290 HOW TO SMOKE. 



another; but what can compare to the dreamy exquisite 

 luxury of a good cigar ? But, heavens, what am I saying ? I 

 am in love, and Julia reads the " Figaro !" The paleness of 

 Flaxman's illustrations spreads over me please, reader, look 

 upon the sentiment as sarcastic. I am in a fog of smoke, 

 and am quaffing claret from the silvered pewter. There's 

 plenty of it ; and no soul can say : 



"That in drinking from that beaker 

 I am sipping like a fly.' 



How changed from the long, long days ago, when I was a 

 connoisseur in Parparillo cigars, brown-paper cigarettes, and 

 cane cheroots ! Then I fondly adored Sir Walter Raleigh 

 as my earthly idol, for giving me tobacco when I had the 

 halfpence to buy it and delighted in the story, told by 

 queer Oldys, of Sir Walter's servant extinguishing the Vir- 

 ginny smoke that issued from his master's lips, by drenching 

 him with ale. Alas ! my idol is shattered by Hawkins. The 

 Spaniards say, * The lie that lasts for half an hour is worth 

 telling.' History has lied for longer, by a considerable period. 

 Fond even as I was of my brown-papered cigarettes when 

 baccy failed, I must confess I never reached the stage attained 

 by Sir Christopher Haydon's chaplain, William Breedon, 

 parson of Thornton, in Bucks, who was so given to 



" October store and best Virginia," 



that when he had no tobacco (and too much drink) he used 

 to cut the Mi-ropes and smoke them'! 



" The Polyglot three parts my text ; 

 Howbeit likewise now to my next." 



" On Smoke. It is a vulgar, ludicrous, and foolish custom 

 to bite off the nose of a cigar. Don't be a Vandal you are 

 not a Sandwich Islander, about to chew your Kava. A cigar 

 should be handled daintily ; it is a fragile, graceful creature 

 don't mar its beauty, Tear off the twist, and the pleasure 

 of smoking is at an end ! The outer leaf becomes untwirled. 

 Ere it is half finished, you have a ragged end between your 

 lips nasty, foul, and unsightly through which the smoke 

 comes in huge clouds to your mouth, instead of slender 

 streams on the palate. ' rfow, then,' say you ; ' prick it, or 

 cut it, or what ?' Tear it not, cut it not ; nor yet puncture 

 it. Don't be frightened of the cigar thrusting a half-inch 

 alone into the mouth ; but, when you begin, take a good 

 half of it in the mouth ; pull at it lustily for a few seconds, 



