I was thinking about the old timers and wondered if it was common practice to inhale 50, 100 or 150 years ago or did they just puff on them like we do today?
General Grant was said to have smoked up to 12 cigars a day...Yikes! Freud was said to have smoked upwards to 20 per day and both of these gentlemen acquired cancer from this vice...I can see why at that rate. Since Grant was always pictured with a cigar people use to send him boxes of the choicest of cigars in that time and he received around 10,000 of them...so many that he started to give them away but he kept the best of the best to enjoy for himself.
While indulging their vice it was said that most men who smoked cigars during that time would inhale because the medical analysis of smoking cigars/cigarettes had not yet been documented as something to be afraid of and most men inhaled it as a matter of routine. I'd think because of this inhalation of that many per day probably caused their demise but Freud was like 82 or 83 when he died..so for smoking so many each day he probably beat all of the odds. Oh, it was the reason he coined the phrase of ...."Sometimes Gentlemen a cigar is just a cigar"....his colleagues would tease him about the cigars taking on a phallic symbolism as Sigmund was used to talking about the interplay of sex in peoples lives.
General Grant was said to have smoked up to 12 cigars a day...Yikes! Freud was said to have smoked upwards to 20 per day and both of these gentlemen acquired cancer from this vice...I can see why at that rate. Since Grant was always pictured with a cigar people use to send him boxes of the choicest of cigars in that time and he received around 10,000 of them...so many that he started to give them away but he kept the best of the best to enjoy for himself.
While indulging their vice it was said that most men who smoked cigars during that time would inhale because the medical analysis of smoking cigars/cigarettes had not yet been documented as something to be afraid of and most men inhaled it as a matter of routine. I'd think because of this inhalation of that many per day probably caused their demise but Freud was like 82 or 83 when he died..so for smoking so many each day he probably beat all of the odds. Oh, it was the reason he coined the phrase of ...."Sometimes Gentlemen a cigar is just a cigar"....his colleagues would tease him about the cigars taking on a phallic symbolism as Sigmund was used to talking about the interplay of sex in peoples lives.
I think it's worth adding that Freud also used cocaine quite frequently. Mark Twain's autobiography contains some interesting cigar stories from him. One of his biographers has remarked that Twain admitted to smoking "about 20" cigars a day, then adds that his family insists it was probably more like 40, but, that may have just been how it seemed to them. He stated that he'd find a cigar he liked, "for about 4 - 6 cents each, if they cost more I start to get suspicious", then he'd "buy them by the barrel." I don't know what size barrel he meant. Could be quite a number.
I was reading up on Twain myself as I was pondering this question yesterday and I learned that he preferred cheap cigars and seemed to develop this preference as a youth when he started smoking whatever he could get his hands on.
Yep...some of the manufacturers will sell this type of thing to help market a cigar...I have a few of them lying around and they look pretty cool. It's fun to poke around in history as far as reading up on cigars as I was gifted a book about 20 years ago on this very subject and once you've read it it makes you appreciate that rolled up piece of tobacco like you never have. The history of the families that made this their life long passion is amazing and being able to produce something that others get a real joy from has got to be very rewarding. The Padron and Fuente families are obviously richer than most 3rd world countries but the tiime and passion they put into their business you just have to be impressed.
That's what I thought until I did more research...there were plenty of people who documented that these guys smoked a lot of cigar and in some instances some said they had actually smoked more. If I smoke more than 2 my tongue feels like sandpaper.
That's what I thought until I did more research...there were plenty of people who documented that these guys smoked a lot of cigar and in some instances some said they had actually smoked more. If I smoke more than 2 my tongue feels like sandpaper.
yep, this is all pretty well documented by reporters, associates, friends and family.
Comments