St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-03-17
BRANDS OF CIGARETTES.
There Are Two Hundred of Them.
and the Consumption Is lncreas-

and the Consumption Is lncreas-
ing.
"How many different brands of Amer
lean cigarettes do l sell? LET'S see.
Well, to tell the truth, it never occurred
to me TO count them. I'll do it now"
And the tobacconist turned to the cab
met in which he displays his assOrt-
ment of tobacco rolls in paper wrappers.
There are fifty-siX kinds, but don't
run away with the impression that these
l have here represent ali the brands
there are in the market, for they
don't by long shot. only
keep in stock the production of
the FIVE leading manufacturers, which
find the readiest sale. There isn't much
| profit in the things anyway, and only
keep them for the same reason that
| druggists sell postage stampS-as an ac-
commodation for customers. The gross
| profit on each package is only from one
| to two cents, and when the cost of
handling, rent, freight and other sun
| dries are put against that you can't find
| the net pront with microscope. pre-
| sumo it would be no eXaggeratiOn to say
| that there are 200 brands in the market.
| New kinds are being brought out al
| most daily, and while some of them
catch on and live, others are drug on
tue stock"
"How do you aecount for the rapid
increase in cigarette smokers ?"
"Well, that is sticker. Perhaps it's
streak of economy, for, you
know, you can buy twenty cigarettes
for the cost of one good cigar. and they
90 good deal farther. Fifteen years
ago there wasn't cigarette made in
Na ,t,.,, O,.I,N IN hat
occasionally see man or boy putting
at an imported cigarette, but not often.
Then there were only three or four
brands imported, and they retailed at
25 cents for packages of twenty. They
were loosely rolled in heavy, molasses-
mixed brown paper, and it required
considerable deXterity to reroll them
into smokable shape. The pioneer in
making the American cigarette was
young man named Kinney. His father
had left him a comfortable fortune,
and he was looking around for a
safe investment for it, when he
became Impressed with the awk-
ward shape of the Cuban cigarettes. and
determined to establish new industry
in this country, making cigarette that
few girls. he began to carry his ideas
into effect in loft in one of New York's
downtown buildings. His goods made
an almost immediate hit, and before
intatorS began to spring up around
him by the score he had piled up a
goodly fortune. He now has three i'm
mense factories, has invented and uses
machines for turning out thousands of
the little cigas automatically every
hour. and has made 81 000.0O0 or S3,000.-
00O out of the industry. At first boys
were the largest consumers. but as the
quality of the tobacco began to be I'M
proved adults contracted the habit. The
increase in their use during the past
two years | attribute to the fashion of
serving them, instead Of cigars. with
formal dinners. At some dinners cigar
cites are served as often as three or
four times between potage and lIqueur
They break the rapid succession of
courses and divide the meal into chap
ters, so to speak.
mo, you cannot tell anything about
the quality of the cigarettes by the rich
ness of the package that hollis them.
Fine feathers do not make fine birds.
Here, for instance, is our highest priced
cigarette. 1t is made in London and
retails for S. hundred. The box, you
notice, is of pasteboard, covered with
cheap glazed paper, and the
name OF the brand and maker
is printed on it in black without any at
tempt at artistic ornamentation. Lift
ing the cover we find cigarettes-noth-
ing more. Here. on the other hand, is
one OF the cheapest grades. We sell
them for so cents a hundred. The box is
handsomely Autographed in variety of
colors, and in it we find neatly
mounted photograph of Mary Anderson,
a tiny vial af cachous. and leahet stat
ing that any one sending the manu-
facturer fifty of these will receive a
handsome album containing pictures of
fifty leading actars. How any margin
for profit is left for the makers is mys-
terry to me, but those with whom we
deal are certainly piling up big for
tunes"