The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1907-01-17
LEFT-HANDED. CIGAR SMOKERS.
Habits Weii-Nigh UniveTs sal Among
Men-The Hold ON the Cigar


Men-The Hold ON the Cigar.
Somebody began TO talk about the
habits of men and then somebody else
referred to an old uncle of his who
smoked pipe upside down, and then
finally the talk drifted around to cigar
smoking, says the New Orleans Picay-
une.
1t was pointed out that cigar smok-
Ing had been a diversion of the male
human animal since it was first invent
ed. In its enjoyment he had developed
curious traits
For instance, most men who smoke
cigars use their left hands as trans
porting vehicles. Most men who smoke
cigars have too many serious uses for
the right hand to employ it in trans
porting the lighted cigar.
Authors, writer's, bookkeepers, law
yers, statesmen, physicians and others
outside the pale of actual muscle en-
couraging labor are men whose right
hands are pretty steadily occupied. II
they smoke the cigar must be carried by
the left hand, while the right tolls with
pen or pencil, and this habit, formed
by necessity, becomes second nature In
idler moments.
After dinner when the cigars are
burning you may observe any one Of
these smokers leaning back on the left
side of his chair with his left arm
crooked at comfortable angle and the
cigar slipping between his lips at de-
sirable intervals. The facts might lead
to the Inference that the left side of
the mouth gets more than its rightful
share of the cigar, but such is not the
case.
There are other classes of men Of
whom these left-handed revelations
might not be made and proved with the
facility here displayed. Motormen, con-
ductors. cabmen, pilots, truckmen, ma
sons and others have little opportunity
for smoking during work.
When they do smoke, either hand is
good enough for them. The smoking
ambidexterity of this class extends to
all pipe and cigarette smokers whose
labor is physical in the heavy sense of
the word
To De sure. a close observer will find
the left hand favored more or less by
every class of smokers from Green
lands icy mountain to the other place.
The weaker hand seems to want the
job worse than the other, and it mani
tests a peculiar aptitude for handling
the weed unerringly. Sc cigar smoking
may be regarded as left-handed hab-
it, simple, if not always pure.
Then again, there Is the person who
holds his cigar in peculiar positions.
The accepted rule in this matter is to
keep the lighted end away from the
face and thus minimize the danger OF
sc0rching the mouth.
In the hollow between the thumb
and forefinger with the lighted end
pointed inward, is one manner of hold
ing perfecto. 1t Is a decidedly bad
way. 1t tends to hold man up TO
suspicion and it robs him of dignity
A formal and sensible way is to fol-
low the method of most smoking men
hold the weed between the first and
second fingers until ii becomes too short
for comfort, when the second finger and
thumb may take hold and carry the
job along to. its not distant conclusion.
Only men given to affectation hold
their cigars between other fingers than
those designated, and such men cannot
be numerous enough to form species,
or the official records would mention
them. In this monograph the habits OF
the cigarette smoker have not been dis
closed for the reason that men addicted
to cigarette smoking have no serious
habits.
Pipe smokers always smoke one way.
They draw the smoke IN and then blow
1t out Their manner of holding and
handling the pipe is as interesting and
varied as tina. and not bit more.