Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1891 — Bite the End of Your Cigar. [ARTICLE]

Bite the End of Your Cigar.

Dr. Ferd Wilson and friend went into a Broadway cigar store the other day. The friend selected a dark Havana, put one end between his lips, rolled it a bit to moisten it, then pnt the tip in the metal entter on the counter and clipped it off. He then placed the clipped end in his mouth and drew in once or twice before lighting. He coughed several times as he lighted the weed. “Pardon me,” said the doctor, “you should never do it that way. Here is the method.” The doctor picked up another cigar, bit the end off with his teeth, placed the other end in his mouth and blew smartly once or twice and then leisurely lighted it. “You notice,” said the doctor, “I did not cough. You did. The philosophy of it is shis: when the end of a cigar is bitten off it crushes a small portion of the tobacco into powder. If you put the end immediately into your mouth and inhale, the small particles are almost certain to lodge somewhere in the throat and cause irritation. That makes you cough, and. if your tonsils happen to be in the right direction for it, a case of bronchitis or worse may compel you to call me in. I never use the clipper that is used by the frequenters of a cigar store. The majority of the men moisten the tip of a cigar, as you did, before cutting it. Now you never know the condition of the man who preceded you. Some of the moisture from his lips remains on the cutter, and your cigar may take on a portion of it. “Some years ago a young man came to me with cancer of the lip, contracted as near as I could trace in the way I have described. He had had chapped lips at the time, and the poison got into his blood through a break in his skin. It was a particularly distressing affair. The young fellow was a personal friend of mine, and was engaged to be married. I knew his habits and conduct to be above reproach, but he was extremely sensitive. He broke off his engagement and went West, although his prospects here were exeel--1 ent. I could only commend his course, for disease had become fastened in his system. I pitied him from the bottom of my heart. So don’t use the cigar clipper that others use.” —New York, Recorder.

The burning of five stores at Vandalia, 111., made just four lines in print, but when Peter Jackson stopped off there it took thirteen line 3 to tell what he said about challenging John L. Sullivan. It may be in the climate, or the people may deiliand such news. In Greece, Solon was the first who pronounced a funeral oration, according to Herodotus, 580 K C. The Romans pronounced harangues over their Illustrious dead. Theopompus obtained a prize for the best funeral oration in praise of Mausolus, 353 B. C.