ho
beats the red-hot horse-shoe on the anvil in a smithy; but
even there we designate 'artisans,' and 'artists' may come
next. So, hey! for the art of coloring pipes!

[Illustration: Pipe colorer.]

"It may not be denied that there is beauty in a well-colored
meerschaum; but in the admission lies the contradiction of
Keats' well-known line--

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever."

For, your meerschaum is a fragile thing, and eminently
frangible. This present writer once did see four beauties
break within a single moon. And when they break, what
previous joy of coloring can over-top the sorrow of their
dire destruction? It is a singular difficulty in the way of
those who most desire to beautify utility or utilize the
beautiful, or show that beauty is most lovely when made
practical, that these artistic colorers of pipes are always
those who make least use of Tobacco, save for the immediate
purpose of obtaining the clay in which it is smoked. Ask
such an artist why he smokes, and he will scarcely tell you.
His best reason certainly will be, that others smoke, and,
as a custom, it becomes him. And when you find an ardent
smoker--one who smokes because he likes Tobacco for itself,
or finds it useful--who spends his time in tinting pipes,
you will have found a _rara avis_, or a monstrosity. Apart
from taste, there are some practical objections to this
custom of coloring pipes. Smoking, to be worthy, should be
free and unrestrained; while he who colors his pipe is tied
by system and confined to rule.

"A pipe to be enjoyable, should be its master's slave; but
he who keeps a 'well-colored' pipe is slave thereto. He
cannot smoke it as, or when, or where he will. He must not
smoke it in a draught, or near a fire; he must not lay it
down, or finger it; he must not puff too fast, nor yet too
slow. In short, he is the creature of this 'Joss'--this
home-made deity--to which he bows down and worships. The
pipe-colorers are the Sabbatarians of smoking. Whereas, the
pipe was made for man, they treat man as made for the pipe.
And thus, as in all cases where the cart is expected to draw
the horse, the economy of nature is reversed, and mischief
is evolved."

[Illustration: German porcelain pipes.]

Dibdin, in his "Tour in France