The Savannah morning news., 1902-03-14
sSuFF,s DECLINE AND RISE.
This Century Is RevivinE a Fashion
ON Tobacco which the Last Gen.
furry Killed.


From the London Telegraph.
Fashions change in tobacco as in
everything else. When the Prince
Regent was the first gentleman in
Europe his friends would rather have
missed a prize fight than be seen with
a cigar on the Mall. George " took
his tobacco as snuff, and what he
would have thought or said if Beau
Brummel had offered him a cigarette
10 man knoweth. Nowadays we only
know snuff in historical novels or OK
ford common rooms. We associate
snuff with quaint and crusty old
gentlemen, and the papers tell US,
with a pleasing choice of adjectives.
that snufftakers are either old men
or poor women" Who the genius was
that first took tobacco neat instead OF
as smoke history saith not. What is
certain is that snuff became popular
in England Just about 200 years ago
and the learned opine that the cause
was Sir George Rockies victory at
Vigo. where besides gold and Span
cards and other unconsidered trities
he captured large parcel of
snuff and brought down prices.
In those days macaw, or rappee,
used it save perhaps stanch old coun-
try squires, who stuck to their church
wardens and October ale. There were
dainty ladies to meet more delicately
and yet more amply the requirements
of well-bred noses. Queen Charlotte
had her snuff account. Frederick the
Great took ii in handfuls. and smoth-
cred his clothes Herewith. so that his
Wallets acquired a small but comtorta-
bic income by brushing them and SELL
ing the result. So at least tradition
records; but those crafty menials must
have had noses and eyes OF triple
brass. Even the great Samuel Weller,
prince of servants, could not manage
snuff without sneezing; but he be-
longed to a degenerate age, when pipes
and cigars were coming TO conquer.
NapoIeon was not exempt from the
habit Southey wrote verses in praise
of snuff All the more distinguished
people, Beau Brummel, Lord Alvanley,
and the rest had their own peculiar
mixture.
The snuffmaker kept books full of
recipes, and made for each customer
his own brand The tribulations of the
modern tobacconist if each smoker
had his own private mixture, are too
awful TO contemplate. One old house,
known to the bucks of the Regency as
The Rasp and Crown" still pre-
serves the exact proportions of the
mixture that was absorbed by the
First Gentleman in Europe. The true
snufftaker was faithful to his one love.
When cigars were lighting their ways
to fortunes, if you wished to make a
man your enemy for life, the best way
was to smoke a cigar while he was
taking snuff or filling his box. A mod
ern parallel would be to smoke a pipe
of shag at a public dinner. Snuff TAX
ing was comparatively economical. Phe
ordinary man consumed some two
ounces a week-cost about 71ad The
smoker whose tobacco costs no more
is an economical man. OF course there
were hardened sinners who bought
their snuff by the half dozen pounds,
and luxuriated in it's dry delights.
There were also gentlemen (of the low
er orders) who contented themselves
with carrying coffee. Partly, like Mr..
John Smauker in "Pickwick," because
it did not make them sneeze; partly
because it was cheaper as the Surrey
laborer still smokes mugweed. Coffee
looks very much like rappee, and la
dies have been known to say that 1t
smells better. The true snufftaker, of
course, did not sneeze. 1t was as much
a faux pas as to choke over the smoke
from a friends cigar.
After a good deal more than CEN
turv of empire. snuff lost its pride of
place almost as suddenly as its place
was won. The generation that Is just
diving effected the revolution. But
snuff died pretty hard-indeed, as will
be seen in a moment, there is a good
deal of life in it yet. Among the mid
die class. and especially those who
practiced the learned professions, il lin
gered long. Now. we are told, "old
men and poor women" alone are faith
full This is not precisely true. Snuff
has begun to revive. 1t came in first
with a naval victory. 1t came in the
second time with the influenza. Some
genius discovered that it cleared the
head, and Immediately the snuff trade
began to improve. For the past three
or four years snuff-takng, at all events
among the higher classes, has been
steadily on the increase. Certainly it
does clear the head. Let the skepti-
cal acquire a stuffy cold and give it
a copious pinch of strong scented rap
pee. There may be a consequent con-
sumption of many handkerchiefs, but
the effect is lasting and pleasant. OF
course, there are not now all the varie-
ties that Beau Brummel knew. You
make your choice between scented and
unscented. Both are made alike from
American tobacco ground fine and
blended. Snuff tobacco is good for its
own purpose alone. The effects of d
pipe full of it would probably be more
striking than pleasant. Moreover,
snuff now costs los to 12s. the pound.
Whether man takes his tobacco in
a pipe, cigarette, or cigar is largely a
matter of means and fashion. So it
is with snuff. A firm of West End
tobacconists tell with amusement how
a parcel of snuff went by mistake to
a gentleman who had ordered cigars
lie kept the snuff, and has taken
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 Wallets of reign
ing 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 generation that has to run for the
9:15 has no time for the defeated and
graceful manipulation of snuff box,
and pipe lasts longer than many
pinches of snuff. But the snufftaker
knows not what it is to lose his dear
est pipe or suffer fortunes over the bad
cigar that his friend insists on giving
him.
-Insuperable Objection-She: whats