Mongols, Malays, Tartars, Turcomans, as well
as the nations of Europe and the chief nations of Southern Asia, all
have their smoking-pipes, plain or ornate, as the case may be, and
made of wood, reeds, bamboo, bone, ivory, stone, earthenware, glass,
porcelain, amber, agate, jade, precious metals and common metals,
according to the civilization of the country and the pecuniary means
of the smoker.

[Illustration: Fancy pipes.]

"The French clay pipes have quite a special character; they
are well made, and great ingenuity is shown in the
preparation of the moulds in which they are pressed; but
being mostly intended for a class of purchasers who prefer
grotesque ideas to refined taste, the bowls are often
ornamented with queer shaped heads, having bead-like eyes;
sometimes imaginary beings, sometimes caricature portraits
of eminent persons. Where more than the head is represented,
license is given to a certain grossness of idea; but this is
not a general characteristic. The clay of which these French
pipes are made is admitted to be superior to that of
England, due to the careful mixture of different kinds, and
to skilful manipulation.

"We need not say much about Dutch pipes as distinct articles
of manufacture, because the process adopted in their
production are pretty much like those in use elsewhere. The
Dutch are famous clay-pipe smokers, not countenancing the
cigar so much as their neighbors the Belgians, nor the
meerschaum so largely as their German neighbors on the Rhine
frontier. A notable bit of sharp practice is on record in
connexion with the pipe-smokers of Holland--a dodge only to
be justified on the equivocal maxim that all is fair in
trade provided it just keeps within the margin we need not
speak. A pipe manufactory was established in Flanders about
the middle of the last century.

"The Dutch makers, alarmed at the competition which this
threatened, cunningly devised a stratagem for nipping it in
the bud. They freighted a large worn-out ship with an
enormous quantity of pipes of their own make, sent it to
Ostend, and wrecked it there. By the municipal laws of that
city the wreck became public property; the pipes were sold
at prices so ridiculously low that the town was glutted with
the commodity; the new Flemish factory was thereby