Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-05-07
THE HOME OF THE HAVANA.

Some of the Secrets of the Great Indus
try of Cuba-The Status of the Cigar
makers.
"There is no country so eminently
qualified to satisfy the desideratum of
the smoker" said an old tobacco mer-
chant, who has spent his best years
in the West Indies, ''as the island of
Cuba. Not only are the finest species
of the tobacco plant from there, but
also a superior woody fiber for bund-
ling and cedar wood for boxing, which
so materially contribute to improve
cigars"
The manufacture of CT gars in Havana
is carried on with more care, skill and
thoroughness than in any part of the
world. 1t is greatly to this circum-
stance that the finer aroma and flavor
of cigars made there are due. Natural
differences in the various kinds of
tobacco and climatic causes, of course,
have much to do with this superior
aroma and flavor; but, even if other
countries had the Havana plant, they
could not produce the same excellent
cigars. One reason why cigarmakers
in Cuba are more skillful is because
they coniine themselves to one brand
only. The cigars are made with such
exactitude and perfection that they
appear to have been nodded. Not the
smallest stem or rib is allowed to show
in any one of the four or five layers
of Havana used. The genuine Havana
has fragrance, apart from that
which the quality Of the leaf and care
full seasoning imparts. which must be
attributed to the modus operandi of
the cigar-maker and the methods of
manufacturing. Our favorite brand
is manufactured Immediately after
the plant has gone through
the process of fermentation,
and while the leaf is almost color
less. Some people think that fresh to-
bacco is more easily handled, because
it is softer and more elastic, but in re-
atty this is not so. Most kinds of to-
bacco in Havana must be immersed in
water before they can be worked. Gel
lars are unknown there, and, in conse-
quence, tobacco becomes drier by heat
and draughts than in other countries.
Havana tobacco undergoes fermenta-
ton twice, first when it is laid up in
heaps, and again when it is packed in
bales. The stronger and heavier kinds
require seasoning of eight months be-
fore they attain such decree of color
ing that they can be used. If the leaves
are worked much earlier they yield
principally third-class cigars.
The Cuban cigar-makers are mainly
colored people, although many creoles
and Spanish emigrants engage in the
trade. The cigar-makers form the
toughest and most miserable part of
the population of Havana. Their con-
duct is regulated by the good or poor
yield of the tobacco crop. Ii the yield
is good and abundant there is hardly
any way to manage the men properly,
as a great want of workmen is then felt.
If the crop is poor there are plenty Of
hands. and with the reduction of wages
they become quite tractable. When
high wages are paid the cigar-makers
become unmanageable, and manufac
turers use every means to entice labor
ers from one house to another, often
bribing and loaning money with no
prospect of ever being repaid. Hun
dreds of dollars are spent sometimes in
inducing a single workman to leave
one place for another. In times of
scarcity of hands the State prisoners
are released. In 1851 the government
freed eight hundred convicts to supply
the wants of tobacco manufactures.
One great nuisance, that in
this country We do not feel,
consists in having to pay to employees
their earnings three times per day.
Havana furnishes the world with
,igars, and in no other place in the