"In every walk of life throughout the sunny South tobacco in some form may be found, and its effects are always the same, whether drawn from the pocket of the beggar or taken with gloved fingers from the golden tobacco-box of the planter. For snuff the ladies have very nice round boxes with lids which, they always carry with them full of black snuff highly but pleasantly flavored. They also carry little brushes or sticks about three inches long with pliable ends; these they wet in the mouth, then dip into the snuff-box, and then place it in the mouth outside of the gums and rub earnestly for two or three minutes. 'Will you dip with me?' is the usual way of putting the invitation, when the box is drawn from the pocket and rapped slightly on the cover, sometimes by all present, who thus signify their readiness to 'dip,' then it is repassed open to all, and the 'dipping and rubbing' begins in earnest. [Illustration: Snuff-dipping.] "The only advantage I ever discovered in this unnatural way of snuffing is in avoiding all unpleasant sneezing which snuffing is sure to produce, although it is claimed that it whitens and preserves the teeth and sweetens the mouth, and produces a beneficial effect on the lungs, all of which is true or not, just as you choose to believe. 'Will you dip and rub with me?' said one of the prettiest belles of Winchester, and in another city in another state the daughter of an ex-governor, handing me a silver-tipped brush and opening a rose-wood snuff-box richly inlaid with gold, politely asked me to 'dip' with her, expressing the belief that friendship would always follow. I have frequently been asked by ladies when travelling through the country and stopping at farm-houses, if I used tobacco--as a hint to offer them some, and it was a pleasure to comply, and receive the thankful smile of an appreciative heart." [Illustration: Snuffers.] In other parts of the country the habit of snuff-taking is confined principally to old ladies, who use any kind, either black or yellow, and who prefer themselves the cheaper kinds. But few varieties are used, and there seems to be but little taste manifested in the selection of the "dust." Foreign varieties are used only to a limited extent, being chiefly confined to those of transatlantic birth and tastes. The custom of chewing and smoking seems to be more popular with the male sex than snuff-taking, and one rarely finds a man addicted to the latter habit, unless it be one somewhat advanced in years. Stewart in his admirable paper on snuff gives much useful information in regard to the universal custom of using it as well as its origin and distinguished uses of the great sternutatory.