TOBACCO LEAVES 



the following testimonial to Drugger, the 

 apothecary : 



" This is my friend Abel, an honest fellow. 

 He lets me have good tobacco, he does not 

 Sophisticate it with slack lees, or oil, 

 Nor washes it with Muscadel or grannis, 

 Nor buries it in gravel underground, 

 Wrapp'd up in greasy leather or old clouts, 

 But keeps it in fine lily-pots, that opened, 

 Smells like conserves of roses." 



How like to-day. The good old times were 

 full of fakirs, too. Of course Ben Jonson 

 smoked. There are too many allusions to 

 the weed in his works for him not to have 

 been a smoker. Besides his portraits make 

 him look like one a puff and a grunt, 

 a growl, a side shaking with laughter, 

 meditative smokes and goose quill. Can 

 we not see him in all of these occupations? 



In 1618 there was produced a curious 



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