Tobacco Documents Online

rugged wagon drivers did much to popularize cigar-smoking in the frontier days of our nation. But when we think back to the early American history of tobacco, we are most likely to think of pipe-smoking, for we reaci in our history books that Sir Walter Raleigh learned it from the natives of Virginia. He is generally credited with carrying back the custom to England. He told of the Indians drying an herb called "uppowoc," powdering it, then fuming or smoking it through clay pipes. If you delve into the historical records, though, you will find some disagreement as to Sir Walter Raleigh, tobacconists' patron saint Lady and gentleman smokers of i65o-t67o

who actually introduced pipe-smoking to England. Perhaps it was Raleigh, himself, but some of the Englishmen of his day jotted down some notes contradicting the now popular understanding. It seems that Sir Walter appointed a Ralph Lane as Governor of `'irginia, and when he returned to England in 1586 he surprised his contemporaries by smoking tobacco. On the other hand, there is some evidence that Sir John Hawkins took tobacco home to England as early as 1565. But no matter, the fact remains that Raleigh was the Queen's favorite; he was a pipe smoker, and he was largely responsible for popularizing the smoking fad. Of course, the ordinary man of those days could rarely find or Tobacco smoking party about t65o. Note the picture of pudding tobacco on the wall at left. [ II ]

afford tobacco. When he did, he smoked it in a cheap pipe made of a walnut shell with a straw stem. But Raleigh and the grand courtiers of the Queen's court smoked their tobacco in little silver pipes. The new fashion was so strange and foreign, yet so fascinating, that experienced smokers gave private lessons in the art of pipe-smoking. Some of the taverns made private rooms available to patrons who wished to practice pipe-smoking. Although the fashion spread to every corner of England within io Years, it remained a rich man's pleasure. The Virginia planters knew a good thing when they saw it, and they lost little time in building up a big trade in tobacco to satisfy the demands of the smokers in the homeland. Tobacco was Virginia's only export product for quite some time. The Virginians called it the golden weed-and well they might! For one thing, it was so valuable that the colonists used it as a medium of exchange in their commercial dealings, instead of pounds, shillings and pence. Household goods, jewelry, silverware and even slaves were bought and sold for so many pounds of tobacco. Another good reason for calling it the golden weed was the high cost Growing tobacco in the streets Virginia tobacco plantation of Jamestown, Virginia, i6zo, about t6zo.

~ofa rtiers The that king. who in zo ~new (ding :rs in 4uite they, it as inds, even cost 40~ of tobacco in England. Actually, it was worth its weight in silver. Tobacco was sold mainly by apothecaries who prescribed it for asthma and mixed it into some plague medicines. They also used it in a cough cure, brewing the tobacco leaves like tea, and sweetening the con- coction with honey. They sold their tobacco rather dramatically. On one side of the counter scale the customer placed one or more silver shillings; on the other side the apothecary spooned out enough pre- cious tobacco to make the scales balance exactly. Yes, tobacco was expensive in those days. As nearly as we can figure it from the i; th century records, the precious leaf cost about ~,3 per ounce. That was a week's pay for many a man! As you may suspect, the high price of tobacco in England prompted the thrifty smoker to stretch out his precious supply by adding frag- ments of another herb to it. Coltsfoot was the most common adulter- ant, but others were used. That is not to say that unscrupulous apothecaries and tobacconists overlooked the trickery of herb-blend- ing, but it's generally understood that the smokers themselves first tried the experiment. King James I is said to have literally foamed with rage over tobacco, angrily wrote a terrific condemnation. Other European rulers frowned upon the golden weed, and even Mohammedan and pagan monarchs threatened their subjects with dire punishment if they used it. Pope Urban VIII became mightily aroused. From the Vatican thundered grave warnings. Any soul who took tobacco, in any form, into a church would be excommunicated forthwith. King James did more than just write about it. He went whole hog and passed laws: mutilation for taking a pinch of snuff, hanging on the gibbet for smoking a pipe! But nothing could stop tobacco's sweep of popularity. Gradually, it became more plentiful, the opposition waned, and the laws dropped from the books. 1131

However, it is interesting to note that prohibition in those days had about the same effect on the population that liquor prohibition had in our day, in our own country. Bootleggers promptly took advantage of the situation; sold tobacco in back rooms. Likewise, their customers took home the'expensive adulterated stuff and enjoyed it as best they could in secret gatherings or in their homes behind shuttered windows. Probably it was King James, more than any other one man, who pro- moted the custom of snuff-taking. The furtive tobacco-user hardly dared to risk smoking a pipe and letting the evidence of his crime filter out through the cracks of his doors and windows to the nostrils of the police or a nosy neighbor. So the snuff-taking habit, easily practiced without detection, spread by leaps and bounds. But it was a Dr. Cheynell of Oxford University who probably did as much as any one man to put a stop to all this foolishness. In 1603 he dared to engage in a public debate on tobacco at the University. King James himself sat in the audience as Dr. Cheynell heroically held a tobacco pipe in his,hand while he extolled the golden weed. There is no record that the King punished the daring doctor for his seeming impudence. Perhaps His Majesty could see which way the wind was blowing. At any rate, pipe smoking 'started to make a comeback soon after; and the tobacco trade increased until by 1614 there were -7,ooo differ- ent London houses (companies or families) trading in tobacco. One London shop, and perhaps more, adopted a forerunner of the Cigar Store Indian as a trade mark. "The Smoaking Age," a book published in 1617, carried an engraved frontispiece illustrating the interior of a tobacconist's shop. The shop's advertising sign was a small effigy of an American Indian smoking a fat cigar. You may be interested in some i;th century sales tips sent out by a wholesaler to his retail tobacco customers: t

I "-Set a picture of a blackamoor or a Virginia man, that will draw custom, upon the front-piece of the door. Make a partition in thy shop if some come to bathe rather than to drink tobacco." The dealer was advised to concentrate his sales efforts on scholars, lawyers and poets, particularly, but not to forget possible sales to the ladies. ~I I I, I I PI I • ~ ~~1 ~ UeCOiiahe T^ ~~~r..Lh ~~ 1 " -Lr/ ~ry I I C~ , 41 II I ~. I Pefum ~fimumSupferSolemn ~e elliean/ b¢eclam~rle ~tie~. d ://re.bert obac~ouraler7ks ~uw.-~ Left. Interior of tobacconist's shop in i7th century-from Brathwaite's "Smoaking Age." Upper right. "Petum Optimum Supter Solem" or the best tobacco under the sun-an early London tobacco trade card. Lower right. Tobacco sign popular t65o-t7to showing the chewer, the smoker, and the snuff taker. You may wonder at the term "tobacco drinking." This gained cur- rency because of an early belief that tobacco smoke had therapeutic qualities. When that superstition took hold, everybody made sure that he got the full benefit. Smokers inhaled the smoke so that it >< W

would circulate and "fume the innerds;" then they exhaled the smoke as slowly as possible out their noses. Somehow, this manner of smoking came to be known as drinking. Midway in the 17th century the term faded out of use and "smoking" came to be the common term. * While tobacco smoking started to spread to every known country on earth, it was due for another slight setback in England. When Lord Cromwell and his Puritans gained control of the country they established a number of drastic reforms. Cromwell ordered his troops to trample down any growing crops of tobacco which they encoun- tered in England. Smoking was banned, of course. When Cromwell died in z6;8, his own loyal soldiers marked the event by smoking in the streets on their way to his funeral. They were celebrating their recapture of a cherished liberty. The Puritans who settled New England abhorred the weed which the Virginia colonists traded in so profitably; and they would have. none of it in their fair land. Yet there is evidence that some 'NTew Englanders dared to smoke in secrecy; that some took snuff, and there's a strong suspicion among historians that some tobacco was grown in Connecticut. At least it's rather strange that many of the i; th century Puritans commonly carried nutmeg graters with them wherever they went. Their excuse was that they liked to "add spice to food and drink." The fact re- mains, though, that snufff takers Pocket snuff mill or grater of r8thcentury also used graters to scrape off tiny "-called by the Divines of New England a nutmeg grater." bits from tobacco plugs. [ i6] .µ,, .

William Penn the Quaker disliked tobacco. Smoking and snuff- taking offended him, but he was broad-minded and wise enough to permit its free use in his colony. There's an account of how he at- tempted to josh some of his friends about it. He dropped in on a group one night, and as he entered the room he noticed that all laid aside their pipes out of respect for his known distaste. Penn dramatically sniffed the smoky room, eyed the pipes mischievously, and remarked: "I am happy to see that you are ashamed of this foul practice." One of the company took up the good-natured rebuff, and retorted in kind: "Nay, not ashamed, but we laid down our pipes in preference to the danger of offending a weak brother." Incidentally, the "tobacco-hating" Quakers were strictly ostracized by the tobacco-loving Virginians. The latter made it a law that any- one bringing a Quaker to Virginia to reside after July I, 1663, would be fined S,ooo pounds of tobacco. Anyone who even entertained a Quaker in the colony of Virginia was liable to the same stiff fine. Tobacconists "money," redeemable for goods and serv- ices. Note the roll of pudding tobacco on the heart shaped coin. These were silver tokens.

N TERMS of history, it ~;,as not long before people all over the world sampled tobacco, acquired a taste for the new luxury and wished they, could get more of it at a reasonable price. Probably few people thought much about manufacturing and distribution as we think of them today. In modern America we get a much wanted product into the hands of millions of people through mass production. One man thought of tobacco producing in these terms, as far back as i-6o. He was Pierre Lorillard, a young man just finishing his apprenticeship as a snuff-maker in New York. It was his imagination, ingenuity and broad vision that launched the oldest tobacco company Left. Snuff mill of the type set up by Pierre Lorillard, i76o. The snuff was pulverized to powder form by the action of revolving stone wheels, turning (0 over another stone wheel cut out like a basin. Right. Grating snuff b}' hand. ~ [ib] O O v

in America, set the pace for mass production in an industry destined to play such an important role in the dynamic business of this new nation. Like most pioneers, Pierre started out with meager facilities, little money, no fanfare. His chief assets were his newly learned trade and the brash confidence typical of young men determined to make their mark in the world. First of all, he rented a small house in Chatham Street, in what is now downtown New York, and se't to work packing snuff in bladders to resell to wholesalers. Bladders were forerunners of the Cellophane wrappers which pro- tect and preserve the freshness of today's cigarettes, cigars and smoking tobacco. They were just what you would surmise-bladders of slaughtered animals, dried and tanned like parchment. They were light, waterproof and altogether efficient as packages for bulk tobacco. At one time snuff was the most popular form of tobacco; and although it is still enjoyed by thousands of people today, it has long since been surpassed in popularity by other forms of tobacco. But when it was all the rage, snuff was made up into many curious, exotic blends and concoctions. Here is just a sample of what Pierre Lorillard had to do in t; 6o to please the public. It is his recipe for Paris Rappee snuff: "Take a good strong virgin tobacco without stems. Cut this in pieces and make it wet in a barrel. [We don't know what wet the tobacco, but chances are it was rum.] Set it in sweet (sweat) room at zoo degrees for 12 days. ?N1ake into powder, letting stand three to four months, adding i I Z pounds salmoniac, 2 pounds tamarind, 2 oz. vanilla bean, i oz. tonka bean, i oz. camomile flowers." This was a basic recipe for black snuff, but there were endless com- binations designed to titillate the finicky taste of sophisticated snuffers. 1 I9l