Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-07-03
EXPENSIVE CIGARS.
tost 81 to IS, but Are Only Smoked on
Special Occasions.

Special Occasions.
A prominent tobacco importer OF this
city was asked the other day whether
there was anything extraordinary in
lhe gift of s2.65 cigars sent to King
Edward VII. by Baron Rothschild.
The baron. il appears, is accustomed
to send to the British ruler a box OF
these expensive smokes once every
year.
That's not a record price by any
means" replied the importer.
He produced box OF enormous CT
gars, rich brown in color. with fancy
red bands around them. These" he
said. "retailed for 81 apiece.
You can get them as high as So"
he added. Look at the Havana price
list here. You see this one? 1t costs
| Wholesale. without duty, $50. The
duty is somewhere in the neighborhood
or so per cent. The cigar when we
get IL will sell for 81. Our profit there
fore will be more than 30 per cent.
However, we don't have enough de-
mand for such cigars to make for
tune on them.
1.-The only time anybody buys such q
thing IS when he wishes to give IL
away or TO use It for some specially
elaborate dinner. For instance, the
other day Wall street Spectator had
a 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 up the cigars
in fancy paper and put them In ornate.
gilt lettered boxes for shipment to the
Spectator. l remember too, Il dinner
given by a broker at which a dozen
of the cigars Were distributed by the
host.
''The guests at that dinner were in
hard luck. / know, for I saw the ef-
fects OF 81 smoke on one of my
friends. l gave him one of the cigars
and watched him burn It up. The feat
required about two hours, and when
he was through he told me he felt
like n wreck. He said he'd stop smok-
Ing altogether IL he had TO use that
sort OF n cigar regularly. No. 1t wasn't
the strength-the high priced ones
usually are rather mild. 1t was the
time consumed In continuously putting
away at the thing. Ordinarily even
the most inveterate smoker takes
rest between cigars. In this case there
was no chance OF stopping. unless he
wished 20 miss part OF the treat
The 81 cigar is about eight or nine
Inches long and proportionately bulky.
According to the dealer, its value de-
Ponds principally upon the length OF
the tobacco leaf from which IL has
been rolled
"Or course" he said. ''the tobacco is
OF the best quality. but quality In small
leaves is plentiful. The difficulty is to
find leaf or the size required and of
the proper quality at the same time. I
should say that the lear for this cigar
measured about two feet.
"AH the finest cigars come from
Cuba. We could get long leaves up in
connecticut, but they wouldn't be good
enough I've no doubt that there Is
much tobacco OF big sizes In the East
Indies. but there Is no country that
rivals Cuba i'm the quality of its tobac-
co crop Undoubtedly the Rothschild
Bift TO King Edward came from there"
Incidentally he told OF high priced
cigarettes. The most costly. he ex-
planned, was a domestic variety that he
sold for 500 Il thousand. or ten cents
apiece. There was no imported cigar
cite costing SO much. he said.
The 800 n thousand sort" he ex-
planned, do not bring that price be-
cause OF Intrinsic quality. but largely
because OF the fancy box in which they
are packed. They are larger la size
than the average. but not even an ex-
pert could detect a superiority ia quail
ity over many cigarette costing less
than half as much."-New York Post.