The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1889-09-25
WHO INVENTED SMOKING.
Reasons For Thinking That Tobacco ID
Not of American Origin.

1t is generally supposed that the
uses of tobacco were not known out
side of America and its islands before
the discovery of the western world.
While convincing proof to the con-
trary has not been obtained, the ex-
plorations of recent years have raised
! the question whether the tobacco habit
in the fifteenth century was not far
more widely prevalent than has been
believed. 1t is learned that among
many of the Pacific islands the natives
used tobacco long before they were
visited by white men, and there is no
tradition among them of a time when
their fathers did not understand the
culture and uses of the tobacco plant.
Throughout inner Africa also the use
of tobacco is universally known, and
there is every reason to believe that
some of the varieties of nicOtiana in
common use are indigenous. For all
We know to the contrary, the savages
of Central Africa, who were quite un-
known at the time Columbus dis
covered America. were putting their
pipes long before he made himself ia
nous.
There is no doubt that the discovery
of American tobacco had considerable
influence upon The tobacco habit in
Africa, if it did not actually introduce
it. Our common Virginia tobacco was
carried far up the Nile to equatorial
Africa long before white men pene.
trated that region. Schweinfurth was
the first to discover that this imported
plant is in use among several of the
Bahr ell Ghasal and Welie-Makua
tribes, and it is a curious fact that the
savages who use this exotic have no
native name for it. Each tribe has its
own name for the native variety of to-
bacco. but the appellations the Africans
apply to the imported plant show un-
mistakabiv that they are derived, one
and all, from the word tobacco.
So far as this large region, at least,
is indebted to America for an improved
quality of the weed, the obligation
seems to be acknowledged in the
names given to the article. But the
indigenous varieties are far more pre-
Valent, and are largely used even
where Virginia tobacco is cultivated.
And since the foreign source of the
exotic has been SO easily discovered in
the languages of the people, it seems
not unreasonable to suppose that in the
greater regions to which it has not ex-
tended, and where no foreign influence
is discernible, the smoking habit had
an Independent origin.
1t is not at all certain, says the New
York Sun, that the white race has
prior claim even upon the invention OF
a cigar. In all the parts of New Guinea.
the largest island in the world, thai
have yet been visited, tobacco is culti-
waited, and in some of these districts
the humble pipe contributes nothing
to the enjoyment of the weed and is
not even known. DR.. Maclay saw ma.
tives with crude-looking cigars in their
mouths who had never seen a white
man before, and thought he had
dropped from the sky. DR.. Finsch,
who some years later explored the
coast for hundreds of miles, saws the
natives of the whole northeast coast
of New Guinea. though inveterate,
smokers, had never heard of a pipe.
and returned those which he gave them
as articles for which they had no use.
He says they roll the partly dried
leaves into a rude cigar, and, not be-
ing blessed with Havana wrappers,
they tie around their cigars a large
green leaf from tree. Doubtless the
vilest weeds sold on the Bowery are
superior to these products of Papuan
ingenuity, which hold fire so poorly
that live coal is always kept at hand
to revivify them. But they suit the
native taste, and the people seem to
regard those who draw tobacco smoke
through pipe-stem as belonging to
an inferior order OF human beings.