Victorian Culture - Oh that Noxious Weed! Cigars in the 19th Century

[BettyO]

I love Victorian cultural history as well as CW/Assassination history and like Laurie and others feel that we can learn an awful lot by studying the social/cultural history of our particular period in history.

Just found this wonderful site on - of all things, cigars or "cheroots" or "Seegars" as our Victorian brethern called them. Since Mr. Surratt sold these at Surratt Tavern (and more or less JWB, and the rest of the boys) probably enjoyed them - I thought I'd post the link..... it's a great site with many interesting facts/points regarding the "noxious weed" as abstainers referred to tobacco.

http://cigarhistory.info/Cigar_History/H...-1862.html

For instance, I never knew this about matches!

"1832 A French chemistry student, Charles Sauria, added phosphorus to the friction match creating the first strike-anywhere type. He was unable to raise money to patent his idea and it was almost immediately copied by the Germans, and quickly spread throughout Europe. Matches sputter and spark and are somewhat dangerous to clothing and furniture."