Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1885 — “A Good Smoke.” [ARTICLE]

“A Good Smoke.”

Where tha cigars came from is unknown. They were dark in hue and of vast .proportions—at least one inch in diameter. Five of these the mysterfSus passenger on a New York ferry boat had firmly lashed together with a bit of tape so as to cause a convergence of the lighted ends and a corresponding divergence of the ignited portions. All these were alight, and by dintiof that muscular effort known to vocalists as the ore rotundp, the performer was enabled to achieve the hitherto unclassified feat of smoking all five of the cigars at one and the same time. Possessing himself of a deck chair which had been precipitately vacated by a cigarette smoker on his approach, he seated himself near the quarter rail and soon became the center of an awe-stricken circle of observers. He treated with silent contempt the inquiries of the scientifically curious and the chaff of the irreverent, and all the while a cloud of smoke arose from his lips as from a smoldering volcano, and drifted down to leeward, mingling with similar clouds discharged from the smokestacks of incoming steamers. The captain of the boat came aft and stood at the edge of the hurricane deck, and looked on with manifest apprehension. The deck hands stood uneasily around in safe corners, and furtively provided themselves with such lose spars as they coul4 ; Jay hold of. The itinerant band of musicians, which travel back and forth on the boat, strove bravely to go through their Usual programme, but their playing was fitful and spiritless. And still the big man smoked on. All hands breathed easier when the boat backed into her berth at Tompkmsville, and the hdg man arose to go ashore. When the gang-plank was thrown ashore he cast the combined ends of his cigars into the sea, which sizzled and sent up a small whiff of steam as they struck its surface. Turpin-? to the expectant crowd, he remarked: “ Gentlemen, that was a very good smoke.” Then he went ashore and disappeared, walking a trifle unsteadily, no doubt from the effect of the nicotine, but still maintaining the dignified and decorous bearing that had marked his conduct during the entire trip.— New York Telegram.