292 SMOKING CHRISTIANS. 



contains the greatest, Turkish the least, per-centage of nico- 

 tine. Havana, two and one-half per cent. 



" But an unique old woman of Jehu's acquaintance goes 

 further still ; boldly asserting that ' smoking is well for mak- 

 ing good soldiers, well for making good sailors, well for 

 making sometimes good lawyers ; not so well for making 

 good Christians.' Oh ! ashes of Hawkins and Raleigh, shud- 

 der for the results of ' baccy on degraded human nature.' 

 There must be a rarity of good Christians, then amongst the 

 parsons ; they are all fond of it. Dean Aldrich was, per- 

 haps, the greatest smoker of his da}\ His excessive attach- 

 ment to this habit was the cause of many wagers. Here's 

 one : At breakfast, one morning, at the ' Yarsity, an under- 

 graduate laid his companion long odds that the Dean was 

 smoking at that instant. Away they hastened ; and, being 

 admitted to the Dean's study, stated the occasion of their 

 visit. The Dean replied, in perfect good humor, to the layer 

 of the bet, ' You see, sir, you have lost your wager; for I 

 am not smoking, but filling my pipe.' But my cigar has 

 reached its last dying speech, and there is but a drop left in 

 the beaker. 



1 I'll not leave thee, thou lone drop ! 



'Twould be mighty unkind, 

 Since the rest I have swallow'd, 

 To leave thee behind.' 



"Final exhortation. Choose the small, sound, tolerably 

 firm, and elastic cigar: the dwarf contains stuff within which 

 the giant hath not. Don't flatter yourself you're smoking 

 cabbage, if not tobacco its any odds on rhubarb ! 



4 For me there's nothing new or rare, 



Till wine deceives my brain ; 

 And that, I think, 's a reason fair 

 To fill my pipe again.' " 



Charles Lamb, " the gentle Elia " was during a portion of 

 his lifetime a famous smoker. In a letter to Hazlitt he 

 writes, " I am so smoky with last night's ten pipes, that I 

 must leave off." It is said that he smoked only the coarsest 

 and strongest he could procure. Dr. Parr inquired of him 

 how he acquired his " prodigious smoking powers." " I 

 toiled after it, sir," was the reply, " as some men toil after 

 virtue !" Lamb was constant in his use of tobacco, and 

 among all the great luminaries of English literature we know 

 of none more addicted to the use of the pipe. Lamb might 

 often be seen in his chambers in Mitre Court Building, puff- 

 ing the coarsest weed from a long clay pipe, in company with 



