ion_. Brandy I should hardly reckon amongst the
drinks that ought to be with cigars, notwithstanding that
Tennyson has asked:--

'For what delights can equal those
Which stir, with spirits, inner depths? &c.'

Brandy-and-water, gin, whisky, and the likes are only fit
for those who nocturnally lay the foundation for matutinal
'hot coppers,' with the vilest shag in the most odorous of
yards of clay. 'Smoking leads to drinking,' has been a
favorite old woman's saying for time out of mind. How I hate
old women's sayings! A grain--requiring to be picked out
with a pin and microscope--of truth, with a bushel of bunkum
or cant. How is it, that ever since the days of James I, of
'hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain' memory, there
have always been carpers on the injurious effects of
smoking? 'Nicotine!' they say, with a
would-be-taken-for-know-all-about-it-air. Quite so; but, as
recent investigations have proved that, so far as the actual
'poisoning' is concerned, it would take upwards of a
thousand years to kill the most inveterate of healthy
smokers, we have still time to breathe--and 'it please the
pigs.' _Mem._ for pipers--French tobacco contains the
greatest, Turkish the least, per-centage of nicotine.
Havana, two and one-half per cent.

"But an unique old woman of Jehu's acquaintance goes further
still; boldly asserting that 'smoking is well for making
good soldiers, well for making good sailors, well for making
sometimes good lawyers; not so well for making good
Christians.' Oh! ashes of Hawkins and Raleigh, shudder for
the results of 'baccy on degraded human nature.' There must
be a rarity of good Christians, then amongst the parsons;
they are all fond of it. Dean Aldrich was, perhaps, tho
greatest smoker of his day. His excessive attachment to this
habit was the cause of many wagers. Here's one:--At
breakfast, one morning, at the 'Varsity, an undergraduate
laid his companion long odds that the Dean was smoking at
that instant. Away they hastened; and, being admitted to the
Dean's study, stated the occasion of their visit. The Dean
replied, in perfect good humor, to the layer of the bet,
'You see, sir, you have lost your wager; for I am not
smoking, but filling my pipe.' But--my cigar has reached its