The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-10-02
srooIEs GROW POPULAR.
These Oddly Constructed, Puneent
Weeds Are Very Pleasant.

The sign "Pittsburg stogies for sale
here' has within the last few mont hs
been posted on dozens OF cigar stores,
Numerous previous attempts TO introduce
the favorite Pittsburg smoke had result
ed In failure. The hotel clerks have been
wont to hail the men who pufied stogies
Is residents OF the "Smoky City," but
that time is past. The East has caught
on TO the peculiar properties, and many
advantages OF this mongrel cigar, that
retsils tor VI hundred, or three for a
nickel
The name "Pittsburg stogie" is rather q
case OF mistaken identity. That city can
claim neither the birth nor the principal
manufactures OF the stogie. While there
are numerous factories located there,
Wheeling, w. Va, has better claims to
the name In that small town there are
Az factories, employing hundreds OF men.
Here all the better grades OF stogies are
made. These are all handmade. The
mac hine-made article, or ''mould' stogie
Is pr oduct Of recent date, designed to
use up the scrap tobacco OF cigar facto-
ries.
The origin OF the name "stogie, or
"toby," as II Is also called In Western
Pennsylvania, has been a matter Of con-
siderable dispute. The most probs BILE
derivation Is that given by Wheeling
manufacturer, who has been engaged in
stogie making for 90 years. He says;
iho names 'stosle anu toDy are
both abbreyiations. About so years ago,
before the days OF railroads and after the
completion OF the National Pike connect
ing the cities OF Washington and ST.
Louis, there was used for conveying
goods vehicle called a conestoga wagon,
or simply conestoga. The drivers OF these
were called conestoga drivers. In those
days the pipe was used by those unable
TO afford cigars. Some Inventive genius
i have forgotten his name-conceived
the idea OF making cheap smoke for
the driver. He got some tobacco and
rolled or twisted II in crude way so that
smoke would 60 through u, and sold TO
these drivers, whence they came to be
called 'couestogas. The tobacco used was
of good Kentucky stock, which WAS, in
those days, very cheap. Besides, there
was at that time no internal revenue tax
on them. When l began business In 1910
there was one other man engaged In IL,
and both factories employed from four TO
seven men,"
The character OF the stogie has changed
but little. in the 20 years of its nsnuiac-
ture The stogie of the early days was
about four and one-bslf inches long and
made by hand OF long filler Kentucky to-
bacco. The stogie of today is six and
one half inches long, but the materials
and process Of manufacture remain the
same. The choicest brands of stogies in
all manufactures are made from Ken
lucky tobacco, although Ohio, Pennsyl-
vania, Wisconsin, New York and Con-
necticut- furnish what is known as SEED
tobacco, which Is largely used in the
manufacture of stogIes.
The use OF stogies has been largely con-
fined within q radius of 200 miles OF
Wheeling. In this district everyone
smokes them. The Pittsburg millionaire
and the street urchin, the coal kings
along the Ohio and the rousta bout on the
coal barges, meet on the same level when
II comes to stogies. Within the last few
years the stogie has been burning its way
into smokers hearts all over the country.
In 1892 a box of Wheeling stogies, which
found its way into the cigar making town
of Key West, Fla, was exhibited as a Curl
csity in the Office of one OF the manufac-
tories there. The business of stogie MAX
ing, like that OF electricity, is yet in its
infancy. A taste for stogies has TO be ac-
quired, but once acquired, the stogie
smoker will pass over a quarter Havana
and select one of those long, slender,
black looking, pungent smokes that cost
a cent apiece.