FREDERICK THE GREAT. 231 



and resolutely refuse the snuff-box to young and beautiful 

 women, who ought to preserve their delicate and pretty noses 

 for the odors of the mignonette and the rose." 



With royalty snuff has been a prime favorite. Charles III. 

 of Spain had a great predilection for rappee snuff, but only 

 indulged his inclination by stealth, and particularly while 

 shooting, when he imagined himself to be unnoticed. Fred- 

 erick the Great and Napoleon* both loved and used large 

 quantities of the " pungent dust." Of the former the follow- 

 ing anecdote is related : 



" The cynical temper of Frederick the Great is well known. 

 Once when his sister, the Duchess of Brunswick, was at 

 Potsdam, Frederick made to the brave Count Schwerin the 

 present of a gold snuff-box. On the lid inside was painted 

 the head of an ass. Next day, when dining with the king, 

 Schwerin, with some ostentation, put his snuff-box on the 

 table. Wishing to turn the joke against Schwerin, the king 

 called attention to the snuff-box. The Duchess took it np 

 and opened it. Immediately she exclaimed, l What a striking 

 likeness ! In truth, brother, this is one of the best portraits 

 I have ever seen of you.' Frederick, embarrassed, thought 

 his sister was carrying the jest too far. She passed the box 

 to her neighbor, who uttered similar expressions to her own. 

 The box made the round of the table, and every one was 

 fervently eloquent about the marvelous resemblance. The 

 king was puzzled what to make of all this. When the box 

 at last reached his hands, he saw, to his great surprise, that 

 his portrait was really there. Count Schwerin had simply, 

 with exceeding dispatch, employed an artist to remove the 

 ass's head, and to paint the king's head instead. Frederick 

 could not help laughing at the Count's clever trick, \vliich 

 was really the best rebuke of his own bad taste and want of 

 proper and respectful feeling." 



" As Frederick William 1., of Prussia, was eminently the 

 Smoking Kino:, so his son Frederick the Great was eminently 

 the Snuffing King. Perhaps smoking harmonizes best with 

 action ; and it might, without much stretch of fancy, be 

 shown that as the Prussian monarchy was founded on tobacco 

 smoke, it flourished on snuff. Possibly, if Napoleon the 

 Great, who like Frederick the Great, was an excessive snuffer, 



Napoleon, having been unable to undergo the ordeal of a first pipe, stigmatized It ns a 

 habit only fit to umiue eluggarda. What he renounced iu smoking, however, he compensated 

 in snuff. 



