Morning journal and courier., 1890-10-07

xactly how and when an ash should be
flowed to fall and Just at what point q
tump ceases to be reputable. He can
top pipe as well as his father can, and
8 almost sufficiently skilful at the first at
empt to swallow enough of the stem to
'nable him to reach light to the bowl. |
The only joy, therefore, that the first of
his initial puffs at the royal weed lacks is
he exhilaration that comes from consum-
ng stolen fruit
The German boys first smoke is fami-
y affair, unspiced by parental displeasure,
and SO is just a trifie humdrum. There is,
however, silver lining even to this one
little cloud, for the Herr Papa's care is al
ways responsible for the fact that the first
cigar is as light as straw, clean and fra
grant, and calculated generally not to dis
turb the nostrils or the stomach of little
baby.
During the first few years of his expert
ence with tobacco the prosperous German
young man smokes quite extensively. He
sticks fast to cigars, and two-eent ones at
that. This habit is considered a pretty
bit of high life in Germany,
where even Bismarck is credited with linn
iting his expenditures for cigars to six dol
lars per hundred, and where patriotism is
so rampant that the ordinary citizen who
wishes to dine and wine as extensively as
leading statesman is not above the suspi- /
cion of disloyalty. According to Ameri- |
can ideas, the two-cent cigar is Just about /
the proper thing for the German young
man. 1t is mild and clean, and If careful |
ly selected fairly fragrant 1t is so very
dry, however, that it has an entirely diff /
ferent flavor from the American cigar of |
similar quality. 1t never makes the head 4
of the habitual smoker dizzy, nor does it /
turn his stomach and give him a lump in |
the throat Such a cigar as often in |
America satisfies dinner-time appetite is
not to be had in Germany, for the reason |
that money will not induce a tobacconist
to let cigar leave his storehouse till it
shall have been seasoned at least three or
four months. Consequently, in making
his debut as profession smoker, the Ger
man young man may initiate his self re-
spect by putting at his two-cent cigars all
day without injuring especially his heart
or head, and without SCATTERING his nerves
or his digestive apparatus.
When the young German becomes a I'M
iversity freshman he is apt, if still pros
porous, to raise the price of his cigars
from two cents to two and a half cents
each. Occasionally he takes to big
curved pipe with the picture of a scantily-
clothed German beauty on the porcelain
from the long Weichsetholz stem This
habit, however, among German university
students is more legendary than actual.
In the days when students wore top boots
and swords and fought pitched battles in
the streets for new fatherland or stu
dents rights the great pipes were trade
marks of active university men and no de-
tail of Bismarck's famous appearance in
neglige before his rector magnifcus is
dearer to the student heart than the fact
that he went blowing smoke and fire from
the freshman pipe that swung down the
front of his long gaunt figure. But the
pipe has begun to follow the sword and
the top boots and to-day is seen much Of
tener on the wall of the students room
than in his mouth. The pleasure of
mouthing the mobile tip of a two and one
half cent cigar has been too seductive for
| the endurance even of German university
tradition.
With the departure of his second fresh
man term, however, the student begins to
cut down his expenses, and, first of all,
his tobacco bill. A quarter of cent at a
/ time, he scales down the cost of his cigars
till he brings up in his fourth term with
the celebrated Heidelberg five pfennig
cigar" Five pfennigs are Just trifie
| more than one cent of American curren-
cy, yet the five-pfennig cigar is far from
bad, and much preferable, to those not
smoking either, to the American cigarette,
for which the German student can find no
denunciations sufficiently strong. 1t is
| about half as long again ss n mans middle
finger, round and very fat in the middle.
| 1t cost exactly one cent when bought by
the hundred, and costs the dealer just
about eighty cents per hundred. When
asked for an expensive cigar, that is, one
costing four or five cents, the Heidelberg
dealer always says:
81 don't keep them, because there is no
call for them. All the students take the
five-pfennig cigars, so / make a speciality
of them. You can't get a cigar like my
five-pfennig cigar outside of Heidelberg
for less than seven or eight pfennigs."
If the student becomes prosperous on
his own account after having been gradua-
ted he takes again to two and one-half
cent cigars, and smokes them till he
reaches forty-fiye or fifty, when he begins
his pipe-smoking career.
The pipe that is to beautify untold hours
for the rest of his life is selected with con-
scientious care, and is bought for about
two dollars. The stem, of brown, shining
/ Weichselholz, is between a foot and a foot
and a half long. The bowl is of Meissen
porcelain and has a removable heel. The
picture on the bowl is little bit of an ep-
itome of the smokers youth. The gallant
old man selects the girl with the wine
glass and the inscription, ever hebt NIGHT
Webb, Vein und Gesang," &c. The man
who wants patriotism first, last and all the
time takes the reigning emperor's head
and the imperial eagle. The veteran OF
'1O-'71, or the younger aspirant for militia
ry glory chooses the portrait of Moltke
Bismarck or William 1. The all-around
good fellow, who is galland and patriotic,
and recognizes life when he sees it, how
ever, always smokes pipe bearing the
picture of a wooded mountain side, skirt
ed by broad river, surmounted with q
high tower, and, between river and tower
adorned with the ruins of feudal castle
and under this miniature landscape he has
inscribed, salt Heidelberg de feline"
The pipe thus carefully selected become:
the comfort of the middle-aged and the
pet of the old. 1t is fondled and stroked
and praised beyond measure. 1t is the in
separable companion of the hearthstone
the evening story paper and the hous'
beer. 1t is as carefully watched and KEEP
| as wedding ring or a family Bible.
Smoking in Germany is not a pastime
1t is an art, and an art that has groupet
about it respectable number of indus
tries. Every smoker carries cigar case
cigar clipper, a match safe, and usual,
little leather box for the cigar tips. TIL
tips are collected by a society, organized
for the purpose in each province, and an
sold back to the manufacturers for tn
benefit of charitable institutions In 1873
about one hundred dollars worth of sucl
tips were collected in the small duchy o
Brunswick. The cigar case is indispensa
BILE because the cigars are so dry the.
would crack to pieces if carried loosely il
the pocket. For the same reason the clip
; per cannot be spared, and a match safe !
also necessary because German pocket Ell
quette forbids the carrying of anything
, knife, money or matches, uncovered in tn
! pocket. When an American sees a GeI
J man spread out before him all this para
phernalia preparatory to smoking a two
cent cigar he begins to understand VIII
not only the German world of pleasure
but also a considerable section of the Gel
man industrial world, have raised q hu
and cry whenever it has been proposed
Nationalist, and thereby tax more heavily
| the manufacture of tobacco. The Ger
man smoker is amply rewarded for all hi
pains, preliminary TO smoking, by the en-
| ;ovment he derives from it. He smoke