I am new to this site so don’t know if this has been posted before but some of you may like this the bit about ladies made me giggle as I know we have some lady members http://www.everything2.org/node/1841642

Written by a chap called Steinmetz in the early 1800’s for a very different world.

Ha I do realize it was old but it is good for a laugh

Haha - “Close snuffbox with a flourish.”

I like the ‘present the box to the company’ bit, There are a couple of variants of this; one says that a true snuffer only uses a large wooden box that he flourishes around and closes with a crash and that he takes the pinch with all the joy of a rustic giving his girl a kiss! Fabulous.

The bit about the double barrelled snuff pistol surprised me… invented as far back as 1820. I assumed using gadgets for snuff taking was a more recent thing.

Ive got a picure of a snuff gun in an old book; the gun was made of glass and a tiny percussion cap affair powered the snuff up the nose.

Sounds painful to me. It must have been one hell of a nicotine hit though. Imagine using dholakia white in that.

Yes, it’s from Andrew Steinmetz’s fine book: “Tobacco: its history, cultivation, manufacture, and adulterations” (1857) Avialable as pdf here: http://www.top25snuff.com/en/documents.html