The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-08-27
CIGARETTE MAKING.


w CSI BE WONDROC Us NEAI
Strippers, Filters and Packers = SHE
Wanted Boy. to Eat-A True Litl1o'
phagous Savage-Towed by a snake
Bruised by Sympathy.
Do you know how cigarettes are made
l did not until one day this week, when
in company with a friend, / made my
way to the easternmost district of the
city, passing Tompkins square. There
in the joyment of its vernal beauty, were
gathered a vast commandery of mothers
and an individually small but numerically
gigantic army of children.
On through Tenth street, through the
densely populated locality with its vary
ing grades of apartments, tenements and
flats, it's little shops of butcher, baker
and candlestick maker, toy and lollypop
vender, to Avenue d. where on the corner
rises the spacious factory of the Consoll-
dated Cigarette Company.
Sitting in an atmosphere family per
vaded with the fragrance of the plant
fell to musing on the many celebrated
men who are passionate devotees to the
weed, from those who take their Latakia
in the carved and delicate meerschaum to
those who coquette with Havana i'll the
modern famous 'all-tobacco cigarette"
What an array of illustriouS smokers can
the history of tobacco record!
But this point in my reyerie was inter
rupted by the announcement that the
guide was ready to accompany me over
assembled to the second floor, where a hun-
bred or SO of men, women and girls were
engaged in stripping the leaf.
The tobacco, which is pure Havana, IS
received from Cuba in small packages,
called by the French term of carottes, and
which is pressed and bound tightly 20
gether like a bale of hay. Before these
parcels are sent to the stripping-room
they are subjected to a preparation which
is technically called "casing 81" which is
the loosening, separating and wett1ng OF
the leaves in order to free them from
dust or any foreign matter that may have
lodged on them-in fact, to thoroughly
cleanse them. The wetting also renders
them pliable and softer to work. A few
days usually elapse before they are sent
to the strippers.
Having reached the stripping depart
ment, where the employed are seated
with a supply of material by their sides,
the leaves are opened and the thick stems
are taken from them and thrown into
large boxes placed conveniently to receive
them. The leaves intended to serve as
wrappers are smoothed out, and a thick
pile of them is soon stacked on the lap OF
the worker, the stems that are cast aside
being frequently sold, to be used as a fer
tilizer on tobacco fields.
The portions of the leaf intended for
filters are put into large wooden trays,
and carefully dried by a slow process, as
only dry material can be used. Some
times unfaYorable weather retardS the
drying, and labor has to be temporarily
suspended for lack of material in proper
condition to be used. but this is not OF
frequent occurrence.
The filler, when sufficiently dried, is
sent to q large apartment on the next
story, where the work called punching
the cigarette" is done. This room is
fitted with work benches, divided of by
low partitions to prevent he tobacco OF
two adjoining makers becoming mixed,
and before these benches are seated the
operatives-men, women, boys and girls
who work by the piece and are paid ac-
cordingly. CHANGING at the feminine
workers in this department, my own sex
naturally attracting the largest share OF
nv attention, / noticed that as in the
stripping room they comprised girls and
women from sixteen to forty years of age,
and presented a uniformly good appear
ance in feature and clothing. Their
dresses were tidy and clean, and they
worked industriously and expertly, max
ing records of labor quite equal to "the
superior SEX employed in the same de-
partnlent. They were holding no CONVEX
sation among themselves, but pursuing
their vocation with apparent interest and
unquestionable industry. | did not in
quire if conversation was forbidden, but
they did appear to be acting under re-
straint. Cleanliness u order were evil
dent throughout the room; there was no
refuse or deleterious matter about; every
effort evidently being made to produce a
clean, pure article, in the eve popular
but much abused cigarette.
Each operative took from the, supply of
tobacco before her a bit of leaf, which she
smoothed on the board in front of her,
and taking up a little heap of filler rolled
it tightly in it's folds, shaping it deity
with her fingers into the form of a cigar
cite, and placed it in a long, narrow block
of wood. which had grooves cut in it fol
lowing the shape of the cigarette, this
groove being intended to hold it in place
until it reached the wrapping department
| on the floor above, where only the most
expert and experienced hands are en-
ployed. This process of wrapping con
sists of putting on the outer leaf or wrap.
per.
Before work tables Of similar construc
ton to those used by the bunchmakerS,
| another army of girls and women was
| ranged, and with deXterity II rapidity
they removed the punched cigarettes from
their grooved castings and rolled them
into the outer wrapper, fastening the
cover at the small end and securing it in
place with q little particle of paste that
lies on a dish beside them. The larger
| end, or the one which is to be lighted, is
then placed into u little cutting machine
which chops the end Off fairly and
squarely, and the cigarette then presents
| a completed appearance. Placing it in q
little receptacle for the finished cigarette,
the worker proceeds with another in the
| same way, and one marvels at the rapidity
with which they are accommodating at heI
side.-NeW York Star.
Queer Appetites.
Whilst some people eat too much and
others nearly starve themselves, there is
another class of eaters who do Dot care
what they eat or how they eat it, and some
r L l-xro ,-ary ,.a1,,1so.