Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-28
VOTARIES OF TOBACCO.
Famous Smokers Marvellous Records
With Pipe and Cigar.

From London It'd Bits.
Berlin has recently lost one Of her most
ardent and methodical devotees of the frag-
rant weed by the death of Herr Grunn,
whose daily allowance of tobacco consisted
of six pipes, six cigars and six cigarettes.
This amount he never varied, save on his
birthday, when 1t was doubled. and on New
Year day, which, on the principle Of start
ing the year temporarily, was kept as a day
Of total abstinence.
Love of tobacco and wisdom often go to-
gether, Prince Bismarck wan wont to
boast that he had In something like fifty
years consumed over 100000 cigars, q num-
Der that works out at an average of five q
day-no great feat. perhaps, for one who
was at one period chain smoker, light
ing each cigar from the glowing stump Of
the one just enjoyed.
Edison, the great inventor, must hold a
superior record. Ten cigars a day are his
normal allowance, but when deeply absorb
ed in work he finds double that number
necessary to stimulate his brain. Even
more in a day used that celebrated singer,
Mario, to dispose of; but his day commenc-
ed with dawn and concluded not until sleep
overpowering him, the still burning Havana
slipped from his lips.
Without a cigar was Edwin Booth. the
tragedian, scarcely ever seen. Even while
engaged his professional duties his be-
loved weed was present in the wings, ready
to be snatched from his dreSsers hand for
enjoyment during the sometimes exceed
ingly brief intervals between his exits and
entrances. Twenty-Five cigars day were
at time his usual allowance-an allow
ance, however, not infrequently exceeded.
To revert to ordinary folk. By a steady
average of fourteen cigars a day William
Pattison of Michigan managed in twenty
years to account for 100000 excellent weeds
a number that drew upon him the expostu-
lation of his friends the ground that
oh was
which he opposed the fact that Goethe,
though he drank 10000 bottles of wine,
lived to be eighty-three So he smoked on
uncOnCernedly and died at the age or
eighty-nine.
Three years since, at Vienna, there died
in his seventy-third year old man beside
whose smoking record that of William Pat
tison appears quite insignificant. From his
twenty-seventh year he kept exact ac-
count of his consumption of beer and tobac-
co. In his ffty-fourth year he became a
teetotaler, after having drunk %, 1856 glasses
of ale-a very moderate tally, working out
at but three a day. But it is of his i'm
moderate smoking, which he continued till
his death, that we have to speak
In forty-ffve years he smoked no fewer
than 62S,713 cigars or 1881 a year, giving
an average of thirty-eight day. Out OF
this gigantic total $3.50 were given him at
various times, leaving 5S5,213, which, al
though this Austrian devotee at the shrine
Of My Lady Nicotine" never paid more
than a penny for each one, cost nearly
e 500.
But even this marvellous record is beaten
by that of Mynheer Van Klaes known by
the nickname of the king of the Smokers.
He was eighty-one at the time of his de-
| cease, and sometimes smoked much as
ten pounds of tobacco in week. How
strong with him was the ruling passion in
death was shown by his funeral.
At his express desire he was placed in a
coffin lined with the wood of old cigar
boxes At his feet were deposited a packet
| cf 90, lodi aP It.Nh
golden-leaf, while by his side were laid his
favorite china-bowled pipe, box OF
matches, flint, steel and finder. Around
his grave was gathered a circle of Rotter-
dam smokers each with his pipe, from
which. at the words "ashes to ashes, dust
to dust he shook the ashes onto the coffin
lid. To each of these mourners the deceas-
ed left ten pounds of tobacco and two pipes
bearing his arms.