The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-08-11
strong hand of the government in any

country.
 The women and girls employed in
 stripping the leaf have a large airy department to themselves, and how their tongues do run! Gossip, jest and
 snatches of song keep time with their
 nimble fingers. Each has a powder
 box unconcealed somewhere about her,
 and when the days work is ended she
 dabs it in ghastly drifts over her face,
 neck and ears. They are paid from 50
 to 50 cents a day and their work is con- fined to the cigarette department Not | Withstanding the need of flexible tlnger6
 and the fact that women are supposed to possess a more delicate touch than
 men, it ia claimed that they can never
 become successful cigar makers,
 To tell of all the interesting things
 seen in La Honradez would be to fill every page of this paper. A telegraph
 wire gives direct communication be-
 tween the offices and the chiefs of the several departments, the shipping wharf, storchouses, and wholesale stores | in various parts of the city, as we'll as to the carpenters shop where the boxes are made in which the goods are packed, the residences of the proprietor and head assistants. In the lower salon are | machines adapted to a variety of 1 strange purposes. Among the most novel is that for cutting picadura, the fine tobacco used in filling cigarettes; | the hydraulic press, used in compressing l tobacco for exportation into solid blocks as hard as wood; and the press for stamping brands upon the boxes, which, instead of being burned in are printed by very rapid and ingenious process. The barrel department is also worth in- | spection-barrels turned out by steam with great velocity all hoped and headed; and though in such numbers | every one is perfectly air and water | tight. On the second floor is complete printing outfit, every branch of typog- raphy and lithography being constantly employed in printing circulars, labels, wrappers, views of the factory, letter. heads and millions of the beautifully colored and tastefully designed papers that enclose the cigarettes in packages of twenty-five. In the engraving room is fine magneto-electrique machine, invented by a Frenchman, for drawing on stone by chemical action. and ma chinery run by electricity. The receiv-
 
 teresting. After the cigarettes are made and put up into packages of the allotted number. the packages are ex- amined, wrapped in large round bun les and packed in barrels. The store rooms are as sacredly guarded as a bank vault-and indeed some of the tobacco leaves in it might each pass current as a greenback of large denom- nation The products of this factory find their way to all parts of the world, being made to suit the taste of every class of smokers. Some of the cigarette papers are combined with rice coffee pretoral perfumery, corn, etc. and the cigars are strong, mild and medium. The manager will tell you that the | value of the Vuelta Abijo leaf lies in it's flavor rather than in its strength, and 1 that the Honradez cigars best known from their delicate aroma come from the Plnar del Rio plantations The | Remedies leaf is very strong, so strong | that Cubans do not like it, and 1t is | used only to mix with American to- | bacco for the American trade; and he | will also add. with shrug of his shoul- ders, that Los Americanos do no know [ what good tobacco is-they demand | strength rather than aroma and as a rule would rather pay ten cents for a crude thing a quarter of a vara long than a dollar for the three-inch cigar fit for San Marcial himself
 What its churches are to Rome, "Fabricas' are to Havana. Before the war there were more than two hundred of them in the one city. from the ob- tn thn rtro I | employing two or three assistants, to the great factories of thousand skilled employees. The poor little shops turn out inferior grades, such as wives and sisters have a pernicious habit of pre- senting to the husbands and brothers on Christmas and birthdays, for some of the vilest cigars on earth may be bought by the unsophisticated in Cuba. Among the largest and best factories is La Cabanas, which has given it's name to a certain brand known to all smokers It is great stone building opposite the Campo de Mart and was founded by Senor Don Francisco de Cabanas a hundred years ago. For time it's an- nual output was limited by the gov ernment to 500000 cigars a year, but when the year began 1t was disposing of an average of sixteen million cigars per annun. It used only Vuelta Abajo and the best of that, by con- tract with certain plantations. Besides permitting its six hundred operatives to smoke all the cigars they desired dur ing the hours of labor, the too liberal allowed each man to carry off five, to last him over night. At first glance this seems trifling detail; but come to figure it up, you find it means like two million cigars year, the cheapest of which sell for twenty dollars the thousand.
 When tobacco bales, carefully packed and wrapped in palm leaves. arrive at he factory. they are kept in cool, dark place on the first floor, where they 2 Ire divided into classes according to luality-varyng in value from $20 to '400 per bale of 200 pounds. When the f bales are opened for use, the manojas r md gabillas are separated and the lat CT carried in their dry state to the i room. The leaves are soft ened by putting them in hogsheads con- aiming a solution of saltpetre and water; then the water is poured off and 4 he leaves spread upon the edges of the