The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-03-23
SMOKING AND SMOKERS.
The Great Men Who Have Used and
Abused the Seductive
Weed.
Even tho Edict Of q King Gould
Not Stop the Stu
dents.
Raleigh, Tennys0n, Lamb and Other Poets
Tak II for q Theme 10 Write
Upon.

the vision Of noble Arthur dying by
the lonely meer, or of that white haired
shadow" Tithonus. longing for the GRASSY
barrows of the happier dead" what a Rlori-
GUS nimbus of fragrant mist must have en-
circled the vatic brow!
But men of all countries and creeds have
sung the praises Of smoking. Since Lane
carried back the precious secret from the
colony of Virginia to England all history
and literature are filed with illusions to
it, with praises, invocations, blessings.
Could a man who has been RECALLED with a
single pipeful Of "Lone Jack" be transferred
to the ancient world he would find Rome
and Athens uncomfortable.
Lamb hits it off we'll enough:
Brother of Bacchus later born,
The old world was sure forlorn,
Wanting thee.
I say that from the time of Lanes return
to England all history and literature are
hlled with illusions to smoking. Indeed,
we have good reasons for believing that
smoking had been practiced long before his
time. 1t is certain that before the reign OF
bluff King Hal the monk smoked in piges
a sort OF q medicinal weed as an antidote
to the evil Influences of morning malaria.
Tho men of Devon claim that long before
Lanes time Admiral Sir John Hawkins and
his men brought back the secret from the
Spanish main, and if we may trust Aubrey,
the stout seaman who followed Drake and
Frobisher into highlands great Salamis
were veteran smokers. II is of this time
that Charles Kingsley speaks in that glori-
GUS o wherein are written down the
Adventures of Captain Sir Amyas Leigh.'
But, after all, we must count Raleigh
prince of smokers. Never were jollier par
ties than those held in that low wainscoted
house at Isllngton. Picture the goodly
company of brave wits and fine gentlemen
which / am glad to say is still preserved.
Lane and Harriet, Sir Richard Gren-
vile and Sir Hugh Middleton-multe
nsbnle amictu,-eloquently discoursing
OF the ell dorados far beyond the sea.
AND may not ''the sweet serene face of
among the rest? So little is positively
known concerning his life that it is impos-
sible to say whether he was a smoker or
not. We know only that it was the fashion
Globe theatre to sit uron the stage, attend
ed BY pages who carried their tobacco
boxes. enjoying a smoke, while they
Laughed themselves into stitches" over
Sir John and Bardolph or Queen Titiania
and honest Bottom.
Then came the ''counterblast,' of that
stammering,- soldering, royal dolt, which
Harriet and Raleigh. then in the tower, no
doubt laughed over and used to light their
pipes. "lt' (smoking) says "his lowship,"
quite solemnly. els a branch of the sin of
drunkenness, which is the root of all SINS"
Bravo! Bishop Andrews himself couldn't
have said it better; but l take it that
"Steenle" must have found it hard to pull
a face of becoming gravity when he remem-
bered how often he had helped to carry his
royal highness off to bed.
Imagine the now that went up from the
Cambridge undergraduates when his mai
esty caused it to be enacted that during
his royal visit, in 1915, no student, on pain
of expulsion, should visit tobacco shops
nor smoke in st. Mary's chapel or Trinity
hail." But the next year finds our young
gentlemen as jolly as ever, smoking in
Trinity hall while the academic play is be-
ing performed. During the next reign, as
We gather from numerous passages In the
diaries of Pepys and Evelyn. smoking con-
tlnued to increase, and Lilly, in speaking
the chimney of the room there were two
bushels of broken tobacco pipes and almost
half a load of ashes"
Despite the opposition of the Puritans
during the Protectorate. smoking continued
to increase, and became more and more
popular under the succeeding sovereigns
until it reached the height of favor in the
golden age of Anne. This was the day of
the clubs. of the Grecinn add the Rainbow,
of Willis and the Devil-in-the- Strand.
SoIkACAdUC0 WIG Wlub III uuO UOWI,
Addison and honest Dick Steele, of Lucas,
Swift and the great Mr.. Con-
grave. Nowhere" says Macaulay, was
the smoking more constant than at Willis.
That celebrated house, situated between
Covent Garden and Bow street, was sacred
to polite letters. Under no roof was a
greater variety of figures to be seen; earls :
in stars and garters. clergymen in cassocks
and bands, pert templnrs, sheepish lads
from the universities, translators n index
makers in ragged coats of frieze. The
great press was to get near the chair where
John Dryden sat. In winter that chair was
in the warmest nook by the fire; in =
it stood on the balcony. 10 bow {
to him and to hear his opinion of Racine's >
last tragedy or of Bosu's treatise on epic
was thought a privilege; a pinch
from his snuff box was an honor sufficient {
to turn the head of a young enthuiast." \
Ihackeray, i'll those charming lectures on n
the English humorist, speaking of Dryden, !
He was then the greatest literary :
chief in England, the veteran field marshal
and the center of Il school of wits who !
daily gathered around his chair and tobac- I
90 pipe at Wills.'
Then came the great Mr.. Joseph Addison,
The most resolute smoker CT his time, who
yet up his headquarters at Button's, opp .
site Wills-a splendid company, / promise I
vou-Garth and Arbuthnot and that faith :
Jul henchman Dick Steele, Tickell and =
Swift, and for n time the prqdigious young |
Mr.. Alexander Pope.
OF these, Swift for n time took snuff, but
loes not seem to lave used tobacco in any
,ther way, / can only remember in all his
lettera two illusions to tobacco. In one of
hem to Stella he mentions that his physi- -
ian smoked by his sick bed, and in an :
,ther says, II have the finest piece of Bra
tobacco for Dingley that ever was born" y
l confess that l am rather glad to find .
hat the tough old Dean did not belong to |
he "Blest Tobacco Boys" :
1t is noteworthy that the three most
harming characters in the fiction of the
Eighteenth century are smokers. When the
pectator goes to meet that dear old Sir
Roger de Coverly, who has just come up to =
own and is waiting for him iii Gray's inn
'our salutations," saws he I
were very hearty on both sides. l
ie then proceeded to acquaint me n
nth the welfare of Will Wimble. Upon
'hich he put his hand into his fob and
resented me in his name with a tobacco 4,
topper, telling me that Will had been busy
II the beginning of the winter in turning
rent quantities of them, and TINT he made =
present OF one to every gentleman in the
ountry who has good principles and -
HE then asked me- he goes on.
II l would smoke n pipe with him over n T
ish of coffee Mt Squiers'. As l like the old !
ian, l take delight in complying with p
verything that Is agreeable to him, aud
ccordingly waited on him to the coffee y,
Nnhnsn ~, N-- Az