The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-04-01
FREQUENT ERRORS ABOUT FfiEs
Briars and COrncObs False TO TheiE
NameS-PrOfits of the Dealer.
From the New York Sun

From the New York Sun.
A dealer in pipes on Broadway was put
ting some goods away after sale,
Few people outside of the business" he
remarked. "have any idea of the curious
features of the pipe trade, while many
mistaken notions are current concerning
it. See this pipe? What is it? A briar?
Well, that is what every one thinks. As
a matter of fact, il is made from the
roots of the rock ivy, which grows in the
Pyrenees. The roots reach down among
the rocks is search of water until they
are like a mass of frozen snakes ana
as tough as leather. There are no large
pieces of it, The name is bruyere, hence
briar.
''Then take the once popular corncop
pipe, which is passing away here. Ii was
not a corncob at all, strictly speaking.
Take the average cob. when dry enough
to use, and you will find that it measures
about an inch and a quarter in diameter,
of which a third is fuzz. Now look az
these corncob pipes. The bowls average
an inch and half in diameter and have
every appearance of a large cob. The
patent for making these Melted the inven-
tor, a man named Tibbe, a large fortune
1t was the name that caught on, added
to the fact that the farmers did actually
make pipes of the veritable cobs, but
these had small bowls. In the Tibbe pipes.
now almost extinct the cob was taken
while fairly fresh and plunged into a
handful of plaster of paris to which sons
secret glue had been added This was
well worked by hand into the fluffy out
side of the cob and allowed 10 dry. Then
the exterior was smoothed down into the
shape of a pipe, and the cob interior cur
out to form the bowl, but, mark this the
interior cut away was practically all cob,
and so nothing remained but the outside
fuzz. 1t was a corncob pipe sure enough,
but the cob was all gone This idea
was still further enlarged upon when the
patent expired. and the mixture of plas-
ter, etc. was used to form a pipe when
was called the buckwheat, although il
had not so much buckwheat as the cob
pipe had cob, but it was a good pipe and
sold well.
Years ago charcoal was treated in a
somewhat similar manner and was suppos-
ed to be the great hygienic pipe of its
day, but it has died out Then there was
<he meal pipe, made of veritabe meal ami
plaster. but after a time the oil in the
meal burned and the pipe lowered the
rents for a block around the smoker. Mark
Twain has just gone into raptures over an
English pipe. 1t is a bowl with a double
draft, one coming through the tobacco
and one through the side of the pipe maxi
ing the tobacco burn longer and the smoke
cooler. Then the smoke passes along the
stem in a roundabout HaEs ssconstanty
striking against obstructions sPhe idea
is that the smoke striking against the OBJ
structions will deposit some of its mois-
ture.
The trouble with Twain is that his rap
lures can always be read two ways The
latest American idea is a pith of ivory to
slip into the stem of any pipe. II catches
the deposits, and the ivory can be with
drawn at once and cleaned after each pipe
Then there was the violet wood pipe which
a New York man said he discovered. hut
which was sold twenty years before the
date of his alleged discovery. It is mad,
of the myall wood of Australia. smelling
of violet. It was never popular. The
latest is the needlework pipe, a porous.
hard wood.
ut is not generally known that during
the last four years this country has been
making the bulk of its briar pipes right
here, instead of importing the unshaped
bowls from France. There is a fine fac
tory here equipped with splendid machin-
cry duplicates of which have been ex
ported to Australia as the best in the
world Previously all the cheaper pipes
were of German make, and 1t was not IN
til a prominent English firm came here
and built up a fine trade for high-price1
goods all through the country that our
manufacturers aWoke to the possfh,Iitias
of the situation. Now everything Is mod.
eled on those English shapes, improved
out of sight, at much lower prices TO the
smoker.
The reduction is not all duty: Il is 1ua
more to recent discoveries in the nnanufac-
turing of amber goods. See this nine
stem2 Every year the President of a GER
tain bank buys a dozen or more of tboea
for presents. Six years ago thew cost
him $72 each; to-day they cost him s9o
and there is three times the profit for mo
The old stems were made of pieces of am.
Der jointed, every point being from five
to seven inches long. A process was IN
vented by which pieces could be slightly
heated and pressed together. undetecta5
except by the use of the Nicou prism
Then came the deluge, AS amber couId
be so pressed 1t could also be 4duIferatad
with gum copal, and so cheapened with
this defect, that whereas true amber i'm
proves with age. the adulterated amber
grows white as cheese, until the stem Toe
ing its transiuoency, becomes OPAQUE
There are handsome amber nines ynsda
now which are the wonder Of Euronesns
They cost here about SO each; the howl
and stem are of this pressed amber ~
ted with an inside bowl of meersebaum
the mouth piece being joined and the howl
mounted with chased eighteen carat g8Id
They have nothing like them on the other
side as yet. ] sold two dozen to an en-
lishman the other day. We are far ahead
Of them in artistic pipes anyway, although
they stu turn out the best briar goods
They get from s. to SIS for a plain brjar
which, however will last a mans life:
just what our dealers do not want.
Meerschaum during the last year has
advanced in price 40 per cent with fur
ther advances in sight This clay comes
from Asia Minor. and the natives at pres
ont simply do not bring Ia supplies. hence
the increase in price. Meerschaum goods
are not selling much except 90 Germans
and salconkeepers. Among such peop.e
there Is a demand for portrait pipes The
artist takes three photographs, two pro-
ne and one full face and carves q good
portrait The great Droat IN meerscbaum