MEERSCHAUM PIPES. 



mines from six to eight miles southeast of Eskis chehr, on 

 the river Pursak chief tributary to the river Sagarius. They 

 were known to Xenophon, and are now worked principally 

 by Armenian Christians, who sink narrow pits, to the beds 

 of this mineral, and work the sides out until water or immi- 

 nent danger drives them away to try another place. Some 

 meerschaum comes from Brussa, and in 1869 over 3,000 

 boxes of raw material were imported from Asia Minor at 

 Trieste, with 345,000 florins. The pipe manufacture and 

 carving is principally carried on in Vienna and in Rhula, 

 Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The commercial value of 

 meerschaum carving at these places may be estimated at 

 $2,000,000 annually. However very large quantities of them 

 are not made from genuine but artificial material. The 

 waste from these carvings is ground to a very fine powder, 

 and then boiled with linseed oil and alum. When this 

 mixture has sufficient cohesion, it is cast in molds and care- 

 fully dried and carved, as if these blocks of mineral had been 

 natural. It is said that about one-half of all pipes now sold 

 are made from artificial meerschaum. Meerschaum is one of 

 the lightest of minerals and it is said that in Italy bricks 

 have been made of it so light that they would float on the 

 top of the water. Some pipes (doubtless owing to the 

 quality of meerschaum) take on more color in a given time 

 than others this is owing in a great measure however to the 

 thickness of the bowl." 



Pipe-colorers, who go around coloring pipes or meer- 

 schaums, pride themselves on the rapidity with which they 

 are enabled to color a pipe. The following, on "Pipe 

 Colorers," is from " The Tobacco Plant " : 



" There are men who pride themselves upon the skill with 

 which they are able to color the pipes they smoke. Some of 

 these are amateurs, who smoke Tobacco only with the view 

 of gratifying that taste for color which is satisfied when a 

 bowl of clay or meerschaum is sufficiently yellowed, browned, 

 or blacked. There are men who care nothing for Tobacco 

 of itself, and would "be much more easily and rationally 

 pleased were they to set their pipes upon an easel and paint 

 them with oils and camel's-hair. Others of the class are 

 professional colorers, who hire themselves to pipe-sellers or 

 connoisseurs by the week, or day, or hour, to smoke so many 

 ounces or pounds of strong Tobacco through such and such 

 pipes in such and such a time, with the view of causing such 



