Evening star., 1913-03-02

mo instrument made by man has Travelled
- so rapidly over so wide a territory as
the pipe. Only few centuries ago it was
known to few savage tribes in an unknown
region: today a pipe of some description is
to be found in every section of the world.
Smoking IS a universal habit. From the
lofty summit of civilization to the very bot
tom of savagery there is not a race, nation,
or tribe in which smoking does not prevail.
And among all people the pipe is the basis of
all forms of smoking, because, in the words
of Hawthorne:
The pipe if brought to trial, can find
sounder plea than mere disparagement of
| rivals. He takes his stand upon his intrin-
sic virtues, they are undenable, and not
| few. To begin with, he has permanent ex-
istenCe; again and again does he serve your
| turn, and still is ready for fresh bout nay,
he gains in mellowness and beauty with each
successive charge. Clear but his throat oc-
casionally, anon stuff that ever open mouth
| with pinch of fresh hay. and he will COM
nune sweetly with you all day long. Your
companion by night and by day. in merri-
ment and distress, he has watched your
growth. seen your opinions change. glowed
with your hopes, burned incense for your
success, mourned in ashes for your disap-
pointment. What other friend has been so
| finely sympathetic, SO unobtrusively con-
sOing so seldom unwelCOme?"
TWO sailors, who braved the dangers of
= Columbus first voyage, discovered the
pipe They found the natives of Cuba putting
smoke from lighted firebrands, and found
other tribes on other islands drawing smoke
from a smoldering fire into their nostrls
through hollow instrument. 1t was always
smoke from burning the same plant, whether
in pipes, on glowing embers, or wrapped in
the leaves of Indian corn. The Spaniards
called the plant tabaoo; but this was the
name by which the natives called the pipe.
Don Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo intro
duced the plant into Spain about 1880, and
thirty years later Jean Nicot in honor of
whom the weed is called Nieotiana, intro
duced it into France.
Sir Walter Raleigh is credited with having
made smoking popular in England. A gram
mar school student, in a composition on Sir
| Walter, makes that illustrious smoker say,
on the occasion of his first smoke, Rodney,
we have this day lighted such fire in Eng
land as will never be put out He was not
far wrong; for the practice outlived Sir
Walter by many centuries and continued to
thrive, in spite of the wave of persecution
against smokers inaugurated by King James
"Counterblast to Tobacco" In Russia
smokers were put to DEATH in Turkey they
were strangled, in Persia their nostrils were
slit and their lips cut off. In Switzerland
smoking was crime, and Pope Urban excom-
rnunicated everyone who brought pipe into
church. But the popularity of the pipe in
creased, its most sturdy prosecutors fell vic
tins to its charms, government resistance
subsided, and the pipe achieved complete
victory
THERE are all sorts and conditions of
l pipes. They are made in all shapes and
| forms from variety of materials, but all
for one purpose. The pipe of all pipes is
the clay, the "cuddy" of Scotland, the
churchwarden of England, or the COM
mon, cheap clay pipe of the poor. 1t was for
years to the undercrust what the ''briar " is to
| the great middle classand the meerschaum
is to the limited aristocracy.
Concerning these two latter varieties of
pipes there are some popular fallacies. The
so called French Briar y is not a briar at all,
and the substance from which it is made
grows in Italy. Brnyere is French word
meaning heath sweet heather. and it is
the name of the substance from which
French briar" pipes are made. The tree
heath grows in the southern part of Europe,
particularly in the vicinity of Leghorn, Italy