FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 25 



a cigar in exchange for the whisky plain, or 

 possible " Tom Collins " that he was so obligingly 

 about to produce, and my doubts were relieved, 

 though not my thirst, when he presently reappeared 

 with an immense beaker of iced water. With 

 profuse thanks, I drank it. 



The American takes his tobacco in the form of 

 frequent cigars, generally of medium quality. 

 Cigarettes are rare, though the French colony 

 in New Orleans is said to favour nothing else, 

 and of pipes I saw more in Carolina and Florida 

 than in the cities of the North, where even men of 

 the working-class smoke only cigars. In England, 

 on the other hand, cigars are popularly regarded as 

 an indulgence of the well-to-do, and a certain 

 Cornish crabber of my acquaintance, who has for 

 years smoked nothing else, ison that account regarded 

 by his fellows, who in their blackened pipes burn 

 unspeakable vegetables, with a mixture of awe and 

 suspicion. American cigars, being a common vice 

 on Fifth Avenue and in the Bowery, vary in quality. 

 One man will press half-dollar cigars on you at the 

 rate of three an hour, dispensing with a case and 

 keeping them, apparently in excellent condition, in 

 his breast-pocket. The Englishman says, " Have 

 a weed," and then wastes five minutes fumbling 

 with his case. The American holds the weed out 

 to you without a word of invitation. Again, you 

 come across decently clad skilled labourers who 

 burn between their suffering lips cigars at a 

 "nickel" (2jd.), composed of such fearful fuel as 

 would stun a Lancashire pitman. 



Of American theatres and other places of amuse- 

 ment so short a stay gave me little knowledge. 



