The Penn's Grove record., 1884-01-26

NaAAh tA3 IL AAAANa AtAAAH AlNA RNNNANAHN
dressed and looked as though square
meals were entirely unknown to her
In her arms, wrapped in a tattered old
red shawl. she carried a very dIminutive
specimen of humanity. 1t was on Sun.
day morning that a resident of Cleve.
land first discovered her and was at.
tracted by her actions. She walked
along in the gutter front of the big res
taurants on the square. AMI peered
steadily down into the slime and mud
gathered there Every few moments
she stepped and picked up something
from the ground and slowed it away in
her dress pockets. After each act OF
this kind she would raise her eyes for a
moment to see if any person was Obser-
wing her movements. For half an hom
she continued operations, and then the
baby awoke from its sleep ana sent forth
such a wall as only hungry babes can
give u~tterance to. The mother then
went into the old court house alley and
sat down to nurse the little one back to
sleep. Having accomplished this, she
laid the infant down on the hard stones
near the fence, and, thurstlng her hand
into her pocket, she pulled it forth and
deposited on the stones near the sleep
ing youngsters quantity of half smoked
cigars and stubs which she had picked
from the gutter. All of them were
dirty. In the v%ernaculaT of the boot
black the woman had heen shooting
snipes." After emptying her pocket,
she looked around cautiously and then
lifted her dress skirts up around her
waist. Suspended from the latter and
hanging between the dress and skirts,
was a huge bag which seemed to be at
least half full of something, probably
''snipes.' Into this bag the yellow
faced woman emptied her collection of
cigar stubs. Then she picked up her
uaby and moved away. The reporters
curiosity being excited, he ~accosted the
woman and asked her what she did
with the cigars. She looked disappointed
to learn that She had been watched and
answered very shortly, as she moved
rapidly away.
why | sell them, of course" She
vanished around the corner.
w hat do You buy cigar stubs for?"
the reporter %prOpounded to a manufac-
turer.
eve don't buy any for any purpose"
lie replied, land neither does any first.
class manufacturer. These tenement
house cigar and tobacco makers buy
them, and use them as saloon cigar
filler or make kill me quick smoking
tobacco of them. S~aloonists buy CT
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, a great
deal cheaper. You see the stubs have
to go through four or five operations
before they can be made in any way tit
for use. First they have to be picked
apart and each particular piece washed
III cloar 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 a 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 a 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 a pretty good quality of cigars
as a general thing. A large quantity
of the 'snipeS' are shipped to New York
however, where tenement house manu-
f%actuTers do a 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 a large industry, and
stores by the are opened for the
purchase of the castaway remnants of
cigars. The Italians also deal largely
them."
In 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 a little hole, and by
pressing downward a sharp knife is
moved against the cigar and the tip
am%putated. These machines do the
work that the American |forefathers
used to do witch their teeth. The tips
fall down into a little box, and are
either converted into smoking tobacco
for cigarmakeIs' 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 a very good use. Some twenty
years ago a philanthropic and philo-
sOphical German suggested that a col
lection be made of these tips, and a 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-
the tips. AT first the result
was not very satisfactory, but it was
to encourage the originator.
smoking clubs were organized
for the purpose of collecting tips, and
boxes were placed in all the stores and
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
IF worthy poor in GermOny are clothed
md fed by the money received from the
sale Of tips. The fever was spread
throughout Europe, and in Germany or
Austria the dealer, in selling a cigar,
almost invariably cuts the tip from it
md puts it in a box before handing it
o a purchaser.
An effort was once made to introduce
he system into this country, but it
ANONYMOUSLY, and the tips, if
.ayed at all, are either sold to snuff
mann acturers, smoked by cigar makers
II thrown into the ash barrel. 1t
Gems strange, however, that the plan
# saving them should not work in this
country, where more cigars are smoked
han in all Europe put together.