"And when joy after pain, like the sun after rain,
Stills the waters, long turbid and troubled,
That life's current may flow, with a ruddier glow,
And the sense of enjoyment be doubled,—
Oh! let me puff, puff, till I feel quantum suff,
Such luxury still I'm in lack o',
Be joy ever so sweet, it would be incomplete,
Without a good pipe of tobacco.
"Should my recreant muse,—Sometimes apt to refuse
The guidance of bit and of bridle,
Still blankly demur, spite of whip and of spur,
Unimpassioned, inconstant, or idle;
Only let me puff, puff, till the brain cries enough,
Such excitement is all I'm in lack o',
And the poetic vein soon to fancy gives reign,
Inspired by a pipe of Tobacco.
"And when with one accord, round the jovial board,
In friendship our bosoms are glowing;
While with toast and with song we the evening prolong,
And with nectar the goblets are flowing;
Still let us puff, puff—be life smooth, be it rough,
Such enjoyment we're ever in lack o';
The more peace and goodwill will abound as we fill
A jolly good pipe of Tobacco."
Tobacco Jars.
The tobacco jar is another accessory of more recent date than tobacco pipes but interesting from the varieties of style and shapes. The finest are made of porcelain and are lavish in design and enrichment. Of all the articles of the smokers' paraphernalia none however exhibit more fanciful designs than Tobacco-stoppers used by smokers for crowding the tobacco into the pipe while smoking. The author of "A Paper of Tobacco" says:
"This was the only article on which the English smoker prided himself. It was made of various materials—wood, bone, ivory, mother-of-pearl, and silver: and the forms which it assumed were exceedingly diversified. Out of a collection of upwards of thirty tobacco-stoppers of different ages, from 1688 to the present time, the following are the most remarkable: a bear's tooth tipped with silver at the bottom, and inscribed with the name of Captain James Rogers of the Happy Return whaler, 1688; Dr. Henry Sacheverel in full canonicals, carved in ivory, 1710; a boat, a horse's hind leg, Punch, and another character in the same Drama, to wit: his Satanic majesty; a countryman with a flail; a milkmaid; an emblem of Priopus; Hope and Anchor; the Marquis of Granby; a greyhound's head and neck; a paviour's rammer; Lord Nelson; the Duke of Wellington; and Bonaparte. The tobacco-stopper was carried in the pocket or attached to a ring worn on the finger."
In Butler's Hudibras it is alluded to in connection with the astronomer's sign.
"——Bless us! quoth he,
It is a planet now I see;
And if I err not, by his proper
Figure that's like tobacco-stopper,
It should be Saturn!"