The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1892-04-28
TosAcco DISCOVERIES.


Africans supposed 70 Have Used n ne
lore Raicaghsa nay.
While convincing proof to the con-
trary has not been obtained, the en-
plorations Of recent years have raised
the question whether the tobacco habit
In the fftcehth century was not far
more widely prevalent than he's been
believed, 1t is learned that among
many Of the Pacific islands the natives
used tobacco long before they were
visited BY white men. aud there Is no
tradition among them Of . time when
their fathers did, mot understand the
culture and u6e Of the tobacco plant
Thronehout inner Africa slso the
nse Of tobacco Is universally known.
and there u every reason to believe
that some of the varieties of the tobac.
co plant Ia common ms ara indigenous
For oil wa know to the contrary the
sayages of Central Africa who wero
quite unknown at the time Colpm bus
discovered America, were putting their
pipes long before he had made himself
famous.
There Is no doubt that the discovery
Of American tobacco had considerable
influence upon the tobacco habit in
Africa, II 1t did not actually introduce
it Our common Virginia tobacco was
carried far up the Nile to equatorial
Africa long before white men pene.
trated TO that region. Schweinfurth
was the first to discover that the i'm.
ported plant is in use among several of
the Bahr-el- Ghasal and Welle-Mauak
tribes, and 1t is curious fact that the
savages who use this exotic have not
native names for it. Each tribe has its
own name for the native variety OF to-
bacco, but the appelations the Afri-
cans apply to the imported plant show
Enthusiastically that they are@derived,
one and all, from tine word tobacco:
So far as this large region, Mt least
is indeb ted to America for an improved
quality of the weed. the obligation
seems to be acknowledged in the names
given to the article. But the indigen-
GUS varieties are far more prevalent
and are largely used cssn where Vir-
ginia tobacco is cultivated. And since
the foreign source OF the exotic has
been so easily discovered in the lam
guages of the people, it seems not un-
reasonable to suppose that in the
greater regions to which 1t has not ex-
tended, and where no foreign influence
is discernable, the smoking habit had
an independent origin.
1t is not at all claimed that the white
race has prior claim even upon the
invention of the cigar. In all parts OF
New Guinea, the largest island Ia the
world that has yet been visited, tobacco
is cultivated, and in some of these dis
tricts the humble pipe contributes moth
ing to the enjoyment of the weed and
is not even known. DIR. Maclay saw
natives with crude looking cigars in
their mouths who had never seen a
white man before, and thought he had
dropped from the sky.
DR.. Finch, who some years later ex-
plored the coast for hundreds Of miles,
says the natives OF the whole northeast
coast of New Guinea, though inveter-
ate smokers, had never heard of 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 being blessed
with Havana wrappers, they tie around
their cigar large green leaf from a
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 al
ways 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 race OF human
beings -Goldthwaite's Magazine.