The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-03-22
GEN. GRANTS CIGARS.

A friend once said he made cal
culation that the value of the cigar:
smoked by General Grant during
his campaigns would pay the whole
cost of the late war and leave a re
spectacle balance to begin the next.
This was probably an exaggeration,
but he certainly did smoke a great
many fine and costly cigars during
the period alluded to. The w1iteI
was witness and partly an actor
when four of General Grants very
costly cigars were consumed, OF
rather destroyed, in a very brief
space of time. Shortly before the
close of the war he had occasion to
bring some Important dispatches to
headquarters, and, as soon as they
were opened and digested by the
general, an invitation to breakfast
followed, after which a cigar was
rendered and accepted, and the gen.
eral and the writer proceeded down
towards the wharf.
This, which was an entirely new
structure, was of immense length
and had been built to replace one
destroyed by fire. the result of an
explosion of shells which were
being landed for the use of the
army. There had been great loss Of
life from this accident, and to guard
against repetition of it, the general
had issued an order that no smOk-
ing should be allowed on the wharf.
To carry out the order the more
effectually, sentries had been posted
at each end, with directions to allow
no one to pass with lighted pipe
or cigar. The general, who desired
to give some instructions to the
writer to be adopted on his return,
had evidently forgotten the terms
Of his own order about smoking,
and stepped on the wharf cigar in
mouth.
He was Immediately confronted
by the sentinel (who happened to
be a colored NAM, who presented
arms most respectfully but added:
'sBeg parding, gineral, but dere's
no smoking lowed heah." The
general flung his cigar into the
James, the writer followed suit,
and we proceeded slowly down the
wharf. Upon arriving at about the
center Of it the general stopped to
emphasize some particular he was
deSlrOus to impress upon me, when
he mechanically took from his
breast pocket two other cigars,
handed me one, and from his fusee
case produced a light. After we
got our cigars we'll started, he pro-
ceeded toward the other end Of the
wharf, entirely oblivious Of the
fact that there was another sentinel
there.
Upon arriving at the end, how
ever, the sentry, another colored
man, drew himself up to his full
height, saluted the general, and i'm
mediately added: BEG parding,
gineral, but dere's no smokin'
lowed heah." Whereupon the gen.
eral turned to me and said, Con
found these niggers; let's go some
where where we can smoke" and
flung his cigar into the river, which
was followed by mine. 1t was sup
posed at one time that no cigar
could be manufactured too strong
for General Grant, but that has
proved a fallacy. When heI
became President, some friends,
knowing his taste for high
favored tobacco, sent an order tol
Havana for five thousand of the
largest and strongest cigars that
could be made, cost being no con-
sideration. They were duly sent, |
when the order was completed, to |
New York, and cost without duty
$500 a thousand, or eighty cents
apiece. They were so strong, how
ever, as not to be smOkable even by |
the General, and he had to give
most of them away to any of hisl
friends who would accept them
Philadelphia Press.