Morning journal and courier., 1890-09-17

the cigar has been in the country. The stamps are finely made in order to prevent counterfeit; there is more tracery and wig nette work than on the ordinary revenue stamp.
 When the import stamp has been pasted on the box the internal revenue stamp is put on before the cigars can be sold. The internal revenue stamp is a cheaper affair on bluish-green paper. It is cancelled at the same time that it is put on, and with stamp which, if it were plain, might show the date; but this stamping is done much more hastily, and does not aid in the his tory of the cigar.
 A cigar box with an internal revenue stamp on it and no import stamp does not once in fifty times contain imported ci- gars, smuggled or otherwise. Some of the fictitious smagglers who go around among down town offices and peddle cigars which they say are imported produce them in boxes with only the internal revenue stamp on. Struggled cigars have no stamps whatever. Any cigars that go through the custom house have the i'm ported stamp and the internal revenue stamp both.
 A cigar which has only an internal reye- nue stamp has been stamped at some do- mestic factory. If it was smuggled it was taken to factory to be stamped, which would be foolishness and waste of money on the part of the smuggler, and besides he would run a great deal of risk, as the internal revenue officer who stamped the box could readily tell, if he was an expert in his business, the difference between the boxes used in the Havana trade and the boxes used in the domestic trade. There are details in the way of packing, litho- graphing and branding which show un- mistakably, unless they are very cleverly counterfeited.
 A man who is going to buy cigars and wants to be sure of what he is getting can tell by the box if it has not been opened. It is more risk to take an opened box, for some interruptions dealers will put cheap CT cigars into a box which held high grade cigars and sell them as imported cigars. Still these dealers often make mistakes, as it is hard for them to get the same size of domestic cigars and the same color. If a man is buying what is said to be an i'm ported cigar, and sees that the cigar is dark while the box is marked claro. he may be sure that there is some imposition somewhere, probably that the dealer in re- filling the box was not careful enough to put in cigars of the same color. But the best way to do is to examine the box first and then to have the dealer open it after ward to see if the cigars are what is wanted.
 The age of the cigar can be told from the import stamp, the color from the brand on the back of the box, the factory from the factory brand and the shape from the size of the box. Almost everything about cigars which go through the standard Ha- vana factories can be told without opening the box. A cigar box with the blue label of the Cigarmakers' International union does not hold imported but domestic ci- gars. Domestic cigars can further be told by an examination of the box and the stamp, and the warning not to use the box again, which has on it the district and the number of the factory. According to law the warning must be on the box; it is sure sign of domestic cigar.