SMOKING EXTRAORDINARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10347, 23 January 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

SMOKING EXTRAORDINARY.

SOME ARDENT DEVOTEES 01? THJ WE 101). Thoogu the uso of tobacco h greatly in creasing in Britain, wo nre still very fa from being a nation which smokes heavily In fact, as regards our smoking powers, w aro not far from the bottom of the list rnnont civilised nations. In 1841 each individua of tlio population consumed on an avoragi )3ozayear, and by 1891 this had exact!) doubled. Even allowing for some proper tionato growth einco that Mine—increase o the population at the rate of 1 per cont. pot annum appears to be accompanied by ar increase of 3 per cent, in the'consumption of tobacco-wo are simply nowhere compared with tho .United States, whore tho average per hoad is 4J!b yearly while Holland outstrips this again usinn close on 71b per head yearly. " When wo think of it, and allow for nonsmokers, this means a • tremendous eoneumption by those who do smoke. Their excuse is the dampness of thoir climate; and tob;icco is ridiculously cheap, no that the heaviest smokers do not actually spend more than tho mere triflers in this lino to be found among oursolvos, Tho Smokers' Club, fib Bruges, opens its winter session overy year with a compotiticin, in which tho member wins who keeps his pipe align t longer than any other. Pi pes are filled and lit at a given signal j two minutes later nil matches are removed from the table and the fun begins, each doing all he can to induce his neighbour to let his pipe out. Last time of trial the winner kept his pipe burning for an hour and twenty-five minutes I There is no possibility of telling how much tobacco is consumed in the Philippine Archipelago, which well merits the name of the smoker's paradise. Everyone smokesmen and women, boys and girls from the tenderest age—and tobacco is laid in by the careful housekeeper as we Liy in potatoes or flour. The women, indeed, nob satisfied with the ordinary cigar, have enormous ones made for thomselvos, nearly a foot long and proportionately thick, and make their evening promenade with these torches in their mouths.

There aro many other countries where smoking is universal and perpetual in dear cigarette, or pipe-Mexico, Turkey, Sinm, bpain, and so on. Tho Red Indian can stand more cigarettes than half a dozeu mashers rolled in one, without) tho sliditesb ill-effect. In some parts of Spain workmen are allowed fifteen minutes' leisure every hour for cigarette-smoking. In the courts of Mexico and Siam, judge, jury, lawyers witnesses, and prisoner may ba all seen smoking at the same time. Next to the Kalmucks, Russian women are most_ devoted to tobacco. Kalmuck women will sacrifice even tea to obtain it • but almost all over tho world. out»ide the pale of the highest civilisation with its fashionable restrictions, it is sensibly enough recognised that what is good for men can not bo bad for women, and whore tobacco is used the women smolte it as freely as tho

Our own country can boast of some croat smokers. J.)r. Parr was, regarded as the greatest smoker of his day. Whatelv Archbishop of Dublin, boasted of being above Parr." Hβ afforded a singular exhibition a3 he sat on the chains in front of his house in St. Stephen's fireon, nmokinga long clay pipe. Lord Brougham, too, loved the common day pipe, and smoked it regularly until ho wee past ninety. Sir n alter Scoto not only smoked himself, but advised hie son, who was an officer in tho army, as to tho best kind of pipe. Tennyson, Thackoray, Dickens, Carlyle, and Darwin wore all dovoted to tho weed, Mr. Spurgeon was often taken to task about hie inveterate indulgence in tobacco. Once, when tackled by a pious lady, who asked him if he found anything in the Bible about smoking, he answered, "No, but wo do read of the peoplo passing through the •Valley of Baca!" • i