Morning journal and courier., 1881-11-01
Wiles of the Tobacco Men.
Slippery Elm, Rag-Weed, Etc.. Used
 AduIterantS.

| Slippery Elm. Rag-Weed, Etc.. Used ss l AduIterants.
 Many apocryphal stories are told of the
 way plug tobacco is doctored and adultera-
 ted, but sifted down, the truth is fully ex- | pressed in the words of 8 prominent manu- facturer: Nothing ever goes into tobacco as l deleterious or injurious to the human consti- 1 tuition as the tobacco itself" Nevertheless | skilled workmen command extraordinarily I high salaries for the dexterity with which | tobacco, and so disguise it in 8 wrapper as to deceive even an old tar.
 An average plug tobacco manufacturing establishment works about 200 hands. The tobacco is sorted into four grades, from which are produced as many as 75 or 100 different ! brands, the pencil of the artist and the skill of the. photographer being literally brought into acquisition for ornamental designs to catch
 the toothless old man as well as the precoci-
 ous boy. While the government requires
 every package to bear the stencil mark of the manufacturer, it would be supposed that
 none but straight goods would be put up: but
 1t is with tobacco as with whisky-always
 fair demand for the stuff be it ever vile.
 Licorice, oils, molasses, glucose and similar sweets are literally used by some manufac
 turers and, while it is certainly a cheat, it is well harmless one. For example, on August %, Virginia plug was quoted at and 1-2 cents. Government tax added 16 cents yet the uauuIaCGur6Q product WAS QuO6eu as low as 17 cents. Evidently the worker-up of these plugs had the tobacco chewer by the lug
 But in the fine cut tobacco and cigars is where the greatest deception is practiced. A western manufacturer says that there is no end to the adulteration of fine out goods. Machinery has been so improved that, as he says, with one pound of tobacco liquor, ob- tained by boiling down stems and refuse leaf, one pound of rag weed and one pound of slippery elm bark, $5 worth of fine cut chewing tobacco can be produced The suggestion of slippery elm bark was new one, and the inquiry was pursued further. He said it was nicely shaved and mixed with to-
 bacco; that it had a pleasant. sweet taste,
 held the tobacco together and made the
 "quid" last long time. This bark costs
 about four cents pound, and when third
 of 1t IS made to replace tobacco that sells as
 hlgh as 75 cents pound, one can easily see
 the enormous profit resulting. A gentleman
 who knows says that nearly all the slippery
 elm trees in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan have
 beed denuded of their bark, yet Q leading
 wholesale druggist in Chicago affirms that
 50, GOO pounds Of slippery elm bark would, for the legitimate druggist and medicinal
 trade, glut the entire market of the United States.
 In cigars, cheroots, cigarettes and smoking
 tobacco is probably where the public gets robbed the worst The cunning devices are so many Gna1 efon Sooo JouEoS ~o AuPooS0 upon It used to be 8 boast among gentle men that they could always select fine brand of cigars, and of course they smoked no other. The other day an old smoker, whose devotion to. the weed costs him $5 every week, admitted that he couldn't tell Havana filed from Connecticut filled The dishonest article, however, is the product of the big manufactories, for the small country manufactures cannot afford the machinery nor conceal the lotions and decoctions that are brought into requisition by his wealthier competitor. It is quite safe to assume that about the purest-no, not purest, for. if there is any one thing impure, it is tobacco the honestest cigar is the hand made cigar of the local manufacturer.