Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1886-12-22
HAVANA TOBACCO.
How the Material for Imported.
Cigars is Raised.
The Fragrant Cuban Weed-Connecticut
and Virginia Products Which Smok-
ers Use with Pleasure-wlscon-
sin Coming to the Front.
IChicagn NeWs.1

tChicago News
A Chicagoan who has Just returned from
a visit to Cuba gave a reporter some inter
esting facts about the ''city of cigars"
"Plenty of bad cigars in Havanai" he
said. "Yes, indeed. You can buy just as
vile trash there as that sold by the lowest
Chlnaman who peddles cigars at cent a
piece in the slums of New York" When
you remember that there are more than
one hundred and fifty cigar manufactures
in Havana alone it is not surprising that
great many bad cigars are found there.
The oldest factory in Cuba was founded
in 1903 by Don Francisco Cabanos, to whose
descendants it now belongs. When it was
first started they used to sell only about
100000 or 100000 cigars year. In 1926 the
sales increased to 1000, 900, and by 1875 they
were sending out 100000 cigars yearly
to all parts of the world. The firm owns
three vegas, or tobacco farms. and the
amount raised upon these reaches about
5000 bales, 1,O00of these being exported, as
the factory does not use common grades.
'1s Havana tobacco really the best for
cigarsi Yes, l believe it is generally &C
knowledged by experts to be the finest
favored, though some consider that grown
on the Mexican coast its equal in flavor,
and Connecticut tobacco is certainly its
superior as wrapper. A Cuban vega is
quite pretty sight. The plant grows to
height of from six to nine feet. and has OBJ
long, spear-shaped leaves, the tobacco
being stronger when only few leaves are
permitted to grow. When young the leaves
are a dark-green color, and have rather a
smooth appearance, but they afterward
change to a yellowish green. The plant
grows quickly, and by careful pruning
they obtain fine -colored leaf. varying from
straw color to dark brown or black. 1t
takes about eight or ten weeks to ripen.
and the leaves grow thicker all the time.
The plant throws out quite pleasant odor
while growing, like most tropical plants.
The blossom is a bright pink.
''There is very strict cigar etiquette in
Havana, and to infringe any of its rules is
construed as an insult. For instance.
when you are asked for q light, to hand
your cigar without first knocking off the
ashes is considered terrible breach of
etiquette; though even that is not so bad
as passing cigar handed you to obtain a
light from to third person for similar
purpose. The rule is to hand back the
cigar with as graceful wave as you can
command, and then, if necessary, pass
your own cigar to the third person. In
Cuba every one smokes-men. women and
children. Cigars are so plentiful that the
usual custom, when you ask for a light,
even from stranger (Which, by the way,
no one hesitates to do), is to pull out your
case and offer him cigar, by way of ac-
knowledging his civility in stopping to ac-
commodatc you. To refuse cigar from a
Cuban is to offer him a direct insult.
'Yes, it is quite true tbat Cuban ladies
occasionally indulge in the weed, though
not nearly to so great an extent as is
usually reported. Another mistaken.no-
tion is that Cubans smoke their cigars
green. On the contrary, the leaf is always
entirely dried before being touched by the
manufacturer. People down there are
very particular indeed to preserve the
aroma and fragrance of their cigars by
keeping them in wrappers of oiled and
soft silks and some gentlemen have these
produced at their tables with as much
ceremony as an Englishman uses when he
brings out his old wine"
The great rival of Havana tobacco is
grown in Connecticut, and is known as
Connecticut Seed-Leafn Though it's
flavor is inferior to that of the Gu
ban tobacco its texture is a great
deal finer and it is considered
much more desirable for cigar-wrap-
pers. The plant is a very strong and
vigorous, and more snowy than any other
and large and the leaf broad and graceful
i'm color either light or dark cinnamon.
1t has been grown in Connecticut for more
than century, and attains its greatest
perfection in the rich meadows of the Con-
nectlcut valley. Tobacco was introduced
INTO Ohio about the same time it was first
known in Connecticut, and the Buckeye
state now produces large quantities, used
chiefly for chewing and smoking Wis
consin has largely come to the fore as a
to0acco-growing State, and large crops
have been raised there during the last few
years.
Virginia tobacco has had a reputation for
more than two hundred and fifty years.
II was one of the first products
cultivated by the English set
tiers, and had made name for
ITSELF IN less than quarter of a century
after the first settlement of the colony.
Inc plant grows to the height of from FIVE
10 seven feet, the leaves being long and
broad The finest Virginia tobacco comes
from the mountainous counties, but the
amount is small compared to the large
Quantities raised on the lowlands of the
Dan and James rivers. James river to-
oacco is known all over the world, and
the same ground is cultivated and planted
with tobacco now as in 1870.
~ Is now nearly four hundred years
since the sailors of Columbus first noticed
the use of tobacco by the natives, when
exploring the island OF Cuba, and since
tnat time nearly every year has seen the
plant introduced in some new portion of
the world. till to-day it is found growing
through snch wide range of temperature
as that included between the equator and
Moscow in Russia latitude 56 degrees
An astonishing amount of ltferatr, re has
been produced on the subject of tobacco.
The verso which has been written in
praise as well as dispraisc Of the Indian
novelty would Of itself I'LL a volume
Byron Southey. Henry Fielding, Thomas
Hood, and many others equally famous
have all written in eulogy of what BYRON
calls sublime tobaccoun Charles Lambs
verses in which he alternately bIamcs and
praises his beloved weed are we'll known
Ho ends however, by declaring; - 49,
For thy sake, Tobacco, I 80 We
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