Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce Part 9

Much vituals serves for gluttony, to fatten men like swine, But he's a frugal man indeed that with a leaf can dine, And needs no napkins for his hands, his fingers' ends to wipe, But keeps his kitchen in a box, and roast meat in a pipe.

This is the way to help down years, a meal a day's enough: Take out tobacco for the rest, by pipe, or else by snuff, And you shall find it physical; a corpulent, fat man, Within a year shall shrink so small that one his guts shall span.

It's full of physic's rare effects, it worketh sundry ways, The leaf green, dried, steept, burnt to dust, have each their several praise, It makes some sober that are drunk, some drunk of sober sense.

And all the moisture hurts the brain, it fetches smoking thence.

All the four elements unite when you tobacco take.

For earth and water, air and fire, do a conjunction make.

The pipe is earth, the fire's therein, the air the breathing smoke; Good liquor must be present too, for fear I chance to choke.

Here, gentlemen, a health to all, 'Tis pa.s.sing good and strong.

I would speak more, but for the pipe I cannot stay so long."

In 1602 appeared a sweeping tirade ent.i.tled, "Work for Chimney Sweepers, or a Warning against Tobacconists." It abounds with threats against all who indulge in tobacco. The most singular work, however, appeared in 1616, bearing the following singular t.i.tle: "The Smoking Age, or the Man in the Mist; with the Life and Death of Tobacco.

Dedicated to Captain Whiffe, Captain Pipe, and Captain Snuffe." A frontispiece is given representing a tobacconist's shop with shelves, counters, pipes and tobacco; a carved figure of a negro stands upon the counter, which shows how soon such figures were used by dealers in pipes and tobacco. The t.i.tle-page contains the following epigram:

"This some affirme, yet yield I not to that, 'Twill make a fat man lean, a lean man fat; But this I'm sure (howse'ere it be they meane) That many whiffes will make a fat man lean."

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Negro Image.]

The following effusion resembles many of the verses of the day on the fruitful subject:

"Tobacco's an outlandish weed, Doth in the land strange wonders breed, It taints the breath, the blood it dries, It burns the head, it blinds the eyes; It dries the lungs, scourgeth the lights, It numbs the soul, it dulls the sprites; It brings a man into a maze, And makes him sit for other's gaze; It makes a man, it mars a purse, A lean one fat, a fat one worse; A sound man sick, a sick man sound, A bound man loose, a loose man bound; A white man black, a black man white, A night a day, a day a night; The wise a fool, the foolish wise, A sober man in drunkard's guise; A drunkard with a drought or twain, A sober man it makes again; A full man empty, and an empty full, A gentleman a foolish gull; It turns the brain like cat in pan, And makes a Jack a gentleman."

The well-known song of "Tobacco is an Indian Weed," was written most probably the last half of the Seventeenth Century, Fairholt gives the best copy we have seen of it. It is taken from the first volume of "Pills to Purge Melancholy," and reads thus:

"Tobacco's but an Indian weed, Grows green at morn, cut down at eve, It shows our decay, we are but clay; Think of this when you smoke tobacco.

"The pipe, that is so lily white, Wherein so many take delight, Is broke with a touch--man's life is such; Think of this when you smoke tobacco.

"The pipe, that is so foul within, Shews how man's soul is stained with sin, And then the fire it doth require; Think of this when you smoke tobacco.

"The ashes that are left behind Do serve to put us all in mind That unto dust return we must; Think of this when you smoke tobacco.

"The smoke, that does so high ascend, Shews us man's life must have an end, The Vapor's gone--man's life is done; Think of this when you smoke tobacco."

One of the strongest objections against the use of the "Indian novelty" was its ruinous cost at this period. During the reign of James The First and Charles The Second, Spanish tobacco sold at from ten to eighteen s.h.i.+llings per pound while Virginia tobacco sold for a time for three s.h.i.+llings. In no age and by no race excepting perhaps the Indians was the habit so universal or carried to such a length as in the Seventeenth Century--its supposed virtues as a medicine induced many to inhale the smoke constantly. This was one reason why tobacco was condemned by so many of the writers and playwrights of the day yet many of them used the weed in some form from Ben Johnson to Cibber the one fond of his pipe the other of his snuff.

In 1639 Venner published a volume ent.i.tled "A Treatise" concerning the taking of the fume of tobacco. His advice is "to take it moderately and at fixed times." Many of the clergy were devoted adherents of the pipe. Lilly says of its use among them:

"In this year Bredon vicar of Thornton a profound divine, but absolutely the most polite person for nativities in that age, strictly adhering to Ptolemy, which he well understood; he had a hand in composing Sir Christopher Heydon's defence of judicial astrology, being that time his chaplain; he was so given over to tobacco and drink, that when he had no tobacco, he would cut the bell-ropes and smoke them."

CHAPTER V.

TOBACCO IN EUROPE. (Continued.)

Neander in his work "Tobacologia," (1622) gives a list of the various kinds of tobacco then used and where they were cultivated, among them are the following well known now as standard varieties of tobacco: Brazilian, St. Domingo, Orinoco, Virginia, and Trinidad tobacco.

Fairholt says of the latter that it was most popular in England and is frequently named by early authors.[50] Tobacco when prepared for use was made into long rolls or large b.a.l.l.s which often answered for the tobacconist's sign. What we now call cut tobacco was not as popular then as roll. Smokers carried a roll of tobacco, a knife and tinder to ignite their tobacco. At the close of the Sixteenth Century tobacco was introduced into the East. In Persia and Turkey where at first its use was opposed by the most cruel torture it gained at length the sanction and approval of even the Sultan himself. Pallas gives the following account in regard to its first introduction into Asia:

[Footnote 50: Neander says that Varinas tobacco was the best.]

"In Asia, and especially in China, the use of tobacco for smoking is more ancient than the discovery of the New World, I too scarcely entertain a doubt. Among the Chinese, and among the Mongol tribes who had the most intercourse with them, the custom of smoking is so general, so frequent, and become so indispensable a luxury; the tobacco purse affixed to their belt, so necessary an article of dress; the form of the pipes from which the Dutch seem to have taken the model of theirs so original; and, lastly the preparation of the yellow leaves, which are merely rubbed to pieces and then put into the pipe, so peculiar, that we cannot possibly derive all this from America by way of Europe; especially as India, (where the habit of smoking is not so general,) intervenes between Persia and China. May we not expect to find traces of this custom in the first account of the Voyages of the Portugese and Dutch to China? To investigate this subject, I have indeed the inclination but not sufficient leisure."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tobacco and Theology.]

We find by research that smoking was the most general mode of using tobacco in England when first introduced. In France the habit of snuffing was the most popular mode and to this day the custom is more general than elsewhere. In the days of the Regency snuff-taking had attained more general popularity than any other mode of using the plant leaves; the clergy were fond of the "dust" and carried the most expensive snuff boxes, while many loved the pipe and indulged in tobacco-smoking. The old vicar restored to his living enjoyed a pipe when seated in his chair musing on the subject of his next Sunday's discourse, "with a jug of sound old ale and a huge tome of sound old divinity on the table before him, for the occasional refreshment as well of the bodily as the spiritual man."

The cultivation of tobacco in Europe was begun in Spain and Portugal.

Its culture in these kingdoms as well as by their colonies brought to the crown enormous revenues. In 1626, its culture began in France and is still an important product. A little later it began to be cultivated in Germany where it had already been used as a favorite luxury. From this time its use and cultivation extended to various parts of Europe. The Persecutors whether kings, popes, poets, or courtiers at length gave up their opposition while many of them joined in the use and spread of the custom. It has been said with much truth:

"History proves that persecution never triumphs in its attempted eradications. Tobacco was so generally liked that no legislative measures could prevent its use."

At first the use of tobacco was confined to fops and the hangers on at ale houses and taverns but afterwards by the "chief men of the realm."

Soon after the importation of the "durned weed" from Virginia the tobacco muse gave forth many a lay concerning the custom. The following verses describe the method of smoking then in vogue:

Nor did that time know To puff and to blow In a peece of white clay, As they do at this day With fier and coole, And a leafe in a hole; As my ghost hath late seen, As I walked betwene Westminister Hall And the church of St. Paul, And so thorow the citie Where I saw and did pitty My country men's cases, With fiery-smoke faces, Sucking and drinking A filthie weede stinking, Was ne'r known before Till the devil and the More In th' Indies did meete, And each other there greete With a health they desire, Of stinke, smoke and fier.

But who e're doth abhorre it.

The citie smookes for it; Now full of fier shop, And fowle spitting chop, So sneezing and coughing, That my ghost fell to scoffing.

And to myself said: Here's filthie fumes made; Good phisicke of force To cure a sicke horse.

The Puritans, from the first introduction of the plant, were sincere haters of tobacco, not only in England but in America. Cromwell had as strong a dislike of the plant as King James, and ordered the troopers to destroy the crops by trampling them under foot. Hutton describes a Puritan as one who

"Abhors a sattin suit, a velvet cloak, And sayes tobacco is the Devill's smoke."

Probably no other plant has ever met with such powerful determined opposition, both against its use and cultivation, as the tobacco plant. It was strenuously opposed by all possible means, governmental, legislative, and literary. When tea and coffee were first introduced both were denounced in unmeasured terms, but the opposition was not so bitter or as lasting.

The following verses bearing the _nom de plume_ of an "Old Salt,"

record much of the history of the plant:--

"Oh muse! grant me the power (I have the will) to sing How oft in lonely hour, When storms would round me lower, Tobacco's prov'd a King!

"Philanthropists, no doubt With good intentions ripe, Their dogmas may put out, And arrogantly shout The evils of the pipe.

"Kind moralists, with tracts, Opinions fine may show: Produce a thousand facts-- How ill tobacco acts Man's system to o'erthrow.

"Learn'd doctors have employed Much patience, time and skill, To prove tobacco cloyed With acrid alkaloid, With power the nerves to kill!

"E'en Popes have curst the plant; Kings bade its use to cease; But all the Pontiff's rant And Royal Jamie's cant Ne'er made its use decrease.

"Teetotallers may stamp And roar at pipes and beer; But place them in a swamp, When nights are dark and damp-- Their tune would change, I fear.

"No advocate am I Of excess in one or t'other, And ne'er essayed to try In wine to drown a sigh, Or a single care to smother.

"Yet, in moderation pure, A gla.s.s is well enough; But, a troubled heart to cure, Kind feelings to insure, Give me a cheerful puff.

"How oft a learn'd divine His sermons will prepare, Not by imbibing wine, But, 'neath th' influence fine Of a pipe of "baccy" rare!

"How many a pleasing scene, How many a happy joke, How many a satire keen, Or problem sharp, has been Evolved or born of smoke!