Evening journal., 1914-01-29
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Senator Frye'S Study Of
TObaCCO-USerS in the Senate
By Holland.

81 have often found entertainment
in studying the use of tobacco, as
it has characterized and individual
lied many Of my associates in the
lower House Of Congress and in the
Senate" said the late Senator Will
liam p. Frye, of Maine, to me short
ly after his return from Paris, where
he had spent some weeks as a mem-
Der of the commission which wrote
the treaty af peace with Spain.
81 am myself regarded as a pretty
steady smoker. But l have known
some men who would discount my
capacity in that respect. When we
were in Paris observed for the first
time with what passionate fondness
my associate, Cushman X. Davis, the
Senator from Minnesota, smoked a
cigar He was the only man ] ever
knew who actually ate an extra meal
solely fer the purpose OF smoking an
after-dinner cigar
AFTER 1881, when / first went to
Congress. | think il Is safe to say
that almost every other man used
chewing tobacco. Speaker CARLYLE
was. an ardent devOtee of the habit.
I think he did not smoke. but it was
his custom every morning TO buy a
certain kind of hne-cut which came
in bulk. and not in prepared pack
ages He would stuff the tobacco into
paper bag and consume the whole
Of it by the time the days session
was ended.
IL do not recall now any member
of the House who used snuff. but
/ 90 remember vividly the graceful
etiquette with which Senator Thur
man. of Ohio, used to take snuff out
of silver box, and after applying IL
10 his nostrils. blow a trumpet blast
upon a rod six handkerchief, the
very handkerchief which afterward
became emblematic when Thurman
was a candidate for Vice-President.
4 was told that President Hayes's
secretary of the navy, Colonel Rich
ard TOmpson, was entitled 10 the
distinction. if it be a distinction, Of
being the most inVeterate smoker m
Washington. He never was without
a cigar excepting at a time when
proprieiy forbade its use.
II think William Mckinley was
fondcr of a cigar even than President
Grant He certainly smoked one
with more artistic grace, aud he
smoked good many. William Ma
hone. Senator ii'om Virginia you re-
member What little man .hc was,
nothing but a bag of bones, as his
wife once said smoked the blackest
and the strongest cigars that ] ever
saw. | would not care TO tackle cue
of them
Roscoe Conkling was constant
dry smoker, but he never lighted a
cigar He would cut one in two in
the middle and then chew first one
half and then the other. holding the
parted ends between his teeth. He
once told me that he did that be-
cause he thought it helped his diges-
tion.
But the queerest habit associated
with smoking that ever heard OF
was one which characterized Calet
Cushing. II was told by one of Gen.
eral Cushing's friends that il was thl
great stateman's habit TO smoke q
cigar a little more than half way al
and then after letting it go out hr
would put il in a little cloth bag. II
that way he accumulated butt aftel
butt, and would carry them arounC
i'm this bag in the inner pocket o.
his coat When he wanted TO smolx,
he would draw forth one OF .thesl
butts and light II and after smok
ing it for a while he would let /
go out and return it to the bag