Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

From the N. York DIARY.

SMOKING.

It is not long since smoking was generally considered as a mark and privilege of men somewhat advanced in life. Scarcely a young man at that time considered it decent or found it pleasant to smoke till after he was married, when he assumed the pipe as an ensign of his dignity; it was his sceptre as master of the house. Tobacco was then never smoked in mixed companies without first enquiring whether it was agreeable to the company, whether it offended the ladies, or some such compliment. Since the introduction of segars, both propriety and politeness have been continually violated by the consumers of this herb.

When I walk out in the evening and see a number of little fires moving about, alternately flashing and disappearing, like so many fire-flies in a meadow, when I pass some of them and hear a parcel of infant voices queaking about Ann-street and damnation and the devil, and other subjects of the kind as familiarly as if they had been educated in the infernal regions. I cast a thought upon the parents of these little men under 14—I think in what manner they are taking care of their education, and what sort of comfort they may expect from such children in their old age.

When I see apprentices or servants lounging about the streets with segars, I feel for them and their masters; I cannot help believing that with persons of this description there is some connection between a segar and a tavern, a gaming house, and other places and practices that I could mention. This ideal connexion, I confess is not logically, but is too practically true.

Masters who permit journeymen or apprentices to smoke while they are working, may consider the inconvenience of two things being carried on at once; and among carpenters, joiners, and other dealer in combustible materials, a third and fatal consequence may happen; witness some late fires.

Evening conversations in places of lazy rendezvous, such as lumber-yards and unfinished buildings, which are too frequent among the rougher class, accompanied by this portable fire, are likewise dangerous.

To the young buck, whether at the gaming-table, or in the circle of female beauty, a segar is a piece of armour as necessary to him as his pantaloons and bootees.

Smoking is in itself not reprehensible and to some may be beneficial but let it be consistent with person, time, and place. By the family fire side in the hour of relaxation, in the social circle of men, by those who may claim the respectable privilege of age—anywhere provided in all cases that the practice be not offensive to any present.

For myself, I am no enemy to smoking as an innocent indulgence, and in a company of my friends whom I generally see once a week, when pipes are introduced, I subscribe something towards raising the cloud, and find it very useful in telling a story, by way of punctuation, or marking the proper pauses, as in writing: thus, a single puff serves for a comma,—puff, puff, a semicolon; puff, puff, puff, a colon.—four puffs, a full point. I have even gone farther—I suppose a pause, with the pipe kept in the mouth to represent a dash—longer or shorter in continuance: notes of admiration and interrogation may be easily expressed on similar principles.

Taking out the pipe and discharging all the smoke from the mouth may be considered as the conclusion of a paragraph, and knocking out the ashes, or, if a segar is the instrument, throwing it into the fire, is necessarily the end of a chapter.

Imagination might still find much employment upon this part of the subject: to imagination, then, I leave it, desiring parents, guardians and others seriously to attend to the former part; for it is connected with things of more importance than the mere burning of a leaf.