Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1899-02-15

tended their explorations they found
that the natives of the North, as we'll
as those of the South, were addicted to
the tobacco habit, and among some of
the more advanced peoples the pipe
was an object of artistic and scientific
consideration, being of the most con-
venient shapes, of the finest material
and richly carved. The highest and the
lowest used the weed as they do to-day,
and 1t is said that Montezuma, that
Aztec whose pedigree was mixed up
with the Pyramids, was wont to smoke
his pipe after dinner when he had
rinsed his mouth with scented water.
a rare old dude was he.
while many used the pipe via the
mouth. more used 1t In the nostrils,
and so violent was the manner of in
nalation that the smoker became stupe-
lied with the fumes and saw visions"
much as he does in these days who
hits the pipe" In an opium Joint. How
ever SO Tar as recorded, it was never
as fatal In its effects as an excess of
cigarettes is in these days. Is IL that
the smoker has degenerated or the to-
bacco gained strength with the years
common method of mouth smoking
was to roll the weed In a corn husls as
cigar is now rolled in a tobacco leaf
only larger, and another was to make
funnel or cornucopia OF the palm leaf
and load 1t with the dry tobacco. This
method became popular with shin
captains and sailors. but It IS not re-
corded that any of them smoked q
dozen cigars a day.
In l49i Romano Pane, who came over
with Columbus on his second voyage,
saw natives taking tobacco in another
FORM. This was through a cane stem
yard or more long, one end of which
was placed In the nostru and other
IN pile OF powdered tobacco, and the
powder was inhaled, securing the re-
suit desired by acting as a purge. This
was the first instance known of snuff
taking. which later became n more
ultra IA shionable form OF tobacco using
among the courtiers OF later times than
any other, and fortunes were some
times represented in a single jeweled
snunbox. No record Is made OF any
discovery of the dipping" habit, that
being rather the development of a later
and presumably civilization.
Tobacco chewing was also known to
me natives and practiced to some ex-
tent. In 1908, when the Spaniards
landed In Paraguay. they saw and felt
the first of it, the inhabitants coming
out to fight them beating drums
throwing water, and Chewing herbs
and squirting the juice towards them"
In our day Of two-mile range guns this
weapons would scarcely be effective,
S"h a LUG manu- 10 mana, or
mouth to eye, 1t might prove to be no
mean offence or defence. Generally
speaking. tobacco was chewed as a
means OF staying hunger on long jour-
neys or marches, civilized soldiers and
sailors adopting it later for the same
reason. and because it was less incon-
venient than the pipe. In the time of
the Restoration some few English gem
tlmen chewed. and silver cuspidors
were carried around by them to be
used, but more daintily than are those
washtub-iike affairs one may see about
the corridors OF the Capitol, public
buildings and hotels mt Washington,
where our free and untrammeled great
American statesman and fellow citi-
Zens are wont to congregate. But to-
oacco chewing never became popular
among the earlier better classes. and
II was not until the United States de-
veioped people hungering TO "chaw
up the tyrants of the Old World, and
not being 10 able to get at them, that
tobacco chewers grew into numbers
among all classes. Among foreigners
even to this day the habit prevails only
among "navvies" and their kind.