one old
snuff-maker in London, who had acquired a handsome fortune
and retired from business, that he made it a consideration
with his successors that he should be allowed, so long as he
lived, to attend one day in the week at the business and
flavor all the snuff. Most people will also be familiar with
some one of the numerous versions of the origin of the once
famous Lundy Foote Snuff, better known as 'Irish
Blackguard.'

"The excise are very rigid in their laws for regulating the
manufacture of snuff; and with the exception of a little
common salt, which is added to make the tobacco keep, and
alkalies for bringing out the flavor, nothing is allowed to
be used but a few essential oils. And here we must digress
for a moment to correct a popular error, viz., that snuff
contains ground glass, put there for titillating purposes.
What appears to be ground glass is only the little crystals
or small particles of alkali that have not been dissolved.
So that fastidious snuff-takers may dismiss this bugbear at
once and forever.

"The essential oils referred to form a very expensive item
to the manufacture of snuff. The ladies would be much
surprised to see a dusty snuff-maker drain off five pounds'
worth of pure unadulterated otto-of-roses into a tin can,
and as they (the ladies) would suppose, throw it away on a
heap of what would appear to them rubbishy dust in one
corner of the snuff-room. Of course the ladies would
consider the proper place for it to be on the cambric
handkerchief, but this idea would be about the last to occur
to your matter-of-fact snuff-maker.

[Illustration: Perfuming snuff.]

"In addition to otto-of-roses, the scent-room contains great
jars of essence of lemon, French geranium, verbena, oil of
pimento, bergamotte, etc., all of which are used in the
various flavoring combinations. There would most likely also
be a few hundred-weight of fine Tonquin beans, and one of
these beans is generally presented to any visitor who drops
in, as souvenir to carry away in his waistcoat pocket. Snuff
is very extensively used in the mills and factories of
Lancashire. Those who toil long in heated and noisy mills
seem to require, and doubtless do require, tobacco in some
shape or other to keep them from flagging; an