You might have heard the joke that begins by asking a store owner, “Do you have Prince Albert in a can?”
Today the correct answer would be, “No. We only sell it in cardboard boxes.” Or, “We only sell Prince Albert in a plastic tub,” which could be fashioned into a different joke.
Either way, this popular pipe tobacco is no longer sold in the bright red cans that were used for decades after its 1907 introduction.
Pipe smoking has lost popularity over the years. It was once considered a more masculine habit than smoking cigarettes (especially those effete factory-made cigarettes). Pipe smokers were also thought to be smarter, or wished to appear so. But according to historical sources, one of the biggest attractions was that pipe smoking was the cheapest way to get a nicotine buzz. There was also the appeal of the hundreds of tobacco blends a smoker could try.
Today, pipe smokers are just a small proportion (1 percent) of America’s 49.2 million tobacco users. Their number appears to be growing, perhaps in the belief that pipe smoking is a safer form of tobacco use.
It isn’t.
This article is featured in the September/October 2025 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.
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