Evening star., 1926-12-10
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

usually keep the tobacco for any
| length of time in the precise state in
which it left the manufacturer. The
packages do very well, but time has a
drying effect on their contents, II
long extended. The use Of a bit of
blotting paper placed in the top of
packages, after once opened, is re-
sorted to by some to keep such to-
bacco in a moist state. Care must be
| taken. however, not to use too much
! water, as wet tobacco is not what is
desired, but simply moist tobacco, an
entirely different thing.
The pipe smoker may seem ultra
| fastidious to his non-smoking friends,
but not to those who understand the
| large part which water (12O) plays
| in nature.
, Water forms four-fifths of the
human body, or some such figure; 80
per cent of milk; enters into the for
nation of all articles used for food by
human beings, meats, fruits, vege-
tables, to a very large extent.
Water, heated, warns our houses
/ in Winter, and, frozen to ice, cools
our drinks and preserves our foods in
Summer.
| The daily bath is real part of the
! life of millions upon millions of per-
sons. The use of water among CIV
ilized beings passes computation. Any
| large modern city uses millions of
gallons day.
Nature periodically floods the earth
with water and thirsty ground and
crops soak up cloudfuls.
| All life floats in a solution of water.
The blood is practically all water,
with the exception of those mystic
rious elements of life which the Gre
ator has put into the vital fluid.
With water playing such a large
part in the created universe, it is not
to be wondered at that, in so small a
thing as tobacco, the proper content
of water is OF vast Importance. Viewed
| from the standpoint of the Creator,
| tobacco is a very small thing, indeed,
| but viewed by men who use it and
| enjoy it, it is one of the everyday
| commodities that enhance daily liv-
| ing-a habit that may be abused, like
| most other habits, but which, rightly
used, does not seem to harm any one
| appreciably. The theoretic conten-
tions against tobacco are many, but
in actual practice the weed does no
such harm as is claimed else the
| Nation would have been wiped out
long ago, if one may judge by the
perfectly enormous use of tobacco
throughout the world.
Keeping ones smoking tobacco
properly moist, then, is no small
thing, if one is going to smoke. AS
the slogan of a large firm has it,
You might as we'll have the best"
And you seldom can get the best
from your friends. Invariably they
hand one dried-out packet of tobac-
co, that in reality is only so much
| hay. No wonder cats do not throw
| fits over catnip served up. to them in
a similarly baked state. The pre-
| cious moisture content is lacking.
| One feels as if it would be a good
| thing, if not polite, to seize the prof
| fered package of tobacco in one hand,
| hold a large basin of water in the
other and then and there publicly dip
| the tobacco beneath the waves.
| No doubt the best way, after all, is
not to borrow ones tobacco. This,
| however, is an advice of perfection
| Even the most careful smoker will
some time or other. run out of tobac-
co, when he must be thrown upon the
| mercy of his friends. But from their
| tobacco, O Lord, defend us!