The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1886-01-23
FACTs ABOUT TOBACCO.

"
Manifestations and limitations.
"Men do not chew tobacco nova
days." remarked lesiing tobacconist
of this city.
How is thatp" asked the astonisheo
reporter.
when you call for plug of to
bacco.'' replied the dealer you certainly
get modicum of the fragrant leaf. but
it bears only small proportion to the
amount of other ingredients with which
it is combined. The leaf is dipped in a
heavy solution of rum, molasses. licorice
glycerine and other 'favoring' sub
stances until it absorbs fully seventy
five per cent. of them. Time was when
the tobacco was the principal part Of
the plug; to-day, however. only the
filler and wrapper are of the weed pure
and simple, and, as l have said. they
are only as one to four in the weight
added of foreign ingredients. i think
this accounts for the growing tendency
of Young persons to the chewing habit.
The odOr which comes from the breath
of the chewer, you may have noticed, is
not that of tobacco, but of iicorice, and
the new and most popular brands are
those which contain most sweetening.
But no matter how the plug is made Il
sells, and the sales are increasing.
Some of the new-style plugs bear fancy
names, being called after well known
brands of champagne, wines and spirits.
and the chewer is led to believe that
genuine champagne or old port ente,
into the decoction with which the leaf
is dosed. This is, of course. merely an
appeal to the Imagination. and the wine
or spirit flavor is partly due to q more
or less large compound of the ingre.
dents / have named, with. no doubt.
an increased admixture of rum or low
grade alcohol"
us there large profit in plug to
bacco?" asked the reporter.
mot at the present time except to the
manufacturer. The retail trade is very
much cut up, and suppose in no other
business is there SO much close CON-
petition. As soon as man establishes
tobacco store and works up a trade
with fair prices and moderate margin
of profit he is speedily handicapped by
spectators. who will start next door, or
in the immediate vicinity, and make
trade by underselling even if they have
to sell at wholesale prices to secure that
end"
''Is fine-cut subjected to this heavy
style of davoringP'
ITO some extent it is, but the flavor
ing and other ingredients is largely lost
by evaporation when the tobacco is cut,
consequently man has more genuine
tobacco in an ounce of fine-cut than in
four ounces of plug. Strange to say.
however. the consumption of fine-cut
has been steadily decreasing Of late
years, and believe in Chicago alone
only one-quarter of the amount is sold
to-day that was sold fifteen years ago."
us it not fact that the chewing
habit is on the declineg'
1T is among persons of position and
culture. Among the working people
the habit is on the increase, and it is to
them that the manufacturers look for
the bulk of their trade"
HAS smoking increased in proper.
ton to the decrease of the chewing
habit?"
ut undoubtedly has. Domestic cigars
are improving in quality and diminish
ing in price. Before the war domestic
cigars were both good and cheap. but
after the war they deteriorated in quail
ity and increased in price, and the
habitual smokers either resorted to the
pipe or if they could afford it, smoked
imported cigars. To-day there are
thousands of brands of five cent cigars.
One New York house alone has copy
righted one thousand different brands
Are favored cigars in demand?"
mot so much as formerly. The
'perfumed' cigar. as it was termed, is
happily a thing of the past, and ex-
perienced smokers always ask for an un-
favored cigar, well knowing that opium
is used more or less in all cigar favors.
BY the use of flavoring mixtures the
poorest kind of tobacco, cheap Penn
sylvania or low-grade Connecticut, can
be utilized, the wrappers stained to any
desirable color, either colorado or
'maduro.' and the young smoker easily
deceived; and not the young smoker
only, for only one man in fifty is con-
noisseur of cigars and knows an i'm.
ported regalia from clear seed highly
favored. The cheapest grades of cigars
are wholesaled at from eight to eleven
dollars per thousand. which allows
an enormous margin of profit These
grades include the celebrated 'elec-
ton smokers and brown-paper
weeds. The best fve-cent cigars,
made of Havana filler. either long or
scrap, with good Pennsylvania or even
imported Sumatra wrapper, cost the
dealer all the way from twenty-eight to
forty-five dollars per thousand. Only
those dealers with good clientele can
afford to sell the high-priced goods al
five cents, and then only as leader
Within the last two or three years
Eastern manufacturers have established
factories in Key West, Fla. and have
mt on the market large nuautitiac r,f