152 COLORING MEERSCHAUMS. 
and such stains of Tobacco-juice to make themselves visible 
on the bowls or stems of those specified pipes. These are 
mostly old, well-seasoned 
smokers, to whose existence 
. the weed has become essen- 
tial; who smoke their. own 
old pipes, which lack artistic 
= coloring, in the intervals 
& pipes they lay aside the 
pipes they are employed to 
color. Another and much 
iS smaller section of the class 
S- are those who smoke for 
smoking’s sake, and yet are 
weak enough to nurse some 
special pipes for show. To 
such it is ajoy to say, when 
friends are gathered at the 
festive board ‘Look! is not. 
that well colored? I colored. 
it myself.’ In such an age 
as this, when the learned cannot tell us which of our various 
branches of knowledge and inquiry are sciences and which, 
are not, it may not seem a great anomaly that this pipe- 
coloring should, by some, be called ‘an art.’ Nor is it, when 
we think that there is such an ‘art’ as blacking shoes; and. 
when we must perforce admit that he who, barber fashion, 
cuts our hair—and he who, cook-wise, broils the kidney for 
our mid-day dinner—is an artist. We have not come as yet 
to give this title to the weaver who watches the loom that 
weaves our stockings, or to the hammer-man who beats the 
red-hot horse-shoe on the anvil in a smithy; but even there 
we designate ‘artisans,’ and ‘artists’ may come next. So, 
hey! for the art of coloring pipes! 
“Tt may not be denied that there is beauty in a well-colored 
meerschanm; but in the admission lies the contradiction of 
Keats’ well-known line— 
PIPE COLORER. 
‘A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.” 
For, your meerschaum is a fragile thing, and eminently fran- 
gible. This present writer once did see four beauties break 
within a single moon. And when they break, what previous 
joy of coloring can over-top the sorrow of their dire destruc- 
tion? It isa singular difficulty in the way of those who. 
most desire to beautify utility or utilize the beautiful, or 
