290 HOW TO SMOKE. 
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another; but what can compare to the dreamy exquisite 
luxury of a good cigar? But, heavens, what am I saying? I 
am in love, and Julia reads the “ Figaro!” The paleness of 
Flaxman’s illustrations spreads over me—please, reader, look 
upon the sentiment as sarcastic. I am in a fog of smoke, 
and am quaffing claret from the silvered pewter. There’s 
plenty of it; and no soul can say : 
“That in drinking from that beaker 
I am sipping like a fly.’ 
How changed from the long, long days ago, when I was a 
connoisseur in Parparillo cigars, brown-paper cigarettes, and 
cane cheroots! Then I fondly adored Sir Walter Raleigh 
as my earthly idol, for giving me tobacco—when I had the 
halfpence to buy it—and delighted in the story, told by 
queer Oldys, of Sir Walter’s servant extinguishing the Vir- 
ginny smoke that issued from his master’s lips, by drenching 
him with ale. Alas! my idol is shattered by Hawkins. The 
Spaniards say, ‘ The lie that lasts for half an hour is worth 
telling.’ History has lied for longer, by a considerable period. 
Fond even as id was of my brown-papered cigarettes when 
baccy failed, I must confess I never reached the stage attained 
by Sir Christopher Haydon’s chaplain, William Breedon, 
parson of Thornton, in Bucks, who was so given to 
“ October store and best Virginia,” 
that when he had no tobacco (and too much drink) he used 
to cut the bell-ropes and smoke them! 
“The Polyglot—three parts—my text ; 
Howhbeit—likewise—now to my next.” 
“ On Smoke.—It is a vulgar, ludicrous, and foolish custom 
to bite off the nose of a cigar. Don’t be a Vandal—you are 
not a Sandwich Islander, about to chew your Kava. A cigar 
should be handled daintily; it is a fragile, graceful creature 
—don’t mar its beauty, Tear off the twist, and the pleasure 
of smoking is at anend! The outer leaf becomes untwirled. 
Ere it is half finished, you have a ragged end between your 
lips—nasty, foul, and unsightly-—-throngh which the smoke 
comes in huge clouds to your mouth, instead of slender 
streams on the palate. ‘How, then,’ say you; ‘ prick it, or 
cut it, or what?” Tear it not, cut it not; nor yet puncture 
it. Don’t be frightened of the cigar—thrusting a half-inch 
alone into the mouth; but, when you begin, take a good 
half of it in the mouth; pull at it lustily for a few seconds, 
