SMOKERS' STORIES. 



SMOKING IN 1610. 



FROM the following passage in Ben 

 Jonson's play, "The Alchemist," first 

 acted in 1610, we gather some curious 

 particulars respecting the business of a 

 tobacconist of that period. It occurs in 

 the first act, where Abel Drugger is in- 

 troduced to Subtle : 



" This my friend Abel, an honest fellow ; 

 He lets me have good tobacco, and he does not 

 Sophisticate it with sack-lees or oil, 

 Nor washes it in muscadel and grains, 

 Nor buries it in gravel, underground, 

 Wrapped up in greasy leather, . . . 

 But keeps it in fine lily pots that, open'd, 

 Smell like conserve of roses, or French beans. 

 He has his maple block, his silver tongs, 

 Winchester pipes, and fire of juniper $ 

 A neat, spruce, honest fellow. . ." 



The Virginian tobacco was usually im- 

 ported in the leaf, and had to be rubbed 

 small for smoking. The Spanish tobacco 

 was manufactured into balls about the 

 size of a man's head, and was also im- 

 ported m the form of what the French 



