Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-18
PRAISE OF BAD CIGARS
WILL GIVE FORTH AS MUCH
SMOKE AS THE BEST.
Man May Be Satisfied With Cheap
Tobacco and Save Money at
the Same Time.
From the London Leader.

FROM the London Leader.
Strictly speaking, there is no such thing
as a bad or good cigar. There are cigars
that one man likes and another detests
but one is intrinsically as good or as bad
as another. The tastes for tobacco In
any form being wholly an acquired taste,
all tobacco. to man who has neglected.
to acquire this taste, Is equally nauseous.
We learn, with much pains and expendi-
ture OF money, the taste for expensive
cigars, and dislike of all others, and
we then assume that high-priced cigars
are good and that all others are bad.
Had we reversed this process and ac-
CURED taste for cheap cigars we should
call them good, and high priced cigars
bad
Now, there are many reasons why we
should all smoke the so-called bad cigars
instead of the good ones. OF course the
most obvious reason is that the former
are the cheaper. Why train yourself to
equal amount of training you could
smoke penny cigars with perfect salts
faction.
If every man in London who smokes
good cigars were hereafter to conflne
himself to penny cigars. the amount of
money thus annually saved would suffice
to enable the county council to give
comfortable pensions to old and deserv-
ing, smokers. and to provide instruction
in the public schools IN the art of smok-
ing five Hamburg cigars for penny.
The Family Friend.
But ii Is the holy and inestimable in
fiuence exerted by the bad cigar in pro-
noting the love of home and family that
constitutes its chief virtue.
Among those who are familiar only
with good cigars. or those who, whether
through misfortune or vicious propensi-
ties have acquired the detestable habit
of never using tobacco, the perfume of
bad cigars is held to be Objectionable
and the smoker thereof is an unwelcome
guest
Hence he refrains from going outside
his own home to smoke. He reserves
the penetrating odor OF his cigars for
those whom he loves best. 1t is the in
cense which he offers only in his own
domestic temple.
1t has also been commonly observed that
bad cigars are invariably selected by women
who wish to give welcome presents to the
men whom they love- When the wife OF
the smoker of good cigars gives him a box
for which she has paid five shillings. he
must either make a hypocritical pretense
of being pleased or he must show his dis
appointment and wound his wifes affec-
tons.
No one can tell how many happy
homes have been broken up because the
husband was a smoker OF good cigars, and
his wife gave him bad ones. But to the
experienced smoker of bad cigars all gifts
of cigars are equally welcome, and when
ever his wife, or his sweetheart, gives him
box of the cheapest cigars in the market,
he is filled with gratitude and both giver
and receiver are happy.
The Charm Of Variety.
There is little variety to be found In smok-
ing good cigars, but the bad cigar Is full Of
incident. There are certain Italian cigars
which are nearly jet black, and have tina
appearance of being excessively strong. In
cigars that are made, and their color is due
to the licorice and molasses in which they
are soaked during the process of manufac-
ture.
For the ambitious young man, who wishes
the credit of smoking strong cigars with
out the internal remorse which too often
results therefrom, these cigars are obvious
ly Just the thing. This particular weed
is rolled more careleSsly than any other
Italian cigars. if we may judge by the curl
Gus substances which find their way into
It, At one moment a bit of wooden yarn
will blaze up in his cigar at another the
rich flavor of smoldering bits of leather
Will mingle with the original flavor of the
tobacco.
OCCASIONALLY small pieces OF india-rubber
find their way into these cigars The favor
of burning rubber is seldom relshed by one
who is accustomed to 1t, but one cannot
deny that when it comes to the smoker
Unexpectedly it adds greatly TO the wealth
of incident which characteriZes this re-
markable Italian brand.
Smoking Is sometimes said to be I'M
eventful and monotonous, except, of course,
when the smoker is practicing on his first
cigar, but there is nothing monotonous
about an Italian cigar 1t unites the Joys
OF exploration and discovery with the
charms of licorice and molasses-and all
for the absurd price of a half-pennyi Yet
there are men who actually prefer to pay
a shilling for a Havana cigar barren of
everything except tobacco.
A German Rival.
There are other bad cigars which have
their especial attractions. In particular,
there is a cigar manufactured at Hamburg,
and artificially perfumed, which is war
ranted to surprise the most hardened and
experienced nose. Except by reckless men
who care not for their lives, it can only be
smoked at home. Even in that seclusion it
is said TO have fatal effect upon the family
cat, and it should therefore be Stunned by
all cat-lovers.
But II is useless to attempt to mention
the different brands of bad cigars that offer
attractions to bold and enterprising men,
lovers of adventure and research. The
smoker of good cigars can never know the
infinite variety which is to be found in
every bad cigar. He treads only the straight
and narrow pathway set around with
Havanas, and knows not of the alluring by
paths, that wind in and out amid the end
less variety of bad cigars, and their strange
and pungent perfumes.