Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 07.pdf/568



CURRENT TOPICS. Up to Snuff.— Lord Chief Justice Russell certainly is, as we glean from a report in the London " Law Journal " of a meeting of the Hardwicke Society, at which there was a notable attendance of big-wigs. The account says : " During the evening Mr. Edward Atkin, senior member of the committee, made an in formal presentation of a silver snuff-box to the president, as the representative of the society. The box is to be known as 1 the Russell Snuff-box,' and is intended to commemorate the elevation of Lord Rus sell of Killowen to the dignity of Lord Chief-Justice of England. It was subscribed for by members of the society." The president then proposed the health of " Our Guest," the Lord Chief Justice, and invited him " to take the first pinch of snuff from the Russell snuff-box, which his lordship did amid loud cheers." Then his lordship responded felicitously, saying among other things: "The little incident with which the speech of the president concluded peculiarly gratified him. It flattered one of his weaknesses. The days were gone by when a snuff box was considered part of the necessary equipage of a gentleman. The lines —■ ' Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain, And the nice conduct of a clouded cane,' were a relic of the past. Still, the handling of a snuff-box was eminently judicial. It had a soothing effect upon the mind; it was a mode of occupying one's self and distracting one's self when M'Call, and Crump, and Lawson Walton were making their most brilliant points. He really regretted to know that that habit of snuff-taking had fallen almost into com plete desuetude at the Bar. He remembered Sir James Bacon telling him, on one occasion, that when he was a junior, there was not a single man in the court, from the judge on the bench to the usher, who did not carry a snuff-box, and he ended by saying, * Here I am, the only man left with a snuff box.' " Lucky Q. C.'s to be thus named by his lord ship! Good for a great many retainers, one would say, and a much better advertisement than to be

"named"by the Speaker. In speaking of things that had been done by the famous society he said : "It passed resolutions of sympathy with that great Republic of the West whose honored representative was there that night in the presence of his old and highly esteemed friend, Mr. Bayard; and it patted the people of the United States upon the back when they re-elected that distinguished man and great character, Abraham Lincoln, as President of that country." The health of our minister being drunk, Mr. Bayard, "who was most cordially received, re sponded." We and the old folks seem to be growing very chummy. Snuff-taking in this country has fallen into " innocuous desuetude," except in some of the southern States, where the inhabitants practice "snuff-dipping," which consists, we believe, in dip ping a stick in snuff and prodding the gums with it. We doubt that there is a snuff-box on the Supreme Court bench. But it is pleasant to read of these friendly proceedings, and to take snuff with a friend is more agreeable for some than to take a cigar with him; and it is certainly much more cleanly than to take a chew with him. The ability to take snuff without sneezing, however, is probably one of the lost arts. Mr. Moore, in his recent history of " The American Congress," says of a time about three-quarters of a century ago: " It was the custom in both houses of Congress to have great silver urns, filled with the choicest and most fragrant ' Maccaboy ' and ' Old Scotch ' snuff, placed where the members could help themselves freely to the nose-titillating pulver ized tobacco. Snuff-taking was then a very common habit with the congressmen, and it was no unusual thing to see a speaker, who was pouring out words of eloquence on the floor of the House or the Senate, stop suddenly, walk over to the snuff-urn, fill his nose, sneeze two or three times, flourish a bandanna handkerchief, and then walk back to his place and resume his remarks. Some of the old members had considerable reputation as graceful snuff-takers. Mr. Macon, who presided over the Senate so long, took snuff with such perfection that he was admired by all the senators; and Mr. Clay, who imitated the French, was not far behind him in grace and polished ease." 527