Smoking in 1880s

[Sleuth1888]

I perceive smoking today to be fairly socially unacceptable and one of the most disgusting habits anyone could entertain, with this in mind I'm interested in finding out how popular smoking was in the 1880s in comparison to today and the height of smoking in the 1950s and 1960s

[GUT]

I perceive smoking today to be fairly socially unacceptable and one of the most disgusting habits anyone could entertain, with this in mind I'm interested in finding out how popular smoking was in the 1880s in comparison to today and the height of smoking in the 1950s and 1960s

Very.

[DJA]

Yep,very popular. Major industry.
More so after James Albert Bonsack invented the cigarette rolling machine in 1880.
When searching the 1881 Census,you'll often find cigar rollers (and diamond cutters) in "Whitechapel".

America was pretty much founded on tobacco.

[Errata]

I perceive smoking today to be fairly socially unacceptable and one of the most disgusting habits anyone could entertain, with this in mind I'm interested in finding out how popular smoking was in the 1880s in comparison to today and the height of smoking in the 1950s and 1960s

It's full in some circles, totally acceptable even expected in others. It's an odd thing, and I say that as a smoker. I worked at a place where by day I was given dirty looks and as soon as the sun set I was everyone's savior since I clearly had cigarettes.

Back in the 1880s Jews were suspicious of smoking, and I don't know why though it's a suspicion that actually lingers into my grandparent's generation. Like they think it makes you a bad person. And I know that was the case in the 1880s because there's family stories stretching back to the Pale about how people who smoked turned to a life of crime. It's like Reefer Madness. Artists broke out first, then rebellious youth, then the population at large, but it took a very long time. Very. And I can't for the life of me think why, other than it was unlikely that any Jew could afford to smoke, so it was seen as other.

[DJA]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO1nCuVQIeg&list=RDkO1nCuVQIeg#t=66

[Rosella]

There was a little discussion about it here on Casebook years ago.

http://forum.casebook.org/archive/index.php/t-5352.html

I tend to agree with one poster who stated there that working men smoked pipes more than cigarettes in the 19th century, while the middle classes and above quite liked cigars as well. It was certainly a big industry though, and one that some people in Whitechapel, including Jewish people would often carry out in their homes.

[GUT]

It wasn't unusual for women to smoke a pipe either.

Basically because then you only needed to but tobacco, and didn't need the free hand and dexterity to roll a cigarette.

[DJA]

Basically because then you only needed to bot tobacco

Fixed.

[Shaggyrand]

People smoked considerably less in 1888. Smokers averaged about the equivalent of 68 cigarettes a year. There were some exceptions but those were mostly among the upper class cigar smokers. All tobacco was relatively expensive, even the cheaper stuff was only cheap comparatively. It was also the year the automatic cigarette rolling machine was invented and began production on a large scale which eventually caused the price for tobacco to plummet. It wasn't until WWI that the rate really jumped and modern smoking habits were established.

[RockySullivan]

Being a pipe smoker I love the references to pipe smoking in the ripper case. Pipeman, the watchman who smoked his pipe, clay pipe Alice, the pipe in Kelly,s room. British pipe tobacco is the tops. I'm always curious about what blend pipeman was smoking in his pipe that night? A Latakia blend? An aromatic? Something like Ogden's St Bruno or rich dark honeydew?

[Pcdunn]

I've always wondered if Sherlock Holmes kept his tobacco in "the toe of a Persian slipper" because he was eccentric, or because everyone did. (I suspect the former-- he was too cheap to buy a proper tobacco pouch!)

My mother's father smoked cigars, while my dad's brother (the military officer) was a pipe smoker; they both were sent outside by my mother to do their smoking when visiting our home.

[Steadmund Brand]

As a regular cigar smoker (at least one a day) I spend quite a lot of time in a cigar shop....every day after work I go for a cigar, and non smokers would be surprised how busy these shops are, a constant stream of people, everyday, not just the same few people either (granted there is a group if regulars who go to enjoy a cigar and the social aspect if it all). And even more surprising to non smokers is the amount of women, but Cigars are a bit different than cigarettes in it tends to be a more social thing, pipes more solitary and cigarette more habit than anything else. But cigars are also a celebratory thing, think about it, graduations, charity events , weddings and even the tradition of giving out cigars when a child is born.....in the States anyway.
I never smoke cigars in my home, however when I was a cigarette smoker I did, and when I smoke a pipe I will in my home, but not cigars.....partially because of the strength of the smoke and damage it would cause, and partially because of the social aspect.....damnit now I want a cigar but am about to start work!!!

Steadmund Brand

[Mayerling]

Apparently there was a debate from the 17th Century onward about the healthiness of smoking. One of the first voices against the habit was King James I of England, who wrote a small pamphlet, calling it a filthy habit. This was interesting as the tobacco crop from the colonies like Virginia in the New World would soon be bringing in thousands of pounds in customs duties to the royal treasury, but one has to hand it to James to point out the danger.

It continued into the 19th Century, when Mark Twain pooh poohed the negative comments in some of his writings - as he was a cigar smoker for a long time. He once commented that the rich Dutch merchants got fatter each year, and smoked more each year, so the habit did not effect them badly. All the same General Grant, a heavy chain smoker of cigars (sorry Steadmund), died of very painful throat cancer in 1885, and President Grover Cleveland (also a heavy smoker) had to have a cancerous growth removed from the roof of his mouth in 1893 at the start of both his administration and a major financial panic. Cleveland had to have a secret operation that summer of 1893 on a friend's yacht, so that the unsuspecting puglic would not become panicked on top of the financial mess. At the same time, his contemporary Rudyard Kipling, would make the well-known line, "A woman is a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke!" But there were negative views as well. The popular fictional "Dime Novel" hero (and fictional gridiron star) "Frank Merriwell" frowned on smoking and warned his friends from smoking the "coffin nails" as he put it. In real life baseball greats Christy Mathewson and Honus Wagner were both opposed to smoking, because (as Mathewson points out in his book, "Pitching in a Pinch") it seriously cuts down on the breathing capacities of the athletes who practice it. Wagner was so opposed to this, that when an enterprising cigarette firm put out a series (around 1909) of picture cards of the major baseball team heroes of the day (the cards were sold in the various cigarette packages), he demanded they stop putting his image on the cards with the other players. They agreed to take his face off the remaining stock, but his picture had been sold a few times - these were treasured by their owners. And treasure they were - Wagner's image on those cards goes for between $300,000 and $1,000,000.00 on today's collectibles circuit becase of their rairity - the rarist of all baseball cards!

In my family my mother smoked until the Surgeon's General report in the
1960s came out. Then she stopped cold turkey - and did not smoke again for the rest of her life (though she still had a slight hacking cough every now and then). Mom once told me, though, not a day went by when she would have love to have smoked a cigarette. My grandfather smoked cigars, "Garcia Vega" his favorite brand. When he died in 1982 he was buried with a small bottle of whisky in one pocket and a box of "Garcia Vega" in the other (my sister and mother making sure of these items being in the coffin). A cousin of mine was a pipe smoker as well as a close high school friend. Both of them have been dead for some long time.

Jeff

[RockySullivan]

I'm not sure if there is anything better than sitting back and smoking a pipe on a rainy day with a hot cup of coffee and a billie holiday record spinning. It beats sex, heroin, everything

[GUT]

I'm not sure if there is anything better than sitting back and smoking a pipe on a rainy day with a hot cup of coffee and a billie holiday record spinning. It beats sex, heroin, everything

I must be smoking wrong if it beats sex.