German Porcelain Pipes.
Dibdin, in his "Tour in France and Germany," says of Vienna, that it is a city of smokers,—"a good Austrian thinks he can never pay too much for a good pipe." Many of the Germans use a kind of pipe carved from the root of the dwarf oak; wooden pipes of a similar kind are made of brier root, and are very common, as are also those made from maple and sweet-brier. One of the favorite pipes used by Germans is the porcelain pipe, which consists of a double bowl—the upper one containing the tobacco, which fits into another portion of the pipe, allowing the oil to drain into the lower bowl, which may be removed and the pipe cleaned. The bowls are sometimes painted beautifully, representing a variety of subjects, and in no way inferior to the painted porcelain for the table.
The Dutch are famous smokers and are constantly "pulling at the pipe." They use those with long, straight stems, and both their clay and porcelain pipes are of the finest form and finish. Irving, in "The History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty," has given a good description of the smoking powers of the Dutch. Speaking of his grandfather's love for the weed, he says:
"My great-grandfather, by the mother's side, Hermanns Van Clattercop, when employed to build the large stone church at Rotterdam, which stands about three hundred yards to your left, after your turn from the Boomkeys; and which is so conveniently constructed that all the zealous Christians of Rotterdam prefer sleeping through a sermon there to any other church in the city. My great-grandfather, I say, when employed to build that famous church, did, in the first place, send to Delft for a box of long pipes; then, having purchased a new spitting-box and a hundred weight of the best Virginia, he sat himself down and did nothing for the space of three months but smoke most laboriously.
"Then did he spend full three months more in trudging on foot, and voyaging in the Trekschuit, from Rotterdam to Amsterdam—to Delft—to Hærlem—to Leyden—to the Hague—knocking his head and breaking his pipe against every church in his road. Then did he advance gradually nearer and nearer to Rotterdam, until he came in full sight of the identical spot whereon the church was to be built. Then did he spend three months longer in walking round it and round it, contemplating it, first from one point of view, and then from another,—now would he be paddled by it on the canal—now would he peep at it through a telescope from the other side of the Meuse, and now would he take a bird's-eye glance at it from the top of one of those gigantic windmills which protect the gates of the city.
"The good folks of the place were on the tip-toe of expectation and impatience. Notwithstanding all the turmoil of my great-grandfather, not a symptom of the church was yet to be seen; they even began to fear it would never be brought into the world, but that its great projector would lie down and die in labor of the mighty plan he had conceived. At length, having occupied twelve good months in puffing and paddling, and talking and walking,—having traveled over all Holland, and even taken a peep into France and Germany,—having smoked five hundred and ninety-nine pipes and three hundred weight of the best Virginia tobacco,—my great-grandfather gathered together all that knowing and industrious class of citizens who prefer attending to anybody's business sooner than their own, and having pulled off his coat and five pair of breeches he advanced sturdily up and laid the corner-stone of the church, in the presence of the whole multitude,—just at the commencement of the thirteenth month."
He also alludes to Hudson whom he says was:
"A seafaring man of renown, who had learned to smoke tobacco under Sir Walter Raleigh, and is said to have been the first to introduce it into Holland, which gained him much popularity in that country, and caused him to find great favor in their High Mightinesses, the lords and states general, and also of the honorable West India Company. He was a short, square, brawny old gentleman, with a double chin, a mastiff mouth, and a broad copper nose, which was supposed in those days to have acquired its fiery hue from the constant neighborhood of his tobacco pipe. * * * As chief mate and favorite companion, the commander chose Master Robert Juet, of Limehouse, in England. By some his name has been spelled Chewit, ascribed to the circumstance of his having been the first man that ever chewed tobacco. * * * * Under every misfortune he comforted himself with a quid of tobacco, and the truly philosophical maxim, 'that it will be all the same a hundred years hence!'"
Further on he alludes to the attempt to subjugate New Amsterdam to the British crown and the effect produced by the burghers lighting their pipes.