Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-07-06

How the PaternaI Governments lOT
France Manufactures the Weed-An
UNPLEASANT Establishment on the
Quai dOrsay.
Paris Correspondence OF the London Times
Every one knows that the monopoly
of manufacturing tobacco by the State
was suggested to Napoleon III. by the
gorgeous appearance Of a lady at one
of the court balls. Her diamonds, in
fact, excited much admiration and not
little envy. "Who is shes" asked the
emperor, and the answer was, ''The
wife of a retired tobacco manufacturer. "
From that evening free trade in tobacco
was doomed in France, nor has a Re
publican form Of government cared 70
do away with a most profitable source
of revenue. At the same time 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 mandatory on the Quai dor
say, one Of the fifteen which exist IN
France, has confirmed me in this belief,
though / came away with the i'm
preston that tobacco and no other leaf
was, whether good or bad,
exclusively used. The first thing
which strikes a visitor ON entering the
establishment is the rank oyerpowering
smell Of nicotine which pervades the
whole place-a smell, moreover, which
is utterly indescrihable 10 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 En-
glish 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 to.
bacco-some of it very suspiciOus-lOok-
ing stuff-seiZed by the custOm-hUuse
officers. This mixture is proportion
ately divided, and makes a total Of 100
parts. The snuff makers are, / was
informed, the least healthy of all the
persons employed in the establishment.
1t may be stated that the number is
1000, Of whom 1900 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
t)bacco beof foreigner Of home growth,
LhOngh / must confess that to ~
it looked much the same. In addition
to the various snuff-cutting and pound
ing machines, a long gallery /, filled
with implements, also worked by steam,
which neatly spice the compressed
leaves in the pipe tObaccOs known rs
Maryland" and "CapOral, the latter
being considerably coarser, but, it is
said, purer than tie former. Cap
oral, indeed, is the favorite kind with
what my guide called "les UTPis .fit-
Bgellrs" When salted and dried these
tobaccos are, after being weighed,
compressed into paper packets by hy-
draulic pressure, fastened and then re-
weighed, any over weight or the oppo-
site being 1T once detected. and the
packet condemned on the spot. This
is entirely done BY women, and the
quickness and deftness which they dis.
play in making mp" is really aston
ishiDg. During the last two years
there has been a very great demand for
clgarettes-sO great, indeed, that II
has occasionally been greater than the
supply. Consequently there are many
rooms filed with girls with strips Of