The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-03-25

real Havanas we hear about in Cuba, the
reader makes his voice easily heard. He
gives a summary of the morning news
from the papers and then takes up popu-
lar lterature-noVels, poems, bits OF MS,
tory or description, and the strirpers and
wrappers listen as they work.
MILLIONS OF CIGARETTES.
TO go back to the colored people. sing
ing at their work, the tobacco leaves they
strip have to be drawn or sweated. AS
the leaves arrive in a brittle state of
dryness, they could not be handled with
out crunrb!inS to pieces. SO they are
cased or dipped in troughs and hooked
or bent for stretching smooth. in order
to present smooth surface for wrap
perS. AS tobacco for cigarettes costs
from 35 to so cents a pound, it is evident
that there must be no carelessness. In
this room the odor of the weed is strong
est and bites the nose most sharply, al
though there is less dust than in some
of the places where machinery is en-
ployed.
After passing from the hands of the
colored shippers the tobacco goes be-
low stairs into 4 casing machine In
which 10000 pounds OF tobacco are moiled
a day. It is a cylinder fourteen feet
long and a yard in diameter, through
which jets of steam are poured while
the tobacco is rolled over and over in
its revolutions. This makes the leaf
pliable. A similar cylinder rolls it again
and partially dries 1t before it is de-
livered to the choppers. These chop
pers are machines fed with the massed
leaves by young men. An endless belt
carries the tobacco under Knives; thaS
fall eight or ten strokes to the second
and little boys of ten or a dozen years
r iyto -
after this lhashing process Another
cylinder now receives and shakes it. so
that it becomes light and fluffy and can
be readily packed into the cigarettes,
for it is steam and iron that do most;
of the work, and only with the help
of these two giants could the branch
turn out 100000 cigarettes daily.
INTELLECTUAL WOMEN.
The statement of good morals in the
tobacco factories cam be supplemented
with fairly satisfying report as to in
telligence. Most. if not all. of the girls
have had a common school education.
and some of them, the daughters of
families ruined by the war, are IF
superior breeding a woman who has
interested herself in their welfare says
it is the idea Of most of them to work
only till they can marry. Perhaps the
fair maids of Richmond are not alone
in this. 1t would be idealizing the
cigarette makers to say that they were
distinctly intellectual company. AS a
matter of fact they refuse to be much
Interested in books. Possibly they are
too tired when they so home at night,
( especially if they have been working
overtime-a thing they like to do be-
{ cause sit means 4 substantial increase In
I their pay. Several attempts have been
made to establish reading rooms and
libraries in Richmond, but the results
are small i'm comparison with those
achieved in many New England cities.
The religious is stronger than the liter
arv3 or scholastic nfiuence.F szgs
/ In apportioning the stock to Ibes con-
yerted into cheroots the bosses give out
a certain quantity, which the girl is ex-
nected to wrap he fore she leaves for the
night. Usually the cheronts are turned
in. in patches of a. hundred, and If she
receives "a bundle late In the afternoon
sit willtbe fcorrespondin sly late before she
leaves. In such an instance she halls
. ,tiie arrival Of the mission agent with u
wagon containing suppers or lunches on
metal trays and kept hot until the arr
rival al the factory. There sis5 SOUP ant
tharesar re vegetables, etimess stew,
( and always an abnnda nee of sssee t stun,
MES mud dings, Gust ards, cak e,,S Ice cram,
candy with milk, coffee and tea and the
average cost Of the dishes is five cents
eaes',ss wa GIRLS.
81 IN inc .nuer-t work title morests sc