Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1884-01-23
PENNA.. WEDNESDAY. JANUARY %. ISS

class manufacturer. These tenement
house cigar and tob blccO makers buy
| them, and use them as saloon cigar
filler or make kill me quick smoking
tobacco of them. SalOOnists buy ci-
gars made of this refuse stuff and palm
them off on half drunken persons as
| pure Havana fillers.' We can't use
them at all, because we can buy the
good tobacco in the first place, great
deal cheaper. You see the stubs have
to go through four or five operations
before they can be made in any way fit
for use. First they have to be picked
apart and each particular piece washed
in clear water. Then they are submit
ted to a thorough resweating. After
all this, the odOr of smoke will remain,
and to take this away very strong rum
must be used. All this takes time and
time is money to US. Consequently we
believe it is cheaper to buy the tobacco
in the first place and make good cigars.
These tenement house dealers get
most of their trade from the low grog
shops and saloons, and as consequence
don't think it is necessary to put the
stubs through all these operations.
They simply wash them and use them
in that condition for filler or cut them
up into tobacco. They pay these snipe-
shooters all the way from six to eight
cents pound for the stubs and make
money on the investment. too. There
is very little Of such traffic going on in
this city and Cleveland manufacturers
turn out pretty good quality of cigars
as general thing. A large quantity
of the 'snipes' are shipped to New York
however, where tenement house manu-
facturers do thriving business. Per
haps some of them return to US in the
shape OF manufactured goods. In
France this business Of collecting cigar
stumps IS quite large industry, and
stores by the score are opened for the
purchase of the castaway remnants of
cigars. The Italians also deal largely
in them"
II all cigar stores and at almost every
cigar stand are little nickel-plated ma
chimes to be used by smokers to cut off
the tips of cigars. The but-end of the
cigar is inserted in little hole, and by
pressing downward sharp knife is
moved against the cigar and the tip
amputated. These machines do the
work that the American forefathers
used to do with their teeth. The tips
fall down into a little box, and are
either converted into smoking tobacco
for cigarmakers' own use or manufac-
tured into snuff. They are too small
to make saleable smoking tobacco or
cigar filler. In Europe these tips are
put to very good use. Some twenty
years ago a philanthropic and philo-
sophical German suggested that col
lection be made of these tips. and sale
made to snuff dealers and that the rev.
enue resulting be applied to charitable
purposes, The philosopher was laughed
at but he persisted that much valuable
tobacco was being thrown away that
might be converted into ready cash.
His idea finally attracted so much at
tention that boxes were put up in all
the cigar stores for the purpose of re-
ceiving the tips. At first the result
was not very satisfactory, but it was
sufficient to encourage the originator.
Finally smoking clubs were organized
for the purpose OF collecting tips, and
boxes were placed in all the stores and
saloons where cigars were sold. Every
month the collections were made and
the tips sold. The result was a most
handsome revenue, and to day hundreds
OF worthy poor in Germony are clothed
and fed by the money received from the
sale of tips. The fe yer was spread
throughout Europe, and in Germany OF
Austria the dealer, in selling a cigar,
almost invariably cuts the tip from it
and puts it in box tefore handing it
to purchaser.
An effort was once made to introduce
the system into this country, but it
failed ignominiously, and the tips, if
saved at all, are either sold to snuff
mann: acturers, smoked by cigar makers
or thrown into the ash barrel. 1t
seems strange, however, that the plan
of saving them should not work in this
country, where more cigars are smoked
than ia all Europe put together.