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)