Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-06-09
TILE CLiY PIpE.
Tho Aboriginal Method of smoking stiii
Has Its potaries.

pipe making industry OF Appomatiox
county goes to show that the aboriginal
method Of smoking tobacco has votaries
in this fair land OF ours, notwithstand.
ing the witchery OF the cigurette and
the seductiveness OF the cigar.
Clay and corncob pipes have been
held in high esteem in Virginia from
the time of its first settlement by Euro
peana. Where tobacco was first Guilt
waited by the Indiana we have no means
OF knowing, but Mr.. Jefferson was of
thu opinion that it was tropical plant,
and that the art of growing it was
paaHed from tribe to tribe until it
reached Virginia and Maryland. At
any rate, the Englishmen found to-
baGco under cultivation and in use here
M they had done long before upon the
banks % tia Orinoco and in the West
Indies.
We are told that the evidence OF to-
bacuo being an excite is plain 10 every
investigating agriculturiet, and that
notwithstanding the fact that it has
had its home with us certainly for 200
years. it will not even now grow
spontaneously in this State. However,
this may he, ii ia indisputahle that the
Indians valued it very highly; that the
smoking habit rapidly spread from
them TO the whites; that from the
Virginia plantations the leaf wac
shipped in great quantities to England,
and that thus the foundation wac laid
for trade which now concerns every
people upon the globe. Tobacco is now
cultivated more or less in every country
oven 10 Central Afrira-and is smoked
by millions,
The common Indian pipe was made
Of soapstone; hut others were made OF
shells and yet others Of clay. Some of
these pipes were elaborate ly, If not
artistically, carved. 1t ia fair to as
sumo, we think that the humble coru-
cob pipe was also Of Indian invention.
The Red man grew his maize and to-
hacco side by side, anil little there Ia
thar we know about either plant that
he was not familiar with. What more
likely, then, than that when he wished
to improvise tobacco pine he would
rake dry corncob, dig out the pith,
plug up the bottom, and make an opea-
ing in tho side for stem? And for a
stem ne had at hand the reed tcaneI,
which grows 10 great abundance on the
shores of all East Virginia streams.
But for some of the pipes hetter and
moro substantial stems were made.
Capt. John Smith Describes stems that
he saw which we're yard long, and
were heavy enough IT, brain man
with. y pipe Of peace of that descrip
tion must have been very symbolic
| indeed
Every Indian town had it's pipe Of
peace, and, aa all the world knows,
newcomers were met by chief, who,
with one hand extanded lighted pipe,
and 10 the other bundle Of how and
arrows This visitor who took the pipe
aud gaSa It whitf or two before hand
ing ii back was considered to have
declared his peaceful purposes What
was done with the man who reached
our after the bow and arrows We do not
know, but the Indians never spent
much time in parleying. The diplo
matte "nnes" that they exchanged
we're very brief
The Indian believed that tobacco had
certain pronounced medical virtues,
and for that reason, and because it sat
istied craving. hs liked it 80 we'll that
when he died he wished his pipe to he
buried with him. Ii wac part of
that equipment which he wished GER
Uainly TO have with him ''in the happy
hunting grounds" where he expected
lis future life TO be spent. In scores
of Indian graves in this section OF
Virginia fine specimens OF pipes have
been found, little injured by age or
interment.
After the fashion OF the Indian pine
the colonistH produced clay pipe that
was more shapely than the orig inal, and
which afterward came to he known as
1.-THE Powhatan pine. y There is in the
vicinity OF Richmond much of the clay
Known rs pipe clay, anu hereabont
many Powhatan pipes were once made
and marketed. But similar pipes were
made also in many other parts of the
State-in towns and upon plantations.
Who first began to manufactures them
upon a large scale We do not know
but our impression ia that the in.
dustry, which ia now 10 ilourishing 10
Appomattox, first attained a consider,
able footing near Richmond or peters.
burg.
The old time Virginian cannot be
made to believe that any uther pine
equals the Powhatan. And it was THE
pipe that lennysou smoked A GOOD
supply of these pipes and nf Virginia
or North Carolina tobacco we're neces
aary to him when his mental machinery
was 10 be guared un for it's finest work.
But for his inspiring equipment We
might never have had from him thoHt
delicate webs Of fancy that we see ir
Morte d'Arthur, Locksey iinll, Thu
Princess, In Memoriam, &c.
Having fine clay pipe-one strcnl
enough to hold the stem rigldly. AMI
closely, yet soft enough to absorb som,
of the niGotine-it is desirable TO have
a good, clear, Hwoet stem. Nowadayi
the branch Of the fig tree ia muct
liked; hut that is not native tree
and the Indian must have used th,
reed. or the root Of tho reed, or TIL
shouts or branches of half dozen othe
of the indigenous Virginia woods, til,
pith Of which he could remove witt
such simple instruments as he hud
And 30 the clay pine came into exist
ence, and has held its own against thu
meeraGhaum and the bIipr root, but thu
lattor are oftener aeen In public-thI
former being more Of home comfort
Keeping its place in tho chamber will
dressing gown and slippers. Long ma,
II continue in favor. II tobacco is Il
be smoked, in no mora wholesome yn,
! can it be done. And teen this nine /
a link binding uH to our earliest day
] in America. II ia associated with th,
l name of Virginia's great Ineian king
and is part Of memory's familiar pictur
of camp and hearthstone, and especiall,
/ OF the great open freplaces of gu
: country homes, beside which th,
grandsrs dozed away the evening O
his life, and through the wreatbs n
smoke ascending from his pipo saw
with the eye Of faith an iniinitol,