Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1895-03-01

for ten cents a cigar that would cost
him in Washington twenty OF twenty
dve cents, and for five cents a cigar he
would pay ten or fifteen cents at home.
Then there are cigars or cheroots sold
for one or two cents. The ordinary
retail price for a package Of cigarettes
is ave cents. The cigars affected here
here are of the larger sizes, six or eight
inches in length, and some of them an
inch 10 diameter. In one factory l
visited, a special lot OF cigars, two
thousand in all, we're being made with
great care, to MI an order for Queen
Victoria.
The Queen does not smoke them.
They arc intended as a present for the
new Emperor OF Russia. The very
finest cigars made here go to England
Some Of them cost a dollar each here
at wholesale. The men who make
these cigars are paid thirty cents each
for the making of them. They are
made with the greatest care, eyeryhit
Of leaf in them beihg selected and
especially treated, and the rolling and
wrapping being done by the most skill
ful of cigar makers. One Of these men
engaged in making these dollar cigars
will not make more than twenty or
thirty in a day. He is supplied with a
certain amount of tobacco when he
begins work in the morning, and when
he turns in the product Of his days
labor at night must account for all the
tobacco. The cigars are carefully in
spected, aud if any defect, the slight
est crack or any variation in color, is
discovered in cigar it is rejected.
The cigar maker is paid only for the
perfect cigars. In the best factories
the rejected cigars are smoked up by
the employees
In some factories where cigars of
not the very finest quality are made
the rejected cigars are boxed and sold
as seconds" In all the factories the
cigarmakers are privileged to smoke
all they want of their own product
and to take a pocketful Of cigars with
them when they go out at night. OF
course, this is part at their own ex.
pensc, for they are paid for the cigars
they turn in. One will see cigars for
sale at the stands here for as much as
80 cents or 81. Some of them are
packed separately in glass tubes, so as
to preserve their elusive Cuban flavor.
A cigar costing 81 here would cost 50
in the United States, and man who
smoked half dozen of them a day
ought to pay pretty good income tax.
The greater part, in fact, practical
ly all of the tobacco leaf raised in Gu
ba and not used by the Cuban cigar
makers is shipped to the United States.
At certain seasons OF the year the Ha-
vana hotels will be filed with tobacco
buyers from the States. Some Of
them deal through the brokers in Ha-
wanna, but some who know the coun-
try and the language go out into the
tobacco districts and buy directly
from the planters, often buying
promising crop before it is picked.
The tobacco buyer has 10 be good
judge of tobacco. He goes down into
the very center Of the bale Of tobacco
he is examining, extracts some sam
pies, and tests them in different ways.
or course, the FIRST test is that Of
smell. The Cuban tobacco has q
strong and peculiar odor. A little va
ration one way OF the other makes
the tobacco good or bad. After smell
it the buyer likes to roll a rudey con-
structed cigar out of the leaf and
smoke it. He will inhale the smoke
and endeavor To determine exactly
the flavor. lie will also examine the
ash carefully and test also the com
bustiOn of the tObaccO-that is, try TO
find out how long it will hold fire. 1t
is a great annoyance to a smoker who
is talking or writing, or otherwise en-
gagged, to put his cigar into his mouth
and find that 10 has gone out. No ci-
gar ever tastes so good after it has
once gone out, and fine HAVANA is
positively rank when it has met such
a catastrophe. So one quality sought
for is that of holding fire. II q sam
pie smoked by the buyer will keep
lighted four minutes it is considered
very good. Some will burn fer five
minutes and even longer without be-
ing puffed.
The buyers who come from Cuba, or
some Of them, will tell you that from
the tobacco they ship to the States
just as good cigars are made as those
made in Havana from the same quail
ity OF tobacco. This, however, is not
the case. The establishment of inn
mense cigar industries at Tampa and
a Great Battle
Is continually going on iu the human
system. The demon Of impure blood
strives to gain victory over the consti-
tuition, to ruin health, to drag victims