TOBACCO LEAVES 



the weed; and, for all we know to the 

 contrary, he may have been an honest 

 smoker, one whose pipe never went out 

 until the bowl was full of ashes. In Shake- 

 speare's time, men were Spartan smokers, 

 for the tobacco was rank stuff in his day, 

 yet the smoke was inhaled from pipes, and 

 sent in volumes from the nostrils. That 

 way would kill the smokers of the present 

 day. That brings us to this logical con- 

 clusion, that Shakespeare, who must have 

 been the most delicately organized of mor- 

 tals, could not have been a smoker, for 

 the smoke of vile tobacco sent through his 

 lungs and nostrils would have killed him. 

 We must not be too hard on King James 

 the First, for his " Counterblast " against 

 tobacco, when we bear in mind its vileness. 

 Napoleon tried to smoke once. Some- 

 body gave him a box of Turkish cigar-* 

 ettes, and it nearly did for him what 

 Europe had been trying to do to him for 



57 



