Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1896-02-29
WHO INVENTED SMOKING.
Reasons For Thinking That Tobacco Ii
Not OF American Origin.

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IL is generally supposed that the
uses OF tobacco were not known ont
side Of America and its islands before
the discovery Of the western world.
While convincing proof to the con-
trary has not been obtained, tho ex-
plOrations of recent years have raised
the question whether the tobacco habit
in the fifteenth century was not far
more widely prevalent than has been
believed. Ii is learned that among
many of the Pacific islands the natives
used tobacco long before they were
visited by white men. and there is no
tradition among them Of "A time when
their fathers did not understand the
culture aud uses of the tobacco plant.
Throughout inner Africa also the use
Of tobacco is universally known, and
there is every reason To believe that
some Of the varieties Of nicOtiana in
common Use are indigenous. For all
we know to the contrary. the savages
oil Central Africa. who were quite un-
known at the time Columbus dis
covered America. were pulling their
| pipes long before he made himself ia
nous.
There il no doubt that the discovery
of American tobacco had considerable
influence upon the tobacco habit in
Africa, if 1t did not actually introduce
il. Our common Virginia tobacco was
carried far up the Nile to equatorial
Africa long before white men pene-
trated that region. Schwcinfurth was
the first to discover that this imported
plant is in use among several of the
Bahr ell Ghasal aud Makua
tribes, aud it is a curious fact that the
savages who use this exotic have no
native name for it. Each tribe has its
own name for the native variety of to-
bacco. but the applications the African:
apply To the imported plant show un,
mistakablv that they are derived, one
aud all. from the word tobacco.
SO far as this large region, at least,
is indebted to America for an improved
quality of the weed, the obligation
seems to be acknowledged in the
names given TO the article. But the
indigenous varieties are far more pre-
v%alcnt. and are largely used even
where Virginia tobacco is cultivated.
And since the foreign ource of the
! ENOhiN Hto bttu ~ '31its a.S|IF W
the languages of the people, it seems
not unreasonable to suppose that in the
greater regions % which il has not ex-
tended, and where no foreign influence
is discernible. the smoking habit had
an independent origin.
1t is o at all certain. SAYS the New
York Sun. that the white race has a
prior claim ven upon the invention OF
a cigar. In all the parts Of New Guinea,
the largest island in the world, that
have vet been visited, tobacco is cult
waited, aud in some of these districts
the humble pipe contributes nothing
to the enjoyment of the weed and is
not even known. DR.. Maclay saw ma
tives with crude-lookiug cigars in theil
mouths who had never seen IA white
man before, aud thought he had
dropped from the sky. DR.. Finsch,
who some years later explored The
coast for hundreds Of miles. says tn,
natives of the whole northeast coas
of New Guinea. though inveterate
smokers, had never heard of "A pipe,
and returned those which he gave then
a. articles for which they had no use
He says they roll the partly dried
leaves into q rude cigar, and. not be.
ing blessed with Havana wrappers,
they tie around their cigars a larg,
green leaf from a tree. Doubtless the
vilest weeds sold on the Bowery ar,
superior to these products of Papua,
ingenuity, which hold tire SO poorly
that a live coal is always kept at hanC
to reviyify them. But they suit tn,
native taste, aud the people seem Il
regard those who draw tobacco smok,
through a pipe-stem as belonging Il
an inferior order of human beings.