Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-10-01
salurday EvenInE. Oct. l, ISL.
Tricks Of fhe Tobacco Trade.

LIVE VI w AO0aAlO
Boston Herald.l
Many apocryphal stories are told Of
the way plug tobacco is doetOred and
~adultemted, but, sifted down, the
truth is fully expressed in the words
Of a prominent manufacturer:
Nothing ever goes into tobacco as
deleterious or injurious to the human
constitution as the tobacco itself"
Nevertheless, skilled workmen CON
mand extraordinarily high salaries for
the dexterity with which they will
take a cheap or damaged lot Of tobacco
and SO disguise it in a wrapper as to
deceive even an old tar.
An average plug tobacco manufao-
turing establishment works about
two hundred hands. The to-
bacco is sorted into four grades,
from which are produced as many
as se~venty-6ve different brands, the
pencil of the artist and the skill of.
the photographer being literally
brought into requisition for orna-
mental designs to catch the toothless
old man as well as the %precocious boy.
While the government requires every
package to bear the stencil mark of
the manufacturer, it would be sup
posed that none but straight goods
would be put up; but it is with
tobacco as with whisky-always a fair
demand for the stuff, be it ever SO vile,
Licorice, oils, molasses, glucose and
similar sweets are literally used by
some manufacturers, and while it is
certainly a cheat, it is as well a harm
less one. For example: On August
20, Virginia plug was quoted at 4@43
cents. Government tax added 10
cents; yet the manufactured product
was quoted as low as II cents. Evil
IDENTIFY the work up of these plugs had
the tobacco che wed by the lug.
But in fine cut tobacco and cigars
is where the greatest deception is
practiced. A Western manufacturer
says that there is no end to the adul-
teration of fine cut goods. Machinery
has been so improved that, as he says,
with one pound Of tobacco liquor, OBJ
tanned by boiling down stems and
refused leaf, one pound of rag-Weed
and one pound Of slippery elm bark,
s. worth of fine cut chewing tobacco
can be produced. The suggestion OF
slippery elm bark was a new one, and
the inquiry was pursued farther. He
said it was nicely shaved and mixed
with tobacco; that it had a pleasant,
sweet taste, held the tobacco together,
and made the "quid' last a long time.
The bark costs about four cents a
pound, and when third oft is made
to replace tobacco that costs as high
as seventy-five cents per pound, one
can see the enormous profit resulting.
A gentleman who knows says that
nearly all the slippery elm trees in
Ohio, Indiana and Michigan have
been denuded of their bark, yet Q
leading wholesale druggist affirm,
that 10000 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 probibly where
the public gets robbed the worst. The
cunning devices are so many that ever
good judges are imposed upon. l
used 20 be a boast among gentlemen
hat they could always select a fint
brand Of cigars, and of course they
smoked no other. The other day al
old smoker, whose devotion to tn,
weed cost him 50 every week, admit
ted that be couldn's tell Havant
filled from Connecticut filled TIL
dishonest article, however, is the pro
duct Of big manufactoi les, for tn,
smaller country manufacturer canno
afford the machinery nor conceal tht
lotions and decoctions that are brought
into requisition by his weather. com
petit9r. 1t is quite safe to assume
that about the purest-no, not purest
for if there is anything impure, it i
tobaeco-the honestcigar is the hand
made cigar Of the local manufactures