Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1905-11-04
SMOKERS.
BURN UP HUNDREDS OF TOMS
OF TOBACCO ANNUALLY.
some Interesting Figures Presented
by an Authority on the Sub
ject-Cost Of the
Weed.

The habitual smoker Is occasionally
reminded by his abstemious friends
hat smoking is an expensive habit
md a wasteful one; and he Is asked
% consider how much money he could
ave annually by a discontinuance of
he habit. The habitual smoker, II he
gives consideration to this proposition
1t all, invariably comes to the conclu-
sion that the money he might not ex-
pend for cigars or tobacco would not
De saved" at all; and that the other
.hings he would probably buy with IL
would not give him a tenth Of the
genuine enjoyment and solid comfort
derived from his pet luxury.
Whatever the conclusion Of the In
lividual smoker, however, 1t must be
admitted that the habit of smoking, as
INDUCED in by Americans, costs. in the
aggregate, a lot of money. Tobacco
Leaf presents some interesting figures
On this subject. During the fiscal year
ended June 30, 1905, there were manu-
,actured in the United States 1858, 337,-
207 cigars, an increase of more than
1856, 100000 over the record Of the pre-
ceding wear. The cigarette crop, too,
in spite of Indiana's anti-cigarette law.
showed a healthy activity, the increase
amounting to over al, 000, 900 in a
Total output OF 3,36S,212, TAO. The
United States also produced owe 21,-
300, GOO pounds of snuff last year and
334, 4S9, 10 pounds Of smoking tobacco,
the latter an increase of only about
two per cent.
The value of all this tobacco product
Is not given with exactness, but is esti-
mated at over $500, 000, 900. The last
three census returns were as follows:
For 1880, SIG, 772, 631; for 1880, $780,
536,S62; for 1900, $3.50, 977, 514. At the
rate of increase Of production in 1904
o5 over the preceding year. the esti-
mate of $500, 00C 900 does not seem ex-
cessive.
An interesting fact in connection
with these statistics is that the great
bulk of the product is raised here,
manufactured here, and consumed
here. Compared with the grand total,
our imports and exports are relative
ly insignificant. Importation of to-
bacco in all its forms last year amount
ed to only a little over $22, 900, 900, and
exports to a little over $37, 000, 900.
Smokers of good Havana cigars, by the
way, have not been slow to recognize
the results of American capital and
enterprise as applied to the Cuban
product.
The New York Sun estimates the
American population of males who
may be regarded as Of cigar age" at
"a, 000, 900. At that rate the domestic
product of cigars last year was sufil-
cient TO allow each smoker 800 smokes
during the year. That is less than one
cigar a day-which any inveterate
devotee of the weed will maintain is an
absurdly moderate allowance. So, de-
spite the big figures, we are a nation
of moderate smokers, after all.
Perhaps the most formidable view
of the tobacco habit In America is OBJ
| tanned when we look at the annual
consumption by weight. A cigar is not
a heavy object; neither is q pipeful of
tobacco or a cigarette; but American
smokers burned last yea1 about 300.-
900 ~tons-enough to MAKE quite a
smudge. The habitual smoker, how
ever, will calmly assert, between puffs,
that he knows of no other product the
burning of SOC, 900 tons Of which would
afford as much pleasure TO the 10000
900 men who burned it. or as much
profitable employment to the hundreds
of thousands of persons engaged in
growing. manufacturing and selling
the "horrid weed"