Visions of America: Public Representations of the United States Circulating in India from 1870-1900Main MenuVisions of AmericaRepresentations of America in India from 1880-1910IntroductionProject VisionIndian Newspaper ArticlesTimelineTags and TrendsTour content by major themesRadial VisualizationGrid VisualizationAdam Heidebrink-Brunodda1366ced630ae12c01119b6003cad348b8379cMareesa Miles07f5b1d62871cea403a104a2f291b405512e6016
Smoking As A Science
12017-04-21T12:01:24-04:00Mareesa Miles07f5b1d62871cea403a104a2f291b405512e6016824plain2017-04-28T12:18:45-04:00Mareesa Miles07f5b1d62871cea403a104a2f291b405512e6016Nearly all the leaders in both branches of Congress (says a correspondent of the Philadelphia Times) are hard smokers. — Some of them seem to have made a study of the best method of extracting bliss from a cigar. Apparently the most successful in this study is , the Republican leader of the House. Mr. Reed’s success has been greater than even that of Mark Twain, and this is saying a great deal, for the humorist is justly celebrated for his scientific way of handling the weed. The Maine leader begins to enjoy his cigar long before it is lighted. Any one who watches him closely in the House can tell when he contemplates a smoke. Whenever he leans back lazily, drums the desk with his fingers and allows a dreamy expression to come into his eyes, you may safely count on his plunging his hand into his pocket in a few minutes and bringing forth a cigar. Then he retires to the most comfortable of the sofas, leans back with an abandon seldom seen in Americans, and rolling the cigar between his fingers for a moment, he gloats on the prize. Biting off the end is the next process, and this is accomplished with a lingering fondness that excites envy in the breasts of the correspondents opposite, who are not permitted to smoke in their pen. The cigar is lighted with the same “sweetness long drawn out,” only the near approach of the flame being able to force the Congressman to drop the match. After the necessary preliminary puffs, he holds up the lighted end and gazes into the first thin film of ashes just as a spoon young fellow throws his soul through his eyes when looking at his loved one. This is, however, only the starting point. After the cigar finds its way back into his mouth, Mr. Reed relaxes his limbs still further:he throws out his arms at right angles with his body; his eyes close slowly, dreamily; his chest becomes inflated with the drawing-in of his breath; a little sigh of happiness occurs simultaneously, and the cigar is removed, the mouth is opened lingeringly and the smoke goes forth in little reluctant curls which seem to strive for re-entrance to their birthplace. The Congressman’s eyes then open very, very slowly and whether it be fancy or fact, the envious correspondents are dead sure that they detect an expression of malicious triumph directed at them. A half minute elapses between the first puff and the second which is accompanied by the same bodily movements. The intervals between the succeeding puffs becomes briefer and briefer, until by the time the cigar is half used the gentleman from Maine is puffing like a smoke-stack. He has said to friends that this is the only genuine method of enjoying smoke. First, experience the delights of anticipation, he says. Then approach the good thing by slow stages. Take at first just enough to excite the appetite. Augment this appetite by degrees till it grows ravenous, and then sail in heart and soul. Whether this method be the best or not, there is no doubt that Mr. Reed draws more bliss and smoke from a cigar than does any other man in Congress.