The daily enterprise. [volume] (Livingston, Mont.) 1883-1884, 1884-02-29
.4,GH-PRlcED CIGARS.
The Weeds That Bring Fancy Prices,
and the Men WHO Buy Them,
New York Sun. !,

and the Men Who Buy Them.
New York SUM-
A young man with neatly brushed
hair and a light-blue necktie stood be-
hind cigar stand in fashionable and
well-known cafe up town the other day.
It was very dull, as the Wall street men
had rot begun to drop in ON their way
home, and the loungers had wandered
out on Broadway. In the case were
cigars Of every variety, from the ordi-
nary 10-cent kind to wicked and pow
erful looking things ten inches long.
'sThe law compels us to sell the
cigars out of the boxes Just as we buy
them" said the clerk feeling for the
sprouts of budding mustache. For
merly we had set of beautifully pol
ished rosewood trays, but we had to
throw them aside"
Every box bore small illuminated
card, on which was the retail price of
the cigars. These cards were 10. Is, 20,
25, 80, As, so and so cents, and two
boxes were marked 81 and $1.50 apiece
respective ely. There were no cigars
missing from the 45-cent box, though
the 50-cent one was almost empty. The
clerk said that if man bought high
priced cigar he preferred to pay the
extra S cents and get one for half
dollar rather than 45 cents.
"At one time we thought it would
add tone to the stand, said the clerk,
ito take off oil price tags, but we found
it wouldn't work. Customers cannot
remember the names of cigars and re-
sort to the figures for Identification.
Besides, the ignorance of the price
often led to awkward situations. A
man would stop at the stand on his way
out with some friends and say:
"sGimme some cigars.
@'What kind?
"Well, he would look about blind1y
for time and finally order half q
dozen Of the kind that struck his fancy.
If they happened to be the S0-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?"
1.-The sale is very uneven. Some
times the box will lie for weeks un-
touched, and then again there will be
o sudden rush on them. I have smoked
a dollar and-a-half cigar" said the clerk
with IL proud smile.
''Did you enjoy it?'
"Not for cent Et was given to me
one night by prominent broker who
had just made bigtnrn on the street
ard felt generous. He bought fifty of
them, and handed them to whoever he
met. I took mine home, and after din
ner on Sunday I invited some friends
in and smoked it. Well, [ s'pose 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 pnrched my
throat and left an unpleasant taste"
"Don't you consider 81 and $1.50
apiece purely fancy prices?"
well, don't know but they are n
bit spectacular. A cigar can be SO
good and no better. On the highest
priced wholesale list the most expen-
siye cigar is the Para la Nobleza, which
sells to the trade for Sab q thousand.
This is a little over Al cents apiece.
They are retailed at any price above 50
cents. We can't sell them at so, be-
cause, singularly enough, everybody
who buys a 50-cent cigar expects threo
for ST."
"What men buy very high-priced
CIGARS"
Nearly all of ouf customers buy as
high as 80 cents, and we sell hundreds
OF 50-cent cigars. The purchasers of
the very expensive ones are u few men
whom could count off on my fingers.
They buy them because they are SO
very expensive, and not because they
like the flavor. suppose that if we
had cigars at $3 apiece, there would be
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