Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce Part 10

"How oft, amidst the jar Of storms on ruin bent, On s.h.i.+p-board, near or far, To the drenched and s.h.i.+v'ring tar Tobacco's solace lent!

"Oh! tell me not 'tis bad, Or that it shortens life.

Its charms can soothe the sad, And make the wretched glad, In trouble and in strife.

"Tis used in every clime, By all men, high and low; It is praised in prose and rhyme, So let the kind herb grow!

"'Tis a friend to the distress'd, 'Tis a comforter in need; It is social, soothing, blest; It has fragrance, force, and zest; Then hail the kingly weed!"

While Raleigh[51] and many of Elizabeth's courtiers indulged frequently in a pipe, some have imagined that even Queen Bess herself tested the rare virtues of tobacco. This is hardly based upon sufficient proof to warrant a very strong belief in it; but the following account of "How to weigh smoke" taken from _Tinsley's Magazine_ shows that the Queen was acquainted at least with Raleigh's use of the weed:

[Footnote 51: It is said that Raleigh in communicating the art to his friends, gave smoking parties at his house, where his guests were treated with nothing but a pipe, a mug of ale, and a nutmeg. Says an English writer: "From the anecdote related respecting the weight of smoke, the vapor of the pipe certainly did not throw a cloud over the brilliant wit of the unfortunate Raleigh."]

"One day it happened that Queen Elizabeth, wandering about the grounds and alleys at Hampton with a single maid of honour, came upon Sir Walter Raleigh indulging in a pipe.

Smoking now is as common as eating and drinking, and to smoke amongst ladies is a vulgarity. But not so then: it was an accomplishment, it was a distinction; and one of the feathers in Sir Walter's towering cap was his introduction of tobacco. The all-accomplished hero rose and saluted the Queen in his grand manner, and the Queen, who was in her daintiest humour, gave him her white hand to kiss, and took the seat he had left.

"Now, Sir Walter, I can puzzle you at last." "I suppose I must not be so rude as to doubt your Majesty." "You are bold enough for that, but your boldness will not help you, Sir Walter, this time. You cannot tell me how much the smoke from your pipe weighs." "Your Majesty is mistaken. I can tell you to a nicety. Will your Majesty allow me to call yonder page, and send for a pair of scales and weights?" "By my honour," said the Queen, "were any other subject in our realm to make request so absurd, we should very positively deny it. But you are the wisest of our fools, and, though we expect to see but little use made of these weights when brought, your request shall be granted. And, supposing you fail to weigh the smoke, what penalty will you pay?" "I will be content," said Sir Walter, "to lose my head." "You may chance to lose it on a graver count than this;" answered the Queen. "If the head shall have done some slight service to your Majesty and the realm," replied the courteous knight, "thee will be well content nevertheless."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Weighing smoke.]

"But your Majesty will soon see that I fail not. First, madam, I place this empty pipe in the scales, and I find that it weighs exactly 2 ounces. I now fill it with tobacco, and the weight is increased to 2-1/10th ounce. I must now ask your Majesty to allow me to smoke the pipe out. I shall then turn out the ashes, and place them together with the pipe in the scale once more. The difference between the weight of the pipe with the unsmoked tobacco, and weight of the pipe with the ashes, will be the weight of the smoke."

"You are too clever for us, Sir Walter. We shall expect you to-night at supper, and if the conversation grow dull, you shall tell our courtiers the story of the pipe."

Many other anecdotes have been told of the adventures of Raleigh with his pipe. One is that while taking a quiet smoke his servant entered and becoming alarmed on seeing the smoke coming from his nose threw a mug of ale in his face.

The same anecdote is also related of others including Tarlton. He gives an account of it in his Jests 1611. It is told in this manner:

"Tarlton as other gentlemen used, at the first coming up of tobacco, did take it more for fas.h.i.+on's sake than otherwise, and being in a roome, sat betweene two men overcome with wine, and they never seeing the like, wondered at it, and seeing the vapour come out of Tarlton's nose, cryed out, 'Fire, fire!' and threw a cup of wine in Tarlton's face.

'Make no more stirre,' quoth Tarlton, 'the fire is quenched; if the sheriffs come, it will turne a fine as the custom is.' And drinking that againe, 'Fie,' says the other: 'what a stinke it makes. I am almost poysoned.' 'If it offend,'

quoth Tarlton, 'let's every one take a little of the smell, and so the savor, will quickly go;' but tobacco whiffes made them leave him to pay all."

Rich gives the following account of a similar scene:--

"I remember a pretty jest of tobacco which was this: A certain Welchman coming newly to London, and beholding one to take tobacco, never seeing the like before, and not knowing the manner of it, but perceiving him vent smoke so fast, and supposing his inward parts to be on fire, cried out, 'O Jhesu, Jhesu man, for the pa.s.sion of Cod hold, for by Cod's splud ty snowt's on fire,' and having a bowle of beere in his hand, threw it at the other's face, to quench his smoking nose."

The following anecdote is equally ludicrous. Before tobacco was much known in Germany, some soldiers belonging to a cavalry regiment were quartered in a German village. One of them, a trumpeter, happened to be a negro. A peasant, who had never seen a black man before, and who knew nothing about tobacco, watched, though at a safe distance, the trumpeter, while the latter groomed and fed his horse. As soon as this business was dispatched, the negro filled his pipe and began to smoke it. Great had been the peasant's bewilderment before; great was his terror now. The terror reached an intolerable point when the negro took the pipe from his mouth, offered it to the peasant, and asked him, in the best language he could command, to take a whiff. "No, no!"

cried the peasant, in exceeding alarm; "no, no! Mr. Devil; I do not wish to eat fire."

Henry Fielding, in "The Grub Street Opera" written about a century ago, has the following verses on Tobacco:--

"Let the learned talk of books, The glutton of cooks, The lover of Celia's soft smack--O!

No mortal can boast So n.o.ble a toast, As a pipe of accepted tobacco.

"Let the soldier for fame, And a general's name, In battle get many a thwack--O!

Let who will have most Who will rule the rooste, Give me but a pipe of tobacco.

"Tobacco gives wit To the dullest old cit, And makes him of politics crack--O!

The lawyers i' th' hall Were not able to bawl, Were it not for a whiff of tobacco.

"The man whose chief glory Is telling a story, Had never arrived at the smack--O!

Between every heying, And as I was saying, Did he not take a whiff of tobacco.

"The doctor who places Much skill in grimaces, And feels your pulse running tic tack--O!

Would you know his chief skill?

It is only to fill And smoke a good pipe of tobacco.

"The courtiers alone To this weed are not p.r.o.ne; Would you know what 'tis makes them so slack--O?

'Twas because it inclined To be honest the mind, And therefore they banished tobacco."

One of the most curious pieces of verse ever written on tobacco is the following by Southey, ent.i.tled "Elegy on a Quid of Tobacco:"--

"It lay before me on the close-grazed gra.s.s, Beside my path, an old tobacco quid: And shall I by the mute adviser pa.s.s Without one serious thought? now Heaven forbid!

"Perhaps some idle drunkard threw thee there-- Some husband spendthrift of his weekly hire; One who for wife and children takes no care, But sits and tipples by the ale-house fire.

"Ah! luckless was the day he learned to chew!

Embryo of ills the quid that pleased him first; Thirsty from that unhappy quid he grew, Then to the ale-house went to quench his thirst.

"So great events from causes small arise-- The forest oak was once an acorn seed; And many a wretch from drunkenness who dies, Owes all his evils to the Indian weed.

"Let no temptation, mortal, ere come nigh!

Suspect some ambush in the parsley hid; From the first kiss of love ye maidens fly, Ye youths, avoid the first Tobacco-quid!

"Perhaps I wrong thee, O thou veteran chaw, And better thoughts my musings should engage; That thou wert rounded in some toothless jaw, The joy, perhaps of solitary age.

"One who has suffered Fortune's hardest knocks, Poor, and with none to tend on his gray hairs; Yet has a friend in his Tobacco-box, And, while he rolls his quid, forgets his cares.

"Even so it is with human happiness-- Each seeks his own according to his whim; One toils for wealth, one Fame alone can bless, One asks a quid--a quid is all to him.

"O, veteran chaw! thy fibres savory, strong, While aught remained to chew, thy master chewed, Then cast thee here, when all thy juice was gone, Emblem of selfish man's ingrat.i.tude!

"O, happy man! O, cast-off quid! is he Who, like as thou, has comforted the poor; Happy his age who knows himself, like thee, Thou didst thy duty--man can do no more."

Another well known song of the Seventeenth Century is ent.i.tled "The Tryumph of Tobacco over Sack and Ale:"--

Nay, soft by your leaves, Tobacco bereaves You both of the garland; forbear it; You are two to one, Yet tobacco alone Is like both to win it, and weare it.

Though many men crack, Some of ale, some of sack, And think they have reason to do it; Tobacco hath more That will never give o'er The honor they do unto it.

Tobacco engages Both s.e.xes, all ages, The poor as well as the wealthy; From the court to the cottage, From childhood to dotage, Both those that are sick and the healthy.

It plainly appears That in a few years Tobacco more custom hath gained, Than sack, or than ale, Though they double the tale Of the times, wherein they have reigned.

And worthily too, For what they undo Tobacco doth help to regaine, On fairer conditions Than many physitians, Puts an end to much griefe and paine; It helpeth digestion, Of that there's no question, The gout and the tooth-ache it easeth: Be it early, or late, 'Tis never out of date, He may-safely take it that pleaseth.

Tobacco prevents Infection by scents, That hurt the brain, and are heady.

An antidote is, Before you're amisse, As well as an after remedy.

The cold it doth heate, Cools them that do sweate, And them that are fat maketh lean: The hungry doth feed, And if there be need, Spent spirits restoreth again.

The poets of old, Many fables have told, Of the G.o.ds and their symposia; But tobacco alone, Had they known it, had gone For their nectar and ambrosia.

It is not the smack Of ale or of sack, That can with tobacco compare: For taste and for smell, It beares away the bell From them both, wherever they are: For all their bravado, It is Trinidado, That both their noses will wipe Of the praises they desire, Unless they conspire To sing to the tune of his pipe.

The history of the rise and progress of tobacco in England, is one of the most interesting features connected with the use and cultivation of the plant. In Spain, Portugal, Germany and Holland the plant was sustained and encouraged by the throne, and royalty was the strongest and most devoted defender it had. It saw in the encouragement of its use, an income of revenue and a source of profit far greater than that received from any other product. Soon after its cultivation began in France, Spain, and Portugal, the tobacco trade was farmed out.

From its first cultivation in these countries it has been a government monopoly. In 1753, the King of Portugal farmed out the tobacco trade, and from that time until now, the annual amount received has been one of the princ.i.p.al sources of revenue to the crown. In France, as early as 1674, a monopoly of the trade was granted to Jean Breton, for six years, for the sum of 700,000 francs.