Collectors' hobbies now and then are increased by the introduction of something entirely new, something never known before, and the world rejoices over a genuine novelty. The cynic declares that there is nothing new under the sun, but the introduction of the penny postage in 1840, at the instigation of Rowland Hill, laid the foundation to stamp collecting, which has become the most popular of all collectors' hobbies. The philatelist is found in every civilized country, and the collection of postage stamps, used and unused, grows apace. A bundle of old letters in entire envelopes, posted forty or fifty years ago from one of the British Colonies, discovered when ransacking an old library, will probably prove the most valuable relic of the past found in it. XII THE SMOKER'S CABINET CHAPTER XII THE SMOKER'S CABINET Old pipes--Pipe racks--Tobacco boxes--Smokers' tongs and stoppers--Snuff boxes and rasps. The slave of the pipe and the moderate smoker of years gone by have left behind them relics in nearly every home. Such curios are found when pulling down old houses, and clearing out rubbish heaps; and even when making excavations in the vicinity of once occupied ground remains left behind by smokers of olden times are discovered. Many are marked as curios on account of their curious forms; others have been regarded as such because their uses have become obsolete, and some because of their great beauty and the costliness of the materials of which they are made. The collectable curios of the smoker's cabinet consist of clay pipes, varying from the earliest form known to the later types not far removed from the modern clays still smoked by workmen; of pipes of curious forms and quaintly carved bowls; and the Eastern pipes, which look more like show pieces in their size and forms than any pipe made for actual use. The curios include tobacco jars, spill cups, and ash trays; and there are also brass and copper spittoons and pipe racks. An old smoker's desk often contains odd curios, such as the one-time common pipe-stoppers, so many of which were made by Birmingham "toy-makers" in the eighteenth century. Old Pipes. When tobacco was first introduced into this country, and smoking was taught to those whose descendants in countless numbers were destined to worship at the shrine of my Lady Nicotine on British soil, the pipe was brought over too; for tobacco and the tobacco pipe are inseparable, although the pipe shares its popularity with cigars and cigarettes.