The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-02-26
DEADLY TEA CIGARETTES.
Made to Satisfy Vice New Here but
Old Abroad.

Felt After the First Trial or the Cigar
rette-Cigar Dealers in New York Al
ready Responding to the Demand.
One of the most injurious and danger
Gus of new fashions is the tea cigarette.
That this is no empty, baseless story of a
new craze is shown by the application
made last week to the Commissioner of
Intel nal Revenue at Washington for per-
mission to manufacture tea cigarettes in
Michigan. The applicant was told that,
to engage in such manufacture, ne must
comply with the law governing the man.
ufacturing OF tobacco cigarettes, tea
being a substitute for tobacco; that he
must register, give bond and so on, and
that the cigarettes. when made, must be
packed, stamped, branded, and labelled,
exactly as the tobacco cigars ties, before
the Government would sanction their re-
moval from the facto y for sale.
While the vice of SMOKING tea is COM
paratively new to the United States, it is
not new TO Europe. Russia is responsible
for the tea cigarette, but how the hr bit
originated is not known. Tea is. 10 q
great extent, a national beverage in hus-
STA. The Russians have tea no uses whers
we nave hAlOOnS, U lnhA SUoS lnGO q Ugh
house and orders quart of tea aud some
cigarettes, as here men order a stein of
bser. Tea is ohsap and plentiful in Rus
STA. It has been for years q custom of
many rich Russians to take the most ex-
pensIve cigars from the factories of Ha-
vena, costing in some cases 81. so each in
Cuba, and pack them in guild or silver
boxes which are made alright, there be-
ing layer Of green tea at the bottom of
i,a h1x a lRvpp nf o10oro bar Of too
and SO on until the box is filled. Then
the box Is closed, and it is kept closed
until the cigars are needed for consump-
ton. The idea is that the tea gives a
very attractive and peculiar fragrance to
the fine Havana tobacco, and this is tru'
From this, possibly, sprung the idea of
the cigarette. Moreover, cheap Russian
cigarettes are a nightmare; they are sold
al the rate of about ten for cent. and
their quality may be best estimated by
the fact that the Russian poor man
smokes only half, and throws the rest
away. Tea, being SO plentiful and cheap,
may have been tried and found more
agreeable.
Several descriptions of the tea cigarette
have bean printed. but these have erred
in the presumption that the tea was
taken as sold, rolled up in q paper, and
smoked. This would be practically i'm
possible, as the sharpedges of the tea
woHld cut the paper in all directions,
spoil tbs draught, and render the cigar
cite unavoidable. To make the tea cigar
cite one takes a grade of green tea which
has but little dust, being composed of
unbroken leaf, and dampens it carefully,
j Ist enough to permit the leaves to be
unrollsd without being broken, and go to
DO loft pliable and capa BILE of being
stuffed in the paper cylinder, while the
dasupness is not sufficient to stain the
paper. The garettes are laid aside, for a
few days, and are then ready to lie
smoked. ,o..
The feeling of tea cigarette in the
mouth is peculiars The taste is not SO
disagreeahle as might be supposed, but
ening in the head and disposition to
take hold of something or to sit down.
II the beginner GU Is then, that settles it
he will not try tea cigarettes again. If.
however, the smoker sits down and tries a
second cigarette. inhaling it deeply, then
the thickeninR feeling passes, and is sue.
ceeded by one of intense exhilaration
the nerves are stimulated until the
smoker feels like flying, skirt dancing,
or doing some thing else entirely out of
the common way. This stage lasts as
long as the smoking continues, which is
until the reaction of the stomach sets in.
Words cannot describe the final effect of
the tea cigarette. The agony of the
opium hend is a shadow to that of the
naussated victim of the tea cigarette. 1t
Will be hours before food can be looked
at, yet the first step toward cure is q
cup of tea. An hour afterward comes
the craving for the tea cigarette.
A tea cigarette, in the quantity of tea
used, is about equal to the tea for two
cups OF pretty strong green tea, and, be-
ing inhaled instead of taken in the form
of an infusion, it's action is about ten
times as great. II q tea smoker gets
through with twenty cigar 80 day, he
takes the equivalent of about forty cups
Of tea as regards the quantity consumed,
or of zoo cups as regards the effect.
This shows at once what the result in the
nervous system will be. The tea Cigar
cites are already on sale ia this CITY at
several first class stores of cigar dealer &
who have a women's trade, end this has
come about simply because the women
aak for them. So far the cigarettes have
been sold without internal revenue
stamps on the boxes or any preliminary
internal revenu supervision. The ruling
of the Commissioner will put totally
different aspect ON the matter and dealers
handling the Illicit product Will get into
trouble. The chances are that the tea
cigarette will be confined only to GER
tain type of consumers, although the
corridors Of the highest class hotels today
contain mute evidence of its consump
ton. The peculiar odor is unmistakable
The lates5 abomination in New York
smoking is perfumed cigarettes; these
have been inflicted on the people before
this, but the former product was not o.
the present offensive quality. Every body
Is familiar with the brown paper tape IL
be burned for fumigatory purposes which
one smells on Broadway. Some one has
taken this tape, cut it into thin strips
and woven strip into the full length Of
each cigarette SO that the taste is tn,
taste Of tobacco, while the smell is thu
ernell of the tape intensified by the origi
nal cigarette odor. This principal patrons
of thu new article are girls. A man wa,
giving samples away at the Brooklyn
Bridge entrance on Friday night, and ht
was nearly mobbed for them by type
writers and shop girls.
A process to meet the wants of yachts
mon is to take cigars, place each one in {
gelatine tube. and pack the tubes in an
ordinary cedar box, which, after being
labelled and stamped, is immersed bodily
in melted parafine wax, rendering the
cigars incapable of change by the sea ali
until the box is opened. The cigars arr
packed twenty five in a box.-New Yorl
Sun.
A Des Moines woman who has been