GENERAL ITEMS

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 28 July 1921, Page 4

GENERAL ITEMS

WHAT KINGS SMOKE.

-. King George has the distinction ol being the only European Sovereign who smokes a pipe. All the others ar« ardent devotees of the cigar or the cigarette.

The Emperor Francis Joseph, of Austria-Hungary, at the venerable age of eighty-three, is reputed to be the heaviest Iloyal smoker, his favorite being <a cigar so cheap and so common that it is smoked by almost every peasant in the country. It is a long black cigar, -tapering at both, ends and traversed by a straw. The Emperor's brand, however, is an exceptionally powerful one, possessing a "bite," which.- would make it extremely objectionable to most men. Despite this fact the aged ruler is^ahle to smoke more than twenty a day without feeling any ill effects.

Turkish cigarettes, exquisitely flavored and scented, are the passion of the Czar of Russia, who scarcely ever smokes anything else. His cigarettes are made from specially-matured tobacco exclusively grown for him in Turkey. Each cigarette, by the time it reaches the Czar, costs almost a penny, and the Russian ruler gets rid of as many as forty or fifty a day. All told, the Czar spends something between £150 and £200 a year on to-

bacco

Another lover of the fragrant cigarette is King Alfonso of Spain, who, however, is more cosmopolitan in his tastes. He smokes all kinds—Turkish, Egyptian, Russian, Algerian, and 6rdinary Virginian, the Litter in moderation. He thoroughly enjoys an expensive cheroot or cigar now and then. Most, of his cigarettes are specially made for him by a London tobacco merchant, "and his annual outlay in this direction never falls helow £120.

Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany takes & t a keen delight in smoking huge Havana cigars jalsiost Tin. Ion;', of which he scarcely ever fails to smoke less than ten a day. He pays about ten pounds a hundred for these, so that to satisfy liis craving for the "soothing weed," he has annually to foot a bill amounting to something over £200. This is a very modest estimate,-'be-cause-the German Emperor does 'Qot limit his "smokes" to cigars alone, being inordinately fond of both charoots and cigarettes.

Perhaps the-late King Edward poseesaed the most peculiar ideas about smoking of any Sovereign. His cigars were unapproachable for their length and thickness, being exactly 8 5-Bin. long and ljin. in girth. These prodigious cigars were expressly made for His Majesty in Havana, and cost ss. each. It took over 75 minutes' good smoking to reduce one of them to tbe despised stump, but King Edward, nevertheless, managed to consume a fair number a day.