The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1880-02-27
MONROE, LOUISIANA, FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 81, 1880.
MAKING CIGARS IN HAVANA.
New York Sun.1

New York SUM-
The room in which the cigars are
made is a large, lofty apartment, with
a stone floor. The cigarmakers sit in
rows at benches, which are divided off
by low partitions, to prevent the to-
bacco or cigars of two adjoining makers
becoming mixed. A little board, black
with tobacco juice, lies on the bench.
Upon this the cigars are rolled. The
cigarmaker takes from his heap of I'LL
ings enough tobacco to make a cigar.
This he fashions into shape, and then,
taking a leaf from his heap of wrap
pers, he folds it carefully round the
Allfngs, beginning at the small end,
trimming it with sharp knife, and
cutting it square off at the open end.
Then he takes a small piece of grease,
smears it on the wrapper, and thus
closes the small end of the cigar. Many
cigarmakers give the end a twist in
their mouths, and this is especially the
case with the negroes engaged in this
department. Each operator has lit
tie mould, marked with the size of the
cigar that he is making, and the cigar
must measure exactly the proper
length marked on the mould, and must
pass through hole bored in it. AS
soon as fifty cigars are finished they
are tied in a bundle, and a slip of paper
marked with the number of the maker
is stuck under the string. When the
time for paying comes, the proprietor
goes over these bundles and pays so
much per thousand for all the cigars
made. The rate varies from $11 to
$42 per thousand, according to the
size of the cigars and the excellence of
the leaf. The best workmen are en-
ployed on the very finest kinds, and
can make as many as seventy-five
cigars in the day. The rough and
cheap kinds are much more easy to
make, and good folder can turn out
over 2OO cigars in eight hours.
White men, negroes, and coolies are
employed in cigarmaking, but white
labor is found to be by far the most in
telligent, aud coolie labor the least so.
Indeed, the coolies are mostly en-
ployed in opening the bundles and
the filings from the wrap
pers, and very few of them are allowed
to fold cigars. The cigarmakers, at
least the white ones, are a thriftless,
lay set. A folder will work until he
has enough money for his immediate
wants, and then he will at once leave
his work until he is driven back PEN
niless. One young, good-looking folder
engaged in making the best kinds of
cigars, was pointed out by the proprie-
tor as a curious example of this want
of application. He works hard dur
ing five days of the week, making a
tidy sum of money. Every Saturday
night he visits ready-made clothes
Sunday goes either to the seashore or
to the river, strips, bathes, and, on
coming out, puts on his new suit.
Leaving the old one, bought the prcvi-
GUS week, on the bank, he goes on a
spree which lasts until his money is
all spent, when he returns to work.
Women are also employed in sorting
tobacco, but they are in separate
building, as it was found that the co.
education of the sexes does not work
as we'll in a Cuban cigar factory as in
the aesthetic atmosphere of a New Eng
land college. They are of all colors,
ranging from a pure white through
every variety of cream and chocolate
up to shining black that leaves Day
& Martins best efforts in the shade.
They all smoke, generally the very
strongest cigars. Unlike the clerk in
the candy store, who is allowed to
gorge himself at first, and who never
CaIeS AOI LHc SWEEP treasures again, men
and women in tobacco factories do not
lose their taste for smoking. The
manufacturers forbid smoking during
work hours, for it distracts the atten-
tion, and the cigars arc less carefully
made. But the supply of cigars is
almost unlimited, and every work
man is allowed to carry away two or
three. These cigars are made by boys
who are only beginning, and whose
productions are not good enough for
market.
When the cigars are counted and the
makers paid, the former are sent up
stairs and carefully sorted, first to re-
move the badly made ones and those
with rough wrappers, and then to di-
vide them, according to the color of
the leaf, into colorados and maduros.
When this is done they are ready to
be placed in the boxes, which are
made in separate part Of the factory.
The boxes, when filled, are placed un.
der press, and the cigar is then ready
for sale.
The engineers employed by NJ. Fer
dinand de Lesseps in the task of sur
veying the site of the proposed canal
and of estimating the probable cost OF
it, have issued their report. They