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| MAKING CLAY PIPES, DROGHEDA. -It is difficult to account for even ordinary human taste, or acquirement of habit. Tobacco, in itself, is a somewhat disgusting weed, and, no doubt, its narcotic properties have more or less evil influence on the human system, unless smoking is moderately indulged in. As for chewing, that vile habit should be considered outside the pale of civilization. No human being, of any pretensions to decency, would think of revealing the coarseness of his appetites in public, at least. But, if people will smoke, it is only proper that smoking tools should be provided for them. The cigar is not popular in Ireland, and neither, except among the city dudes, is the cigarette. The meerschaum is too costly for the ordinary smoker and there has to be on sale something that the poorest can purchase. The clay pipe meets this requirement. In general, the shank is curtailed by the rural purchaser, until the bowl almost touches the lips, and then it is called in the Irish vernacular, a "dudeen." Nothing so consoles the laboring Irishman as "a blast of the pipe" before and after meals, and more particularly at bed time. His dreams follow the smoke in its aerial flight, and, behind the dudeen, his woes are forgotten and all his hope revive. Drogheda is celebrated for the manufacture of clay pipes and the sketch represents a large collection of the articles, immediately after they have been fashioned by the artificer. The man in the straw hat is evidently quite interested in the examination of a "dudeen." |
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