AN OCTOGENABIAH BMOKEE. 67 



repose which were visible all around him. He has smoked 

 his morning and evening pipe, in his quiet way, for nearly 

 half a century. When engaged in the active business of 

 life, struggling with its cares, and fighting its battles, he 

 always took half an hour in the morning, and as long at 

 evening, to smoke his pipe and read the news of the day. 

 He scarcely ever, when at home, under any pressure of cir- 

 cumstances omitted these two half hours of repose, or as 

 his excellent wife used to say, of ' fumigation.' She passed 

 to her rest years ago, leaving behind her the pleasant 

 odor of a good name, a memory cherished by all who 

 knew her. 



" Men denounce the use of tobacco, and I do not quarrel 

 with them for doing so. Say that it is a vile and a filthy 

 habit ; be it so, I will not now stop to deny it. Say that it 

 is bad for the constitution, ruinous to the health ; be it so. 

 I will not gainsay it. Still I never see an old man, seated 

 in his great arm chair, with his grandchildren playing 

 around him, smoking his pipe and enjoying its, to him, plea- 

 sant perfume, its soothing influences, without regarding that 

 same pipe as an institution which I would hardly be willing 

 to banish entirely from the world. 



" There is a good deal of philosophy, too, in a pipe, if one 

 will but take the trouble to study it ; great subjects for 

 moralizing, much food for reflection ; and all this outside of 

 the physical enjoyment, the soothing influences of a quiet 

 pipe, when the day is drawing to a close, and its cares 

 require some gentle force to banish them away. It does not 



