The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-03-18

ders his goods haole TO connsCauOn. Inc
law only permits cigars to be packed in
boxes Of y, Is, 25, 81. 100, 200, $50 and
500. In the instance mentioned each box
bore a government stamp for 100 cigars,
showing that it had actually paid more tax
than s demanded by Uncle Sam per cigar.
I Nevertheless, the treasury jumped upon
the manufacturer, who was fortunate TO be
permitted TO take back the goods 60 his
factory and repack them properly. One
reason for this regulation is that the stamp
4 on the box is intended to serve as q Ruaran-
tee to the consumer Of the number of cigars
ne Is getting for his money. IL be paid $40
| for box Of cigars which the stamp said
contained 100, though il only held 64, be
/ would have cause to complain. How many
| persons are there who count the cigars In
/ box after they have bought it!
TOBACCO IN OTHER SHAPES.
Smoking tobacco can only be put
four. eight and sixteen ounces.
! II a man should put up smoking
/ tobacco in 2-pound parcels his goods would
! be liable to seizure Manufacturers some
times put up overweight packages. One Of
thsm, for example. sells bounce bundles
Of smoking tobacco labeled four ounces for
the sake OF catching custom. This is illegal
! Cigarettes must be in packets Of ten, twenty,
fifty and 100. IL would be against the law
to put a 20-cent stamp on pack Of fifteen
cigarettes. Similar regulations apply TO
plug, fine cut and snuff tobacco. Another
object which they have is TO produce uni
formity in the trade. Cigars used to be
taxed according TO their value, but this
method gave rise to many frauds and re-
quired the employment Of skilled experts.
At present all cigars are taxed 50 per 1000
Piutsburg stOgies, which are worth oulY So
per / 900. pay as much as do cigars which
fetch.Sl per 900.
THE KEEN-EYKD REVENUE AGENTS
are everywhere. They not only inspect the
tobacco products at the factories, but the
shops Of retail tobacconists are under sur
veiliance by them. 1t is almost impossible
for maker or seller OF such wares to in
fringe or evade the law, because his COM
petitors are watching him. II he attempts
any trick they report him to the authcri-
ties. Sixty per cent. Of the information
obtained respecting such delinquencies
comes from people in the trade. Some of
IL reaches the treasury anonymously, but
communications Of that sort rarely receive
attention. IL goes without saying that the
selling Of an over weight package of to-
bacco by one manufacturer or dealer, for
example, would be a damage to others by
drawing away their trade. One abuse to
which the internal revenue bureau has re-
Gently put stop was the giving away of
prizes in parcels Of tobacco. This began in
q harmless way with small articles, such as
sleeve buttons, but it steadily grew until,
to quote she language Of one Of the agents,
a package Of tobacco wac dry goods store
or jewelry shop. The regulation demands
that the package shall contain tobacco and
nothing else, save perhaps an advertise
ment.
SCRAPS AND WASTE.
There are thirty-four manufacturers in
New York who deal only with the refuse
scraps and waste of oigarmakers. This
product they sort. sift and pack, exporting
most of 1t to foreign countries. The bal
ence they sell in bulk to other manufacture
ers, who manipulate it and put it up as
smoking tobacco. During the last year
1881 900 pounds Of such tobacco waste were
handled in the metropolis. The general de-
mand for light-colored cigars has made the
coloring of wrappers by article an inns
portant industry.
COLOR AND SHAPE.
a popular delusion exists to the effect that
a cigar with a light wrapper is necessarily
mild, though the binder and filler are lust
as apt as not TO be strong Mistaken notions
respecting tobacco products are widespread
and persistent. For example, most people
suppose that "Perfecto" is something very
fine. As matter OF fact, the ''Perfecto"
is merely a shape. Any manufacturer
can make "Perfecto,n which Is
large bulky cigar, out OF the
poorest tobacco The "lnvincible," Yum
quet" and "Rothschild" are ali shapes.
Henry Clay Is a proprietary name or
trademark, and the cigars of that brand are
made in twenty-five different shapes.
TESTING SUGAR.
The expected adjustment of the bounty
on sugar by the next congress will relieve
the internal revenue laboratory of a con-
siderable part of its work. The bounty IS
cents a pound for sugar that 'pOlarizesn ct
80 or over. The polariscope tests the
strength of sugar.. O., the percentage Of
sucrOse or pure sugar which it contains-on
scale Of 100 Formerly the government
determined the quality of sugars by their
color. This method gave rise to frauds,
refined white sugar being colored and i'm
ported in the guise of brown sugar, to lie
subsequently bleached. To determine boun-
ties the entire product of each sugar grower
is weighed by an official weigher, a sample
bsing taken for polari2ing
MAPLE SUGAR.
Just now the sugar bounty division of the
treasury is getting ready for the maple
sugar season. This is troublesome part of
the business, because maple sugar Is OBJ
tanned by each producer in comparatively
small quantities, thus multiplying the labor
Of weig hing, polarizing and adjusting pay
ments. Nearly all maple sugar, by the
time it reaches market, is adulterated but
any manufacturer who is caught adulter-
ating the maple sugar on which he ASKS for
bounty is liable to fine of 5000 or five
years imprisonment, or both. Neither the
polarisoope nor any known chemical test
wi distinguish edulteration in maple sugar /;
SO evidence on the point would have TO be
got in other ways The flavor of maple and
other sugars is due to the presence OF GER
tain compound etners. Raw beet sugar has
a horrible smell, and no one would think OF
| tasting il. 1t happens that the others in
| maple sugar have an agreeable flavor, and
hence its value. During the last year
81 .342, 900 was paid out in sugar bounties
| PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF SUGAR.
This country consumed 367. 10000, 90 pounds
of cane sugar last year, as we'll as ~, 900, 900
pounds OF maple sugar and $4,000 900
pounds Of beet sugar The last is raised
wholly in California, Nebraska and Utah.
Although these figures seem gigantic, not
more than one-tenth OF the sugar eaten in
the United States is grown mere. The other
nine-tentbs come mainly from Cuba, Ger
many and the Sandwich Islands. When
the price OF cane sugar in Cuba gets 500
high the importers fetch beet sugar from
Germany, which is the greatest sugar-pro-
ducing country in the world. The con-
sumption OF sugar by the people of North
America is sixty-nine pounds per capita
annually. The most remarkable fact in this
connection is that since 1880 the oonsump-