National Republican., 1883-08-20

the process of manufacturing in its leading
features require great skill, unremitting at
tention, and vigilance on the part OF the head
employees. They must have quick eye,
keen SMELL and silky touch of The fingers to
determine the grade and condition OF the
tobacco and properly assort and time IL. They
must be apt judges of the weed and watch
closely tho minutest processes Of the work
before it is ready to be turned out.
First comes "fllers." These make tho
body or bulk of the plug or twist, and arc
carefully assorted aud picked by handj then
"cased," either by dipping or sprinkling
then "bulked," TO remain, say, twelve hours;
then steamed" or stripped, when they be-
como ready for tho roll maker or twister,
who proceeds, on long tables, to roll
or twist them into size and shape. The
rolls are made entirely round, and the
''wrappers" or covering go through about
the same processes, except they are only
cased with wator to induce proper order and
solidity These rolls are then placed ia
wooden "sots," made somewhat in tho shape
of checker-board, and containing from l5O
! TO 300 in number, and separated from each
! other by thin sheets of iron OF zinc, and then
put TO press, when, after few hours, they
Come out perfectly fiat and as hard and
| smooth as pressure can mako them. They are
then boxed in sizes of from 25 to 100 pounds
called quarters, halves and whole boxes
! stamped and are then ready for market
| Boxes are made of oak or button wood and
| costr an average of about one cent per pound,
or one dollar for whole box. A plug of
| tobacco is made Of three-fourths filler and
One-fourth wrapper. Licoriee, black strap,
| gum land sugar on finer grades) arc used in
manufacture, but licorice aud sugar are the
main ingredients used everywhere.
Nearly all of tho labor employed in to-
baCco manufacturing in the south is colored,
mainly for two reasons. First, because coll
ored labor Is always more at command than
| white; second, because the heated room of
the factories agree better with the negro
than the whito man, few of whom care to on
gage in that sort of service if they can help
it, preferring out door labor and exercise, or
indoor labor at other trades. The boys and
girls engage when only or years old in the
rough work and soon earn from two to five
dollars per week. The males and females are
about equally divided, and when well skilled
earn from $l5 to 500 per week. Saturday is
always pay day, when work ceases at 4
| o'clock and the operatives swarm in expec-
tant groups around tho pay office to receive
their compensation, all of which they gen
orally spend before Monday morning, and
much of it in pleasure and fun, for which
they are q noted race.
Forty years ago the main bulk of tobacco,
and especially fine tobacco, was grown in Nir-
ginia, and one of the largest manufacturing
centors was Lynchburg. 1t was then culti-
| waited also to q considerable extent in Tonnes
see, Kentucky, and Missouri, but its cultiva-
tion now has come to be, to some extent,
almost universal in tho country north and
west, and Virginia ranks only fifth in the
tobacco growing states, Kentucky ranking
highest of all. But in the finest grades, and
especially wrappers" Virginia and North
Carolina stand unrivaled and almost alone
the western tobacco being generally of the
darker though rich order, and fills most of the
demands of foreign governments and peoples
especially the armies and navies of the world
Lynchburg was the first place, and some
fifty years ago the first time in which licorice
was used in the manufacture of tobacco as d
sweetening The discoverer of it was JessC
Hare, one of the oldest manufacturers ther
in the world, and it was many years befor,
his secret was uncovered, and licorice became
of general use, as it now is everywhere Mr.
Hare amassed large fortune with his secret
and died, leaving his fortune to his children
and his discovery to the manufacturers of thC
world.