Tag: Snuff

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Snuff seizure – Galway – 1859

Posted on by The Burren and Beyond

Irish Examiner 2nd December, 1859 p.4    (abridged)

Schnupfer Creative Commons
Schnupfer
Creative Commons

A large seizure of snuff was made on board the steamer Jason yesterday, which arrived from New York on Friday last. There were ten casks altogether, and a great deal of ingenuity was exercised in the packing, so as to make the casks have the appearance of containing flour. On closer examination it was found that a long pipe was passed through the centre of the barrel at the head, the end of which opened immediately below the bung hole. This pipe was filled with flour, so that on taking out the bung, nothing but flour was visible.

The ten casks which were entered as flour, and consigned to a person in this county, were immediately seized and conveyed to the Custom house. The gross weight of the snuff is one ton. It will be in the recollection of your readers that on the last voyage of the Jason 12cwt. of tobacco was seized and one of the parties implicated in the transaction is at present undergoing six month’s imprisonment, the other having paid the sum of £150. The persons who are connected with the present case will be tried in Galway but the exact time is not yet known.

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The Great Leveller – 1853

Posted on by The Burren and Beyond
Fred Ott's Sneeze (film by William K.L. Dickson for the Edison laboratory) 1894 Wikimedia Commons
Fred Ott’s Sneeze (film by William K.L. Dickson for the Edison laboratory)
1894
Wikimedia Commons

The Brooklyn Daily 12th March 1853

 

(abridged)

It’s curious how one snuff-taker will pick out another.  Place two snuff takers in the most crowded room, and before ten minutes are over they will have found out each other and be in earnest conversation together.

A snuff-box is an opening for conversation between two persons, who, without it, would not probably have exchanged a single word.  The English, who are generally so punctilious about introductions, cheerfully dispense with the ceremony if a stranger only advance with a snuff-box in hand.

There is a Freemasonry in snuff taking not enjoyed by the worshippers of any other social vice.  Gamblers are necessarily discontented, scowling, suspicious people.  Smokers are generally dreamers, wandering in the clouds which they themselves have blown.  Drinkers are surly, quarrelsome creatures, who fling insults and bottles about.  But snuff takers are invariably open, communicative souls, who associate with one another all over the world.

Snuff is a great leveller.