SMOKING IN PRISON. 145 



infallible method of judging of good scent " for that 

 day ; as he observed from his own habit of constantly 

 amusing himself with a pipe early in the morning. 

 Another mode of using tobacco smoke — to " throw off 

 the scent " of the worst kind of animal, a cruel Jailor 

 — occurred in the Paris prisons during the Reign of 

 Terror, when commissaries searched even there for 

 plots and implements, depriving the unfortunate of 

 "a needle to darn hose with." " Two shifty citizens," 

 says Carlyle — " determined to defend themselves by 

 tobacco; they light their pipes to begin smoking. 

 Thick darkness envelopes them. The red nightcaps 

 opening the cell, breathe but one mouthful ; and burst 

 forth into chorus of barking and coughing. ' Quoi ! 

 Messieurs,' cry the Citizens, ' You dont smoke ? Is 

 the pipe disagreeable ? Est-ce que vous ne fumez 

 pas ? ' But the red nightcaps have fled, with slight 

 search : * Vous n'aimez pas la pipe ? ' cry the Citizens 

 as their door slams -to again/' * 



Cowper the Poet entertained a similar dislike to 

 tobacco ; in one of his letters he descants in the 

 highest terms of his friend the Rev. Mr. Bull, and 

 ends his eulogium with these words : — " Such is Mr. 

 Bull — but — he smokes tobacco. Nothing is perfect ! " 



His other clerical friend, the Rev. John Newton, did 

 the same. It may be doubted if the Poet might not 

 have been improved by taking a pipe as well as a 



* Maison d'Arret de Port-Libre, par Coittant (Memoires sur les Prisons, 

 ii.) — Carlyle' s French Revolution, vol. iii., p. 336. . 



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