by the thou
sand, and the harem of the Sultan is filed
with fair ladies who delight in the hookah.
In Japan, men, women and children are
fond of smoking, and one of the most
accessory articles of household furniture
is little tobacco hibachi, or box, about
eight inches square, which, containing a
bowl of charcoal and round bamboo tube,
is placed before the visitor with a cup of
delicious tea at the beginning of his call.
Seated on his bare feet, cross-legged on the
floor, he picks up a coal with a pair of iron
chopsticks and drops it into his pipe, and
smokes during his sips while he chats. If
he would expectOrate he raises the bamboo
tube to his mouth and drops the saliva in
it, and then places it back in the hibachi.
His pipe has metal bowl less than the size
of a thimble, and its bamboo stem is about
i foot long. He carries his tobacco in a
pouch at his waist, and you note that it is
cut fine like
THE TOBACCO OF EGYPT.
He rolls a pinch of it up into a ball before
he puts it into his pipe, and the pipe is so
small that two whiffs will exhaust its con-
tents. He swallows the smoke and expels
it through his nOstrils, and then cleans
out the pipe by knocking it against the
brass bowl of the hibachi. He takes from
ten TO fifty such smokes every day, and as
he goes from place to place, he carries his
pipe stuck in at the belt of his gown.
Some of the most beautiful art works of
Japan are pipe-hOlders, and balls of ivory
made in the shape of figures, which hang
at one end of the draw string of the
tobacco pouch. These last are known as
uetsukes, and they hang over the top of the
belt thus fastening the pouch of tobacco to
it,
Since the revolution cigarette
has become very common in Japan, and /
had the pleasure of smoking cigarettes
with the supreme court and the various
officers of the government Tea and
tobacco were offered me at the entrance of
every department, and l did not make a
single call in the whole country where
did not find tobacco on the floor.
TIE KOREANS ARE THE LATEST SMOKERS
have ever seen, and they have the right
to call tobacco by one of its japanese
names, which is 1.-The FOOLS herb, or the
poverty weed" Outside Of the most
squalid of Korean mud hutS, you seldom
fail to find big-hatted man dressed in a
long, dazzling gown of delicate blue or red.
smoking a pipe as long as a walking cane
In the villages you will see groups of such
men, Orof boys like them, squatted on their
heels in ring, each with his pipe showing
out under his big hat The bowls of these
pipes are about as big Us a small chestnut,
and they rest on the ground, while the
other end of the pipe is between a pair OF
Korean lips, or in case its owner is talking,
is resting laZily against his lower teeth.
The higher the rank of the Korean the
longer his pipe-stem. A yangban, or noble,
considers long pipe a badge of aristocracy,
as 1t requires slave at hand to light it for
him. The Korean smokes these long pipes
as he walks along the street, and every
man and boy carries his tobacco pouch tied
to his waist. His other personal belong
ings he carries in big sleeve in his gown,
but his tobacco pouch is q work of art. 1t
is of leather or cloth, beautifully embroid-
q
over his belly.
BABIES WEAR THESE POUCHES,
but understand the children do not smoke
before they can talk. Both the emperor
and his son are cigarette smokers, and the
women of Korea smoke the pipes of the
country. Their only smoking is done in
the company Of their husbands, and of their
few lady friends. They are never seen on
the streets, and such tobacco as they have
is bought by their husbands. There are
few pipe stores in Korea, but you find
tobacco and pipe stores in every Japanese
village and some of the pipes of Japan are
costly, and are works of high art. The
Korean merchant removes neither his hat
nor his pipe when he waits upon you; and,
during such shopping as 1 did in the Kor-
can capital, l was not given 4 single invita-
ton to smoke.
THE CHINESE SMOKE EARLY AND OFTEN,
and it is as good as play to watch one of
the mobiles of China using tobacco. He
prefers the water-pipe, and he has a ser
want who puts the pipe-stem in his mouth,
and waits till he has taken half-a- dozen
whiffs before he carries it away again.
The smoke comes bubbling through the
liquid, and the almond eyes of the Celestial
sparkle with enjoyment as the nicotine en-
ters his blood. Ii Hung Chang smokes in
this way, and during the interview which l
had with him at Tien Tsin, his servant
held pipe with a stem at least four feet
long to his lips, and lighted it for him at
intervals of ten minutes. The great vice
roy took about ten whiffs at a time, and
then the servant took the pipe away, pulled
out its metal bowl and refilled it with to-
baccO, bringing it back little later on to
patiently hold it to his eXcellency's lips
while he smoked.
The Chinese do not use cigars nor chew.
They have a tobacco much like
THE AMERICAN PIG-TA1L TWIST,
which they cut up for smoking, and they
are largely addicted to snuff. You will
find snuff stores in the larger cities, and
the article used is coarser than the Scotch
snuff The women smoke, and not few of
the boys and men are addicted to the use Of
cigarettes. The average Chinese cigarette
is the poorest and the cheapest in the
world. You can get three of them for one
tenth of cent, and they are dear at that
The baby smokers of the world are found
in Siam and Burmah. saw little tots of
four, as naked as on the day they were
born, trOtting about Bangkok with cigar
cites in their mouths, and the babies Of
Rangoon and Mandalay are taught TO chew
the betel nut, mixed with tobacco, as soon
as they are weaued. The Siamese chill
dren, like their fathers, use their ears as
cigarette and cigar holders, and the lack Of
clothing or pockets on the part of the little
ones necessitates their carrying these
articles over their ears, as the American
clerk carries his pencil or pen. 1 saw one
noble Siamese boy with a shaved head and
string about his waist, who had
CIGARETTE OVER EACH EAR
and another in his mouth. After a few
moments he fhrpVV AWAY the ciparatte in