Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1895 — WHAT MEN HAVE SMOKED. [ARTICLE]

WHAT MEN HAVE SMOKED.

All Sorts of Substances Other than Tobacco Used. It Is hard to think of anything else than tobacco In connection with pipes. Certainly hardly any substance with the exception of the “fragrant weed” is now in general use, In civilized countries,at least; but it is a fact well worth pasting in every smoker’s hat that, taking the world altogether, from Its dawning to the present time, tobacco, as it is known to-day, has been the leist favored substance of all for filling tie pipe bowl. Innumerable are the substances that have been adopted at various times by nations on the boundaries of civilization or In far-away parts of the globe for “pipe fillings.” Here, however, is a partial list, and one that has a good deal of novelty about It: The bark of the willow tree, the leaves of roses, wild thyme, lavender, tea, beet roots, maize, the roots of the walnut tree, rush, wood dust, hemp and opium. And when it comes to pipes the variety of these consoling articles would make a list too long to be printed. Bamboo is .used for almost everything in China, and the Chinese pipe stems are naturally of bamboo. In India leather takes the place of bamboo. Jasmine is used for pipe stems In Persia, and In Asia Minor cherry wood is a favorite material. Russian pipes are generally enveloped with a metallic tissue to guard against fire, and nearly all have covers, these being precautions that are advisable in a country where so large a proportion of the houses are built of wood. Perhaps the most curious pipe bowls In the world are to be found In the Philippine Islands, where, gold being the only metal handy, the inhabitants hollow out the nuggets and make use of them for their pipes. The pipes of old Rome, as antiquarians know, were made of bronze and Iron, and the American Indians, It is needless to say, used stone.