28 ST NICOTINE 



The fact is that the cigar is a rival to the ladies and their 

 conqueror too. Do they suppose they will conquer ? Let 

 them look over the wide world and see for themselves that 

 their adversary has overcome it. Germany has been 

 puffing for over three-score years and more, France smokes 

 to a man. Do they think they can keep the enemy out of 

 England ? Pshaw ! Look at Nicotiana's progress. Ask 

 the club-houses. I, for my part, think it not at all unlikely 

 that a bishop may be seen now and then lolling out of the 

 Athenaeum with a cheroot in his mouth, or at any rate, a 

 pipe stuck in his shovel hat.' 



Bulwer Lytton waxes warm over the inestimable blessings 

 of the pipe. He declares that it is a great comforter, and a 

 pleasant soother ! ' Blue devils fly before its honest breath ' 

 It ripens the brain, it opens the heart ; and the man who 

 smokes thinks like a sage, and acts like a Samaritan. 

 He who doth not smoke hath either known no great 

 grief, or refuseth himself the softest consolation, next to 

 that which comes from heaven. What, softer than woman ? 

 Yes, for the woman teases as well as consoles. Woman 

 makes half the sorrows which she boasts the privilege to 

 soothe. Woman consoles us it is true, while we are young 

 and handsome, when we are old and ugly, woman snubs 

 and scolds us. On the whole, then, woman in this scale 

 and the weed in that ; Jupiter, hang out thy balance and 

 weigh them both ; and if thou give preference to woman, 

 all I can say is, the next time Juno ruflles thee — O Jupiter ! 

 try the weed.' 



