The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-01-01
Cigar Smoking in Havana.

All Cuba smokes like a fire of damp
wood. The only places in which the smok-
ing is not constant are the churches and
the beds. The nice woman are said not to
smoke, and probably do not, but you see
women in the incest houses smoking, some
times openly and sometimes furtively.
Outside of the nice quarters of town every
body smokes. The old women are to be
seen with their lips strained around huge
black cigars, and young ones Whit cigars
with algrace that fills smoker with envy.
The Spaniards and Cubans Of the male
sex are simply at it all the time they are
awake.
was seated with the wealth and fash
lion of Cienfuegos in little open air the
atre. from which the heavy evening dew
was kept by huge sail of canvas stretched
from wall to wall. The scene was most
strange and beautiful to Northern ewes.
The glorious full-orbed women had come
in summer silks, with mantillas of white
and black lace pinned to their tresses. and
sat with their gorgeous great fans waving
in unison, now hiding and now disclosing
their charming faces, many of which, to
my establishment, were as fair as those of
Sweden. Their husbands and lovers.
all swarthy and black haired, and some Of
them Adonises in form and feature. were
clad in light silk and drills that helped to
make life delicious in that climate. and
that give color and beauty to every scene
where men assembled. The first act came
to an end and the curtain fell. Crack
cr-r-r-a-a-ck! cr-r-r-r.ack! went some-
thing aloud enough to make me stare in
my seat. 1t was as though part of the
house was giving warning that it was
about to fall. Every man with one move
ment had scratched a swapping match
across the sandpaper end Of a box and
was lighting his cigarette. Cigarette
smoking does not count, as Rip Van Win.
kle would say. 1t is not considered, ap-
parently.
- OH strangers smoke too much when
you come here ~ said Don Figuerado to
me. You seem to be always lighting
a cigar
For Heavens sakeI'' said I. ibid
you ever see an Englishman smoke as
much as you do ~
'.Oh, [ smoke but little, . said he 'sonly
four or five good cigars a day. One after
my coffee, one after my breakfast, one
after my dinner, and one or two in the
night
''Oh, very few. Say Two packs day. y
There are nineteen cigarettes in pack
They are made of black tobacco. but big
ger than we use. But the extent to which
smoking is INDUCED there is beyond
belief. The boys in the streets have
to remove their cigarettes to ask you to
buy sugar cakes, or lottery tickets, or to
let them black your shoes or carry your
bundles. The women, sitting doing over
their little heaps of fish, fruit, or vegeta-
,, bles, having great black bolts between
their teeth. The conductors in the rail-
way cars exchange cigarettes with pas
sen ers. the priests smoke like philoso-
pheres, the negro latorers emit fumes like
luIudCcS ONC4 hOlh, "liO ulS $5CdClClhSA
smoke as they wait in the restaurants for
the execution Of their orders, and again
after eating, and before they quit the
tables. The idea that nobody who has
not Irish blood in his veins can light a
match in the wind is preposterous. A
Cuban can light his cigarette gracefully
in hurricane. They light cigarettes as
they dash along on horseback, while they
manage boats in a gale of wind in the har-
bors, as they walk in the windy streets,
and as they sit in the draughty open
houses and they dont't make an effort
over it as the Irishman does, standing
still and holding the match in just such
way to shelter it. They simply strike
light whenever they fee. like it, without
any preparation or interruption.
The worst trouble a stranger has is to
get a cigar that suits him. Those on sale
are all as black as the quintessence of coal
tar. The Colorado Claro is not to be had
| in Cuba--at least / could not find it in
Havana, Matanzas, Colon, Cienfuegos, or
Santiago, and ether foreigners echoed the
same complaint. The light cigars go to
England The average cigar on sale in
Cuba is only fit to smoke after hearty
meals. Smoked on an empty stomach, it