The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1876-03-16
Mysteries of Tobacco.
Neao York Commercial Adrertiser.

Neeo York Commercial Advertiser.
One of the mysteries of New York, of
which we have never seen in type an at
tempted explanation, is ''What under the
sun becomes of the enormous quantity of
this coarse brown wrapping paper which
we every where see piled up to the ceiling
in warehouses, or shying across the side
walk from truck to store, like Parthian
arrows darkening the sun, or perchance
coming to the city from mills in the sur
rounding country, loading whole trains of
freight cars ?" This, surely, is profound
puzzle, which fewer even among old resi-
dents can unravel But here is the answer
("Tell it not in Gath publish it not in the
streets of Askelon.)" In brief, we have at
this port an enormous export trade in straw
paper between New York and Havana.
where it enters into manufacture of tobacco.
The trade can be reckoned by thousands
of tons. Not a steamer leaves port that
does not take out from 1000 to 5000
reams, or in occasional instances as high
as 10000 reams. But very few days have
elapsed since a steamer sailed with the
quantity last named 1t was long since
evident that this heavy export of paper,
that, too all of a single description, the
coarsest and cheapest, could not be for
ordinary consumption. No market could
possibly demand such quantities unless
people were inordinate shoppers, and did
nothing except run to the grocery for small
packages. The paper referred to sells at
26 cents per ream of or pounds, and
when packed for export is usually pressed
into bales of 100 reams each 1t is said
that the exports are so large that our
entire domestic consumption is scarcely
equal to one sixteenth of the total shipped
to Cuba alone, while additional quantities
are in demand for Brazil, Bermuda, ETC.,
very much of it, doubtless going into
the manufacture of cheroots and cigar
cites. For this purpose, we are told, it
serves admirably, the paper, under com
bustion, leaving no residum other than
pure white ash. There is but one con-
clusion as remarked by leading dealer
in the trade, that the great bulk of this
paper is converted into cigars of the lower
grade, and when returned under custom
house brands, neatly boxed and fragrant
with Elusive odors, readily commands a
sale. The peculiar manipulation which
straw paper undergoes in process of con-
version is of course known only to the
initiated. But it is we'll understood that
when saturated in the juice of tobacco
stems, and, perhaps, almost Dissolved the
once despised yellow reams make GILL
ing almost equal if not superior, to the
genuine leaf In fact it is sometimes pos
sible to detect; as we are informed, the
delicate film of paper interlapped with
leaves in the finished cigar, or neatly
folding the exterior. To such a refine
ment of art has this business been carried
that by the use of machines rolled over
the sheet of papers an almost perfect i'm
press of the tobacco leaf it obtained, the
peculiar "spots being printed as on calico.
The waste and refuse of factories in like
manner is carefully gathered, and by
intermingling with paper, once more ac-
quires body and consistency, so that in
subsequent use the votary of tobacco In
hales it in his pipe, securing comfort and
solace, or takes it pulverized into snuff,
through the nostrils, imagining himself
transported in dreamy lassitude beyond the
cares and worriments of this lower life-on
a wisp of paper.