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COLORING MEERSCHAUMS. 



PIPE COLORER. 



and such stains of Tobacco-juice to make themselves visible 

 on the bowls or stems of those specified pipes. These are 



mostly old, well - seasoned 

 smokers, to whose existence 

 the weed has become essen- 

 tial; who smoke their own 

 old pipes, which lack artistic 

 coloring, in the intervals 

 when they lay aside the 

 pipes they are employed to 

 color. Another and much 

 smaller section of the class 

 are those who smoke for 

 smoking's sake, and yet are 

 weak enough to nurse some 

 special pipes for show. To 

 such it is a joy to say, when 

 friends are gathered at the 

 festive board ' Look ! is not 

 that well colored ? I colored 

 it myself.' In such an age 

 as this, when the learned cannot tell us which of our various 

 branches of knowledge and inquiry are sciences and which 

 are not, it may not seem a great anomaly that this pipe- 

 coloring should, by some, be called ' an art.' Nor is it, when 

 we think that there is such an ' art ' as blacking shoes ; and 

 when we must perforce admit that he who, barber fashion, 

 cuts our hair and he who, cook-wise, broils the kidney for 

 our mid-day dinner is an artist. We have not come as yet 

 to give this title to the weaver who watches the loom that 

 weaves our stockings, or to the hammer-man who beats the 

 red-hot horse-shoe on the anvil in a smithy; but even there 

 we designate ' artisans,' and < artists ' may come next. So, 

 hey ! for the art of coloring pipes ! 



u It may not be denied that there is beauty in a well-colored 

 meerschaum ; but in the admission lies the contradiction of 

 Keats' well-known line 



"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever." 



For, your meerschaum is a fragile thing, and eminently fran- 

 gible. This present writer once did see four beauties break 

 within a single moon. And when they break, what previous 

 joy of coloring can over-top the sorrow of their dire destruc- 

 tion ? It is a singular difficulty in the way of those who 

 most desire to beautify utility or utilize the beautiful, or 



