Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. II, No. X., March 1851Various
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. II, No. X., March 1851
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
We have seen pipes of all sorts and sizes in our time. In Germany, where
the finest cnaster is but twenty-pence a pound, and excellent
leaf-tobacco only five-pence, we have seen pipes that resembled actual
furnaces compared with the general race of pipes, and have known a man
smoke out half a pound of cnaster and drink a gallon of beer at a
sitting. But this is perfectly pigmy work when compared with the royal
pipe and consumptive tobacco power of Victoria of England. The queen's
pipe is, beyond all controversy--for we have seen it--equal to any other
thousand pipes that can be produced from the pipial stores of this
smoking world. She has not only an attendant to present it whenever she
may call for it, but his orders are to have it always in the most
admirable smoking state--always lighted, without regard to the quantity
of tobacco it may consume; and, accordingly, her pipe is constantly kept
smoking day and night without a moment's intermission, and there are,
besides the grand pipe-master, a number of attendants incessantly
employed in seeking the most suitable tobacco, and bringing it to the
grand-master. There is no species of tobacco which the queen has not in
her store-room. Shag, pig-tail, Cavendish, Manilla, Havanna, cigars,
cheroots, negrohead, every possible species of nicotian, she gives a
trial to, by way of variety. A single cigar she holds in as much
contempt as a lion would a fly by way of mouthful. We have seen her
grand-master drop whole handfuls of Havannas at once into her pipe, and
after them as many Cubas.
It may abate the wonder of the reader at this stupendous smoking power
of the queen, if we admit, as must, indeed, have become apparent in the
course of our remarks, that the queen performs her smoking, as she does
many of her other royal acts, by the hands of her servants. In truth, to
speak candidly, the queen never smokes at all, except through her
servants. And this will appear very likely, when we describe the actual
size of her royal pipe. It is, indeed of most imperial dimensions. The
head alone is so large, that while its heel rests on the floor of her
cellar, its top reaches out of the roof. We speak a literal fact, as any
one who procures an order for the purpose may convince himself by actual
inspection. We are sure that the quantity of tobacco which is required
to supply it, must amount to some tons in the year. Nay, so considerable
is it, that ships are employed specially to bring over this tobacco, and
these ships have a dock of one acre in extent at the port of London
entirely for their exclusive reception. In a word, the Queen's
Tobacco-pipe, its dimensions, its attendance, its supply and consumption
of tobacco, are without any parallel in any age or any nation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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