El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-01-29

at Mukden. and third at Hankow In
deed. the Americans are changing the
Chinese from pipe smokers to cigaret
smokers, and machine made eigarets are
now to be bought as far west as Tibet.
The business is done under the name
of the British-American Tobacco COM
pany, and it has in its employ both
British and American officers The
chief manager is an American. who
lives here at Shanghai He tells me
the Chinese are a nation of tobacco
smOk erS and that they have been rails
ing and using tobacco for over 800
years. The weed was introduced from
Manila less than so years after Column
bus discovered America. and it has been
in use ever since although many of
the Chinese emperors have repeatedly
tried to wipe il out. Much tobacco is
still smoked in pipes two kinds Of
which are in use everywhere One OF
these is a dry pipe which may be or
bamboo or clay or wood. It's bowl is
small and seldom holds more than a
pinch of tobacco. The other pipe is a
metal box filled with water. through
which the smoke is drawn before it en-
tiers the mouth. 1t has a tube about a
foot long, and this bends over at the
mouthpiece. This pipe is usually made
of copper and silver. or an alloy of cop
per, zinc. nickel and iron. 1t is used
by DOth men ana women
The natives make cigarets OF corn
husks and bamboo leaves. They also
roll tobacco in brown paper ,Of late
years. however. the rice paper cigarel
has come into vogue, and it is used
more and more every day by both men.
women and children
Strike of Tobacco Girls
One of the Americans employed in the
tobacco factory at Shanghai tells me
they had big strike the other day.
thousand odd girls left the establish
ment and refused to return until their
grievance was settled. The trouble,
strange TO say, came from a coffin.
The girls were in the habit of chang
ing from one department to another
without asking the manager. and they
looked so much alike that the foreign
officials could not tell If they were in
their right places. Thereupon a sys-
tenn of badges was instituted. giving
to each girl a pin labeled With char
acters indicating the name of every
depa rtment to which she. belonged I
Every girl had to have her own badge
and wear it, The badges were round |
square or shaped like a keystone ac-
cording TO the rooms in which the
girls worked. 1t was the last badge
which caused the trouble. The day
after the order went forth the girls |
with the keystone pins struck. and
the next noon the others went out. It /
was afterward found that the objec- |
ton lay in a superstition that the KEY |
stone badges would bring Bad luck TO !
their wearers, = because they were !
shaped like the head of coffin. 1t
was some time before this could he i
remedied and the employees brought /
into line.
Boycoting the British.
And this brings me to the new bow |
cot which was recently instituted
against the British steamers on the
Yangtse-K iang. 1 am told that some
of the companies are losing thousand |
dollars day. and that the Chinese
are refusing to ship by them because
a certain deck passenger died from
kick given by one of the steamship
ticket collectors The British are much
alarmed about the matter. and arc 10
ing all they can to appease the Chi
nese.
The first great boycott against for
eigners was that imposed unan tho
Americans two or three years ago The
merchants or the largest cities +ber
pound themselves not to buy American
goods, and imposed a penalty Of $40 non
upon any member of their orgo ,izo
ton who did 50. After This bovco+
was raised. the trouble with tha lana
1ese caused by the Importation of
arms on the Tatsu Maru was instituted
mo Il was continued until it cost Ia
pan many millions of dollars. Ahout
six months ago a Chinese official told
ne mat the damages to Japanese trade
lad ALREADY aggregated morexhan sac
'Vu.VVV' and that the guilds of Canton
iao sworn to make them s15O.OOO. ono
'eIore they got through. That bovcot
vas most powerful at Canton The
'euple mere would use nothing Japa-
lese- me women had anti-Japan clubs