The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-06

brand. The tribulations of the modern to- bacconist. If each smoker had ms own private mixture. are too awful to contem- plate. One old house. known 70 tns bucks of the Regency as The Rasp and Crown" still preserves the exact pro- portions of the mixtuhe that was apsgrD- ed by the First Gentleman in Europe. Ine love. When cigars were fighting thsir way to fortune, If you wished 10 maks a man your enemy for life. the best way was to smoke a cigar while he was tax ing snuff or filling his box. modern parallel would be to smoke pipe or snae at a public dinner. Snun taking was comparatively economical. The ordinary man consumed some two ounces weeA cost about 1-2d. The smoker whose 70, bacco costs no more Is an economcai man. Of course there were hardened sin ners who bought their snuff by the nalI dozen pounds. and fuxuriated in US ory delights There were also gentlemen toi the lower orders) who contentea thema ss,no selves with carrying coffee. Partly nke Mr. John Smauker in "Pickwick, pe- cause 1t did not make them sneeze; partly because it was cheaper. as the surrey laborer still smokes mugweeo. Comee looks very much like rappee, ana iaoiss have been known to say that It smells better. The true snuff-taker. of course. did not sneeze. It was as much faux pas as to choke over the smoke from 8 friends cigar.
 After a good deal more than century of empire, snuff lost its pride Of place almost as suddenly as its place was won. The generation that is just dying erect ed the revolution. But snuff died pretty bard-indeed, as will be seen in mo-
 ment, there is a good deal of life In IL yet. Among the middle class, and cspe, cially those who uracticed the learned
 professions; it fingered long, NOV: Ss" :,one we are faithful. This is not precisely true
 Snuff has begun to revive. It came Tn first with a naval victory. IL came m the
 second time with the influenza: some
 genius discovered that 1t cleared the
 head. and immediately the snuff trade
 began to improve. For the past three or four years snuff-taking, at all events among the higher classes has been strad- clear the head. Let the skeptical acquire stuffy cold and give 1t coptous pinch of strong-scented rappee. There may pc a consequent consumption or many nano, kercmefs. but the effect is lasting ana pleasant Of course. there are not no V all the varieties that Beau Srummei knew You make your choice between scented and unscented. Both are made alike from American tobacco ground me and blended. Snuff tobacco Is good TOT its own purpose alone. The effects of pipe full of 1t would probably be more striking than pleasant. Moreover, snun
 now costs los. to 12s. the pound.
 Whether man takes his tobacco Tn
 pipe cigarette or cigar is largely mat ter of means and fashion. So 1t Is with snuff. A firm of West End tobacconists tell with amusement how a parcel Of snun
 went by mistake to a gentleman who had
 ordered cigars. He kept the snun, ana has ordered snuff ever since. Still, It will probably be some time before the ordinary man hands his friend snuffbox instead of a cigar case. or the valets of reigning monarchs make their pocket money out of the snuff spilled on the royal clothes There Is. as Addison re- marked, much to be said on both sides. A gentleman that has to run for the s:lo has no time for the delicate and graceful manipulation of a snuffbox, and a pipe lasts longer than many pinches of snuff. But the snufrtaker knows not what 1t is to lose his dearest pipe or suffer tor lures over the bad cigar that his friend insists on giving him.