Chapter VIII: Snuff, Snuff-Boxes and Snuff-Takers (2)

Having spoken of most of the modes of using snuff in both the Old and New World, we come now to a description of using snuff at the South, known as "dipping," and by some as "rubbing," both terms used to denote the same manner of use. The description of it as given by A. L. Adams is as follows:--

"In the South, and more especially in Virginia, where
tobacco has been cultivated for more than two hundred and
fifty years, and where a few pounds of it was the
legitimate price for a wife, it is not surprising that it
should be more highly prized and come into more general use
than in any other section of our country. On the banks of
the James River it was first successfully cultivated by the
English colony, and this simple fact alone must forever
throw a charm around it, which will foster the pride of the
Virginian who has any respect for his ancestry, and hold him
under sacred obligations to use, cherish, and defend the
plant and its use--all of which he regards as no less a
pleasure than a duty. Here too its many virtues were first
discovered, and its soothing effects first felt and
appreciated.

"To the old Virginian it is indeed a cherished weed,
charming all manner of diseases, comforting in sorrow,
soothing the ills of life, and preserving to a good old age
and in a happy frame of mind all who use it. He believes in
its superior virtues, and ascribes to it more good qualities
than to any other known plant. He always carries it about
with him, and if perchance he gets out he is truly
miserable. He not only loves but worships it as a cure all.
His wife and daughters know its virtues full well, and use
it with equal grace and relish, believing it gives a lustre
to the eye and a freshness to the cheek rarely surpassed.
Among the variety of ways in which it is used none attracted
my attention so much as the novel manner of snuff-taking in
various parts of Virginia, West Virginia, the Carolinas and
Georgia.

"In some localities the practice is unknown, while in many
others it is very common. I first discovered young ladies
putting snuff into their mouths as if eating it, when my
curiosity was excited to an alarming extent, but on being
invited to 'dip' with them I soon learned that they were not
eating, but 'rubbing and chewing' it, as they called it, and
in such a lively manner as to soon convince me that they
appreciated it. I found the habit to be quite common even
among the young of both sexes--all indulging in it as if it
afforded real satisfaction to the appetite for tobacco in
some form.

"The young ladies however seemed the more attached to the
'rubbing process,' as it has been appropriately styled, and
defended it with equal logic and grace whenever it was
assailed. The young gentlemen when in the society of the
young ladies generally join them in this unique use of
snuff, as they are always sure to be invited and urged if
they decline, and to merit their favor of course they must
appear social. I believe, in credit to their taste,
however, that they really prefer a good cigar, and think it
more in keeping with their ideas of manhood and neatness. I
have seen young girls of ten 'rubbing and chewing,' as if
they appreciated it as much as mother Eve did the apple in
the garden of paradise.

"I have also seen old ladies with trembling limbs and few
teeth 'rubbing and chewing,' as if it made them feel young
again. I have frequently been ushered unexpectedly into the
presence of young ladies, and found them puffing their
cigarettes in a manner that convinced me that they knew how
to smoke. There is nothing that will more surely and quickly
bring a stranger into the fellowship and good graces of the
ladies than to join them in their pet habit of
snuff-rubbing. It seems to form a bond of friendship which
they regard as sacred as the vows of wedlock.

"The older matrons 'rub' less and smoke more, which is in
accordance with nature and philosophy: The older we grow the
more we smoke. They find solid pleasure in sitting by the
open grate after tea with fifteen inches of pipe's tail
between their teeth, and slowly but gracefully puffing the
perfumes of the exhilarating weed into the room, and
watching with childish pleasure the hazy curling wreaths of
smoke as they gently float around, changing in form and
color until they finally disappear up the chimney, affording
rich themes for meditation and profitable study, and perhaps
suggestive of earlier days when grandmother, an innocent,
blooming maid, was exchanged for the weed, the seed of which
produced the plant she is now burning. Everywhere I marked
only pleasant and soothing effects from the use of tobacco.

"The planter is never more indifferent to the ills of life
and in sympathy with good feeling and pleasure, than when he
sits down after dinner in his vine-thatched portico and
lights his pipe, passing to his guests pipes, cigars, and
tobacco in various forms, leaving them to choose their
favorite mode of using it. Sambo is never more contented
than when he burns the weed in a cob pipe, and draws the
delicious smoke through an elder sprig or mullen stem. But
the maid is happiest of all when with her lover she sits
face to face, and they 'dip' together from the same magic
plant--tobacco.

"In every walk of life throughout the sunny South tobacco in
some form may be found, and its effects are always the same,
whether drawn from the pocket of the beggar or taken with
gloved fingers from the golden tobacco-box of the planter.
For snuff the ladies have very nice round boxes with lids
which, they always carry with them full of black snuff
highly but pleasantly flavored. They also carry little
brushes or sticks about three inches long with pliable ends;
these they wet in the mouth, then dip into the snuff-box,
and then place it in the mouth outside of the gums and rub
earnestly for two or three minutes. 'Will you dip with me?'
is the usual way of putting the invitation, when the box is
drawn from the pocket and rapped slightly on the cover,
sometimes by all present, who thus signify their readiness
to 'dip,' then it is repassed open to all, and the 'dipping
and rubbing' begins in earnest.

"The only advantage I ever discovered in this unnatural way
of snuffing is in avoiding all unpleasant sneezing which
snuffing is sure to produce, although it is claimed that it
whitens and preserves the teeth and sweetens the mouth, and
produces a beneficial effect on the lungs, all of which is
true or not, just as you choose to believe. 'Will you dip
and rub with me?' said one of the prettiest belles of
Winchester, and in another city in another state the
daughter of an ex-governor, handing me a silver-tipped brush
and opening a rose-wood snuff-box richly inlaid with gold,
politely asked me to 'dip' with her, expressing the belief
that friendship would always follow. I have frequently been
asked by ladies when travelling through the country and
stopping at farm-houses, if I used tobacco--as a hint to
offer them some, and it was a pleasure to comply, and
receive the thankful smile of an appreciative heart."

In other parts of the country the habit of snuff-taking is confined principally to old ladies, who use any kind, either black or yellow, and who prefer themselves the cheaper kinds. But few varieties are used, and there seems to be but little taste manifested in the selection of the "dust." Foreign varieties are used only to a limited extent, being chiefly confined to those of transatlantic birth and tastes. The custom of chewing and smoking seems to be more popular with the male sex than snuff-taking, and one rarely finds a man addicted to the latter habit, unless it be one somewhat advanced in years.

Stewart in his admirable paper on snuff gives much useful information in regard to the universal custom of using it as well as its origin and distinguished uses of the great sternutatory.

"The luckless fate of inventors and originators has become
proverbial, but the ingenious individual whose nostrils
rejoiced in the first pinch of snuff stood in no need of the
niggardly praise of contemporaries or the lavish gratitude
of posterity. That first 'pinch' was its own priceless
reward, far above present appreciation or future fame. What
matters it, that his great name has not been reverently
handed down to us: that posterity seeks in vain his honored
tomb, on which to hang her grateful votive wreath; that
zealous antiquaries have raised up innumerable pretenders to
his unclaimed honors, and striven to rob him of his fame?
Enough for that lucky inventor, wherever he may rest, that
he enjoyed in his lifetime the reward for which ordinary
benefactors of their kind are fain to look to the future.

"It is perfectly vain to attempt now to penetrate into the
mystery which envelopes the name and nation of the first
snuff-taker: long before rough, noble-hearted Drake cured
his dyspepsia by the use of tobacco, or Raleigh transplanted
some roots of that precious weed into English soil, there
were European noses which had rejoiced at its pulverized
leaves. Conjecture, lost in the mazy distance, gladly lays
hold of something substantial in the shape of snuff's first
royal patron. This was Catherine de Medicis, who, receiving
some seeds of the tobacco plant from a Dutch colony,
cherished them, and elevated the dried and pounded leaves
into a royal medicine, with the proud title of 'Herbe à la
Reine.' For in the beginning men took snuff, not as an
everyday luxury, but as a medicament. Like tea--which a
hundred years later was advertised as a cure for every
ill--the new sneezing powder was hailed a universal
specific; and so pleasant in its operation, that mankind,
acting upon the wholesome aphorism that prevention is much
better than cure, and eagerly anticipated the disease it was
supposed to remedy."

"The use of 'the pungent grains of titillating dust'
received a somewhat heavy and discouraging blow from an
unexpected quarter. That ubiquitous power which hurled
anathemas alike at the heresies of Luther and the length of
clerical wigs, discountenanced its use, and at length fairly
lost its temper in the contest with snuff. Whether from a
prescience of the beneficial influence it was destined to
exert upon mankind, or from a suspicion of its power of
sharpening intellects, it is difficult to say; but Popes
Urban VIII., and Innocent waged quite a miniature crusade
against snuff, anathematizing those who should use it in
any church, and positively threatening with excommunication
all impious persons who should provoke a profane sneeze
within the sacred precincts of St. Peter's pile; Louis XIV.,
that good son of the Church, filially complied with the
paternal injunction, but his courtiers were less yielding;
and the ante-chamber of Versailles frequently resounded with
the effects of the pleasant stimulant.

"All persecution has a distinct tendency to establish the
object of its hate, and so it was with the subject of our
article--it only required to be loved; and I do not doubt
that, had circumstances required them, snuff would have
found its martyrs. Its use was not general in England until
Charles II. introduced it, upon his return from exile, with
other important fashions. It had been known and used before,
as had the periwig, but it was not until his reign that it
became common. When the Stuarts relieved the country of
their presence for the second and last time, it had become
firmly established; and, by the days of good Queen Anne, was
such a necessary of life, that there were in the metropolis
alone no less than seven thousand shops where the
snuff-boxes of the Londoners could be replenished.

"At that time, indeed, gallants were as proud of their
jewelled boxes of amber, porcelain, ebony and agate as they
were of their flowing wigs and clouded canes, the handles of
which were not unfrequently constructed to hold the
cherished dust. We are told by courtly Dick Steel, that a
handsome snuff-box was as much an essential of 'the fine
gentleman' as his gilt chariot, diamond ring, and brocade
sword-knot. We know them to have been manufactured of the
costliest material, heavy with gold and brilliant with
jewels, as they needed to be when their masters carried wigs
'high on the shoulder in a basket borne,' worth forty or
fifty guineas, and wore enough Flanders lace upon their
persons to have stocked a milliner's stall in New England.

"Unfortunately, but very naturally, this extravagance
rendered snuff a butt for the wits (who all took it, by the
way), to shoot at. Steele, whose weakness for dress and show
were proverbial, levelled many of his blunt shafts at its
use; and Pope, who himself tells us 'of his wig all powder
and all snuff his band,' let fly one of his keener arrows at
the beaux, whose wit lay in their snuff-boxes and tweezer
cases. As the men laid by, in the Georgian era, much of the
magnificence of their attire, so their snuff-boxes became
plainer and decidedly uglier. Rushing into an opposite
extreme, the most outrageous receptacles for the precious
dust were devised. Boxes in the shape of bibles, boots,
shoes, toads, and coffins outraged public taste. The
strangest materials were used in their construction; the
public taste leaning towards relics possessing historical
interest. Thus the mulberry tree planted by Shakespeare, the
hull of the Royal George, in which 'brave Kempenfelt went
down, with twice four hundred men,' and the deck of the
Victory, on which Nelson died 'for England, home, and
beauty,' have alone been supposed to supply material for
snuff-boxes to an extent which, if known, must considerably
weaken the faith of their possessors in their genuineness.

"Nor has snuff itself been less liable to the rule of
fashion than the boxes that held it. We will give a few
familiar instances. In the naval engagement of Viga, in
1703, when a large Spanish fleet was taken or destroyed, a
great quantity of musty snuff was made prize of, and
patriotism ran high enough to cause the 'town' for some
length of time to resist all that was not manufactured to
imitate the flavor from which it took its well-known name of
'musty.' Nearer to our own time, a large tobacco warehouse
having been destroyed by fire, in Dublin, a poor man
purchased some of the scorched or damaged stock, and
manufacturing it into coarse snuff, sold it to the poorer
class of snuff-takers. Forthwith capricious fashion adopted
it, endowing it with fabulous qualities, and Lundy Foot's
Irish Black-guard (so it was termed) filled the most
fashionable boxes.

"Again, during the Peninsular campaigns, in which the light
division of the British army bore so memorable a part, the
mixture used by and called after its gallant leader, General
Sir. Amos Norcott, had a more extensive sale than any other.
When Napoleon was at Elba, and folks began to tire of
legitimacy, as they soon did, it became fashionable to use
snuff scented with the spirit of violet, and significantly
to allude to the perfume. Garrick, when he was manager of
Drury Lane Theatre, brought a mixture into fashion by using
or alluding to it in one of his most famous parts. The
tobacconist whom he thus favored was his under-treasurer,
Hardham, whom no writer about snuff should omit to notice.
He was a great favorite with Garrick, whom in his turn he
almost revered. One of Hardham's most important duties was
to number the house from a hole in the curtain above the
stage; and it is amusing to fancy the little tobacconist,
snuff-box in hand, calmly watching the pit fill, or from his
elevated position admiring the histrionic talents of his
gifted patron. His shop in Fleet street is also memorable.
It was the general resort of theatrical men and tyros, who
sought to reach the manager through his subordinates, and
his little back parlor witnessed the _début_ of many who
afterwards gained applause from larger, though not more
exacting audiences.

"Her Majesty Queen Charlotte has bequeathed her name to a
once favorite mixture, and George the Fourth has some slight
chance of being remembered by the famous 'Prince's Mixture,'
which was so popular when it was the fashion to admire and
imitate that gifted individual. It would be a grateful but
almost an impossible task to enumerate the kings, soldiers,
lawyers, poets and actors who had sought from and found in
the snuff-box comfort and inspiration. Prominent among the
rulers of the earth who have acknowledged the pleasing
influence of snuff is Frederick the Great. His snuff-box was
the pocket of the long waistcoats of that period, in which
he kept large quantities loose--a dirty habit, which
Napoleon, who was a great plagiarist, adopted. It would be
easy to draw out a famous list of literary names attached to
snuff, beginning with Dryden, who was particular enough to
manufacture his own mixture, and selfish enough to preserve
the secret of its excellence, with a view, probably, of
enhancing the value of the pinch from his box, for which the
beaux and wits at Will's intrigued.

"In the pulpit, at the bar, and on the stage, snuff has been
equally valuable in adding to the persuasive eloquence and
talent of its patrons. By the female portion of human-kind
it was at one time pretty generally taken, nor was it
uncommon for young and even pretty women to offer and accept
a pinch in public. After the gentle sex had to a great
extent given up the habit, some strong minded females were
to be found who retained it. Mrs. Siddons, when she came off
the stage after dying hard, as Desdemona, or harrowing the
hearts of her audience by her representation of Jane Shore,
could composedly ask those around for a pinch of the
precious restorative. When we consider the beneficial
influence which snuff has exerted over mankind generally, we
cannot help regretting that its virtues were not sooner
known.

"For we put forth the proposition seriously, that its effect
upon the world has been to render it more humane and
even-tempered, and that had the western hemisphere
discovered the tobacco plant earlier, historians would have
had more pleasant events to chronicle. For instance, it is
not impossible--nay, most probable--that the fate of Rome,
discussed by the Triumvirate over their snuff-boxes, would
have been different. Is it likely that, under the humanizing
influence of mutual pinches, Antony would have asked for, or
Augustus resigned, the head of Cicero to his bloodthirsty
colleague; or that the other details of the conscription
which deluged the streets of Rome with the blood of her best
citizens, would have been agreed to? Again, can any one
imagine Charles the Ninth and his evil counsellors plotting
the massacre of St. Bartholomew over pinches of the soothing
dust? Is it probable that the High Court of Justiciary would
have entitled its royal martyr to a special service in the
Book of Common Prayer, if its deliberation had been inspired
by the kindly snuff which since that time has so often
softened the rigor of the law? My hypothesis may seem an
absurd one, but history supports it.

"When Charles the Second introduced snuff into general use,
men's hands had scarcely adapted themselves to more
peaceable occupations than cutting their neighbors' throats,
and the ashes of a long and bitter civil war needed little
fanning to break into a blaze again; and yet, for forty
years of misgovernment the nation kept its temper. How can
this forbearance be accounted for? Was it that circumstances
no longer called for as stern and as effectual remedies as
before? No. Was the second Charles one whit more desirable
than the first of that ilk? Was Clarendon more liked than
Stafford? Was Russell's head of less consequence than
Prynne's ears? No. Again, wrongs as grievous as those which
Hampden had died in resisting were to be avenged, but in a
milder, better fashion; for mankind had in the meantime
learned to take snuff. Much of the haste and irritation
which had previously led to blows discharged itself in a
good-natured sneeze. Snuff made men forbearing, even jocular
over their wrongs. Who can doubt that the revolution which
ended in placing William of Orange on his father-in-law's
throne owed its bloodless character not a little to the
influence of snuff. We read of difficulties in its course,
which, fifty years previously, would inevitably have led to
bloodshed, being easily, almost humorously surmounted. The
plagued nation effected a revolution over its snuff-boxes in
the happiest conceivable manner.

"Having ventured so far I am inclined to put forward a yet
higher claim which snuff has upon our gratitude, and to hint
that the great deeds of great men who were snuff-takers may
be traced by a chain of reasoning--slight, yet
conclusive--to this dearly prized luxury. The hackneyed
saying that time is money, or money's worth, has more truth
in it than most of the fallacies which are supposed to
regulate our conduct. The most important events of our lives
often hinge on moments. A moment to stifle passion, to
summon reflection, to plunge into the past and bring up a
buried memory, to consider results, is often of the utmost
consequence, and this valued moment the pinch of snuff
insures, when, without it, delay would be simply
embarrassment. The pinch of snuff, taken at the right
instant, secures an important reprieve, during which the
unpleasant question may be evaded, the hasty reply
reconsidered, or an angry _repartee_ thought better of,
while the same time gained serves to improve the
diplomatist's _equivoque_, to point the orator's satire, and
polish the wit's _mot_. In a word, its use on important
occasions affords, to every one who needs them, better means
of acting upon Talleyrand's mischievous yet clever
aphorism--that language is useful rather to conceal than to
express our thoughts. Moreover, the action necessary in
conveying the tempting graces to their destination has not
unfrequently been found useful. It employs the hasty hand
that may itch to take illegal vengeance for fancied insults;
it serves to hide the angry twitching mouth and passionately
expanding nostrils, to give a natural expression to changes
of the countenance which would otherwise indicate emotion,
and to parry attention till reason has been summoned to
supplant passion.

"It is denied (in a rather irritating way sometimes) that
the subject of our article has any beneficial influence upon
the intellects of its patrons. We are not about to claim for
it any such exalted qualities, but we may be allowed to
mention a fact or so which entitles it to some respect
medicinally. As we have before stated, in its early days it
was considered to possess powerful healing qualities, and
even now is found of use in cases of headache and weak
sight. It was also supposed valuable in cases of heaviness
and obtuseness of intellect. Is it, therefore unreasonable
to presume that it may have had some share in gaining for
our brethren beyond the Tweed that shrewdness of national
character which has become proverbial?

"The specimens which came in the reign of James I.,
southward, did not command much respect or admiration from
our countrymen; indeed they were the bulls at which every
satirist hurled his shafts, and blunt must have been that
one which did not pierce some potent folly of language or
manner. The town rang with anecdotes of their rags, beggary,
and quarrels; ballad-singers made merry at their expense,
and the stage resounded with uncomplimentary allusions.
Indeed, in one of the most popular plays of that period, the
king himself was not spared, and the actors (Ben Jonson
among them) had very nearly lost their ears for their
boldness. Nor was it at least for a hundred and fifty years
after this period that the Scotch became noted for that
enterprise and talent which now distinguish them.

"We do not deny that the union may have developed their
traits, but it is clear that within that time snuff had
become a national stimulant. To the observer of men and
manners there is something very characteristic in the
various fashions in which the pinch of snuff is taken. 'The
exercise of the snuff-box,' as it was once termed, was an
acknowledged science, but few were the great proficients who
could mutely express their feelings by its aid. We have not
space to run through all its exercise, but we may mention
the 'pinch military,' which Frederick, and after him,
Napoleon practiced inhaling snuff copiously, and with much
waste, as though it were human life they were throwing away;
the 'pinch malicious,' of which Pope was perfect master; the
'pinch dictatorial,' which burly Jonson established; the
'pinch sublimely contemptuous,' such as Reynolds took when
some travelling virtuoso hinted at excellence away from
Leicester-square, and ruffled his complacent vanity; and,
above all, the 'pinch polite,' which Talleyrand understood
so well.

"From snuff to sneezing is but a step, which we purpose
taking before we bring this cursory article to a close. The
act of sneezing appears to have been variously regarded at
various stages of the world's history, but from the earliest
times of which we have any authentic record, it has been the
customs of those around to give vent to a short benediction
immediately upon its commission. The Robbins considering
themselves bound to find a reason for this universal custom,
and being hard pressed, gave the somewhat incomprehensible
explanation that, previous to Jacob, man sneezed but once in
his lifetime, and then immediately before death; so that
those around, warned of his imminent journey, hastened to
wish it a good termination. How it was that Jacob instituted
a new order of things we are not told, but as a proof of the
truth of their assertion they give the fact that in all
nations of the earth a similar custom will be found
existing.

"Strangely enough this assertion was corroborated by the
first colonists of America, who found the habit to be in
common use amongst the aboriginal tribes. The Greeks and
Romans certainly had a similar habit, but far from attaching
any ill-omen to the sneeze they regarded it as of good
augury. Thus Catullus assures us that when Cupid upon a
memorable occasion sneezed, all:

'The little loves that waited by
Bowed and blessed the augury.

And in the 'Life of Themistocles,' Plutarch informs his
readers that sneezing by the General on the eve of a battle
was regarded as a certain sign of conquest. Strangely enough
we find that in comparatively modern times, the custom of
giving expression to good wishes when a friend sneezed was
attributed to the fearful plague which periodically swept
over Europe. Sneezing was one of its first and most
dangerous symptoms, and those who were by, as they gathered
their robes about them and fled from their doomed
fellow-creature, would ejaculate a quick 'God bless you,'
hurriedly invoking from a more merciful quarter the aid they
feared to give. Violent sneezing was not only among the
first, but was one of the last fatal signs of that fearful
scourge, and was often too rapidly followed by death to give
time for more than a short benediction. Anyhow, the custom
still exists and one of the most pleasant reminiscences
attached to the first pinch of snuff is the chorus of hearty
good wishes of sympathizing friends which follows upon the
inevitable sneeze."

The variety of taste in snuff is accounted for by the proverb, "So many men to so many noses." Highland gentlemen of every degree are mostly fond of Gillespie; while operatives from the Lowlands generally prefer plain Scotch. When two Highlanders meet, they usually exchange a pinch of snuff, mutually _preeing_ the contents of their _mulls_, while their _colleys_, (dogs) after a fashion of their own, take a reciprocal _sniff_ of each other. Cuba is the favorite of the gentlemen of the stock exchange; the tradesman's box usually contains rappee; high dried Irish is grateful to those who love to feel the taste of snuff in their throat. Sea-faring men seldom take snuff: a sailor with a snuff-box is as rarely to be met with as a sailor without a knife.

The history of the rise and progress of snuff-taking abounds in incidents and anecdotes, among the most curious of all that relate to the various modes of using the weed. Though once the most popular and fashionable manner of using tobacco it now falls far behind the other and more common and more popular forms of indulging in the herb. In France and Spain the introduction of tobacco ushered in this form of using it, and to inhale a few grains of the pungent dust was the delight of polished and favored courtiers who regardless of the forms royalty patronized and gave sanction to the custom. Thus its use in a short time became popular all over Europe and gave unlimited scope for the satirist and dramatist to ridicule the habit. In spite, however, of frown and ridicule this ancient custom though not now as popular or as fashionable, still claims many sincere votaries and doubtless will as long as the plant is cultivated or used in any form.