Transcriber’s Note: The title of this bookis given both as ‘St Nicotine of the peace pipe’ and ‘StNicotine or the peace pipe’. Readers may decide for themselveswhich is most fitting.
ST NICOTINE
OR
THE PEACE PIPE
Drawn & Engraved by F. W. Fairholt
Tobacco Plants.
1. Nicotiana Tabacum; 2. N. Rustica; 3. N. Persica.
[By permission of Messrs. Chapman & Hall, Ld.
ST NICOTINE
OF
THE PEACE PIPE
BY
EDWARD VINCENT HEWARD
WITH 4 FULL PAGE PLATES AND 5 TEXT CUTS
LONDON
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, Ltd.
New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.
1909
INTRODUCTORY
The history and associations of tobacco carry the thoughtsback to the jubilant days when Good Queen Bess was theidol of her people, to the stirring times when boundinggaiety and lusty banter found expression in unrestrainedmirth as readily in the open street as within doors. Thewriter’s aim in the following chapters has been to bringtogether (in a somewhat desultory way, it may be) thechief features of interest which the story of the ‘Indian’sherb’ presents to us to-day. The social element undoubtedlydominates all others; this, coupled with theprimitive belief in its medicinal properties, at once securedfor it the good-will of men longing for knowledge of theNew World and ever ready to adopt an indulgence soalluring. That this feeling was universal is shewn by therapidity with which the smoking habit spread over theEarth wherever there was a human habitation. No lessremarkable is the sturdy tenacity with which men everywherestuck to it despite the determined opposition ofpotentates and pontiffs.
In the eyes of her votaries St Nicotine’s virtues arerare and manifold. Indeed all sorts of pretty things havebeen said and sung in her praise, and as becomes a faithfuldevotee at her shrine the writer believes them all as implicitly—well,as a child believes fairy tales. Many a non-smokerwhen questioned about his indifference to hergracious influence has heaved a pensive sigh and lamentedDame Nature’s ill-usage in denying him the taste for thenicotian incense. Consolation comes not to him whentold that the good genius has knit together a brotherhoodwho, regaled with her balmy breath, realize the touch ofnature which makes the whole world kin; that on herapproach petty vexations vanish into space, and fancy,untrammelled,