That Wicked Habit

" You can teil a good deal about; a man by the way he smokes a cigar, " said a traveliug man iu a philosophical mood at, one of the hotels the other day. "And it goes without saying that yon can also teil something of his disposition by the braucl he geuerally smokes. For instance, yon see hirn coming out from thedining room af ter regaling the physical man with the delicacies of a first class menu. He sits on the cool side of the buil'ding, draws a long black cigar from his pocket and bites about half an inch off from oue end, sets the other to blazing and is soon puffing great clouds of smoke that ring and curl all around him. If ho pulls at it furiously, I always think he doesu't know how to enjoy a good cigar. He will probably smoke two cigars while another man is eujoyiug one. In that event, it is generally a mild weed that he prefers. At any rate, it is an indication of his uervous temperament. Such a man is liever happy unless he is in tho midst of constant chauge. He is impulsive and even hot tempered. If you want to sell him any goods, it should be policy on your part not to cross him if you can avoid it. "Then there is the other f ello w who methodically takes his kuife out of his pocket while he continueá talking to his companion and slowly trims the end of his favorite brand, returns his knife to his pocket and settles back in his chair for a quiet smoke. Putting th6 cigar into his mcuib, he generally ohews the end of it for five minutes before the lighting operation is performed. And when he puffs, you would hardly know it. The delicate white ash hides the fire, and the thin line of smoke is hardly visible as it curls lazily upward. Yet he never has to relight his cigar. Such a man is iutrospective, cool in an einergency, logical in his thinking and just the opposite iu temper to the one I previousiy described. If anything startling should turn up, he would never appear anrprised. If he gets beat in a game of high five, he never shows' his chagrin. And I venture to say that if his life purposo were thwarted - and he has one - very few people would ever know it. He would suffer like the Spartan boy with the fox concealed under his coat and gnawing out his vitáis. Some woula say thia is all bosh, but I fancy there is something in it. " And the man relapsed into silence again for a moment while he watched the blue rings wafted away by the cool breeze that is so graceful en a hot August day. "Speaking of the wicked habit of smoking," hecontinued after a minute, "I know a man who couscientiously declares that it is not so. He says that if he didn't know how to enjoy a good cigar he would have been a poor man today. ïhat sounds a little strange, doesn't it? Well, this is how it happened, as the story teller says. He was seated in front of the Southern hotel, St. Louis, one day. He was a traveling man and had lit his after dinner cigar. A gruff looking gentleman was seated next to him. He was smoking too. They sat there iu silence for several minutes, perhaps a half hour. Finally the drummer was aroused from his reflections by hearing au expression from his neighbor's lips which Noah Webster never invented. He was going through his pockets for a match. The drummer politely teudered him one from his neat little matchbox and handed him a cigar, too, addiJg that he had better take a fresh one. From that they feil to talking, first about cigars. The gruff gent warmed up at once and wanted to know where the drummer got suoh a choice cigar. It happened to be a first class brand which the latter had picked up iu the south. From that the two feil into quite a pleasant conversation. Tho drummer left town that evening. But they met by chanco several times after that, and gradually a warm friendship sprang up between them. "Years afterward the traveling man was engaged iu the banking business. Of course the only way a drummer ever becornes a banker is by the timely death of a rich relative. Well, he still re,tained the friendship of his St. Louis acqnaintance and often heard from him by letter. Tho drummer was prosperous until his bank, like many othersiu 189:3, vas drained with a terrino run. It seerned as though he must fail uuless he had a few thousand dollars to tide over the next day. As he sat thinking the matter over in the cool air of his front yard a man carne strolliug through the front gate. It was his friend. Of course he asked the banker what made him look so pale, and the story cameout little by little. The next day the bank had uulimited capital to back it and was soon on a solid footring. It was all through that cigar smoked several years before, so the ex-drumnier said. Now, my wife would say that was no argument for such a filthyhabit, and that her husband had never had any such fabulous experience. That's the way with people who won't reason about these things, isn't it?" And the traveling man pulled out two fresh cigars from his pocket and left one behind as he went hurriedly to settle up his bill in time to catch a train.-