Milford chronicle., 1895-02-15
SNUFF TAKING M NEw YORK.
fhe Custom By No Means Extinct but
Mostly Confined to Foreigners.

The Custom by No Means Extinct, but
Mostly Confined to Foreigners
A little old man entered Broadway
cable car picked his way gingerly up the
aisle and settled himself in seat. His
faro paid from one pocket, he dived into
the depths of another and brought out .
small brown horn box, into which he In
serted the thumb and forefnger Of his
right hand and extracted few grains Of
a dark powder With somewhat furtive
motion be raised his hand to his nose and
applied the powder deftIy to either nostril
In turn, replaced the box and continued
bis ride with satisfaction Enthusiastically
written upon his rugged oountenance.
The passengers watched the little panto-
mime with interest, for it Is not often now
adays that one sees the process Of snuff
taking.
If the ghost of a man Of Queen Anne's
time could revisit this world in these days,
it is probable that he would be not more
surprised by his descendants advance in
material achievements than grieved at the
general disappearance of the snuffbox, that
Indispensable article in the equipment Of
every gentleman Of high fashion on which
the beaux Of his age and Of that succeed
ing lavished extravagant sums. An in
quiry at the tobacconist's Of the old style
and there are still few in New York
would reveal the fact that the community
of the sneeze still exists among a not In
considerable number Of the moderns If he
chose to dip into the United States inter
nal revenue statistics, be would find that
the yearly production Of snuff in this
country is large enough to insure to each
inhabitant supply Of at least two ounces,
the total output averaging about s, 600, 900
pounds And of snuifboxes, though those
Of his day are now TO be found chiefly in
collections Of antiquarians, he might yet
find good store in a little Sixth avenue
shop the writer knows Of, not so elaborate
as his own, but Offering him his choice OF
tortoise she'll and papier maohe tastefully
inlaid with mother Of pearl, Of horn IRE
calling Sandy's "mun'D and of beech
wood, the latter carved in quaint designs
he might even purchase the gold and sill
yer receptacles If be found the right silver
smith, for some of them are still made
I'VE don't sell as many boxes as we used
to, " said the dealer, because the snuff
comes in such convenient packages, - fact |
which would again shock our eighteenth
century ghost and convince him that he |
had indeed fallen upon evil days As a /
matter of fact the principal consumers, !
in this city at least, are foreigners, the |
Irish, Germans, French and Italians per |
haps constituting the largest number.
In the days Of the fashion there were as
many brands Of snuff as there are now of /
but all that is changed now. The /
varieties most in demand are Maocoboy, /
Lundyfoot, French, Scotch and Lotzbeok.
''They don't vary much in price, except
that Lotzbeok, the only imported one, is
higher priced The Irish seem
to prefer Maccoboy, perhaps from an idea
that the name has an Irish origin, but it
hasn't It's corrupted from a West In
dian word, MaoabaO Another of their
favorites is Lundyfoot, known also as Irish
High-toast and Irish Blaokguard Lundy-
foot, according to the story, was Dublin
Some of his snuff while being
Tried in the kiln was soorched, and he set
\ tub Of 1t outside his shop for the poor to
lip up as theF passed by So many found
ihe high flavor pleasant that the accidental
high drying made his name famous, for it
vas applied to the brand he afterward
by that process. Curiously
the Germans are fondest of a
French snuff known as Gambetta. My
)est customers are very reticent about their
nuff taking. Many Of them say they are
,uying it for Others and they make all
orts Of ridiculous excuses for buying. 1t
GEMS to be a habit people are ashamed of,
md l dare say some persons indulge 1t
Without the knowledge of their families.
II have more women than men among
ny customers, and-yes, some of them
dip'-men as well as women. Has snuff
aking any effect upon longevity Well,
don't know. 1 lost one customer by death
he other day, an old woman who had
ought snuff Of me for 90 years. have
our or five customers of 80 to 80 years
tanding, and at least 20 who have traded
7ith me over 90 years. New York Trib