ature, be startling to
non-smokers, and surprising to many smokers. The tobacco
hater (invariably an illogical creature, who hates that
which he knows not) will hold up hands in amazement, and
sniff with the nose in contempt, to whom reply would be
superfluous.

"With the smoker the case is otherwise. A German writer
recently said that the English were better smokers than the
Germans; because, whereas the German smoked incessantly,
without rule, system, or moderation, the English smoked with
care, with slow and appreciative lovingness, and the
determination not to overstep the bounds of rational
enjoyment. Had he known more of English smokers, he would
not have made so wild a statement; and had he known English
women better, he would never have attributed to their sweet
influence the fancied superiority he describes in English as
compared with German smoking. In truth, the art of tobacco
using is nowhere more ignored, nowhere more contemptuously
neglected than in these 'favored isles.' For one man who
smokes with a reason, for a purpose, or by system, you shall
find a thousand who smoke without either; and the result is
that those who smoke have little defense, in the general
way, for their practice, while those who condemn the habit
have far better grounds for their opposition than they have
ever yet been able to explain. To those who do know why they
use tobacco, it is well-nigh incredible that so many of
their fellow-smokers should be ignorant of the properties,
the uses, the abuses, of the weed they burn and the fumes in
which they delight. Yet, even this is not so surprising as
the fact that so few of those who smoke--smoke much, often
and constantly--should be ignorant of, or indifferent to,
the conditions which are necessary to their own adequate
enjoyment of the weed.

"You will see a man light a cigar so carelessly that one
side of the roll will burn rapidly, with prodigious
fumigation and giving out a dark and offensive cloud, while
the other side remains untouched by the fire, only to wither
and crackle and twist into uncouth shapes, until the smoker
flings the cigar away, with an accompaniment of expletives
which attach rather to his own stupidity than to the piece
of tobacco he has so abominably abused. Yo