The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-07
CIGARS AND TOBACCO.
Tie Money Spent in indianapolis on Chewing
and Smoking-DOes II End in Smoke?


The money pulled away in indianapolis every
year in tobacco smclso and represented by wasted
saliva in the common nuisance known as the
enspidor, would more than pay the annual ex-
penses of the city government The aggregate
sam is larger than the surplus cash in any of the
city banks, and if applied to benevolent
uses the money spent in the indulgence Of the
tobacco habit would be sufficient to buy so. 900
Icaves Of bread every day, or nearly 20, 600. 900
ayear. There are eighty-nine retail tobacco
stores in the city, which have an average sale Of
from one to four or Eve hundred cigars day.
There are many other places where
the sale of cigars is an incidental feature Of
business. These include 383 grocery stores, 80
drug stores. 40 hotels, 50 restaurants and 296
saloons. II the sales should average the num-
Der generally claimed by dealers, the trade
would indicate that there are $4,000 cigars
smoked in the city every day Making an al
Iowance Of one-thrd in this calculation
however it may be safely estimated that the
smokers of Indianapolis daily consume so, coo
cigars, or, in the aggregate, IL, 25O. 600 year.
Estimating that the average cost Of these cigars
is cents each, the indulgence Of the tobacco
habit represents an expenditure Of 81, 500 day,
or 1912, 500 q year. which would buy every
woman and girl In the city new dress costing
$40. each year. The various other uses to which
this immense sum of money could be applied lie
q subject for the domestic economist to ponder
over and dwell upon.
Does the history Of your trade indicate an in
crease or decrease in the number of persons
who use tobacco" inquired Journal reporter of
sdown-town dealer yesterday, as he invested in
his customary after-dinner 25-cent Havana.
ssIt has been nv observation that the trade
grows every year. There is not as much
profit in the business as formerly
but there are more smokers and
ehewers It's shameful, SIR but it's true, that
little boys, who can hardly reach up to the
counter to put down their money, come in here
every day to buy tobacco or cigarettes. Many of
them chew, but these generally belong to the
class known as street Arabs--the bootblacks and
year hardly that boys in kneepants don't
come IN here and put down cent for cigar
ette / refuse to sell to them, because there is
20 money in such trade, and it's likely to make
trouble for one in some cases with their parents,
and, then, besides its wrong; but there are lots
Of places where they can buy. and they usually
tell me so when refuse one Of them. That the
number Of chewers and smokers is increasing
ts shown by the growth in the trade.
The effect of hard times is felt in this business
just as in all other branches Of trade, but not
outstanding the depression I sell more now
tina did two or three years ago, although the
profit are not SO large. because smokers buy
cheaper cigars Men who used to smoke ten
cent cigars now buy the cheapest quality of
g0odI They don't want to give up smoking en-
TREY and instead OF quitting they buy either
6ve-cent cigars or cheroots The largest part of
the trade now is in these cheap goods. We sell
q very large number of these three-for Eve and
Ave ten now to men who two or three years
ago bought Havanas It would surprise you,
know. to see how many merchants and business
men buy these threefor-ive cheroots."
What class OF men are your best customers!'
1.-THE men who buy the best cigars and spend
elass--those who get salaries Of from SIS to $25
a week The business men, in depressing
times either buy cheaper cigars or quit
smoking, but they never spend as much
rs the men who work on salary Workingmen,
who only get $40 a week. are better customers
rs class than merchants"
II supposed the dudes were your best Gus
toners"
II wouldn't give continental for the dude
trade They are the cigarette smokers, and
while some of them spend great deal of money
IN that way, the large majority of them
buy only one. two or three at a time, so
you see its penny trade. Still a great many
cigarettes are smoked now. 1t is the most slav-
Jsh habit that smoker can contract When
one becomes an accomplished cigarette smoker,
and acquires the habit Of exhaling the smoke
through the nose, it is almost impossible to quit
We have customers who smoke as many as
twenty and thirty cigarettes a day. and the
habit has grown upon them until they
cannot break it. One young man smokes con-
tinuously. He goes to bed with cigarette in
his mouth and smokes one in the morning before
ne gets up, and during the time he is awake there
is not an hour that he is without one"
What part Of the tobacco trade is most profit
able2"
"A larger profit 10 made on middle-grade
goods than on any other kind. There
is not enough demand now for twenty Ave cent
cigars to make it profitable to make them at
$l75 thousand. The demand is for fve-cent
cigars and for a good quality Of these the
dealer pays $33 thousand. On cheaper goods
the margin Is propcrtionately very much closer
1t is generally supposed that the dealers get the
benefit of the reduction in the tax tobacco, but
It is not so. The consumer gets all the
benefit Where they formerly got only four
pounds Of Havana in thousand scent cigars,
they now get seven and eight pounds while the
manufacturers get 81 thousand more for their
work than they did before the reduc-
ton. The men who make the largest
profit on cigars are the saloonkeepers
They never pay more than from $18 to
$23 thousand for fve-cent cigars while the
desler who must build up trade, cannot afford
to put out cigar costing less than $33 or $35 a
thousand