Tobacco in Song and Story was written by John Bain in 1896 and resembles his 1903 book Tobacco Leaves. Bain writes of his book, “no volume treating on Tobacco had heretofore appeared which contained all that deserved a place in the literature of the weed, and at the same time avoided the scientific treatises and exhaustive histories on the subject which have no interest to the great army of smokers.”1 Tobacco in Song and Story compiles stories and poetry related to tobacco into one small volume.
One of the short pieces included is called The Uses of Cigar Ash:
“Cigar ashes, mingled with camphorated chalk, make an excellent tooth-powder; or, ground with poppy-oil, will afford for the use of the painter a varied series of delicate grays. Old Isaac Ostate so utilize the ashes of his pipe, but had he been aware of Havanas, he would have given us picture even more pearly in tone than those which he has left for the astonishment and delight of mankind.”2
Different types of tobacco each have many small articles written about them. Pages 102-116 contain character sketches of cigar salesmen.
And even in the late 1800s, there were so many names for cigars taken that it was difficult to find unique names for them: “A good name for a cigar is at any time worth one hundred dollars per letter. There is no other trade that uses or possibly can use so many titles for its wares…There is scarcely a name of history, romance, and song which could be used in good taste but what is used on the cover of a cigar box. A young man who thought he had a ‘good thing’ recently submitted one hundred names to the Tobacco Leaf. He found all but four of them had been used, and he went sadly away, leaving the names behind.”3
Tobacco in Song and Story is in the public domain and can be read for free on Google Books.