To have ‘a smoke’ was a common enough pastime before the First World War, but popularity increased greatly after the War started. Most servicemen smoked and cigarettes were becoming more convenient than a pipe. This German tobacco, however, sounds thoroughly disgusting.
“Men who have a taste for beer and other stimulants have now found other grievances in the shortage of tobacco and matches, and the smoker who has said for years that he could only smoke a certain brand of the fragrant weed now feels pleased if he is allowed to purchase something for his pipe in any other form. Germans are evidently troubled with a similar shortage, and there is a standard cigarette on the market there which is not relished. “Vorwaerts” * says : “When one lights this cigarette one feels at once that Germany’s strength much be tremendous to stand such awful stuff. If one inhales the smoke, then the first feelings of sea-sickness set in. If the paper be removed, a greyish mixture of substances is seen, and the smell is like that of a musty cellar dwelling in which there is a shoemaker’s workshop.”
The Stamford Mercury, 30th August, 1918.
* A German newspaper.