Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-11-23

After being told that they'd have
to stand in many line for a
cigarette, severai OF the girls have
turned to the old pastime Of rolling
their own. However, that Is an art
that requires an agility of which
most of us are not capable, so more
Of the fair sex have turned to pipes
as solace. In fact, so many have
taken to drawing on pipe that We
wouldn't be bit surprised to see
Santa bringing pipes to the whole
family this Christmas!
We've heard OF few misguided
damsels Who've started to smoke
corncobs-but that's our idea of one
thing that the boys wouldn't like to
come home to-, There's no doubt
about it, in starting to take up the
manly art, girls best friend is
good pipe maker. Not being an old
pipe smoker, we hied ourself to some
OF the leading pipe men in town to
get few leads for the ladies who
want TO light up. Most emphasized
that 1t was most important that a
prospective smoker be broken in by
man who knew pipes. One of them
said he was third generation pipe
maker"-in other words, porn with
pipe in his mouth. They made pipe
smoking sound so easy and pleasant
that we wouldn't be surprised to find
ourSelf graSping pipe stem between
our teeth any day now.
Step No. in taking up this silent
man routine Is to select good pipe.
The goodness OF a pipe is determined
pretty much by the wood. Most
pipes are made OF briar-a fine wood
that is cultivated specially for pipes
because of its porous quality. (The
pore angle is one tied up in theory
with draft for a fire; at this stage
take our word for it,
Imported briars are finest and still
| obtainable. Best-and most expen-
sive at this point-are the Algerian
briars which you can identify by
their color and well-defined grain.
The great majority of these have
reddish cast. but many are walnut
hued. The Moroccan or Spanish
briar looks very much the same, but
has an oily feel" which distin-
cuisines it from the Algerian, and 1t
doesn't smoke as we'll. (The why"
of this you'll have to get from pipe
man.
Where you can get fooled easily
is in painted pipe which has been
painted for just that reason-to
fool you. AS the men who put us
through our pipe PAGES explained,
after a pipe has been painted, the
paint so covers the grain that its
own maker would have trouble in
identifying the wood. Anyway
painted and vanished pipes are
bad business-and you'll never find
them at reputable tobacconists.
The point is that once the pipe
gets hot. the varnish will seep
through the pores of the wood and
you'll be tasting varnish instead of
tobacco. after which you might as
we'll throw out the pipe because it
won't be any good. The same holds
true for paint. Sometimes it's hard
10 tell. but on the whole, natural
wood doesn't have too high a gloss,
so If you think it has too much
shine be wary-or as one of the men
explained, IF it looks too good, it
proba bly, isn't good at all
i If pipe is designated as Amer
lean briar, it's actually nothing more
than rhododendron, the difficulty
with this refugee from-a-g garden
being that 1t burns too easily and
gets charred taste Worse than
this, however, is the remedy-a fire.
PROCEED pipe-this performance be-
/ ing done with borax, the very same
| found II, coy,, y,,or larrdr1, coor tn, ,
trouble is that when one of these
| freproofed numbers starts perking
you1l find that every once in q
while you get taste of washday.
For those who want to be chic
smokers" there are meerschaum
bowls with colored stems that look
for all the world like Chinese pipes.
If you're not from pipe smoking
family, you may not know that
meerschaum is white which grad
ually turns to beautiful mellow
cherry color. In these you can have
your choice of black, white. amber,
pink or blue stems, but the pipe
man will probably tell you that they
won't give you as good smoke as a
good briar.
| There are approximately four
shapes in ladies' pipes-miniatures
of what your husband or beau
smokes. If you want to talk the
lingo yoa'll ask for an apple bowl
tround),s mushroom squat type)
billiard bowl modified rounO or the
Dublin. which is the name for a
bowl with almost straight sides. All
have slim, straight stems-no curved
numbers for the ladies, and the
pipe makers with just a hint of
condescension refer to them all as
cocktail pipes" Some pipes have
bowls that hold just about the same
amount of tobacco as a cigarette