The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-03-18
WITH LADY NICOTINE
Queer New Preparations OfTObac-
co Coming in Demand.
Austrian and Italian RAT Tails" Which
Are Valued by Some Above the
Most Fragrant PerfectOs.
New York Press.

Have you ever smoked a peg tip, a rat
tell. an imported Virginian, a Cuban cab
ana. a Bowery cocktail or a japanese
cigarette? If not, and you wish a closer &C
ouaintance with my Lady Nicotine you
have pleagures and nightmare enough in
store 10 entitle you to a weeks vacation
Anyway, you will probably need longer
time than that to recuperate If you try all
OF these on the same day.
The smokers Of New York are as Co.'S
mopolitan as the city itself. 1t is wonder
full how many forms the soothing weed
takes on. Likewise wonderful are the
different doors under which the smell OF
real tobacco can be disguised.
The Chinaman can endure the strongest
Smoke" No doubt the opium habit de-
veloDed his hardiEood. Occasionally you
will see a Monaghan carrying a cigarette
lightly between his lips. but in the canons
OF Mott street he is considered an effemi-
ate fellow. who had degenerated into
Americanisms. Perique is the smoke of the
real Chinaman- Not the perique which you
get in the boxes-one pipe of that will
make the ordinary smoker dizzy and home
sick-but perique as much stronger than
that as that is stronger than the mild mix
lures favored by the confectioner's art
This strength is acquired by pressing the
natural leaf into the most compact rolls
possible. Then 1t Is soaked In rum and in
cased in a small canvas tube, which is tied
at both ends. This is wrapped up in a coil
of rope tightly drawn, so that there will
be no opportunity to expand. Let this lie
on a tobacconists shelf for six months and
you will have a plug as black as ebony,
which would have been a fit finishing in
gredient 10 the witches broth in Macbeth.
Yet it's taste Is very sweet to John-almost
as sweet as opium. When he wishes TO
swear off on the latter, a feat he some
times attempts, after having been con-
verted To Christianity, and in which he
usually fails, he always takes to perique
as a sort of intermediary step between his
old love and ultimate orma And
Johns is the only Bowery smoke which IS
expensive. In this, at least, cheapness can
not be given as an excuse for eccentricity.
He pays the seemingly fabulous price of
$50 for one plug; but It lasts him a long
while.
'RAT-TAIL' SMOKERS.
Rat tails are the smoke Of the Italians Of
Mulberry street on Sunday. The other six
days OF the week they devote themselves to
short wooden pipes, which they fill with q
tobacco called Black Tom, as black as ink
and giving forth a vile SMELL Rat tails cost
all the way from 2 cents up to 10 cents
apiece, although the latter priced are, OF
course, imported. A few dealers tried 10 in
troduce the rat tails among the Germans
and the Irish of the East Side. They after
EGIQ TcgTeIIeQ their enterprise TO the OK
tent or one customer for every rat tail sold.
The rat tail IS rightly named. 1t looks ex-
actIy Ike the tai OF the wharf rat, and TO
10 smoke. The tobacco leaves are wound
around a straw very tightly, and the tube
through the middle of the 'Dago's cher
oot' (as It is dubbed in Cherry-street par
lance gives a good draught to il. The
cheaper grades Of the poorest quality of to-
baccO are used, and are said to be highly
'doctored' by chemicals 10 obtain the pc
euliar and obnoxious flavor. A Sicilian peas
great an abominatiOn as we consider his
rat tail. Therefore the queer little tobacco
only rat tails, cigarettes, plug tobacco and
snun, and possibly one box Of very bad
The Austrians are devoted to their Vir-
ginians, which are imported from their
mother country. II have never known any
body said a dealer, save an American.
or some one who lived in Austria for a long
time, to smoke a Nirginian." They seem
TO be a sort of aristocratic rat tails. being
made of finer grade and a little milder to-
bacco, and having both ends pointed in
stead OF one. Their cost averages about
double that of rat tails.
The Hebrews of the East Side are, of
course, cigarette fiends. especially the Rus
SLAMS. Some OF the German Hebrews take
10 the pipe. AS a general rule, they roll
their cigarettes. and they are not particular
as TO the brand or the kind of tobacco so
long as it will make up readily. Every
the day ID take out his cigarette papers and
his tobacco pouch and to prepare a Smoke
lou Cannot Hlu an Ol1 WOrlu HEBREW VINO
chews tobacco. He lOathes the habit even
as he loathes the eating Of pork. His slim
fingers may be yellow with nicotine, but
never Is there a dirty streak running from
the corners of his mouth to his chin. A
Few OF the Hungarian Jews smoke rat tails.
The old Irishmen stick to the clay pipe.
IT is thick and solid, and they make it last
for several months The Scotchmen also
Smoke clay pipes, but they choose those
oniy a few Scots in New York and, there
fore. the demand for this kind Of clay pipe
SAILORS SMOKE PLUG.
There is a plug of tobacco which is the
universal favorite of the sailors. 1t is sold
very seldom to anyone else. 1t is a solid
cake. and is about an inch in depth, four
inches in length and two inches in width.
The color is of a peculiar dun shade found
IN no other plug tobacco. The attractive
features of it are that II holds it's flavor and
moisture for a long time and that it is good
either for chewing or for smoking - and
there are few Jack TarS who are not adj
dlcted TO both habits, some taking snuff be-
sides.
The plugs which the Danes favor for
chewing-and there are more Danes in New
York than you imagine-consist of ropes OF
wound tobacco pressed tightly together.
They never care for any other kind. In the
matter OF smokes, however, they readily
take TO American cigars.
The Frenchmen around lower Fifth ave-
nue. who have been in the country for many
years nave become GOIillfUltQ cigar SiQOk-
ers. The Greeks, the Russians and all OF
the far East foreigners adhere to the
thick. short. loosely rolled cigarettes, which
are made usually In Egypt or Turkey, and
are easily distinguished not only by their
shape, but by the murky fumes and that
heavy, peculiar penetrating odor which Will
go all through a house In five minutes. OF
late these Oriental smokes have sprung into
great popularity in this city among all
CLASSES. Five years ago, outside of the de-
mand for them by the foreign element on
the East Side, one could find only now and
then an uptown tObaccOnist who made any
pretension to keep them in stock. But to-
day there are a great many Americans who
are confirmed cigarette smokers, ard three
or four prosperous establishments in town
make a business OF manufacturing cigar
cites from the raw tobacco shipped from
Turkey. as this plan saves something in
the matter OF duty The fact that one can
pay as high as a dollar for a small box Of
high grade Egyptian or Turkish cigarettes
destroys for the man Of wealth the old al
fusion that cigarettes are common and
cheap" No doubt the worlds fair and the
incoming Of many things Oriental. not TO
forget the famous danse du Ventre, led a
great many TO investigate the tabled
we0lths Of sOlace Of a Turkish smoke"
with the result that they became confirmed
devOtess- Dealers say that the sales of
Turkish pipes also have increased Of late.
AMERICANS Ii CIGARS
The b~riarwoOd, English bulldog pipe con-
tinues 10 grow in favor. and there are few
Oor.,- paan about fOu~, vvbo H,r-a ,o+ 800