es and chews--upon
the carpet or in the fire-place--for he is not particular as
to where he squirts his copious saliva, and does not think
with the late Dr. Samuel Parr, that a spitting-box is a
necessary article of household furniture. The free-born
citizen of the States laughs at the aristocratic
restrictions imposed on smoking in England, where, on board
of the numerous steamboats that ply on the Thames,
conveying the pride of the city to Gravesend and Margate, no
smoking is allowed abaft the funnel, and where, in
public-houses ashore, no gentleman is permitted to smoke in
the parlor before two o'clock in the afternoon. A pipe of
tobacco, or a cigar, after a day's hard exercise, whether
mental or bodily, and after the cravings of hunger and
thirst are appeased, may be fairly ranked amongst the most
delightful and most harmless of all earthly luxuries. It
fills the mind with pleasing visions, and the heart with
kindly feelings. A hard-working laborer, smoking by the side
of his hearth at night, presents a perfect picture of quiet
enjoyment. I see him now in my mind's eye. He is seated in
an old high-backed, cushionless arm-chair, but an easy one,
nevertheless, to him, who from dawn till sunset, has been
engaged in ploughing, thrashing, ditching, or mowing. With
one leg thrown over the other, he quietly reclines backward,
and with an expression of perfect mental composure, he gazes
on the smoke that ascends from his pipe. There is a
sentiment-exciting power[64] in the smoke of tobacco when
perceived by the eye, as well as a pleasing sedative effect
when inhaled; and those smokers who have any doubt of the
fact should take a pipe with their eyes closed. A person who
smokes with his eyes shut cannot very well tell whether his
cigar is lighted or not. How soothing is a pipe or a cigar
to a wearied sportsman, on his return to his inn from the
moors! As he sits quietly smoking, he thinks of the absent
friends whom he will gratify with presents of grouse; and,
in a state of perfect contentment with himself and all the
world, he determines to give all his game away. Full of such
kindly feelings, he retires to bed; but, alas, with
day-light, when the effect of the tobacco has subsided, the
old leaven of selfishness prevails, and his