Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1899-06-29
CIGARETTES BY BILLIONS.
The Enormous Number Exported From
This Country TO Asia.
Seattle acknowledgement

Seattle "Post-Intellgencer.'
An investigation based oil the arrival
in Tacoma this week of three car loads of
cigarettes for trarq-shipment 10 Shanghai
and Tokyo OH one of the North American
Steamship Company's liners brings to
light the enormous traffic in this line of
luxuries that is being carried on between
the United States and nations of the
Orient. When the actual figures in car
loads of the shipments from the Pacific
Coast this year are reduced to pounds, and
then to the number Of cigarettes in the
total, figures are reached that are amazing
and almost incalculable.
These three car loads weighed total of
SO, 127 pounds, deducting the weight of
cases, packages, ETC., amounting to 2,453-
175 packages, such as are sold in Seattle
f,r 5 and 10 cents each. As each Of these
contains ten cigarettes, this one shipment
includes total of q, 531, 750 cigarettes.
But this single shipment of three cars is
in reality a small portion of tie traffic in
this commodity. As nearly complete as
the figures could be gotten yesterday, ii
appears that since the beginning of the
year no less than 1913 car loads have been
received on the coast, which have been
transferred to steamships and taken to the
Orient, principally to China and Japan,
although the people of the Philippine Is
lands consume a considerable quantity.
The average weight of the contents in Gig
areites of these 1913 cars was 80, 4SC
pounds, excluding the weight of the cases
and packages, making total Of 1851, 0lC
pounds of cigarettes On the basis of 25C
cigarettes TO the pound, which is as nearly
the correct average weight as can be esti-
mated, this gives total of 1,SS2, 760, 0OC
cigarettes. And, strange as it may seem,
these figures are somewhat below the
average, as the stocks that were rushed
into Japan just before the higher tariff
law went into effect January l have moi
been consumed. 1t is considered that the
average consumption in Oriental coun
tries of American cigarettes amounts tc
approximately 600 car loads, 1885, 0C
pounds, or 4, 1872, 10000 in number.
Mr.. Stevens, prominent exporter o.
Portland, who was in the city yesterday
was doing little figuring on Oriental bus
mess, when he came across some of the
foregoing computations, and then he went
on to say: "The prospects of this Pacific
Coast country to realize an enormous com
merce out of tie Orient are simply incom
prehensible. We are given to thinking
big and talking big Of the trans-PacifC
outlook, but little We do really know o.
the extent this commence is bound to as
sumo. We half the time forget that ir
direct line with the coast live half the peo
pie of the worll, and that they must dc
their trading through the Western State;
of the Union.
"There is a great awakening among
those semi-civilized folk, and it is increa
sing so apidly that am not exaggerating
the prospects when l prophecy that within
ten years the exports of the Pacific coast
will be more than equal to those of the en-
tire Atlantic. Those coming customers Of
ours are a slow people to realize the bless
ings cf civilization, but when they dc
know what they can get here, their mum
bers are so great that the extent Of thell
patronage will be so prodigious as to al
most pass the ability of statsticians tc
compute"