A CIGAR IN A TIGHT PLACE.
(To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR ,—Whyte-MElville was not alone in having recourse to tobacco " when he faced a difficult country." I was told 1.4 a trooper of the 3rd Light Dragoons, as they were in the Crimea, who rode in " The Balaclava Charge," starting alongside Lord George Paget, the leader of two regiments following in support of Lord Cardigan, that " his Lordship went in smoking a big cigar." He naively added, " quite contrary to regulations."—I am, Sir, &c., Stonchanger, Salcombe, S. Devon. LIONEL B. WELLS.
[Some "curious impertinents " believe that the virtue is not in the cigar, but in the act of sucking. Sucking raises the blood- pressure, and so gives a sense of well-being. Hence gum-chewing. The desire to suck something when ono is engaged in deep thought, or taking action that calls for great concentration of mind, must have been noticed by many people. In, battle Marshal Saxe always sucked a lead bullet! Hence also tobacco- chewing and baby-soothers. Sir Thomas Browne would probably have said that we commemorated our nativities by the at of suction. What "My Father" in Tristram Shandy would have had to say on the subject we tremble to think. In any case, gum- sucking has come to stay. Our troops are taking to it already, and our alliance with America will make it virtually compulsory. --ED. Spectator.]
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