Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1907-08-02
! EXPENSIVE SMOKING. , .
What Will the Ordinary Smoker Think oi
Cigars That Cost 81 to S52,

A prominent tobacco importer ol
tFhk ttitt Was 'fAslsd' the other day
whduhxr There, was, anything ttktra
ordinary in the gift, Of .S2.d3 cigar
sent ttto'Kiing E.fward''Hit. yilsaror
Rothschild The baron, it appears
is accustomed to send to the British
rulera box of those expensive smokes
once in every year.
THAT snot record price by any
means, replied the importer.
He produced box of enornou,
cigars, rich brown in color, Will
fancy red bands around them. These
he said. rctailcd for 81 apiece.
You can get them as high as So,
he added. Look at the Havan;
price list, here. You see this one,
1t costs wholesale, without duty
$1.50. The duty is somewhere in tn,
ncighborhood of 50 per cent. The
cigar, when we get it. will sell for 81
Our profit is small, therefore ",
don't have enough demand for sucl
cigars to make ii fortune on them.
The only time anybody buys sucl
a thing is when he wishes to give il
away or to use it for some specially
elaborate dinner. For instance, tn,
other day. a Wall street Speculation
had birthday, and several of his
friends came to me and bought these
81 cigars to send to him. Each friend
bought. only one. We wrapped VI
the cigars in fancy paper and put
them in ornate, gilt-lettered boxes
for shipment to the speculator.
remember, too. Ga dinner given by T.;
broker. at which Il dozen of the cigars
were distributed by the host.
The guests at that dinner were
in hard luck. | know, for | saw the
effects of il 81 smoke on one of my
friends. | gave him one of the cigars
and watched him burn it up. Tn,
feat required about two hours, and
when he was through, he told me ht
felt like IL wreck. He said he'd stOI
smoking altogether if he had to ust
that sort of Il cigar regularly. No. il
wasn't the strength-the high-priccd
ones usually are rather mild; it was
the time consumed in continuously
putting away at the thing. Ordinar-
lily even the most invcterate smoker
takes rest between cigars. In this
case there was no chance of stopping,
unless he wished to miss part of the
treat"
The 81 cigar is about eight or nine
inches long and prOpOrtiOnately
bulky. According to the dealer, its
value demands principally upon the
length of the tobacco leaf from which
it has been rolled.
"Of course" he said, the tobacco
is of the best quality, but quality in
small leaves is plentiful. The diff
Guilty is to find q leaf of the size re-
quired and of the proper quality at
the same time. l should say that the
leaf for this cigar measured about
two feet.
"All the finest cigars come from
Cuba. We could get long leaves VI
in Connecticut. but they wOuldn t be
good enough. have no doubt that
there is much tobacco of big sizes in
the East Indies. but there is no coun
try that rivals Cuba in the quality OF
its tobacco. Undoubtedly the Roth
schild gift to King Edward came
from there.
incidentally he told of high-pricet
cigarettes. The most costly, he ex
planned was a domestic variety thai
sold for 500 a thousand, or tel
cents apiece. There was no imported
cigarette costing so much, he said.
THE $lOO-a- thousand sort" h'
explained, docs not bring tha
price because of intrinsic quality, bu
largely because Of the fancy box il
which they are packed: They arr
larger in size than the average, bu
not even an expert could detect Il su
periOrity in quality over many ;
cigarette costing less than half n
much"