Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-03-26
THE OLD T. D.
Day of the Clay Pipe Has Passed.

The clay pipe is passing. Perhaps
il would be nearer the truth to write
that the clay pipe has passed. 1t
might be unsafe to prophesy that it
will never come hack, because the
clay pipe when we'll used has a
strength and persistency ell its own.
The clay pipe was once the pet of
laborer and the pride of the working
man.
That clay pipe was the pipe of men
who did a mans work.
Can you remember and of course
you can, that when a group of those
real workingmen gathered under the
shade of tree or the lea of a wall for
lunch, that after the tin bucket had
been emptied the strong man probably
wiped his mouth with the back of his
hrawny hand and that then he would
produce clay pipe, BACKED with reek
and fire? 1t had sometimes very
short stem. It was a hot smoke he
sought and not cool one.
Can you not remember with what
loving care and elaboration he filled
and patted the pipe with chips of to-
bacco he had whitfield from big
black plug? Can you not remember
how he lighted one of those blue-head
sulphur matches and shielded IT with
his hairy ands, waiting for the flame
to come clear and red? And then the
content of such smoke,
Watch the laborers of today and you
will see that the mature or ripper or
them are smoking wood pipes-briars,
they call them-and that the younger
workers are smoking cigarettes. SO 1t
is that the clay pipe is passinS-has
passed. But let a tobacconist tell this
story in his own way:
Young man, you want clay pipe!
l don't have many calls for that KIND
of a pipe nowadays, except from chill
dren who want to blow soap bubbles,
and from some folk who want TO give
a smoker and provide a box of clean
clay pipes for their guests.
Twenty, 80, 40 years ago l used to
sell a great many of those pipes to
smokers. The white clays, called I.
DIS. sold for cent each. The yellow
claws with the reed stem sold for 2
cents each, and the red or the Pow
hatan sold for 10 cents for the bowl
and S cents for the stem. But they
had their run. Nearly every pipe
of course, is not really and truly
hriar. Poor men want a hard rub
Der rnouthpiece, bone mouthpiece, an
imitation amber an in many cases
genuine amber mouthpiece. Just now
there seems to be quite a run on sps-
cially prepared corncob pipes and cal
abashes, but nine out or ten pipes
are made out of wood ana the cia-
fashioned clsS is not in the running
1.-The red Powhatan of our youth was
a fine pipe. Ii was cut out OF pecu-
liar red pipestone in Virginia. one
family made them by moulding them
out of red clay. The real ro"iia.oii
when it became foul coulo DE puiht
cut and would be pure and sweet out
the clay Powhatan would crack.
The clay pipe early attained great
popularity in England and ireland.
II was taken into England by halph
Lane, first Governor or virginia III
1886. He gave this pipe TO SIR waiter
Raleigh. 1t was the pipe Whlch set
the tobacco smoking fashion III Eng
land. The pipe making ihuuselS
hooned SO prosperously that IN ioi'
there was a guild OF plpemahers III
London.
Though these Ensiish pipes
made from a number of substances,
the clay pipe was widely smoked
There were great pipemaking rae,
tories at Broseiey in Staffordshire ana
at Amesbury in Wiltshire IN the I'm
century. The clay was pressed ln'o
iron molds with a wire through 'he
stem. which was drawn out before
baking. The pipes were fired put 50
lightly that the clay renamed qui.e
soft and porous. Pipes were maae
not only of clay, but OF wooo' iorh'
bone. stone, amber, glass and porce-
lain. c. ,a
In the East, especially in CHINA anu
Japan. pipe bowls were made OF prass'
The porcelain bowl with the long pen
dulous stem became the favorite pipe
Of the people. American pioneers vels
commonly made their pipes by ouln
imp the pith out of corn COP anu
inserting a reed stem.
American Indians had been sHohihs
tobacco in pipes for unknown ages
before the coming Of Europeans. Flpes
are found in the Indian burial MOUNDS
throughout the Mississippi valley ana