PIPES YOU CAN'T SMOKE.
Mataura Ensign , Issue 620, 10 August 1899, Page 3
About this newspaper
PIPES YOU CAN'T SMOKE.
The queerest tobacco pipes made come from Whitechapel, London. They are made of clay, and shaped like any ordinary pipe; but although over 100,000 are turned out weekly; not one of them is ever used for tobacco. " You couldn't smoke them if you were to try." said a maker of these pipes. " They are not made to be smoked, they are made to be broken. If you go down the Whitechapel road, you will see dozens of barrows rigged up like shooting galleries, with' a great display of pipes to shoot at. They are stuck up on wooden discs that turn round mechanically. People like pipes to shoot at,becease they are.easily broken ; then it isn't an expensive job for the owner of the gallery, as the pipes are turned out roughly at a low price. "In the summer, and especially about Easter time, I have more orders for pipes than I can turn out. There are quite 25,000 clay pipes broke during the Easter holiday alone. Even at this time of the year I get rid of 20,000" a week, and I am only one of the trade. In the different parts of London on any Saturday night it is possible to find quite 800 street snooting-galleries, each one with clay pipes for targets. " I, supply a good many of the small clubs in the East End of London,, â– where shooting gallaries are the prin-e cipalal feature. Most of the members at these places are volunteers, who spend their spare hours hours in perfecting their aim by breaking pipes."
