The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-06-07
LAND OF THE CIGAR
NEARLY EVERYBODY IN Cuba MAKES
OR SMOKES THEM.

Interesting Facts About the Big Factories
In Havana-Ths Real Thing at Csuts
Apiece and Others at Se-Cigarettes Are
Also Very Popular.
have never seen a Havana man smok.
Ing In church. It's about the only place
where he does not smoke. He smokes Ia
The street cars, he smokes at the public
dining table, he smokes everywhere. Tho
presence of women Is not considered at
all. When coffee is brought on the table,
the Spaniard or Cuban lights his cigar or
cigarette and begins to send up clouds OF
smoke. He never even thinks of saying to
the ladies. by your leave" for the Gus
tom of the country is to smoke every
where. On the railway trains there is no
smoking compartment, for a man is privi-
legged, and, in fact, expected to smoke
everywhere. If he is not smoking, his
neighbor will offer him cigarette The
driver of your coach will smoke and very
likely offer you cheroot.
AT the opera the men will walk and
smoke between the acts in the spaces be-
hind the boxes and balconies. You will
see finely dressed, seemingly we'll bred
men, with ladies in full evening toilet,
entering the theater and smoking as they
GO You never see pipe in Cuba. 1t is
the country of the cigar and the cigarette
One OF the odd sights TO a stranger is that
afforded by the negro women, who smoke
big, long and black cigars in the street
1t was here that the smoking habit, which
has spread around the world, had its start,
and the Cubans are still more devoted to
their cigars than any other people. The
cigar industry and the tobacco trade give
employment to q large portion of the pop
Ulation of Havana. In every quarter one
viii run across small establishments where
from two to ten men are employed max
ing cigars and some children and women
engaged in stripping tobacco.
There are many large factories, employ
ing, some of them, several hundred men
and women. Some OF these factories make
cigarettes as well as cigars. The cigarettes
are made out of strong Cuban tobacco but
have the negative virtue of being pure,
nntinctured tobacco. In every house or
Office building the porter, who sits i'm the
entresol, is engaged all day long in rolling
cigarettes. He has little table in front
OF him, where the tobacco and paper nro
spread out, and he is constantly at work.
In this way the porter adds to his income.
a vast quantity of cigarettes are smoked
here as well as cigars. When the Cuban
Is not smoking cigars, he is smoking Gig
nrettes.
1t is not to be supposed that all the
cigars made or smoked in Havana are fine
cigars. The best tobacco comes from one
district near Havana known as Vuelto
a baio, and the quality of that often varies
on different plantations and in different
seasons. Much tobacco is raised in other
districts which is not of superior kind
and has not the rich flavor that makes fine
Havana cigars sought after IN all parts of
the world. A good deal, probably most of
the very highest grade tobacco. is secured
tor the makers OF famous brands of cigars
In Havana.
Some of the owners of big cigar facto-
ries have plantations of their own and op-
tions on the product of other plantations
famed for the quality of their leaf, but
many of the cigars sold here at low price
are just as rank as any ever produced in
tho United States, and worse, because they
are stronger One cannot get a very pleas (
ant impression from a visit to a cigar fac /
tory. In the large factories the plumbing
and sanitary arrangements arc unusually .
bad, and the buildings are filed with bad /
tobacco, have anything but pleasing eff
feet. Two or throe hundred men will be
ct work in poorly ventilated room that
does not afford proper breathing space for
more than hundred. Neatness and clean
illness are not conspicuous characteristics,
either OF the men at work rolling cigars or
OF the hundreds OF girls and children en-
gagged in stripping tobacco. If one wants
to thoroughly enjoy fine Havana cigar,
if he has ever visited one of the factories
he will have to obliterate the memory OF
the visit from his mind.
The fine grades of cigars sell at retail in |
Havana for less than half the price one /
would have to pay in the United States
that is, one will buy for 10 cents cigar
that would cost him in Washington 90 or
e5 cents, and for > cents cigar he would .
pay 10 or % cents for at home. Then there /
IRE cigars or cheroots sold for I or cents
The ordinary retail price for a package of
cigarettes is . cents. The cigars affected /
here are of the largest sizes, 8 or inches
In length and some of them an inch in
diameter.
The very finest CIGARS made here 60 to /
Some of them cost 81 each here
ut wholesale The men who make these /
cigars are paid 80 cents each for the MAX
Ing of them. They are made with the
greatest care. every bit of leaf in them be-
ing selected and especially treated and the
rolling and wrapping being done by the
most skjllfm of cigar makers. One of
these men engaged in making these 81
cigars will not make more than 20 or so
In a day. He is supplied with certain
amount of tobacco when he begins work
In the morn lg, and when he turns In the
product of his days labor at night must
account for al the tobacco. The cigars
are carefully inspected, and if any defect,
the slightest crack or a variation in color,
IS discovered in a cigar it is rejected. The
cigar maker Is paid only for the perfect
igars- In the best factories the rejected
cigars are smoked up by the employees.
In some factories where cigars not Of
the very finest quality are made the reject
I'd cigars are boxed and sold as seconds.
In all the factories the cigar makers are
privileged to smoke all they want of their
own product and 10 take pocketful of
cigars with them when they go out at
hight OF course this is in part at their own
expense. for they are paid for the cigars
,ley turn in One will see cigars for sale
1t the stands here for as much rs 50 cents
,r 81. Some of them are packed separately
N glass tubes, so as 20 preserve their
elusive Cuban favor. A cigar costing 81
here would cast 50 in tie United States,
md man who smoked half dozen of
hem day ought 10 pay pretty good in
some tax.-HavanaC Cor Washington Star.
a Psous Request.
A man arose in a Philadelphia prayer
Meeting the other night, according TO The
Record. and aid that after his first wifes