The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-10
THE CIGARS OF MANILA.
Now Much Better Than Those Ameri-
cans Used to Smoke.

Guns OStO 10 ShObcs
Manila Correspondence Chicago Inter
Ocean.
Cigars and cigarettes are remarkably
cheap, even in the face of the economic
conditions that exist in the east. The
cheapest cigars are sold for $40 per 1000,
and the most expensive for 800 per 1000.
Reduce that to a gold basis, and you find
yourself wondering how they can be made
for the money. The cigarettes are even
cheaper. The cheapest grades retail for IA
and 21z cents Mexican per package of TWEEN
ty-four and thirty cigarettes, and the
grades in most common use sell at the fac
tory for $40 Mexican, or $3.50 gold, per l.,
900 packages of twenty-four and thirty CT
garettes each The best cigars can be
bought at retail at the cigar stands for
and 10 cents Mexican, and 1t is recorded
that in the days of the monopoly a very
fair cigar, as Manila cigars go, could be
bought for l and 2 cents Mexican The gen
uine Manila cigar of to-day is not known
in the United States, and if ever it finds
its way there it will at once spring into
immense popularity. The old Manila cigar,
short and stubby. or cone-shaped, Is ra-
pidly passing, and in its place modern ci-
CARS are being made. All of the modern
shapes in vogue In Europe and America
have been introduced since the monopoly
ceased to exist, and anything that pleases
the fancy may be had at the kiosks of Ma
Mia. The modern cigar made of the best
Cagayan or Isabel tobacco, is not as good
as the Cuban product, but 1t will bear fair
comparison with ID, and is certainly the
superior of scores Of the domestic brands
sold in the United States. The tobacco is
milder. and there is no flavoring intro
duced into it nor any chemical process re-
sorted to in treating it.
There are 1900 Americans in Manila
now, and they take very kindly to the
better grades of Manila cigars and freely
predict a revolution in the cigar industry
in the United States in the event of the
annexation of Luzon or the Philippine
group The cigarettes are also made of
pure tobacco. The entire industry has suf-
fered on account of the inferior grades
that are shipped from here, and Manila
cigars have been unfairly condemned.
The average small native planter grows
no more tobacco and does no more work
than Is absolutely necessary to earn liv-
ing He plants in November and gamers
in March, and In the interim raises what
maize he needs for his house and farm.
He has no other cares, and borrows none
He pockets the market price when the
buyer arrives, and it keeps him until he
comes again. He has to sort his leaves
INTO 0Ne sizes anu DuHulS luSiu ltlO tIldIOS,
each of which contains 100 leaves and
there end his troubles. There are eight
large, and between fifty and one hundred
small factories in Manila, and the former
employ from 400 to 1000 operatives each.
In the manufacture of the better grades
of cigars men and boys are employed al
most exclusively while on the cheaper
cigars and cigarettes women are more gen.
orally employed. The former are, as a
rule, paid on the piece system, while the
latter are often contracted for in gang
and answer to their employers only
through the sub-contractor. Wages vary,
not only as to the grade of the cigars
made, but as to the skill of the operatives,
and there is a wide range in pay. Expert
clgarmakers in the larger factories can
earn 81 Mexican or As cents on the gold
basis. but the average is nearer to 75
cents Mexican, and among the children
and less expert operatives wages range
down to 20 and 90 cents Mexican per day.