The Victorious Pipe.

Manawatu Herald, 19 July 1894, Page 3

The Victorious Pipe.

If we are to believe the enthusiastic advocates of smoking tobacco will be as important in the next great war as medical attendance. In the Franco-German war it was the pipe against the cigarette. The German's pipe is large enough to hold an ounce of tobacco ; the Frenchman's cigarette is a mere pinch ; and the French were often without this small amount of nerve food and consolation. The German authorities were not more anxious to give their troops plenty of food than they were to provide them with an ever-full pipe. The Daily Neios correspondent related how a maimed soldier, lying amidst the dead and dying before Metz, asked but for one relicf — a cigar, Gen. von Bentheim, at a critical moment of a great fight, saw one of his men coolly smoking and firing at close quarters, " Give me a light !" shouted the general. The soldier obeyed with a quiet smile, and the next moment the general, inspired by the courage of his subordinate, gathered up his shaken battalion and led forward his half-decimated forces to victory. The Daily Telegraph correspondent related that while the firing was going on at Saarabruken a party of Brunswick Hussars came galloping into the fray smoking their cigars, just as if the French were 20 miles away. — People.