"Ambition frets me not;
A cab or glory's car
Are just the same to me,
So I have my cigar.
"I worship no vain gods,
But serve the household Lar;
I'm sure to be at home,
So I have my cigar.
"I do not seek for fame,
A General with a scar;
A private let me be,
So I have my cigar.
"To have my choice among
The toys of life's bazar,
The deuce may take them all,
So I have my cigar.
"Some minds are often tost
By tempests like a tar;
I always seem in port,
So I have my cigar.
"The ardent flame of love
My bosom cannot char,
I smoke but do not burn,
So I have my cigar.
"They tell me Nancy Low
Has married Mr. R.;
The jilt! but I can live,
So I have my cigar."
Lord Byron, a "good smoker" as well as a great poet, has immortalized his love of the cigar in the following graceful lines:—
"Sublime Tobacco! which from east to west,
Cheers the tars labors, and the Turkman's rest—
Which on the Moslem's ottoman divides
His hours, and rivals opium and his brides;
Magnificent in Stamboul, but less grand,
Though not less loved in Wapping or the Strand;
Divine in hookhas, glorious in a pipe,
When tipped with amber, mellow, rich, and ripe,
Like other charms, wooing the caress
More dazzingly when dawning in full dress.
Yet thy true lovers more admire by far
Thy naked beauties—Give me a Cigar!"
Having given a general description of the cigar and its mode of manufacture, we come now to a more particular account of the various kinds known as the best and of world-wide reputation. Standing at the head of the various kinds of cigars, either of the Old or New World, are those known to all smokers as: