Snuff is actually a finely powered form of tobacco. It can still be
purchased in a variety of containers in a variety of flavors. If you see
old photographs of women where they look like they have a toothpick in the
mouth, it is usually a willow twig where the end had been chewed into a
fine brush and dipped into a snuff bottle then placed between the gums and
cheek. Willow was often planted at early house sites because of it's
medicinal properties - kinda like aspirin. Snuff was also widely used in
France, Belgium and Asia with occasional use in lots of other places. The
French used small fancy boxes of any conceivable material and construction
to hold it. A small pinch was placed in the hollow on the back of the hand
in the web between thumb and forefinger and then snorted :-). In Arkansas,
one can find more kinds of snuff in a regular grocery store than one can
find in a full service tobacco store in the rest of the country.
In Asia, snuff "bottles" were small with tiny openings and the stopper had
a small stick sometimes with a flattened or hollow cuplike end. A small
bit was scooped out with the stick and snorted (love that word) into each
nostril. The collecting of Asian snuff bottle is a widespread field today
and the originals are often worth big bucks. If they do not have a scoop
or stick attached to the cap, it is a modern made copy for the modern
collecting market.
Anyway, granulated tobacco like Copenhagen or Skol is referred to as
"Snoose" in ranch country but modern usage calls it snuff since it is also
put between the cheek and gums. It is never snorted like snuff. It really
became popular post WWII when the US government took out the brass
spittoons in all Federal buildings in 1946 or so. It started out as the
floor sweepings at tobacco factories and has evolved into flavorful product
we see today.
Snuff said.
Smoke.
Smoke (Michael A.) Pfeiffer, RPA
Ozark-St. Francis National Forests
605 West Main Street
Russellville, Arkansas 72801
(479) 968-2354 Ext. 233
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
[log in to unmask]
CE.ARMY.MIL To: [log in to unmask]
Sent by: HISTORICAL cc:
ARCHAEOLOGY Subject: Re: "PLUG" Tobacco Tins
<[log in to unmask]>
04/17/2003 09:44 AM
Please respond to
HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
What about snuff instead of smoke, Smoke? Is snuff just pulverized leaves?
Was it favored by the upper classes as some movies would have us believe?
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Pfeiffer [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2003 9:59 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: "PLUG" Tobacco Tins
I will try and make a complicated subject coherent. Every little store
that sold tobacco would have a "tobacco cutter". This was a nifty little
device like a guillotine. Used by some graduate students in their less
lucid moments to terrify hamster's. These stores also had large "store
tins" of tobacco that were approximately the size of a bread box. They
were filled with chunks of tobacco that looked like dimensional lumber.
The most common sizes appear to be about 3-4 inches wide, an inch thick,
and about a foot long (sorry about not using metric). The tobacco cutters
almost always had small marks along the base and one could buy it by the
sixteenth of an inch, eighth of an inch, quarter inch, larger increments or
a whole foot (or an increment in between). The tobacco could be used for
"chaw" or smoking.
A slice of about 1/16 of an inch was considered a single pipe bowl full.
One could still purchase a "pocket" tin of slices in the 1970s. I believe
the brand was "Edgeworth". For smoking, the slice would be rubbed in the
hand until the desired size had been achieved and then placed into the
pipe. Another FUN tobacco type is "Ready Rubbed". This is tobacco
sliced from plugs and mechanically "rubbed" so the consumer does not have
to do it. What a convenient!
Tobacco has always been made primarily for smoking. Both plug and twist
tobacco have always been used for both smoking and chewing. Chewing
tobacco is strictly American and you won't normally find it for sale
outside the US unless you are at the Calgary Stampede or a shop- that
caterers to Americans. I know the history of chewing tobacco goes back to
at least the early 1700s. In the best American make-a-buck spirit, some
tobacco was manufactured fairly early with flavorings for folks who chewed
tobacco.
So twist, plug, cut plug and plug slice always equals smoking! However,
ALL smoking tobacco could be chewed. I have know tobacco chewers who will
chew cigars if nothing else is available. SOME twist and plug tobacco was
manufactured specifically for chewing.
Does this help?
Smoke.
Smoke (Michael A.) Pfeiffer, RPA
Ozark-St. Francis National Forests
605 West Main Street
Russellville, Arkansas 72801
(479) 968-2354 Ext. 233
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
Robin Mills
<Robin_Mills@blm To: [log in to unmask]
.gov> cc:
Sent by: Subject: "PLUG" Tobacco Tins
HISTORICAL
ARCHAEOLOGY
<[log in to unmask]
u>
04/16/2003 07:17
PM
Please respond
to HISTORICAL
ARCHAEOLOGY
HISTARCH members,
I used to assume that tobacco tins with the word "PLUG" on them, in their
lithography, meant that the tin contained chewing tobacco.
A very well preserved EDGEWORTH EXTRA HIGH GRADE PLUG SLICE tobacco tin has
come to light from a recent excavation with lithography on the inside of
the lid, something I'd never found before. It clearly identified the
contents for EITHER smoking OR chew.
Other examples of brands I've excavated with "plug" identified in the
lithography include: J.G. DILL'S BEST CUT PLUG, LUCKY STRIKE CUT PLUG, and
J. G. DILL'S BEST CUBE CUT PLUG.
Question: Is my original assumption clearly wrong ("plug" = "chew")? Is
"Plug Slice" = smoking or chew, and "Cut Plug" = chew?
Any advice or insightful comments would be appreciated.
Best,
Robin
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