The Osceola times., 1882-04-29
THE STYLISH SMOKER.
Tho Poisonous Drugs that are Used In the
Manufacture of tho Popular Cigarette.
Philadelphia Times.

Tho Poisonous Drugs that arc Used In the
Manufacture Of tho Popular Cigarette.
Philadelphia Times.
There is a certain brand Of cigarettes
regarded as the most saleable on the
market, in which enervating drugs are
used TO a frightful extent. Millions of
these cigarettes are sold annually. One
house in New York selln on an average
of five hundred thousand day, and the
profits of the proprietor of the brand are
said to be third OF a million dollars
year. Valerian and a tinctnre Of opium
are extensively used in the manufacture
of the cigarettes. The tobacco, which is
Virginia production and naturally OF
a pretty straw color is rendered dark,
soggy and greasy by the process to which
mist can detect the presence of valerisn
by the smell. The drugs impart sweet
and pleasant flavor and have soothing
effect. that in little time obtain fas-
cinaling control over the smoker. The
more cigarettes he smoks the more he
desires to smoke, just as is the case with
one who uses opium. The desire grows
into q passion. The smoker becomes
slave to the enervating habit. To the
insidious effect OF the drugs is attributed
the very success with which this par
ticular brand has met. Unfortunately
that success has caused an army Of i'm
itators to spring up, and every day almost
some new brand of drugged cigarettes
is placed on the market. BY the use OF
drugs it is possible to mako very in.
ferior quality of tobacco pleasant. Manu-
facturers, therefore. put these vile things
on the market at a price that makes 1t
easy for the poorest to indulge in their
killing delights, and boys and youths 90
in swarms for them. What is called
Havana flavoring" has grown to be an
important article of commerce. Thou
sands of barrels OF it are sold every
where. 1t is extensively used in manu-.
featuring certain kinds Of cigarettes. 1t
is made from the TONGA bean, which con-
tains drug called mellolotis, a deadly
poison, seven grains of which will kill
dog. Imagine the effect which must re-
suit from putting that vile stuff into the
lungs hour after hour.
The paper coverings are also fruitful
source of evil to the cigarette smoker
There are three sorts OF paper in COM
mon use, made respectively from cotton
and linen rags and rice straw. There is
fourth kind, which is dipped into So
luton of tobacco, that has lately been put
on the market. Cotton paper is made
chiefly in Trieste, Austria, and the linen
and Iice paper in Paris. The first kind
is manufactured from filthy scrapings of
rag-pickers. Vile as it is, it is bought
up in great masses by agents of the man.
ufscturers, who turn it into dingy pulp
and subject it to bleaching process to
make it presentable. The lime and 9th.
er substances used in bleaching have
very harmful influence on the membrane
OF the throat and nose. Cotton paper is
so cheap that thousand cigarettes can
be wrapped with 1t at a cost of two cents.
Rice paper is not so much used, as il is
rather more expensive. 1t is sometimes
adnlterated with lime or cotton TO make
it cheaper. The average smoker cannot
distinguish between the commonest and
the best qualities of paper. One who
knows something of the trade can, how
ever, perceive the difference at glance.
"Tobacconizsd" paper is manufactured.
II IS common paper saturated with tobac.
CO and marked in such a way as to imi-
tate the veins in the tobacco leaf very
neatly. At first glimpse it would pass
for the genuine article. 1t is used for
making imitation 'sll tobacco" cigarettes
and TO a considerable extent for wrap
ping the cheaper sorts of cigars. BY i'm
mersing the paper in water the tobacco
can be readily separated from it.
Arsenical preparations, 1t is said, are
used in bleaching most cigarette papers
and oil of creosote is produced naturally
as a consequence of combustion. The
latter has a most injurious effect upon
the membrane of the throat and upon
the lungs and is said to accelerate the
development Of consumption in anyone
predisposed to the disease. A leading to-
bacco merchant, speaking of the fact that
go many thousand go on complacently
smoking paper-covered cigarettes, not.
withstanding their well-known PERM.
cious effects, said that cigarettes wrapped
in pure tobacco leaves, while less injuri-
GUS, would be much more expensive,
and that besides people in time grow to
prefer the pungent flavor of the burning
paper with the tobacco to that of The lat.
ter alone.