hen he had no tobacco (and too much drink) he used to
cut the _bell-ropes_ and smoke them!

"The Polyglot--three parts--my text;
Howbeit--likewise--now to my next."

"On Smoke.--It is a vulgar, ludicrous, and foolish custom to
bite off the nose of a cigar. Don't be a Vandal--you are not
a Sandwich Islander, about to chew your _Kava_. A cigar
should be handled daintily; it is a fragile, graceful
creature--don't mar its beauty. Tear off the twist, and the
pleasure of smoking is at an end! The outer leaf becomes
untwirled. Ere it is half finished, you have a ragged end
between your lips--nasty, foul, and unsightly--through which
the smoke comes in huge clouds to your mouth, instead of
slender streams on the palate. 'How, then,' say you; 'prick
it, or cut it, or what? Tear it not, cut it not; nor yet
puncture it. Don't be frightened of the cigar--thrusting a
half-inch alone into the mouth; but, when you begin, take a
good half of it in the mouth; pull at it lustily for a few
seconds, to open its pores; then draw it out, allowing but
an inch to be held within the lips--believe me, you will
enjoy it a hundred-fold more; and there are but few cigars
that will not allow of their virtue being drawn though their
leaves. Never bite the end off, and never use your cigar
cruelly, by squeezing it, biting it, or re-lighting it.
Cigar-holders, tubes, quills, and such like inventions, we
despise. If you cannot bear the cigar in your mouth--aye,
and enjoy it--you have no business with it: go back to your
brown paper and cane!

"What is the best beverage to imbibe whilst inhaling the
precious weed? Momentous question! Coffee, or claret, says
Jehu. I do not believe in bitter, as an accompanying liquid
to a cigar. The Corporation of Christ-church, years ago,
smoked cigars, and drank with them that then famous
concoction known as 'Ringwood Beer.' What was the result?
The first toast at every civic banquet held for years in
that borough was gravely given out, and bumpered with due
solemnity, as follows:--

'Prosperation to this Corporation.'

Brandy is a perfect antidote to inebriation from beer, so we
are told. The Corporation should have known this, and been
awakened from their long and pleasant dream of
_prosperat