Arizona republican., 1899-03-02
THE USE OF SNUFF.
A Demand for Handsome Snuff
 Boxes Revives Trade.
Fashionable New YcrIS Women Take to the Fad Just 70 Display the Rich Receptrcles-Indue
 the Pretext.

? "FadS are curious things, Said a
 well-known jeweler to Sun reporter. For the last two years it has been
 cigarette holders lamps, cases and all the necessaries for the smoking room
 or corner. Some Of these trappings run as high as $650 for a cigarette hold
 CT for a popular actress. This year the
 fad has switched right around to snuff.
 Early in the season we began to have
 demands for handsome snuff boxes and
 we utilized q mum Der of bCnbOnniere
 boxes, but the demand became so
 strong that in short time we were
 rushed, turning out new designs, and
 those copied from old masters, all in
 miniature, and mainly for hanging on
 the chatelaine. Some of these cost
 $25O and had fine American enamel
 work on them, typical of golf, bowling.
 hunting, etc. These were sold by the
 score. What the purchasers did with
 them I do not know, but they were
 snuff boxes pure and simple. although the purchasers asked for chatelaine
 boxes and everything but snuff boxes"
 Visiting a store where a large trade
 is done in cigarette sPeciaities for wom-
 en, the reporter asked if much snuff
 was being bought by women, and the
 answer was:
 ''Yes, a very great deal, and the habit
 is of recent date. It appears to have l been brought about by the number of | influenza cases during the last spring
 and fall. We have many women GUS 1 toners, and, as you see, there are jars
 of snuff, jars of sachet. jars of cigar
 cite tobaccos and cigarettes, all dis | played on the counter. Women came
 in, smelled of each and asked about the
 snuff, generally declaring they would sneeze their heads off if they tried it, but eventually buying a little to have q joke on some friend This joke turned out in several cases tC be the
 substituting of this snuff for some in nocuous chemical snuff carried by some. Our snuff is mainly mace in America, although we have imported snuffs ranging as high as $50 per pound. Oh, that is not expensive when snufTs are compared. There are two firms iE Lisbon, Portugal, to-day which charge $20O a pound for every pound of snuff they send out. The bulk of it goes to China for the mandarins, and the house has been supplying those people fer the last 200 years. That snuff is ten years old. Most of cur American snuff is two years old before it reaches the consumer, and some of the snuff made by that Portuguese firm is more than 100 years old.
 We sell American snuffs as high as a dollar a pound, but We prepare them ourselves from the regular product, es- pecially for women's use. There is no trade secret about it. We take q certain proportion of very fine unscented snuff made in New Jersey by one of the OlG- est houses, blend it with noE-irritat ing vehicle, and add a certain corbina- tion of Chypre, white rose. ylang-ylang and musk, which is very difficult to initiate unless the exact proportions are known. This is further disguised by putting it into earthenware jars, sealing tight and baking in hot oven for a certain time, then allowing to cool for several days, opening and re- powdering. This produces delicious perfume, which, while scarcely a snuff, as is generally understood. titillates slightly the delicate organs of the nose, | leaving nothing but agreeable sur roundings and TO smell of snuff. Most of this, business is transacted by mail l or by maid. Few women buy it direct themselves as yet.
 Although one sees comparatively | few individuals taking snuff these days, 1 there is a steady increase in produc tion, and the last years total Produc- tion, according to the government fig | ures, showed a total of 15.225.135 | pounds. or an increase of 1856, 496 ] pounds over the preceding year, ard ! of this increase 1.129,655 pounds ap- | pears in the record of New Jersey, and | this notwithstanding the conlbining of | the Pennsylvania and southern firms with a capitalization of $15.C&0CG0. i American snuffs have long been used . among certain women. but principally | for chewing purposes, but now we may expect to see regular snufIing come into vogue"
 A well-known physician said: 'Therc is little doubt as 10 the fact that women are taking more snuff. l frequently find traces of it in the nostrils. It is robably due to the grippe as much as To allay the excessive irri- iatiOn of the membrane, and especially the disagreeabe chcriza, all kinds of powders have been prescribed, medical snuffs I suppose one may call them, given with the view of allaying irflam- nation. There is absolutely 10 harm II snuffing if the substances are all as nnocuous as pure tobacco; the deli ate nerves get slightly hardened, the ;ternutatory spasms called sneezing disappear, but that is all. A clever woman can handle her snuff box in initely more takingly than she can cigarette. .''-N. |. Sun.
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