Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1884 — Smoking as a Gentleman. [ARTICLE]

Smoking as a Gentleman.

There is no one thing, perhaps, in which the difference between the wellbred man and the ill-bred man more appears than in the manner in which, the place where, and the time when they smoke. The well-bred man does not smoke, nor does he seem to smoke, to show off, whereas the ill-bred man very often smokes in a self-conscious manner that seems to say: “Look at me! see how skilfully my lips hold this cigar; how I can shift it from one side of my mouth to the other without touching it with my fingers, and how well I can articulate with it in my mouth; in short, look you what perfect control I have over my labial muscles, and, having seen, admire!” In short, there are many low-bred young men—very many—that appear to smoke only to display their—imagined—grace and skill, when, in fact, in smoking as they do, where they do, and when they do, they but publish their vulgarity. Such men are certainly not of the sort that Shakspeare accuses of having a “vaulting ambition.” As they smoke chiefly for show, a poor cigar answers their purpose as well as a good one; consequently, they usually buy of the kind that. are sold at the rate of two for a cent.

The well-bred man, on the contrary, the gentleman, the man that smokes only for the love of it, puts but as much of his cigar in his mouth as is necessary in order to draw it, keeps it in his mouth no longer than is necessary, and never fails to remove it when he talks, or passes any one toward whom he would be respectful, especially a lady. Further, our best-bred men never smoke in any street at an hour when it is much frequented, nor in any public place where smoking is likely to be offensive to others. —“ The Meritor” by Alfred Ayres.

The common tradition that the timber of old churches was frequently of chestnut seems to have been exploded by the researches of the French chemist, M. Payer, who procured a large number of pieces for examination, and pronounced that they were not chestnut, added to which chestnut trees, whatever their abundance in old times, are now extremely rare. We are told that if letters are drawn upon oak and chestnut planks, by means of pure sulphate of iron dissolved in distilled water, the characters appear at once fn black upon the oak and in deep violet upon the chestnut, while ammonia produces a short-lived red upon the chestnut, which is much paler and less distinct upon the oak. Another mode of examination is by making sections of the wood, which cannot well be mistaken, as chestnut timber possesses only concentric layers, while all French and American varieties of oak show the medullary rays crossing the woody fiber from the center across the circumference.

In Formosa there is not much sickness, but when a man is sick they string him up by the neck aud let him down again qu ckly; This generally kills or cures him, and if the former his death is celebrated by a general spree. At twenty-one a map, is provided with a wife, but until the age of forty he must not visit her openly. He may do so stealth ly, however, and if he doesn’t like her he can get a divorce in ten minutes. A man often marries four or five times a year. No children born before the mother has reached thirtyseven are in any case permited to live".