The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-11-25
RUM AND TOBACCO.
Information of Interest to Tiplers, Chew
ers and Smokers.

WASHINGTON, D. c., November H.
The report of the Commissioner of In
ternal Revenue shows some curious facts.
Interesting ones they are too, though
they may not be especially cheerful to a
certain class of people in this country.
1t will not make the tobacco chewer
enjoy his "chew" any better to know, for
instance, that tobacco factories of the
country use about nine million pounds of
SCRAPS" six million pounds of stems,
twenty million pounds of licorice, seven
ty million pounds of sugar and ten mil
lion pounds of "other materials" in
making the chewing tobacco that they
sell 10 the chewing public in year. But
it is a fact. The report of the Commits
sioner shows it to be the truth. Just
think of it, gentle chewer. A thousand
car loads of scraps and stems, a thou
sand car loads of licnrice, like quantity
of sugar and half as much "other mate
rials," and heaven only knows what this
other material is to make up a mass on
which the chewers are kept busy during
the year. Of course there is little
tobacco put with it to give it an appear.
ance of fairness, but this hard hearted,
truth telling report shows that while
there is seventy million pounds of scraps,
stems, licorice and "other materials"
used in the tobacco factories, there is
turned out only two hundred and ten
million pounds of manufactured tobacco.
So you may consider that one-third of
every "chew" that you masticate is COM
posed of the interesting compound of
stems, licorice, scraps and "otber mate
rials." 1t seems to be pretty hard to
make other than general accusation,
too, for of the one thousand tobacco fac
tories of the country nearly every one
seems to indulge in this sort of thing.
There is another interesting thing
shown by the tobacco feature of the re:
port. It announces that the number OF
cigars and cigarettes manufactured in the
United States in the past year was be-
tween four and FIVE billion. That is
good many, nearly hundred apiece for
every man, woman and child in the coun-
try. The women do not smoke and the
children ought not to, so it leaves about
25O apiece to be distributed among the
men in addition to the fifteen million
pounds of smoking tobacco manufactured
for them. With fifteen million pounds
of smoking tobacco and FIVE thousand
million of cigars and cigarettes at their
demand, it does not seem that the smo'
kers of the country ought to suffer Tor
want of their consoler, or the chewers re-
lax their vigilance while there is over
200 million Of pounds of chewing tobac-
CO being annually manufactured. New
York leads the procession in the manu-
factuye of cigars and cigarettes. She
made q little over billion cigars last
year, aud nearly billion cigarettes. On
the manufacture of tobacco, however, the
empire State takes q back seat, for Vir-
ginia, Missouri and New Jersey each
make more chewing tobacco than New
York. Virginia has 2lS tobacco facto.
ries, a number considerably in excess OF
those in any other State.
The drinking information is quite as
interesting as that pertaining to chewing.
The report, for instance, shows that the
articles used for the manufacture of dis
titled spirits are not only corn and rye,
but also malt, wheat, oats, mill feed,
molasses and even potatoes. This is the
last and most astonishing feature of
whisky making, TO make it of potatoes.
And what is the mure astonishing is that
this potato whisky was made in Ken
lucky, the State which was supposed to
be forever loyal to bourbon whisky.
More than that, she has lately been max
ing rum, and making it out of molasses.
That proud Kentucky should fall to the
depths of making New Eng land rum
and potato whisky, ia, 10 say the least,
very sad.
Among the surprises of the report is
one regarding the quantity of distilled
spirits manufactured in the various States.
There is a general impression that Ken,
lucky makes more whisky than any other
State. That is mistake. The State of
Illinois makes more whisky than any
other. Illinois made 25,O06,O00 gallons
of whisky last year, while Kentucky only
made about 100000 gallons. Yet to.
day Kentucky has 35,000,000 gallons of
whisky in her bonded warehouses, while
Illinois has only a couple of million
gallons. The difference is that Illinois
distilleries make class of whisky that
is saleable when made. while the Ken.
tucky bourbon whisky must lie several
years to attain its best qualities, which
has made it famous over anything Illinois
or anybody else can make. Illinois now
takes the lead in the whisky as well as
the hog business. She makes more
whisky than any other State, and has
the banner district for collections. For
long time the State of Ohio contested
that point with her, and for many years
the Cincinnati district collected more
money than any other in the country.
But Illinois gets away with Ohio now,
and the Peoria district in that State col
lects about 81 100000 year now against
about So, 100000 by the Cincinnati dis
trict.
The fact that the State of Illinois
makes more whisky than any other does
not argue that she has more distilleries
than other States. There were in opera.
ton in the State of Illinois last year
thirty nine distilleries, while in the
State of North Carolina there were in
operation 1856 distilleries. And yet the
State of Illinois makes more whisky in
one day than North Carolina makes in
year. The difference is that Illinois
has few monster distilleries, while those
in North Carolina are little ones, most of
them merely used for distillipg fruit
brandy. Yet there are nearly 400 grain
distilleries in North Carolina, but their
capacity is only for about FIVE bushels of
grain per day each, while the Illinois
distileries use thousands of bushels
day.
The various sections of the country
seem to have habits of their own in re-
gard to production of intoxicants. Hi
nois, Ohio and Indiana make mostly
what is known to the trade as neutral
spirits" or cologne Spirits" which can
be favored and colored and made into
almost any class of goods required. The
bourbon whisky is nearly all made in
Kentucky. Rye whisky is made in
Pennsylvania and Maryland. Nearly
all the fruit brandy made in the country
is manufactured in Virginia, Tennessee,
North Carolina Kentucky and Georgia.
The gin is made mostly in Ohio, New
York, Massachusetts and Illinois. The
rum is nearly all made in New England,
the State of Massachusetts having seven