THE VANISHING PIPE

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1927, Page 7

THE VANISHING PIPE

GIVES WAY TO CIGARETTES. DECLINE. IN PUBLIC PLACES. One of man’s most faithful oompanions, according to recent reports, is losing its hold in England. Word comes from London that the use of briar, meerschaum and calabash is.on the wane. The cigarette is replacing them, especially in theatres and cafes. The pipe is not expected to fade from sight completely. It flourishes still in clubs and homes, and the suburbs and rural districts of England are not likely to give it' up. The pipe's history is long and picturesque. The “churchwarden,” the Irish “dudeen,” the Scotch “cutty.” the famous American corncob, and the French briar each has a past of its own. While Sir Walter Raleigh is generally supposed to have introduced the pipe and tobacco into England, the truth of the matter would seem to be that previous returnee! Colonists from Virginia, less distinguished in rank, were the real pioneers.

When the pipe came into vogue in England, there appeared professors of the art of smoking, who gave lessons for a moderate charge. Books and pamphlets expounded the proper technique. “Do not draw the smoke into the lungs or nose,” runs one suggestion. “Simply draw it into the mouth, and then expel it through the lips. Other cautions are found in this particular set of regulations, including advice against smoking in a draught, and hints that one should smoke slowly and light the pipeload evenly. Women, too, of all ranks enjoyed the pleasures of tobacco. The fragile cigarette being as yet unknown, the pipe was the only instrument used. SURVIVED ROYAL DISPLEASURE. That terrible denunciation known as the “Counterblast Against Tobacco,” issued by James 1, failed to repress the popularity of the pipe.. Long clays of the' “churchwarden” type were kept in coffee houses and taverns for the use of customers. They were, of course, frail, and often broke in the heat of discussion. One country gentleman of the reign of Queen Anne, is credited with putting iu orders for 100-0 clay pipes in the course of five years—an average of four pipes a week.

Thu Indians of America Had the calumet be/ore Columbus arrived. Pipes have been found in different parts of the world made of leaves, bamboo stalks, stone, bones, pottery, brass and iron. Clay was the favourit: material in England, and porcelain throughout Central Europe until the vogue of the meerschaum began. A Hungarian nobleman, who had received a block of meerschaum from Turkey, took it to a shoemaker who carved wooden pipes in his leisure hours, and asked him to carve a pipe bowl from it. Instead of making a single pipe the carver fashioned two, keeping one for himself, and not long thereafter observed the remarkable colouring properties of the new material. MEERSCHAUMS AND BRIARS. A crazo for coloured meerschaums developed, and a host of smokers strove to produce the beautiful tint that a well-smoked pipe of this material assumes. Ono particularly energetic devotee, on learning that the meerschaum should not be allowed to cool, is said to have arranged with a detachment of guardsmen to pass the pipe from hand to hand in their London barracks, never allowing it to go out. According to this story, for seven months the meerschaum, wrapped in flannel, was smoked, filled and smoked again without pause. Probably the finest coloured meerschaum in all pipe history was producer!—but the owner found himself .billed for £lOO worth of tobacco.

The creation of the briar pipe, which is the. favourite to-day, is said to have been the result of the'pilgrimage of a Frenchman to Corsica. Breaking his own pipe, lie engaged a Corsican to carve him one in wood. The Corsican selected briar, which was plentiful on the island. So satisfactory was the new pipe that the traveller took the briar back to France with him, and sent it to St. Claude, whose citizens had a reputation as wood carvers. That briar pipe manufacturing centre two or three years ago was credited with manufacturing ?;»,600,000 pipes annually. An unknown inventor of America’s Middle West discovered that one of the coolest, sweetest smokes of all can be obtained from the humble corncob. The result was the growth of an industry whose centre is now at Washington, Montana, and whose output is estimated at 27,900,000 cob pipes a year.