The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-10
THE CIGARETTE IN LONDON.
Trade Tricks and Juvenile Smoking
in the British Metropolis.


From the London News.
Say, guv'nor, give us yer flag pho
to- The speaker (writes our repre-
sentative) was a paleS moon-faced
young urchin with large, mournful
eyes and a stock of three half-penny
evening papers under his arm. And l
was coming out of a tobacconist's shop
nor far from Charing Cross. What
flag photo" was / had not the slight
est notion, still less why the young
ster SHOULD suppose such thing to
be in my possession.
What is a flag photo?" 1 asked.
"Garnl" he replied, contemporary
them picters of Generals an crick'-
tiers an beautiful lydies wot yer gifts in
thripp'ny packets. If yer got one o
Quaife or Baden-Powen yer can ave
a Echo for it,"
Then 1t dawned upon me- that flag"
is the street boys slang for a cigar
cite, derived either from the semblance
of "a bundle to faggots or
the discarded fag-ends which the
smoker has dropped on the pavement
The flag photo" was, of course, the
picture generally inserted i'm each lit
tie box. But there still remained the
curious fact of the zeal of this poor
little chap as an art collector and his
willingness to barter even one of his
papers for an almost valueless picture
A little conversation and a few in
auiries from tobacconists threw a
good deal of light on the mystery.
1t seems that various artful adver-
Using schemes are adopted to popular
ize particular brands of inexpensive
smokes" In one packet you may have
an insurance coupon guaranteeing
your heirs 9100 if you are killed by
accident on a tram, omnibus, or bicy-
Gle or in a train or cab, and $40 for
yourself if the accident is not fatal.
The coupon bears the encouraging an
nouncement, $50 paid already" and
doubtless the brand must be popular
with the 'scorching" cyclist. Another
packet contains a coupon which, with
a fixed number of others like it, enti-
ties the bearer to select a toy of a
certain value; and yet another gives
a coupon, ten of which will procure an
eleventh packet of cigarettes. II can
easily be seen how the collection of
these coupons becomes a matter of in
terest to children. The boy desiring
some coveted toy, which is one or two
coupons short will naturally be tempt
ed TO buy a packet or two to complete
his collection, or to expedite the con-
sumption of cigarettes by his big
brother. When the prize is merely an
other packet of cigarettes, of course
the boy will proudly consume the whiffs
which are the fruit of his persever-
ance.
But the most attractive form of ad-
vertisement is that which had en-
crossed the energies of my young
friend the news vendor OF the pave
ment. In this case a hundred numbered
photographs of elebrities-footlight
beauties and bantam weight boxers,
and crack bowlers and famous gener-
als-were distributed among the pack
cts sold. Any one making up a com
plete collection OF the hundred was en-
titled to a sovereign from the makers.
The temptation 10 a boy who only
needed a dozen or so 10 make up the
set TO buy packets or get others to buy
them for the purpose of winning the
prize was, of course. enormous An in
yestment of a shilling or so might en-
able him TO draw the coveted golden
ccin. And naturally, the system led
TO barter Of particular numbers i'm the
series and an active propaganda among
the boys for the sale OF this particular
packet OF course. there was a great
element Of chance. for II the shopkeep-
er sold fairly and declined 20 overhaul
his stock for n Particular picture, fifty
packets might be purchased before the
last OF the series turned up And all
the others would be inHtallments to-
ward further collections held by boys
melting 20 more speculative purchases
Happily. hear that this system has
worked rs own remedy, and haf had