Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-23
FACTS ABOUT CIGARS.
Consumption of the Rolls Increasing
Over a Million a Year.
10000 FACTORIES IN AMERICA.
Americans and Irishmen Have Not Yet En-
barked in the Business.
THE PROCESSES OF MANUFACTURE
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH. .


aged by Germans or Hebrews, while the
smaller and less known places are controlled
by Bohemians, Italians, and occasionally
by Spaniard or Frenchman. The making
of cigars is an industry which thus far has
not been touched by the ordinary American
or Irish business man. Yet it is about the
easiest trade in existence in which man
can become his own master with but slight
expenditure of money, and the market for
the goods is always an open and big one.
The cigarmaker who has $50 in cash and
can secure bondsman, has enough money
for stock and can go into business for him.
SELF The internal revenue charges are
only about S12, and as soon as that amount
is paid and the bonds perfected, the surplus
money will be enough to start with, and
selling his cigars will not be difficult so
the cigarmaker may work without fearing
masters frown. Why more of the expert
makers in the trade do not launch out for
themselves is one of the inexplicable mys-
teries of these usually industrious and hard
working class of skilled artisans.
How many cigars can an expert workman
make in a week?
Well, now and then, there will be a
steady, energetic fellow who may have ], 500
tc his credit at the end of the week, but
such cases are very rare indeed. Many of
the men who do not squander their time
recklessly can turn out about 1000 per
week, but most of them handle few over 800,
and the largest number of workers are salts
fed if they can have wages for 600 when
their weekly payday arrives.
THE PAY THEY GET.
They are paid all the way from $15 to S35
thousand, according to the style and grade
of the article, for the high grade cigar de-
mands more care and labor than those which
are sold two for cents. All the very cheap
classes are composed Of the wrapper, binder
and filler, but the best handmade cigar
has nothing but the filler and wrapper.
q to this time human ingenuity has failed
to perfect any machine that can successfully
compete with a pair of hands in making a
cigar All the articles that are needed now
adays to fashion frst-class cigar are the
stock, a sharp knife like that used by shoe
makers, cutting board and the knowledge
of how to use the materials. But before the
raw material reaches the bench of the maker
there is considerable work to be done with
it. and quite number of people earn decent
wages in doing it.
When the bales of tobacco are delivered
at the factory the first thing done with the
raw material is to dampen it, and when this
is done it is turned over to the 'strippers.
These strippers are usually girls of from 12
to 18 years of age, and they are often very
expert and always very apt and quick at
their work, which is both hard and disa-
greeable, and has not the compensation of
being well raid labor. They cannot earn
more than Sc a week, and most of them do
not carry home that amount with them
from the factory every Saturday.
THE STEMS UTILIZED.
Their work consists in tearing away the
leaves from the stem OF the plant, and the
''clesn stripper" will not leave quarter of
an inch of leaf tobacco upon a hundred
stems. Formerly these stems were thrown
aside as refuse and as useless, but of late
they have been utilized in many WAYS that
make them valuable, so that they are now
another source OF profit to the manufacturer.
After the stripping is completed, and the
stems examined by forewoman to see that
every scrap of leaf tobacco has been taken
from the stems, the leaves are dried and
cleaned, and then they are ready for the
workmen. They are not, however, given
out to him without careful account being
taken of the amount of stock furnished him,
and for that purpose the stuff is weighed in
his presence and his receipt taken Tor it.
The number OF cigars which he is to deliver
over for the stock handed to him
is then calculated, and the number
is made to depend upon the size of the
cigars, the closeness of their packing and
the amount OF tobacco necessary to make a
filler. Sometimes TO pounds will make
a thousands cigars and again it may require
from IA to 16 pounds of stock to supply the
same number. These calculations are so
easily and perfectly made between the
workman and foreman that there is scarcely
ever any dissatisfaction on either side. OF
course, it is always understood that an ex-
pert workman, no matter how closely he is
cut down in material, will always have
enough stock lett to make
AFEw EXTRA CIGARS
for his own use, and he never fails to do 50,
though the rule against it is extremely strict
but very seldom enforced. Generally in the
large factories workman is kept as far as
possible on one brand of cigars, as that
facilitates his labors, for he can almost close
his eyes and pick up with single move
ment Of his fingers ust sufficient tobacco to
supply his filler. When the filler is ready
the stock is picked up quickly and dropped
into it, and the expert getting it into form
In an instant, wraps around it large
smooth leaf that is called the binder. Then
a ribbon of fine leai, with as little grain as
possible in it, is rolled rom the butt Of the
cigar obliquely around it till it reaches the
top, where it is fastened with gum, and the
cigarmaker's work is at an end. The fore
man inspects the cigars one by one, and ii
they pass his criticism they are handed over
to the buncher, and thence they 60 to the
packer and are ready for market,
Ii he be a Spanish cigarmaker-and that
class of workmen in this trade are credited
with being the most expert in the world-he
picks up very deftly broken leaf and rolls
it downward with his right hand to form
the filler. American cigarmakers strange
to say, always roll the leaf upward and to-
ward them.
FACTS ABOUT THE ROLL.
OF course the filler is the most important
portion of the cigar. Experts will tell you
that if the grain OF the leaf is so arranged
as to run parallel along the length of the
cigar it will burn well and level, but if not
the cigar will draw with difficulty and so
burn that it will require a dozen lightings
to keep it in suckable condition until 1t is
burned out.
How many cigar factories are there in the
United States?
Probably 10000 regular registered shops,
large and small, where the work is carried
on. There are in New York City probably
about 200 regular registered shops, large
and small, and their number is being added
to every month, for scarcely any industry in
this nation has shown a more rapid increase
within the last few years. The reports from
the Commissioners OF Internal Revenue
make it evident that for some time past
more than 1000, O0o, 900 of cigars have been
manufactured in the United States every
year in excess of the number placed on the |
market during the year preceding.