Smoking segars is a general practice--I might almost add, with men, women, and children; the ladies of the better class always excepted, though report says, they will, in secret, take the luxury of a segar. I hope report has erred in this respect--indeed, I think it has; for such an outrage against my English feelings, as a Buenos Ayrean lady smoking, would abate much of the enthusiasm I feel for them. In the male sex I like to see it; and the pleasure it seems to afford, has repeatedly made me regret that I am no smoker. Here boys of eight, nine, and ten years of age, may be seen smoking. The English soon get into the fashion; and most of them are as fond of the segar as the natives, who are smoking from the time they get up, until they go to bed. If they ride on horseback, a segar is in their mouths. Should they want a light in the streets, it is only to stop the first person they meet smoking, to obtain one. I have often smiled to see a first-rate Creolian dandy lighting his segar from that of some dirty black fellow. Havannah segars are the favourites; but they are dear, and not at all times to be had in perfection. The paper ones, or segars de Hoja, made from the tobacco-leaf, are mostly used, and by many preferred. The manufacture of them affords employment to a great many people, including females. So refined are their ideas of politeness, that a person smoking invariably takes the segar from his mouth, when passing another in the street. In another branch of politeness, Buenos Ayres is not outdone, even by Paris itself; _viz._ the constant custom of taking off the hat, when meeting each other in the street. The English mode of touching the hat is too groom and footman-like, to be followed here: their's is taken entirely from the head; and, when in compliment to ladies, they remain uncovered until the objects of their politeness have passed. It is managed gracefully--removing the hat from behind, similar to those who are accustomed to wear wigs; it may be, to save the fronts from dilapidation, which such continual calls on them would occasion.[16] [16] I remember once meeting a Frenchman at Paris, whom I had known at London in rather indifferent circumstances. He had obtained an office in the palace of the Thuilleries; and, upon my congratulating him thereon, he said, that it was all very well, except the d----d hat business. On asking for an explanation, he stated, that, being a public officer, he was obliged to take his hat off so often, that it cost him £30 per annum for that single article.