I can remeber sucking cane in my youth. It was candy in the form of a cane and wikipedia can confirm this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_cane This should solve the riddle. Wendelinus > miki pfeffer <[log in to unmask]> hat am 15.07.2023 18:02 CEST geschrieben: > > > If one makes a walking stick of a sugar cane stalk, sucking the head would > be nicely doable and a sweet treat. Miki > > On Sat, Jul 15, 2023 at 9:57 AM <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > Only a guess but I read "cane" as "sugar cane" and "cane heads" as some > > sort of candy. But I think it more likely that cane means walking stick. > > Dweebish sorts of fellows are often described in older literature as > > sitting and sucking the heads of their canes as a baby does its pacifier. > > > > I don't remember the context here, but the latter seems to fit the case. > > > > Carl > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of ben > > Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2023 10:02 AM > > To: [log in to unmask] > > Subject: sucking cne heads > > > > I'm reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, in chapter 5 it read "...for > > they had stood in the vestibule sucking their cane heads, a circling wall > > of oiled and simpering admirers...", I don't quite understand what the > > young men are doing, is "sucking their cane heads " a metaphor? Can someone > > explain it? > > Tks > > > > > -- > Miki Pfeffer, Ph D > *A** New Orlean**s Author i**n Mark Twain's Court: * > *Letters from Grace King's New England Sojourns * > (LSU Press, 2019) > *Southern Ladies and Suffragists: Julia Ward Howe and Women's Rights at the > 1884 New Orleans World's Fair *(University Press of Mississippi, 2014)