Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1892-11-10
ENDING In SMOKE.


] have only one thing against Brit
iany, which is that it grows all the
vile tobacco used by France. Iunder-
stand that the government Of France
supplements the Brittany supply by
buying up refuse lots of tobacco in
America-Stuff that the lowest down
gamn i'm New York would refuse to
smoke. ] doubt this, however, be-
cause II any tobacco were bought In
America one would sometimes come
upon a French packet less bad than
the rest When Il smoker accustomed
to the American article first comes
in contact with the French brand he
wants to crawl into corner and die.
The worst about the French stuff is
that man may smoke 1T and still
live.
Providence never intended Brit
tany, the most northern portion Of
France, to raise tobacco. 1t has
neither the soil nor the climate Then
the peasantry of Brittany are about
the most ignorant and superstitious
people now in Europe. OF course
man may lie superstitious and yet
grow good tobacco or even wheat, but
the Brittany people are a stiff-necked
generation, whose faces are set against
learning anything and If man puts
all his energies against the acquire
ment OF knowledge he can,count with
reasonable certainty upon remaining
ignorant. The other day when / took
journey through rural Brittany
saw tons OF tobacco freshly cut hang
ing by the heels from apple trees, get
ting alternately soaked by the rain
and boiled by the sun, and this is the
material that the enlightened gov
ernment of France insists we shall
smoke.
Perhaps you think that if you pay
a high price you can get good tobacco
in France and that il is merely a
question of settlinG enormous and eX-
orbitant duties. This is not the case.
With the exception of three govern
ment depOts in Paris and a few in the
Riviera, American tobacco cannot be
obtained in France. A tobacconist
in France is government official,
who has also the right OF selling post
age stamps. and the government will
not allow him TO order American to-
baccO from the depots in Paris with
out a special permit which it refuses
to grant except in places where so
many English and Americans reside
that special pressure is brought to
bear upon it, as is the case in Nice,
Cannes and few other Anglicised
towns.
On the northern coast OF France
are many picturesque spots which the
English make their own during the
summer months. There Is Etratat
Trouville, Grenyille, Parame, Din
ard, Mount st. Michel on the Nor
mandy and Brittany coast. which are
very popular in summer, while in
-Avranchcs, Caen, Dinan and other
inland towns English families live all
the year round because living is sup
posed to be cheap and educational
facilities good. The second reason
for residence stills holds, but the first
is merely a legend. The double sys-
TEN OF protection which France
adopts first charging great duties on
everything that comes into France,
and secondly, the octroi duties which
are charged on articles brought from
the country into any town, has made
living exceedingly expensive every.
where. The English reidents of the
Northern towns OF France have tried
to get the privilege Of buying the
kind of tobacco they want, hut with
out success. France, however, seeing
that il was losing residents by this
unenlightened policy, as people moved
TO the channel islands or to SwitZer-
land, in the first OF which there IS no
duty on tobacco and in the second
scarcely any, made grudging conces-
sion in the law Of English residents.
The law is this: You are allowed
10 import twenty pounds OF tobacco a
year. paying duty Of seven francs
fifty eentimes pound, which impost
is more than the original price Of to-
baccos. even ia England. The Of
ficials take care that In getting this
tobacco you are put TO the greatest
Inconvenience and expense, but then,
Of course, that Is what custom Of
ilcials are for all over the world and
especially in the United States The
twenty pounds thus imported you
must swear in for your own use solely,
and you must enter into an agreement
not TO sell or even give away a scrap
Of it. All this exposition Of the law
brings ME to the story have TO tell
and which was told to me in St
Malo.
In the FIRST place / may say that
twenty pounds OF tobacco year Is
utterly inadequate for one able-bodicd
man. l smoke fifty pounds myself
without half-trying, and no doubt a
man like the late Gen. Grant smoked
much more. a / am well aware--read
IT in at y, thInk-thaJ if i put
the moneJ Jus expended in savings
hank at CO Apound interest for 500
years or so ! would at the end Of that