The following anecdote of Huerta the celebrated Spanish guitarist, is taken from one of M. Ella's programmes:—
"In the year 1826 the famous Huerta, who astonished the English by his performances on the guitar, was anxious to be introduced to the leader of the Italian Opera Band—a warm-hearted and sensitive Neapolitan—Spagnoletti. The latter had a great contempt for guitars, concertinas, and other fancy instruments not used in the orchestra. He was fond of snuff, had a capacious nose, and, when irritated, would ejaculate 'Mon Dieu!' On my presenting the vain Spaniard to Spagnoletti, the latter inquired, 'Vat you play?' Huerta—'De guitar-r-r, sare.' Spagnoletti—'De guitar! humph!' (takes a pinch of snuff.) Huerta—'Yeas, sare, de guitar-r-r, and ven I play my adagio, de tears shall run down both side your pig nose.' 'Vell den,' (taking snuff,) said Spagnoletti, 'I vill not hear your adagio.'"
The anecdote related of Count de Tesse, a celebrated courtier of France, is one of the best of its kind:—
"Count de Tesse, Marshal of France, was an eminent man during the reign of Louis XIV. Though he was a brave soldier and by no means an incompetent general, yet he was more remarkable as a skillful diplomatist and a pliant and prosperous courtier. During the War of Succession in Spain, he besieged Barcelona with a considerable army, in the spring of 1705. Terrible was the assault, and terrible was the resistance. At the end of six weeks the arrival of the British fleet, and reinforcements thrown into the place, forced Marshal Tesse to retire. Besides immense losses in dead and wounded, he had to abandon two hundred and twenty cannon and all his supplies. Incessantly fighting for fifteen days in his retreat towards the Pyrenees, he lost three thousand more of his men. It ought to be said, in vindication of Tesse, that he undertook the siege by express and urgent command of the French King, and contrary to his own judgment; for in writing to a friend, he said: 'If a Consistory were held to decide the infallibility of the King, as Consistories have been held to decide the infallibility of the Pope, I should by my vote declare His Majesty infallible. His orders have confounded all human science.'
"Soon after the siege of Barcelona, a lady at a fashionable party took out her snuff-box and offered a pinch to any one who wished it. Marshal Tesse approached to take a pinch; but suddenly the lady drew her snuff-box back, saying, 'For you, Marshal, the snuff is too strong—it is Barcelona.'"
In Scotland the dry kinds of snuff are in favor and are esteemed as highly as the moister snuffs. Robert Leighton gives the following pen picture of the snuff-loving Scotchman; it is entitled "The Snuffie Auld Man:"—
"By the cosie fire-side, or the sun-ends o' gavels,
The snuffie auld bodie is sure to be seen.
Tap, tappin' his snuff-box, he snifters and sneevils,
And smachers the snuff frae his mou' to his een.
'Since tobacco cam' in, and the snuffin' began,
There hasna been seen sic a snuffie auld man.
"His haurins are dozen'd, his een sair bedizzened.
And red round the lids as the gills o' a fish;
His face is a' bladdit, his sark-breest a' smaddit.
As snuffie a picture as ony could wish.
He makes a mere merter o' a' thing he does,
Wi' snuff frae his fingers an' drops frae his nose.
"And wow but his nose is a troublesome member—
Day and nicht, there's nae end to its snuffie desire:
It's wide as the chimlie, it's red as an ember,
And has to be fed like a dry-whinnie fire.
It's a troublesome member, and gi'es him nae peace,
Even sleepin', or eatin', or sayin' the grace.
"The kirk is disturbed wi' his hauckin' and sneezin'
The dominie stoppit when leadin' the psalm;
The minister, deav'd out o' logic and reason,
Pours gall in the lugs that are gapi' for balm.
The auld folks look surly, the young chaps jocose,
While the bodie himsel' is bambazed wi' his nose.