Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-12-06
MEERsCHAUM PIPES.
CHARACTERISTICS OF STYLES WHICH
 SOME SMOKERS PREFER.

The American and IEnglIshman Prefer a
 Good Solid Pipe While the Frenchman
 and Italian Wants a Long, Slender Ar
 ticie-Many Designs.
 Most of the plain meersehaum pipes sold nowadays are of practically the same styles as briar pipes, and finished and mounted in the same manner. Of the once familiar meerschaum, that was substantially a meerschaum bowl with a short upturned stem part, into which weichsel stempieee was in- serted, comparatively few are now sold. Many of the meerschaum pipes of to-day are of the bulldog pattern, and many are made likewise straight stemmed, but with bowls in various rounded forms; and there are briar- shaped pipes with droop stems. The mountings are silver or gold bands, or ferrules, around the stem part, where the pit or mouthpieee is attached, and, on some pipes, mounting around the top of the bowl. Sn these pipe mount ings those produced by Americans ex- eel all others in suitability and de- sign. With their production in mod ern styles and in forms adapting them to the most convenient and ad- yantageous use has come an increased demand for pipes of meerschaum.
 Such are the pipes usually bought by the American or Englishman, who, if he smokes meersehaum wants a stout, stocky, serviceable pipe There are sold, however, some meerschaums that are modelled more on clay pipe lines, with the stem part and mouth piece little if any longer but very much slenderer and lighter than those parts of the pipes more commonly sold. But while the American and the English man prefer generally when they buy a meerschaum a good solid pipe, the Frenchman who smokes meersehaum wants long and slender pipe as also does the Italian. The plain meer- schaum pipe made for the French or Italian smoker Is in design substan- tially like a clay pipe; with a bowl of the same general shape, though of finer lines, and with the same long, slender stem. But made of such ma- terial as meerschaum and beautifully finished, and with a long, slender, deli cate mouthpiece of amber, there is no danger of the pipe being mistaken for clay pipe. Simple, and at the same time quaint, as such pipes may at first appear to one unaceustomed to them, they may easily be objects of beauty, as was certainly, in an especial de- gree, one seen in a shop where many such pipes were displayed. It was finished in all but the polishing; was about foot in length, including the delicate amber mouthpieee, which would measure perhaps four inches, and the meerschaum was of smooth and milky whiteness, while the long, slender amber mouthpiece was of light yellow, clouded with white.
 Such pipes are made with the bowls placed at different angles, as is the case with the clay pipes, and the bowls are made rather thin walled than otherwise, in keeping with the general character of the pipe. These slender meerschaum pipes are made, some of them, with the stem fashioned to pres sent a twist in appearance. but most of them are made with the stem straight and smooth. They are made, including the amber bit or mouthpieee, in various lengths, the price of the pipe depending on the length, and as with other meerschaums on the quail ity. Such pipes have been made thir- ty-six inches in length. Pipes of from eight to twelve inches in length are the pipes of this kind most commonly sold.