Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1907-04-19
THE HAVANA CIGAR INDUSTRY
THE OUTPUT is EXPRESSED
IN MILLIONS.
Long Hours of The EMPLOYEES : Talking
Is Prohibited Professional Reader
To Entertain Workmen.
SMOKING A CHEAP LUXURY ON
THE ISLAND

| Very little machinery IS used here
in the mandatory Of cigars and Gig
aretts. In the Havana cigarette fac
tory there are one thousand employees,
most of whom are women and girls.
We were told that those we saw al
work were the daughters and grand
daughters of those who had been EN-
ployed here generations before and
who worked at the same benches.
Most of the girls and women are
stoop-shouldered and are thin aud
misunderstanding. Some of them are
very pretty and we noticed one girl
who would have been a beauty had
IL not been for slight cast in one
eye. Nearly all we're neatly dressed
but most of the women and girls bad
their faces thickly powdered according
to the Cuban custom.
The hours i'm a cigar or cigarette
factory are log. The employees 60 to
work at o'clock i'm the morning
and work starts up at $50. They
work until 3 o'clock in the afternoon
with an hour for ''breakfastr-- from
I'll to ~. The manager told us some
work as long as they please, and some
90 Oft at noon and do not return until
next day. Others who do piece work
and make good wages only work three
and four days in the week. Ii is not
unusual to see the girls and women
smoking cigarettes while at work.
We were told not to think anything
of this, as il is custom here.
As many as $50 girls and women
are seated Mt long table i'm some OF
the large rooms. Our attention was
attracted by raised platform and
something that looked like pulpit.
We asked If they ever held services
here and were told no. This was the
reading desk at which professional
reader was employed to read TO the
working people. 1t is impossible for
a Cuban to work and talk at the same.
time, as Cubans all use their hands
freely when talking, making all man
ner of gestures and emphasizing what
they say with their hinds.
In order to keep them from CONVEX
sation which would necessarily stop
them from working, professional
reader is employed for the entertain
ment and ediflcation of the .workmen
in all factories in Cuba. Each en-
ploye contributes 20 cents week to
the reader, who reads the newspapers,
popular novels, magazines, historical
works and other publications. The
custom is an old one, but II is still
adhered to especially in cigar and Gig
arctic factories, where conversation d
forbidden. When a Spaniard talks
he must gesticulate, and when you
hold his hands he is mute, in order to.
concentrate his attention on his work
these professional readers are there
for employed.
Some of the girls employed in the
Havana cigarette factory make SIS
and $50 per week, such skillful work
women have they become. Others
make but So and So. Each one has her
own special duty to perform. One set
of girls moisten the stamps that must
be placed on the packages and boxes
another sticks these stamps on. One
set of girls wrap the tobacco in the
white wrappers others assert them for
brown paper wrappers. Some pack
them in boxes, some in paper wrap
pers. Some tie the boxes others label
and seal them, and each ones work
is done deftly and skillfully and
with the quickest possible dispatch.
Those who work in cigar and ciga-
rette factories are said to be short
lived. Their STOPPING posture, the
long hours, the close confinement,
poor ventilation of the work rooms,
and the smell of the nicotine, together
with the lack of exercise are all con-
ducive of short life. In the same
ratio as the business has increased
in the last half century so have the
wages been increased. They have
been increased % per cent in the last
twenty five years, and have been
doubled in the last half century. The
child labor law now supposed TO be
enforced i'm the United States is not
enforced in Cuba. We saw girlsIof IL
and IA, and one who appeared to be
scarcely 10 years old, at work in a
Havana factory.
Cigars and cigarettes are very cheap
in Cuba. ii is the duty that makes
them so much more expensive in the
States. Cigars that would be 20 cents
each in the United States, sell for
ten cents in Havana, and packages Of
cigarettes are proportionately cheap.
Judging from general appearances here
every man and nearly every boy
smokes, and at Camp Columbia the
officers when not on duty enjoy a
Havana cigar all the more because,