The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1875-07-15
TOBACCO AS A MONOPOLY


How the Paternai Government
France Manufactures the Weed-A
Unpleasant stabIish ment on q
Quai d'Orsay.
, Every one knows that the monopo
| of manufacturing tobacco by the Sta
was suggested to Napoleon ILL., by IL
gorgeous appearance of lady at or
of the court balls. Her diamonds,
fact, excited much admiration and nc
a little envy. "Who is she ?" aske
the emperor, and the answer was, 9th
wife of retired tobacco manufacturer.
From that evening free trade in to
bacco was doomed in France, nor has
republican form of government caret
to do away with most protitabl,
source of revenue. At the same timt
it must be confessed that the produce
of the regie is, for the most part
"cheap and nasty" A visit which
have Just paid to the manufactory OF
the Quai dOrsav, one of the tifteer
which exists in France, has confirmed
me in this belief, though / came away
with the impression that tobacco anG
no other leaf was, whether good OF
bad, exclusively used. The first thing
which strikes a visitor on entering the
establishment is the rank overpowering
smell of nicotine which pervades the
whole place-a smell, moreover, which
is utterly indescr5able to those who
do not know it. In the lower rooms
half naked men, brown with the Juice
OF The plant, were engaged in wetting
the leaves and packing them in great
stacks for the purpose of fermentation,
which goes on for eighteen months.
Close by, under a shed in an open
yard is the powerful steam engine, of
English make, which gives rotary power
to all the machines on the premises.
A large part of the machine work is
devoted to the making of snuff, and
this [ was shown in all the various
stages of its fabrication. Here, | find,
it is composed of various tobaccos,
such as Virginia, Hungarian and
French, together with all contraband
tobacco-some of it very suspicious
looking stuff--seized by the custom
house officers. This mixture is pro.
portiOnately divided, and makes total
Of 100 parts. The snuff makers are,
was informed, the least healthy of all
the persons employed in the establish.
ment. 1t may be stated that the
number is 1000, of whom 1,G00 are
women and girls. Up stairs are rooms
devoted to the sorting of the leaves by
experienced hands, who can tell at once
if the tobacco be of foreign or of home
growth, though | must confess that to
me it looked much the same. In addition
to the various snnll cutting and pound.
ing machines, a long gallery is filled
with implements, also worked by steam.
which neatly splice the compressed
leaves III the pipe tobaccos known as
Maryland" and "Caporal,' the latter
being considerably coarser, but, it is
said, purer than the former. "Cap-
oral, d" indeed, is the iavorite kind with
what my guide called "les UraiS ,fu-
meurS." When saltea and dried these
tobaccos are, after being weighed, com.
pressed into paper packets by hydraulic
pressure, fastened and then re. weighed,
any overweight or the opposite beng
at once detected, and the packet CON
demned on the spot This is entirely
done by women, and the quickness and
deftness which they display in "making
up" is really astonishing. During the
last two years there has been very
great demand for cigarettes-so great,
indeed, that it has occasionally been
greater then the supply. Consequently
there are many rooms filed with girls
with strings of stamped paper-cut by
in another room-before them,
and each, with the aid of gum.bottle
and an ingenious little instrument,
turns OUT 1000 to / 500 cigarettes day.
The manufacture of cigar is certainly |
not pleasing operation. The woman
takes handful of coarse looking to.
bacco, gives it roll with her hands,
rolls trimmed leaf round it, touches
the end with brown paste to make
secure, and the result is
a cigar, which is then made of the re-
luired length by an instrument like a
Some of these cigars
cost as little as two or three halfpeDce,
and few government brands are sold at
3 pence apiece. The regie provides
tobacco suited to every taste, therefore
a whole department is devoted to the
process of twisting rolls into what is
known in England as pigtail, destined,
for the most part, to be chewed by
sailors and the population of seaport
towns, though was shown milder
kind. which was made expressly for and
smoked in several departments. The
government factory is certainly a
curious, but not by any means pleas
ant sight, aud if any parent wishes to
cure his son OF the "pernicious habit of
he could certainly not do
better than take him to SEQ the estab-
lishment on the Quai d'Orsay. Any
confirmed smoker, however, l would
advise not to go, as he would probably
be digusted without being cured
Paris Letter.