THE CHAMPION SMOKER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1990, 28 January 1907, Page 3

THE CHAMPION SMOKER.

At seven minutes past nine one night recently (says the London Daily Mail), two sorious-facod young men, puffing at briar pi pcs in the midst of an excited audience at the Agricultural Hall, broke the smokers’ record. Tlioy had kept their pipes alight without replenishment for an hour and forty minutes. Eleven minutes later, with a little gasp of dismay, one of the young men found that no smoko was coming from his bowl, and that he was beaten. There were ninety competitors altogether. Each was to have an eighth of an ounce of tobacco, and after one lighting each was to keep his pipe going as long as possible. There wore ten prizes, and tlio absolute champion was to have a fine marble clock. The ninety were grouped round tables, with two judges to a tables. There were men in caps and men in silk hats, smart city clerks and labourers and the pipes ranged from tlie ornate meerschaum, through serviceable briars to 2in. clays. “Are you ready, gentlemen?” cried the chairman at 7.27. “Then light up I” There was instantly a perfect fusillade of, safety matches, and in tlie 40 seconds allowed every man got his pipe well alight. Dead silence fell over the gathering, and with long steady draws the smokers got to work They dared not sneak to each other; they did not permit themselves to smile. A gentleman with a 2ft. indiarubbor tube for a pipestem fell out after 55 minutes and another with a howl the size of a half-pint measure left at 56 minutes. After an hour’s smoking sixteen were left in. In an hour and twenty minutes three were left in, and five minutes later there were but two, both young men, both with briars. The winner, a Higligate man man named George Cation, aged 30, and by trade a gardener, said: “I bought that pipe last week,” patting the bowl lovingly, “and I gave 4-Jd for it.”