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118

DOMESTIO MANNEBS OF THE PRUSSIANS.

may be seen in the corner of the state apartments; and atRheinstein (the Rhenish residence of one of the Princes Royal)the Chambers reek of stale tohacco-smoke like a taproom.

True, the custom of smoking has not yet been introducedinto the churches, though it certainly has found its way intomiddle-class ball-rooms, for at the Bertrieb, baths we sawseveral gentlemen smoking while the ladies danced. Smoking

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in bed, again, is a common custom; and in the window ofevery pipe-shop you may see wire cages, made for indulging inthe beastly habit without fear of setting the clothes on fire.Children of ten years old smoke (though the natives declarethere is a law against youths indulging in the habit underfburteen years of age), and greybeards, too, of eighty; thusshowing you that the practice is older than the present gene-ration. Indeed, the first breath an infant draws on enteringthe German world is sure to be three-parts tobaeco-smoke,and the last gasp a man gives for air, fetches only the fumesof Dutcli k'naster in return. Not a German sitting-room butreeks of tobaeco-oil like a pothouse in the morning; youcatch the same stench, too, in the women's hair as they sitbeside you at dinner; and the public newspapers smell of itas strongly as a bit of sea-weed does of the beach; whilst if youreeeive a letter from a German family, you require to deodorizeit before it is readable.

Nor should innocent Engländers imagine that the odourof the weed which the Prussians delight to inhale is equal evento that of our penny " Pickwicks," for the best German Ha-vannas are grown and dried in Holland, and sold at the rateof three a-penny; whilst those of a commoner kind may be hadas low as four for a halfpenny: so that even our full-flavouredrhubarb cheroots are positive nosegays to the finest Dutchcabanas.