WHO SMOKED FIRST?

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 255, 23 July 1919, Page 9

WHO SMOKED FIRST?

PIONEER ROBED IN NO LEGEND

SOME TOBACCO ANECDOTES

Thero nre stories and traditions of our schooldays that must not be taken too seriously as history. It. is at least doubtful 'whether Sir Walter Raleigh really was the first man to introduce tobacco and potatoes to England. These things liui.st.lje taken cum.grauo snlis. It. doesn't matter much, anyliow (says a writer iii Sydney "Sunday Times").

The first man -to eat ail oyster is pro verbial; the inventor of roast pig is im. mortal; but the lirst smoker is unknown. He is robed in no legend and enwreathed ill no fable. Poets have not suvg him, I artists liavo.not pictured him, nor have historians traced his rise and conquests, l'et there is -no practice so curious and so.nearly universal .as -that of inhaling the smoke'of tobacco. Wo have no 6tory of tlio-hero who dared tho worlds first- smoke, of his • fortituda. under the tribulations,- of. his constancy and of Hie rarest joys .which fell to him—the first smoker • ■ ■ . .--The origin of-the strange practice .of inhaling- flip 1 fumes of. tobacco must not be sought- iiinong the pleasures ot priink live man. It. \vas ; as a religious rite that smoking, existed; the .of tobacco was an expression of mans homage to .the Great Spirit. It would ■sewn ihat smoking is as conducive to gojod.government--as sound logic. .TaJiies 1- transmitted his hatred of tobacco to .his descendants.; Neither of the Jameses nor the . Charleses knew of the wisdomgiving, practice of smoking. Under tno tobaccoless tyranny , England was ill at ease,- beheading Charles 1 aud flinging out James 11. ■ William 111, an honest smoker, was the one who set the country to rights, again. When Cromwell Smoked. Cromwell,' * the typical Englishman, knew the 'virtues' of .tobacco, especially in the consideration of weighty matters. ■•When- lie was offered the kingship, and dallied and played with the attractive oiler, he ''frrquently discussed the question for three or four hours. "He commonly," says a contemporary biography, "called for. tobacco, pipes, and a. candle, and would liow and then take tobacco himself." "If Cromwell had not smoked and had accepted the crown,' humourously observed an... English writer,\ "to-day we might be ruled by the house of Cromwell." : "Swinburne absolutely abhorred tobacco. On one occasion at t'lie Arts Club lie could not' find a room free from smoke. With poetic fury lie burst forth: '/James I was a knave, a tyrant, n fool, a-liar, a coward; but I love him, 1 worship him, because lie split the throat ot that fill by blackguard: Raleigh, who invented this' filthy smoking." There is a story of a clergyman who, mounting his,.'pulpit' for the sermon, refreshed himself with several pinches ot snuff before announcing -his text. 1 his, aptly enough,':'was "My soul cleavetli unto the 'dust.'" Huxley's' conversion to the use ot tobacco, as related by himself to-a. sectional meeting of the British Association, forms ail amusing story.' "For forty years tobacco had been a dead poison to ltio. As a medical student I tried to smoke, but at every nt; tempt tobacco stretched me upon the floor. Oil entering the navy I again tried to smoke, and again met with defeat. I 'hated . tobacco. I could have lent my support to any institution that had for its object the execution of smokers. A few vears ago 1 was in llrittany with some friends. It was a miserable, drenching day, and they looked so happy and comfortable with t.heir pipes that I thought I would'try a cigar. I did so. That cigar wiis delicious. From that moment I was a changed man, and now I feet that smoking in moderation is a comfortable and laudable .practice . and productive of good. ' There ■ is .more harm in a pipe than there is in a cup of tea." Tennyson's Passion. Tennyson's passion for a long clay is well known. ' The story that he never smoked the same pipo twice is absurd, •for like all smokers he detested new pipes. He entertained the liveliest-hatred of Florence because ho could not get any decent tobacco there, aud on this account promptly returned home. Carlyle, describing Tennyson, said, "Smokes, infinite tobacco." Ilis d;\otion to the herb bfc came-so intense-that literally ho could not exist without it. On one uccasion, at a soireo of the Royal. Sqciely, lis declared he must have a'pipe,- A lriend sa'id he should smoke up the chimney of the library or on .the roof. Tennyson chose tlio latter, and with his body thrust half way through the skylight puffed away in peace, descending in a quarter ot an hour greatly reireslwd. Wherever he went- he uuust be allowed to .smoke. Accepting an invitation to visit Gladstone in lbi'li, he wrote: "As you aro good enough to say you will manage anything rather than lose any visit, will you liianago that J. can live a pipe in my room whenever I like?"

No one ,has" ever disputed .the right of Mynheer Van Klaes, who '.flourished about 50 years ago, to tlio title of the king of smokers. Ilis den was a museum of nicotine relics convaining specimens of every kind of -tobacco smoked injlio world, and every kind of pipe through which the. nations drew inspiration. Here he smoked incessantly—his life consumption was estimated at four tons of tobacco, or ten pounds every week .of. his .sixty smoking years, lie died at ' 81, devoting Uis. whole life to the burning of incerise to Nicotia.

- His funeral was in harmony with bis life. By his express directions his coffin was lined with the wood of old cigar, boxes At his feet were placed a bind- 1 der of the finest Dutch golden loaf and a pneket of Caporal; by his sides were laid bis china bowled pipe and a box of matches and steel, flint and tinder. In accordance with his'will, all the smokers of Rotterdam were invited to the funeral, and instead of the old-fashioned mourning rings each was presented with ten pounds of good tobacco and two pipes bearing Van Klaes's arms. All the mourners during the funeral service smoked, and at the words "ashes to ashes, dust to dust," shook the ashes out of their pipes on the coffin -lid.