Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1883-11-15
HIGH.PRICED CIGARS.
The Weeds that Bring Fancy Prices
and the Men Who Buy Them.

A young man with neatly-brushed hair
and light-blue necktie stood behind a
cigar stand in fashionable and well-known
cafe uptown the other day. 1t was very
dull, as the Wall-street men had not begun
to drop in on their way home and the loun-
gers had wandered out on Broadway. In
the case were cigars of every variety, from
the ordinary ten-cent kind to wicked and
pOwerful-loOking things ten inches long.
"The law compels us to sell the cigars
out of the boxes just as we buy them," said
the clerk, feeling for the sprouts of bud
ing moustache. Formerly we had a set of
beautifully polished rosewood trays, but
we had to throw them aside"
Every box bore small illuminated card
on which was the retail price of the cigars.
Those cards were 10, Is, 20 %, 80, 45, so
81 and $50 apiece respectively. There
were no cigars missing from the Accent
box, though the 5O-cent one was almost
empty. The clerk said that if a man
bought high-priced cigar he preferred to
pay the extra five cents and get one orhalf
a dollar rather than forty-fve cents.
''At one time we thought it would add
tone to the stand" said the clerk, ''to take
off all the price tags, but we found it
wouldn't work. Customers cannot remem-
Der the name of cigars, and resort to figures
for Identification. Besides, the ignorance
of the prices often lead to awkward situa-
tions. A man would stop at the stand on
his way out with some friends and say:
"'Gimme some cigars
"'What kind?'
"Well, he would look about blindly for a
time and finally order half dozen of the
kind that struck his fancy. If they hap
pened to be the eighty cent or dollar variety
he would pay the bill, but he would never
buy of us again. So we put the tags back
again
''Do you sell many cigars at dollar
apiece ?''
"The sale is very uneven. Sometimes
the box will lie for weeks untouched, and
then again there will be sudden rush on
them. | have smoked dOllar-and- half
cigar" said the clerk with proud smile
Did you enjoy it?"
"NOt for cent. 1t was given to me one
night by prominent broker who had just
made big turn on the street and felt gen.
erous. He bought 80 of them and handed
them to whoever he met. / took mine,
home, and after dinner l invited some of
my friends in and smoked it. Well, I
suppose I'm not up in extra fine cigars, for
didn't get bit of comfort out of that
one. 1t was so strong that it parched my
throat, and left very unpleasant taste in
my mouth
Don't you consider 81 and $3.50 apiece
purely fancy prices 2"
swell, don't know but they are bit
specular. A cigar can be so good and no
better. On the highest priced wholesale
list the most expensive cigar is the Para la
Nobleza, which sells to the trade for $413
a thousand. This is little over forty-one
cents apiece. They are retailed at any
price above fifty cents. We can't sell them
at fifty, because singularly enough. every
body who buys fifty-cent cigar expects
three for a dollar"
What men buy very high-priced cigars?"
Nearly all of our customers buy as high
as thirty cents, and we sell hundreds of
fifty-cent cigars The purchasers of the
very expensive ones are few men whom
could count on my fingers. They buy
them because they are SO very expensive.
and not because they like the flavor l
suppose that if we had cigars at So apiece
there would be purchasers"