Arizona weekly enterprise., 1882-05-06
TOBACCO AND CIGARS.
The Extont 60 Which They Are AduI-
 terEted.

My son, fl you will chew tobacco, chew plug it's the rnstiest." Such was the sage advice of venerable grand father. Of the 26,000,000 men and boys in tue United States, says the Chi cago Tribune, 1t is safe to assume that one-half use tobacco in one shape or an- other, for the entire product in 1880 up on which revenue was paid amounted to Gncluding snuf) 146, ,0S2, 1885 pounds. So that about five and one-half pounds are allotted to each consumer. Now, an ordinary tobacco-chewer, such as la- boring man or O mechanic, will consume his pound of plug month; but profess sional men and gentlemen of leisure, who mostly chew fne-cut, are contented with two or three oupces per month. Of cheroots, cigarettes and cigars, there were manufactured during the year 1880 the enormous number of 2,S20, 159, ,820. For this extravagant wagging of the the jaws, this copious drain upon the salivary glands, however, the Federal Government was duly compensated in the magnificent sum of S3S, ,S70, 140.0 08. Thus, if 26,000,000 men and boys will consume ali the tobacco product and make nuisances of themselves generally, the temperate sustaining other half of the population can be consoled by the thought that nearly S40,000,000 of the Federal debt does not rest on their shoulders.
 Tobacco, like the Canada thistle, is wee5, and, while it IS indigenous to the American States, its cultivation ss a com .nerc,al commodity is limited almost
 l. Of tncky, N.rth Carolina, Connecticut, Ohio and flhHois. The Virginia and Kentucky producs s u.>ed almostexclu- sively in the manufacture of plugs the product of the other StapsA gCss Into ci- gars and cheap smoking tobScco, except that quite all of the fancy pings are wrapped with North Carolina leaf. Be- fore the war, in Rapids parish, Lorii.- ., "a, an immense business was done in rror, m 'ng perique tobacco, used exclu- i; ueIv f,.- smoking, though put up in & .l,,oS shor. d somewhat like a cham , ,aoYe botfis I tt sold at fabulous prices ,nS bv . olJ srnse,~ = was esteemed high 1T than opium by the Siussuiman' very title perique is grown nv ~'
 In the days preceding the "'1i eoo1c- % was cultivated entirely by 'aVe Ia DOT, there was no Federal of Star, 'aA lpon 1t, and no incentive to manufa, ;urers to cheat or adulterate. When slavery was abolished, when the Gov srnment put heavy tax upon its sale, he cunning American began devising ways for defrauding the luxurious con- ,umer, for as yet no means have been devised for defrauding the Revenue De- oartment. Many apochryphai stories Ire told of the way plug tobacco is doc- tored and adulterated, but sifted down the truth is fully expressed in the words of prominent manufacturer: Nothing aver goes into tobacco as deleterious or injurious to the human constitution as the tobacco itself" Nevertheless, skilled workmen command extraordinary high salaries for the dexterity with which they will take cheap or damaged lot of tobacco and 30 disguise 1t in a wrapper as to deceive even an old tar.
 An average plug tobacco manufactur- ing establishment works about 200 hands. The tobacco is sorted into four grades, from which are produced as many as seventy-five or hundred diff ferent brands, the pencil of the artist and the skill of photographer being lib orally brought into requisltion 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 stepcil-mark of the 1t would be supposed that none but straight goods would be put up; but it is with tobacco as with ol. fa.w C., stuff, be it ever SO vile. Licorice, oils, molasses, glucose and similar sweets ne used by some manufacturers, and while it is certainly cheat it is as well harmless one.
 But in fne-cut tobacco and cigars l. where the greatest deception is prac- ticed. A Western manufacturer says that there is no end to the sdulteration of fine-cut goods. Machinery has been so improved that, us he says, with one pound of tobacco liquor, obtained by boiling down stems and refuse leaf, one pound of rag weed and one pound of bark S5 worth of fne-cut chewing tobacco can be produced The suggestion of slippery-elm bark was q new one, and the inquiry was pursued further. He said it was nicely shaved and mixed with tobacco that it had pleasant, sweet taste, held the tobacco together, and made the "quid" last long time. This bark costs about cents pound, and when third of it Is made to replace tobacco that sells as high as 75 cents pound, one can easily see the enormous profit resulting. 4 gentleman who knows says that nearly all the slippery-elm trees in Ohio, Indi- ana and Michigan have been denuded of their bark. yet leading wholesale drug gist in Chicago afirms that 50,000 pounds of slippery-elm bark would, for
 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 that even
 good judges are imposed upon. The
 dishonest article, however, is the pro-
 duct of the big manufactories, for the
 small country manufacturer cannot af-
 ford the machinery nor conceal the To-
 tions and decoctions that are brought
 into acquisition by his wealthier com.
 petitor. It is quite safe to assume that
 about the purest-no, not purest, for i
 there is any one thing impure it is to
 bacco-the honestest cigar is the hand
 made cigar of the local manufacturer.
 This much can be said to the credit O
 the tobacco dealer: His product Ii
 purely luxury-in no sense entering
 into the medicinal or mechanical arts
 and, being luxury, nc law, not ever
 public opinion, can restrain him iron
 the practice of any little cheat to en
 nance his profits. Which brings ul
 again the admission that in all his cheat
 "nothing Is put into tobacco more dele
 terious to the human system than tn
 tobacco itself"
 The Art of Dinax.