GRINDING THE LEAVES. 941 
huge bins, as large as porter vats, all piled up with tobacco 
in various stages of fermentation. The tobacco, after bein 
fermented, if intended for that light, powdery, brown-looking 
enuff called S. P., is dried a little; or if for Prince’s Mixture, 
Macobau, or any other kind of Rappee, is at once thrown into 
what is called the mull. The mull is a kind of large iron 
mortar weighing about half a ton and lined with wood; and 
there is a heavy pestle which travels round it, forming, as it 
were, a large pestle and mortar. 
These mulls are placed in rows and shut up in separate 
cupboards, to keep in the dust. The snuff-maker wanders 
from one to the other, and feeds them as they require. 
“When the grinding of the snuff is completed it is then 
ready for flavouring, and in this consists the great art and 
secret of the trade. Receipts for peculiar flavors are handed 
down from father to son as most valuable heir-looms, and 
these receipts are in fact a valuable property in many instances, 
for so delicate is the nose of your snuff-taker that he can 
detect the slightest variation in the preparation of his favor- 
ite snuff. It is related of one old snuff-maker in London, 
who had acquired a handsome fortune and retired from busi- 
ge that he made it a consideration with his successors that 
he should be allowed, so long as he lived, to attend one day 
in the week at the business and flavor all the snuff. Most 
people will also be familiar with some one of the numerous 
versions of the origin of the once famous Lundy Foote Snuff, 
better known as ‘ Irish Blackguard.’ 
“The excise are very rigid in their laws for regulating the 
manufacture of snuff; and with’ the exception of a little com- 
mon salt, which is added to make the tobacco keep, and 
alkalies for bringing out the flavor, nothing is allowed to be 
used but a few essential oils. And here we must digress for 
@ moment to correct a popular error, viz., that snuff 
contains ground glass, put there for titillating purposes. 
What appears to be ground glass is only the little crystals or 
small particles of alkali that have not been dissolved. So 
that fastidious snuff-takers may dismiss this bugbear at once 
and forever. ; 
“The essential oils referred to form a very expensive item 
in the manufacture of snuff. The ladies would be much 
surprised to see.a dusty snuff-maker drain off five pounds’ 
worth of pure unadulterated otto-of-roses into a tin can, and 
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