Evening star., 1898-11-05
THE CIGARS OF MANILA.
Now Much Better Than Those Ameri-
cans Used to Smoke.

cans Used to Smoke.
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 i ,OOO.
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 21b cents Mexican per package Of
twenty-four and thirty cigarettes, and the
grades In most common use sell at the fac
tory for 500 Mexican, or $3.50 gold, per
1000 packages of twenty-four and thirty
cigarettes 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 ] and cents Mexican. The
genuine Manila cigar of today is not
known in the United States, and if ever 1t
finds 1t way there it will at once spring into
immense popularity. The old Manila cigar,
short and stubby, or cone-shaped, Is
rapidly passing, and in its place modern
cigars 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
Manila. 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 1t, and Is certainly
the superior of scores Of the domestic
brands sold in the United States The
tobacco is mlder, and there Is no flavor
ing introduced into it nor any chemical pro-
cess resorted to in treating it.
There are Is 900 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 of 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 a liv-
ing. He plants in November and garners
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 1t keeps him until he
comes again. He has to sort his leaves
into five sizes and bundle them into manos
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 gangs, and
answer to their employers only through
the subcontractor. 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 cigar
makers in the large factories can earn 81
Mexican, or 40 cents on the gold basis but
the average is nearer to Is cents Mexican
and among the children and less expert
operatives wages range down to 20 and 80
cents Mexican per day.