Ch:2 Smoke and Status — The Rise of the Gentleman’s Ritual By BR Wilson, Guitars & Cigars Tobacco did not stay innocent for long. What arrived in Europe as curiosity slowly took on weight. Not physical weight. Social weight. The kind that settles into rooms, into posture, into how a man is seen before he opens his mouth. Scarcity helped. Distance helped. Trade complications helped even more. Value created hierarchy. Hierarchy created meaning. Smoking stopped being an act. It became a signal. In private chambers and candlelit clubs, cigars turned into quiet declarations. A man holding a well-rolled cigar said something before he spoke. Access. Time. Control. The slow burn implied he was not in a hurry. Or at least not a man who needed to show it. Pause became prestige. The cigar settled into a dual role. It was both prop and participant. It framed conversation and subtly dictated it. Men sat back in heavy chairs, smoke rising in slow, thoughtful spirals, and the room adjusted accord...