The St. Johns herald., 1892-04-07
MAN AND HIS PIPE.
Tn Germany There Is 0 Close Con-
 nection Between Them.
An Index to the Smokers Character Firs Experience of the Boy with His Fathers Pipe and His
 Habits Later On.

 smoke. His selection of q pipe is no small matter. He has gone through all the gradations in the art of smoking and it is an art in Germany-and gets to his pipe about the age of forty. It becomes the comfort of the middle age and the darling of the old. It is fondled and strolzed and praised in no unstinted style. It is the inseparable companion of the hearthstone, and neither house, beer or story paper can dethrone it.
 One can always tell the particular bent of mans mind says the Chicago Times, by his style of pipe. The picture on the bowl is usually an epitome of the smokers youth. Should it be the head of the reigning emperor be sure that patriotism is the ruling passion. And if it bears picture of wooded mountain side, slzirted by a broad river, surmounted by high tower, adorned with the ruins of a feudal castle, and perhaps the inscription: Alt Heidel- berg du Feine," the smoker is gallant as we'll as patriotic. recognizes and en- joys life when he sees it. So does he who selects the girl with the wine glass and the inscription: ''Wer Liebt Nicht Weib, Vein and Gessang?"
 The memory of isyouthful pleasure comes back with the sight of his pipe. His first experience has been with cigar tips. As a boy he has helped to strip off the ends of Herr Papa's cigars and place them carefully in the little leather case that was always found in the pa- ternal pocket. Later on he has watched the big pipe send forth clouds of tobacco smoke from it's big bowl and longed for the day when a box of little dry yellow cigars would be beside his plate. That day he would be eighteen-he would begin to be man. What joy!
 Of course with the German boy the first smoke is family affair, and if not as spicy as the stolen smokes of the American youth it is robbed of it's sick ening effect by Herr Papa's watchful care. The cigar is light as straw, clean and fragrant, harmless as a stick of candy.
 During the first years of his expert ence the German young man smokes rather expensively. Two-cent cigars are his limit, and this is considered pretty high life in Germany, where it is thought disloyal for an ordinary citizen to allow his time or cigar bill to run higher than a statesman's. It is said that Bismarck keeps within the bounds of six dollars for his.
 These two-ccnt cigars are infinitely better than our high-priced ones, inas- much as a tobacconist will not for any consideration allow a cigar to leave his store till it shall have been seasoned at least three or four months. Consequent ly the German youth may puff lis castles of smoke in the air all day long without injury to his heart or head or qualms of conscience about his nervous apparatus.
 When the young German becomes a university freshman he is apt to raise the price of his cigars to q cent extra. Once in day he takes a big curved pipe with the picture of a scantily clothed German beauty on the porcelain bowl and tries few puifs-this not ire quently. The pipe is oftener found on the wall in these days. 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. Tho active freshman SuccumbS to the Se- duction of the two and one-half cent cigar now.
 About the second freshman term, however, the student begins to cut down his expenses, his tobacco bills in- cluded A quarter of a cent at time he grades down till at his fourth term he arrives at the celebrated 'Hcidel- berg fve-pfennig cigar''-one cent of American currency-yet the five-pfennig cigar is far from bad. It is about half as long as a mans middle finger. round and very thick in the middle. It costs the dealer about eighty cents per one hundred. The Heidelberg dealer sells nothing else; he caters only to students. An American would have bad quarter of an hour unless provided with his favorite weed.
 The student becomes prosperous after having been graduated; he takes again to two and one-half cent cigars, and smokes them till he reaches the age of forty or forty-fve, when he begins his pipe-smolIing career.
 To understand how important the art of smoking is and what a large part it plays in the nations life, one has but to look at the paraphernalia of German smoker. Everyone carries cigar case, q cigar clipper, a match safe and Q lit tie leather box for the cigar tips. The ! cigar case is indispensable, because the cigars are so dry they would crack to pieces if carried loosely in the pocket. ! For the same reason the clipper is wanted. Then the smoker wants to keep the tips. They are collected by Q i society organized for the purpose in ] each province and are sold back to the manufacturer for the benefit of charit- l able institutions. Then the match safe ] is necessary, since German etiquette forbids carrying anything - knife, money, matches - uncovered in the ] pocket.
 No wonder he resents any attempt at