Young Men & Pipes

Young men have always loved their pipes. A. A. Milne spoke of the obligatory ritual of buying two pipes upon arriving at school in Cambridge. I learned to smoke a pipe with a bunch of freshmen at a humanities college. And here several young soldiers trot out their pipes for their studiedly casual photo shoot.

Virginia, 1862 - Staff of Fitz John Porter, General of the Union Army
during the Civil War. General Custer is reclining next to the dog.

I do think it important to point out that one of the men without a pipe is George Armstrong Custer. Just saying. Vainglorious dandies take themselves too seriously to smoke a pipe. They're more likely to be cigar men, don't you think? Or worst of all, non-smoking teetotalers.

...Custer was more dependent than most men, on the kind approval of his fellows. He was even vain; he loved display in dress and in action. He would pay forty dollars for a pair of trooper boots to wear on parade and have everything else in keeping. 

On the Yellowstone expedition he wore a bright red shirt which made him the best mark for a rifle of any man in the regiment. On the next campaign he appeared in a buckskin suit. He formerly wore his hair very long, letting it fall in a heavy mass upon his shoulders, but cut it off before going out to the Black Hills, producing quite a change in his appearance. But if vain and ambitious, Custer had none of those great vices which are common and so distressing in the army. 

He never touched liquor in any form; he did not smoke, or chew, or gamble.

Frightening. Therefore, young men, for the sake of your sanity and integrity, take out your pipes and puff on 'em.