Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1907-06-07
ART OF PIPE SMOKING.
How to Fill Pipe and to Take Care Of It
Tobacco Mixtures.


AS important as the condition ol
tobacco smoked is the state of the
pipe itself. A straight pipe with a
wide bore in the stem is the best,
says the London Globe, because it is
easy to clean with q few twists of q
feather. No doubt feathers are the
finest pipe cleaners.
Next, no doubt, to a good, seas.
Oned tobacco is to have a battery OF
pipes, SO that a frequent change is
possible. The ideal plan is never to
smoke a particular pipe more than
once in day. When done with, it
should be cleaned and stood on the
rack, bowl downward, and all pipes
should be used in rotation. There is
q great art, too, in filling a pipe. II
the tocacco is crammed in haphazard
it will not burn evenly, and a tightly
packed pipe is the cause of more
tongue blisters than even an ill-cOn-
ditioned, half-drOwned tobacco. Pipe
filling is perhaps the most difficult
thing a smoker has to deal with.
Old hands cannot be sure of always
exactly hitting the right degrees OF
even density throughout the bowl,
and beginners invariably make a
bOtch of it.
Some people will never master the
thing in lifetime, try as they may,
and they are perforce limited to the
minor delights of cigar and cigarette
smoking, or at least have to put up
with mixtures which, by reason OF
their short, choppy nature, are fairly
fool-proof from this point of view.
A perfectly filled pipe should light
at once in on evenly glowing disc,
and should burn through almost to
the bottom uninterruptedly, preserv'
ing slightly coned shape the whole
time.
A curious, not to say unaccOuntable,
thing about pipe smoking is the way
in which the formation of the cake
hard, black substance which col
lects on the inside of the bowl
varies with different smokers.
It does not appear to depend or
the nature of the tobacco used, but
almost entirely on some mysterious
attribute of the user. With some
smokers this cake grows rapidly, anG
must be as constantly pared away
while with others its collection is JUS
as slow. In either case the interior
of the bowl must be kept as smooth
as possible by frequent scrapings
This ensures the rim fire" neces
sary for the cone-shaped burning; ,
rough bowl means center fire" ant
waste of tobacco.
To many people the first smok'
from o new pipe is always a terror
but the breaking in of o new brial
should never be attempted by smok
ing in the ordinary way. 1t mus
be done by some sort of bellows ar
rangement. A bicycle pump is not
bad thing. The pipe should first b
packed hard with the strongest ant
iuiciest tobacco Obtainable. 1t il
then lighted and drawn up to glow
with the mouth. A few puffs will
suffice for this, when it is laid on tn
table and blown at steadily until tn
charge is all consumed. A pip
treated in this way is ready at ono
to 90 in the rack and take its turl
with the rest.
A word of counsel might here b.
given to beginners in the fine art o
pipe-smoking. 1t is just this: Hav
nothing to do with mixtures contain
ing half q dozen different sort Q
tobacco. No wine-drinker woul'
think of combining port and sherry
champagne and claret, in the sam
draught. And just as every kind Q
wine has its own distinctive favo
and properties, so has tobacco
Honeydew, Cavendish, Turkish, La
takia, each has its peculiar and un
deniable merits, each its own fra
GRANGE different from the rest. Ye
there are thousands to-day who Gran
them all together into the one pipe
bowl, and that with no more reaso
than the man who should mix hi
wines.