Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-06
Tobacco Smoking
in England


Thank heaven for getting back to a
country where I can get decent smoke "
said a man recently back from England
He took a luxurious pull at briar pipe
and settled back to tell Star man some
of his thoughts on the tobacco OF the Brit
ish empire.
I'm the first place said he. you cannot
get a decent smoke in the united kingdom
without paying an eXtravagant price for it,
Then it has to be cigar If you smoke a
pipe either from preference from mo-
tives of economy you have to know how TO
make your own smoking mixture in the
first instance. and when you know how you
have to find place where they will sell
you what you want and not what they
want, and 1t costs you about twenty-five
cents an ounce at that. If you don't mind
smoking cut plug there are two brands you
can get that are tolera'bly good, but most
men don't want a Steady diet of cut plug
which burns your tongue and calCines your
throat and makes you feel as though you
had been sucking brass key after you
have been smoking it a few days.
You can get American tobacco at a few
places In London, but you have to pay
% cents for a bag that you can get for
cents here and the man Will tell you
calmly while he is selling it TO you that you
do not know anything about tobacco. any
how. and that what you are buying is not
fit to smoke. Yes, the dealers there are
real nice. They think that Americans are
necessarily inlaid with gold coins and they
get peevish If they cannot get all the money
you have about you at one call. They don :
much mind the trouble of robbng you once.
but they hate the labor of holding you up a
second time if they have not realized all
they think they ought on the first haul.
They sell tobacco there almost exclu-
sively by the ounce. Every tobacco store
you go into has three stone jars standing
on the shelf; usually they are the red
green and yellow. You are asked what
sort or tobacco you want-fye- penny. six
penny or ten-penny. Those are the usual
prices. The only difference I could ever de-
tect between them was that the last YOU
smoked was a little worse than the others
when you name the price of your poison
down comes one of the jars. The man picks
up little pair OF brass hand scales-every
store is equipped with these-and puts on
it the largest sheet of paper he can find in
the shop. Then he dives into the jar and
throws soggy mass of wet tobacco on the
scales, waves them wildly so you cannot
tell how much you are getting, pnches off
a bit and throws 1t back in the Jar In case
he might have given you too much by mis-
take, and then you have your ounce of
smoking miXture-maybe You always get
the paper, even If you produce your own
tobacco pouch and ask to have the .nix-
ture put in it
What they make the mixture out of IS
mystery. 1t is always long cut, with
StreakS OF diHerent coiOrs in it, supposed to
be different brands of tobacco 1t is al
ways wet enough to wiring water out of.
If you protest mildly against paying shil-
ling ounce for water you are frowned
on severely and told in a naughty tone that
gentlemen with an accent on the gentle
men) always want their tobacco moist Y0u
take your mixture home, dry it out in front
OF the hre and smoke it If you cannot get
anything else, and you usually cannot
That Is the difference between the gen.
tleman' and the navy. The former smokes
a mixture and the latter shay Now.
.shag is peculiar and sacred institution
1t looks about like the fine cut that some
men over here-use for chewing. 1t comes
in all shades, from pale sawdust color to
the blackness of a new-polished boot What
1t is made of Is a carefully guarded trade
secret. probably from the roots of potato
vines. One NAVY smoking 1t In a railroad
compartment will make the section unin-
habftable save for his fellow-navvys When
there Is more than one pipefull of it burn