274 



UNIVERSAL SMOKING. 



habit of making shoes in Lynn, Massachusetts, everybody 

 smokes ! in the house, and by the way ; in the cars, and on 

 horseback ; everywhere, and at all times. You meet whole 

 regiments of youngsters, from six to eight years of age, with 

 black beaver hats, tail-coats, and canes, each with a cigar, 

 nearly his own size, in his mouth. You feel like putting the 

 miniature dandies into the water of the next fountain basin, 

 which shallow as it is, would fully, suffice to drown the largest 

 of them." 



You have a right to accost any one smoking in the street, 

 however much may be his superiority or inferiority to your- 

 self, and to ask a light for your cigar ; even negroes hatless 

 and shirtless, thus address well-dickied gentlemen, and vice 

 versa. Refuse to take a cigar with a Cuban, and you refuse 

 his friendship. The negroes cannot work at all without 

 their quota of cigars ; " and looking out of the windows of a 

 room in that magnificent hotel * El TelegrafoJ the writer 

 remembers to have caught a glimpse more than once of the 

 negro women at work in the laundry, every one of whom 



held a long cigar in 

 her mouth, and puffed 

 incessantly as the 

 clothes were manipu- 

 lated upon the wash- 

 boards." In Havana, 

 as throughout Cuba, 

 there is a cigar eti- 

 quette, to infringe any 

 of the rules of which 

 is construed as an in- 

 sult. It is, for instance 

 considered a breach 

 of etiquette when you 

 are asked for a light 

 to hand your cigar without first knocking off the ashes. A 

 greater breach, however, is to pass the cigar handed for you 

 to obtain a light from, to a third party for a similar purpose ; 

 the rule is to hand back the cigar with as graceful a wave as 



WENCHES SMOKING. 



