The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-15
CONQUEST OF CONNECTICUT
STORY OF THE DUTCH INVASION
WHICH COULD NOT BE REPELLED.
Indiana Has Fallen OF as Tobacco
Growing state, Supposedly BE-
cause of Trust Methods.
@H5

in the country, toilng a boy of
| IWEH7S eight in the tobacco fields of
Iowa, learning how to make
cigars as young man in Madison, Ind,
and dealing in tobacco in Indianapolis for
| twenty-eight years as a merchant, Andrew
| Steffen knows tobacco from A to H. With
the same unerring faculty that enables
wine faster to locate the very vineyard
| that produced the sample Mr.. Steffen can
| glance at a cigar, tell instantly where the
| tobacco raised and give accurately
| other essential bits of information concern
ing the little roll. 1t is the same with smok-
| ing and plug tobaccos. A half century in
the business has made him as expert as a
man can we'll be. He knows many interest
| ing stories about the tobacco industry in
America. Not the least engrossing is the tale
| of how the Dutch conquered Connecticut.
| Andrew Steffens remarkable fund OF
| information about of the gigantic in
| dustries of the United States has been Of
| service more than once to national legis-
| lators when tariff bills were being nodded.
| He has led campaigns of Indiana tobacco
men for remedial legislation several times.
| His own business has thrived and to-day
Mr.. Steffen has very profitable trade, re-
tail and wholesale. In the East Washington
street store which he has occupied for
about twenty-eight years
INDIVIDUALITY OF CIGARS.
"Most men who smoke or chew have no
| idea where their cigar plug came from
| originally" he remarked not long ago, but
to me there has always been a pleasure in
| identifying the weed whenever / see it in
manufactured form. To 999 men out of
thousand cigar is nothing more than
| cigar; plug of tobacco nothing more than
! plug; but L have been in the business so
| long. boy and man. that have learned the
individuality that goes with each bit that
| is sold
Take a domestic cigar of good quality,
for. instance. 1t represents, perhaps. not
| only two or three States far apart, but
| little island on the other side of the world.
PENNSYLVANIA OF. Ohio may have grown the
| filler, Wisconsin or New York the binder
| and Sumatra the wrapper. Hardly a tobnc-
CO growing section produces the right kind
of tobacco to make all parts of a cigar.
| The States that raise the best cigar leaf,
or seed leaf as we call it, are Connecticut,
| New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wiscon-
! sin. The finest smoking tobacco in the
world is raised in North Carolina, the gold
| en- belt, it is known. Virginia also pro-
| duces a pretty fine article of smoking to-
| bacco. The finest chewing tobacco is raised
in Virginia, although Kentucky and Indiana
| produce the bulk of the output and chewing
tobacco of almost equal quality. Kentucky
| and Indiana raise Burnley; very little else.
| Burley is made into chewing and the vast
| crop produced every year by Kentucky goes
| almost entirely, sooner or later, into the
| mouths of Americans in all parts of the
country. The finest cigar wrapper comes
from Connecticut, although, since $780, Con-
necticut has been vainly trying to compete
with the Sumatra wrapper brought over
from Holland, after importation by the
Dutch from their island possession.
1.-The tobacco of every State has a Pc
culiar individuality which the trade recog-
nizes. This individuality has very often
come by the purest accident. One of the
most famous cigar leaves known to the
business is Zlmmer's' 1t was discovered
| by the father of Harry E. thinner, a drug
gst Of this city, whose father lives in
Dayton, o. Mr.. thinner used to experiment
| with tobacco in little garden plot he
owned. and 1t was said Of that plot that
nothing ever grew out of it that corre-
sponded to the seed which was planted. On
one occasion Mr.. thinner planted a lot of
seed which developed in the natural way
with the exception of one plant of peculiar
| appearance and texture. Mr.. Zimmer's at
tention was caught by the oddness of the
plant, and when the time came around he
planted some Of its seed. The result was
the famous thinner leaf, which has a quo
tation of it's own in the market.
THE FAMOUS hurley.
Kentucky and Indiana Burley was dis
covered in much the same way. 1t was
found that by natural processes a
plant had developed which was unusually
| porous fitted for chewing tobacco exactly,
but not so good for anything else. The
| porous leaf absorbed sweetening far bet
ter than any other plant discovered, and so
| Kentucky became the producer of the
| chewing tobacco of the country. Indiana
| tobacco is the same sort, modified slightly
! by differences in soil and climate, but es-
sentially the same thing. From the great
| warehouses of Louisville and Lexington
| and from Madison and Jacksonville in
Indiana are shipped to all parts of the
country the material for plug manufac-
ture Tennessee also produces a good quail
| ty of Burnley In large quantities.
twenty-five years ago little Connecticut
used to raise cigar wrappers for the whole
| country. Tobacco raisers there were proud
| of their output and ii seemed for a time
that nothing like 1t could be produced any,
where. Along about 1880. however. some
Dutchman prowling around in the island of
| Sumatra, owned by his government, came
| across a peculiar looking native tobacco
which struck him as having infinite posi-
| bilities. He exported a quantity of 1t to
| Holland and ii took. Dutch tobacco men
laid in enormous supplies of it. waiting for
| a chance to introduce IL favorably. In 1850,
| as l remember it. shipload of this SUI
matra tobacco was brought to this coun-
try, and l obtained little of the original
lot. 1t impressed the finest looking
leaf i had ever seen, clear, silky and of
| even handsome color. 1T took with rush.
The trade began to clamor for it and in a
| short time there was little market for the
| Connecticut article.
"At the time there was duty of 3SIs
cents a pound this imported wrapper.
The Connecticut growers commenced to