Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-03-11
THE CHRONICLE.
Concerning Cigars and their
Prices.


Acorrespondent Of the Boston Trans
cript writes:
aMr. Parton, in the Atlantic Month
" for February, laments that ''The
Life of Josiah Quincy" does not meet
with the sale it merits. young men,"
he saws. cannot waste their hsrd-earn-
ed money upon a three dollar book
1t is the price of a bundle of cigars"
Mr.. Parton does not give US the num-
Der of cigars in his bundle, but it can
not beTery large, since he elsewhere
puts the price of a single cigar at from
thirty to sixty cents.
81 have lying in a box before me a
bundle containing fifty cigars. They
cost thirty cents apiece, fifteen dollars
for the bundle, which would have
bought five copies Of the noble old
statesman's "Life."
81 did not buy these cigars-no-and
l do not mean to smoke them. They
were given to me by one of the clever
est fellows in the world, who won them
in a wager, and I am going to give them
to another clever fellow, who is about
to give q dinner party to some more
clever fellows, and they may share the
pleasure and extravaganza among
them.
"Extravagsnce." It IS enormous,
that's a fact, the present prices we pay
for cigars. Let me take a leaf out of
an old book and go back to the time
when 1 began 10 smoke, that is, accord
ing to Horace Greeley, when | began
to be a "hog." Don't start, neigh6or
Dutton, but, except your worthy self,
l doubt if there are any persons under
the roof of the Transcript building
who were even born when 1 was first
! led to indulge in the filthy weed."-
As long { as when the tol1R OF Boston
gave Commodore Perry the dinner he so
calamity earned for whipping John
Bull on Lake Erie; l was there, with
my cigar, then spelt with an S. 1 for
get who provided the dinner, but John
Pierpont and your correspondent pro-
vided what was fatteringly called the
ods,, and sat at the festive table side
by side, a copper counterfeit Beaumont
and-Fletcher. How little it took in
those days to make a poet!
"Well, about the price Of the cigars
at that far-distant date. l not only
smoked them but sold them, and many
I and many q dozen have | rolled up for
Washington Aliston and Joseph Ste
Yens Buckminister, and a hOstof other
pretty clearly persons, who little
dreamed that they we're training them
selves to become "hogs." The tax I'M
posed on these gentlemen for their
filthy" indulgence was two cents for
a single cigar, twenty-five cents for a
dozen thirteen to a dozenl and four
teen to sixteen dollars a thousand
These were the rates for the best i'm
ported Havana cigars-better, think of
! it, ye unfortunates of modern days,
better than you al now procure for
ten times that money. Shade Of Sir
Walter Raleigh
Unjust stop. Ny cigar Is out, and
l cannot afford to light another. I will
however, add one remark. When 1
conclude to leave off smoking l hardly
think 1 shall venture upon Mr.. James
Parton's remedy, which he says he
found so eficacious: "For the first two
days four good stiff glasses of whisky
and water" I might become so in
fatusted with my new medicine, as to
be obliged, one of these days, to cum
Der the pages of some popular month
ly with q stumbling diatribe OF the
question, "Does it pay to Drink?'