Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce Part 26

"The colors or strengths are _Amarillo Claro_, bright yellow; _Amarillo Obscuro_, dark yellow; _Claro_, bright; _Colorado Claro_, bright red; _Colorado_, red; _Colorado Obscuro_, dark red; _Colorado Maduro_, red-ripe or mellow; _Maduro_, ripe or mellow; _Maduro Obscuro_, dark ripe or mellow; _Pajizo Claro_, bright straw-colored; _Pajizo_, straw-colored; _Pajizo Obscuro_, dark straw-colored; _Fuerte_, strong or heavy; _Entre Fuerte_, rather strong or heavy; _Flajo_, light. Then there are the indications of the qualities:--Superfine; _Firo_, not quite so fine; _Flor_, finest or firsts; _Superior_, next, or seconds; _Buenos_, next, or thirds. The cigar has a notable history. First has to be determined the part of the plant from which it is taken; then the part of the leaf from which it is taken, the tobacco being best which is furthest away from the root or middle of the leaf. One elaborate process follows another for the perfection of a work of art--for as such we must regard a cigar."

Hazard, in his admirable work on Cuba, devotes considerable s.p.a.ce to cigars, their manufacture, varieties, and use, in which he speaks of the various brands as follows:--

"The brands known as '_Yara Mayau_,' and the '_Guisa_,' are perhaps the most celebrated made upon the Island. Of the '_Yara_,' which has some considerable reputation, particularly in the London market, I confess I cannot speak favorably. Cigars that I smoked made from this leaf, and which are much smoked in the vicinity of Santiago de Cuba, I found had a peculiar saline taste which was very unpleasant, as also a slight degree of bitterness; many smokers, however, become very fond of this flavor. When I state that in Havana alone there are over one hundred and twenty-five manufacturers of cigars, it will readily be understood there must be a great many inferior cigars made even in Cuba.

Havana may be called the 'City of cigars,' from its reputation and the immense number of factories there are in it for the manufacture of cigars, from the smallest shop opening on the street, employing three or four hands to the immense _fabricos_ erected expressly for this purpose, and employing five or six hundred.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cuban cigar shop.]

"Let not any one imagine, then, that because he is in Havana he will get no poor cigars, for a greater mistake can not be made, for just as vile trash can there be purchased as any where; and it appeared to me that in buying, from time to time in different _fabricos_, a few cigars it was rarely I found a really good one. It behooves, then, every lover of a good cigar to make himself familiar with the best makers and brands, and to purchase those, and those only, that suit his taste. To the traveler in Havana, this is easy enough, as he can there buy sample boxes from any of the factories and of any of the brands. There are, in addition to these hundreds of other cigar factories, some of which, such as _Cabargos_, _Figaros_, _Luetanos_, _Victorias_, etc., are first-cla.s.s, three or four at least in whose cigars every smoker may have perfect confidence, the brands of which are known all over the world. These are: _Cabanos_, _Uppmann_ and _Partagas_; for whose brands, perhaps, one pays something more, but has always the satisfaction of finding them good. To the kindness of the gentlemen connected with some of these factories I am indebted for most of the information in this article, and particularly to Senor Don Avulmo G. del Valle, the present proprietor of the Cabanos Factory, who was good enough to show me through his establishment, carefully explaining to me its peculiarities.

As the process of manufacture and description of grades and qualities are the same with all the best makers, I give here a detailed history of this factory and its products.

"The factory for Cabanos cigars has been established seventy-two years the founder of it being Don Francisco Cabanos, his son, Don de P. Cabanos, succeeding him, to whom has succeeded his son-in-law, Senor del Valle, the present proprietor and director of the factory. When it was founded, the cigars were sold to the public in bundles of twenty, only amounting to a total number per year, of four or five hundred thousand cigars, the sales of which kept constantly increasing until 1826, when there were sold two millions. At this period the demand for exportation commenced, increasing each year until 1848, when the number sold amounted to three and a half millions. At this time, the present director came in charge, and increased the sale to eight millions per year, until, in 1866, the total sales by this one house only, amounted to the enormous number of sixteen million cigars, which went to different parts of the world. The tobacco manipulated in this factory is, with some few exceptions, that grown upon plantations in the Vuelta Abojo, with the proprietors of which Senor del Valle has a special contract for their product. The most noted of these places are known as '_La Lena_,' '_San Juan aj Martin_,' '_Los Pilotos_,' '_Rio Hondo_.' The firm also own three _vegas_, as do also Partagas, Uppmann, and others, in a greater or less degree. The amount raised upon these _vegas_ in connection with the Cabanos Factory, amounts to five thousand bales, of from first to eighth quality, leaving the most inferior qualities, which amount to about one thousand bales, for exportation, the factory not using such common grades. It is a custom of the manufacturers to keep a supply of the best qualities always on hand from year to year, in order that, should the tobacco crop, in any one year, be bad, the reputation of the house can be maintained by using the good tobacco in the store. The factory is a large stone building, opposite the Canipo de Moste, in which all the operations connected with cigar making are carried on (excepting the manufacture of boxes) by over five hundred operatives, all males. The following is the process of manufacture:

"Arrived at the factory, the tobacco bales, carefully packed and wrapped in palm leaves, are kept in a cool, dark, place on the first floor, being divided off into cla.s.ses according to quality and value, which latter varies from twenty to four hundred dollars per bale of two hundred pounds. When wanted, the bales are opened, the _manojas_ and _gabillos_ are separated, and the latter carried in their dry state to the moistening room. Here are a number of men whose business it is to place the leaves, for the purpose of moistening and softening them, into large barrels in which is a solution of saltpetre in water; this done, the water is poured off, and other workmen spread out the leaves with their hands upon the edges of the barrels, ridding them as much as possible, of any surplus water; after which, the leaves, from being moistened, unfold very easily, and, with care, without tearing. The stem is then taken out, the process being known as _disbalillar_. These stems, with the refuse of other tobacco, are sometime used as filling for the commonest kind of cigars. The filling is known as _tripa_, the very best being selected, like the leaf, for the best cigars. Now comes the maker, and supplying himself with a handful of leaf (_copa_) for wrappers, and a lot of the _tripa_ for filling or really making the body of the cigar itself he carries it to a little table, and spreading the wrapper upon the table, cuts with a short knife the different portions of the leaf. This is a very nice operation, requiring skill, knowledge, and experience; for it is in this operation that the different qualities of tobacco are separated, the outside of the leaf being generally the best; next that, another quality; and that portion adjoining the stem the worst.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tobacco leaf.]

"The general sorting of the tobacco is done by hands of great experience and judgment, who are the highest in consideration in the factories, some of them receiving large pay; thus for instance, the official _escojedor_, or chooser, gets from five to seven dollars (gold) per day, and the _torcedores_, or twisters, from two to four, the workmen being paid so much per thousand cigars, generally from two to four dollars. To show how very careful the maker must be in cutting out the leaf to make the most of it: Mr. del Valle was explaining to me the process of manufacture, and directed the maker to cut the leaf. This the man did drawing his knife in the manner denoted by the dotted lines in the engraving. This it appears was not making the most of the fine part of the leaf, for Mr. del Valle, annoyed, took the knife himself, and after rating the maker soundly for his carelessness, showed him how to cut it properly, as defined by the black line, the difference being, as far as I could judge, a slight inequality of color between the two parts.

The manufacture of the cigar is very simple. The cigar maker, being seated before a low work table, which has raised ledges on every side except that nearest him, takes a leaf of tobacco, spreads it out smoothly before him, and cuts it as in the drawing. He then lays a few fragments of tobacco (_tripa_) in the centre or a leaf strip and rolls the whole into the shape of a cigar, and taking then a wrapper, rolls it spirally around the cigar. If the workman is skillful, he makes it of just the right length and size, without any tr.i.m.m.i.n.g of the knife. The cigars are a.s.sorted, counted, and done up in bundles of generally twenty-five each, and then packed in the boxes, ready for market, under their different names of _Londres_, _Regalias_, etc. These names are generally understood to have the same meaning throughout the trade, the '_Vegueros_,' for instance, being the plantation cigars, made at the _regas_, and much esteemed by smokers, though they are rarely to be met with for sale, or, if so, at an exhorbitant price. The '_Regalia Imperial_,' the finest and best, is nearly seven inches long, the price varying from one hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars per thousand (gold). The '_Regalia_' is not so large but fine, the '_Trabuco_,' short and thick; the '_Londres_,' the most convenient in shape, and most smoked in this country and England; the '_Dama_' the small sized one used by ladies(?) or by men between acts of the opera (_entr' operas_). There are also other names which each factory has for some particular kinds. Artificial flavors are given to cigars, when some particular taste is to be satisfied, by the use of flavoring extracts. Each of the above names has different qualities, as:

_Londres_ '_superfine_' the very best of that size (delicious).

" '_fino_,' not quite so fine.

" '_flor_,' finest, or firsts.

" '_superior_,' next, or seconds.

" '_buenos_,' next, or thirds.

Again, these different qualities have different colors, known as: '_maduro_,' strongest; '_oscuro_,' strong (dark); '_colorado_,' medium; '_claro_,' mild; '_Brevors_,' means pressed. Thus, supposing one wanted a good cigar to suit his taste, he would perhaps order: 'Partagas' (maker), 'londres'

(size), 'flor' (quality), 'Colorado' or 'oscuro' (strength), and he would get a good cigar, nice size, best quality, not too strong, or too mild.

"I must confess to a weakness for the Uppmann cigars, which I have found, without exception, to be good, and which have a fine reputation throughout the West Indies. A millionaire need not want a better cigar to smoke than their '_Londres superfine_,' at sixty dollars (gold) per thousand, in Havana, or their '_Cazadores_,' at fifty dollars. Partagas cigars of course, every one knows are good; and he keeps generally pretty well sold up, but fills orders as they come in. For a new experience, one of his '_Regalio Reyno flor_,'

is something to try, even if they do cost out there eighty-five dollars, gold.

"In all the factories they make about the following rates: For every order of ten thousand, costing fifty dollars per thousand, five per cent. discount is allowed. Less than five thousand will pay five dollars extra. I should, perhaps, mention that no distinction is made to dealers, the only advantage they have over the private buyer is, that they are enabled to get the discount for large lots. The absurd notion so prevalent with us, that the Cubans only smoke their cigars green, is an error, since the leaf is entirely dried in the sun before being touched by the manufacturer.

The Cubans are very particular indeed to preserve the aroma and fragrance of the cigars, by keeping them in wrappers of oiled and soft silks; it is, in fact, quite a sight to see with what ceremony some of these are produced at gentlemen's tables, with much unction, like the ushering in of old wine.

My chapter on cigars would be incomplete did I fail to note the beautiful and courteous way in which all Cubans no matter of what position, whether the exquisite at the club, or the _portero_ at the door, ask you for a light. 'Do me the favor Senor?' and you present your cigar, the lighted end towards the speaker. He takes the cigar delicately between his thumb and fore-finger, lights his own, and then, with a quick, graceful motion, turns yours in his fingers, presenting you, with another wave, the mouth end, makes you a hand salute, utters his _gracios_, and leaves you studying out the 'motions' and thinking what a charming thing is national politeness."

In the selection of leaves for the manufacture of cigars in the factories only the large fine ones are used for _Regalias_, _Imperiales_, or _Medios Regalias_; and also for _Cazadores_, _Panetelos_, _Imperiales_, _Caballeros_, and so on; the smaller fine leaves for _Panetelos_ and _Londres_; the dark inferior leaves for _Canones_. The commonest tobacco goes to form the _Milores Communes_; the worst is converted into cigars which are generally pressed flat, and known as _Prinsados_. For the smallest kind of _Londres_ and for _Damos_, a proportionally small leaf is employed.

In Cuba and Luzon, one of the Philippine Islands, is found one of the largest factories for cigars in the world. In Manilla there are three factories where 7,000 families and 1,200 males are employed: one in Cavite, in which 5,000 operatives, mostly females, are engaged; and one in Malabar, which gives employment to about 2,000 more, also females. The tobacco is worked into both cigars and cheroots both of which have a variety of shapes. In both Manilla and Havana the custom of smoking is universal and one rarely meets with any of the male s.e.x without a cigar between his lips.

A writer speaking of the universality of the custom says:

"In Havana, the custom of smoking is a universal one. There, young and old indulge freely in the use of the weed, dividing their attention pretty equally between the cigar and the cigarette. Even the ladies of the better cla.s.s in many instances indulge; though not to so great an extent as is commonly reported."

"Smoking in Cuba" says an American writer, "is like the habit of making shoes in Lynn, Ma.s.sachusetts, everybody smokes!--in the house, and by the way; in the cars, and on horseback; everywhere, and at all times. You meet whole regiments of youngsters, from six to eight years of age, with black beaver hats, tail-coats, and canes, each with a cigar, nearly his own size, in his mouth. You feel like putting the miniature dandies into the water of the next fountain basin, which shallow as it is, would fully, suffice to drown the largest of them."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Wenches smoking.]

You have a right to accost any one smoking in the street, however much may be his superiority or inferiority to yourself, and to ask a light for your cigar; even negroes hatless and shirtless, thus address well-d.i.c.kied gentlemen, and _vice versa_. Refuse to take a cigar with a Cuban, and you refuse his friendship. The negroes cannot work at all without their quota of cigars; "and looking out of the windows of a room in that magnificent hotel '_El Telegrafo_,' the writer remembers to have caught a glimpse more than once of the negro women at work in the laundry, every one of whom held a long cigar in her mouth, and puffed incessantly as the clothes were manipulated upon the washboards." In Havana, as throughout Cuba, there is a cigar etiquette, to infringe any of the rules of which is construed as an insult. It is, for instance considered a breach of etiquette when you are asked for a light to hand your cigar without first knocking off the ashes. A greater breach, however, is to pa.s.s the cigar handed for you to obtain a light from, to a third party for a similar purpose; the rule is to hand back the cigar with as graceful a wave as you can command, and then if necessary, pa.s.s your own cigar to the third party.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A moonlight reverie in Havana.]

The insult direct in cigar etiquette is for the party to whom you apply for a light, to pa.s.s on and leave you with the remains of his cigar, or to intimate to you, by word or action, that he has no further use for it, and that you can throw it away. In Cuba, where cigars are plentiful, the usual custom is, when you ask for a light, even if the party be a stranger, to pull out your case and offer him a cigar, by way of recognizing the civility in stopping to accommodate you. The Spaniards are naturally a polite people, and the stranger stepping into the Louvre and other public places of resort in Havana, is struck at once with the marked contrast in this respect to familiar gatherings elsewhere. In no place is a cigar more enjoyable than in Havana. Seated upon the roof of one of the large hotels in that city in a bright moonlight night, within hearing of the dreamy roll on the beach: the regular throb of the sea, lulling one into quietness; the sigh of the summer breeze a lullaby to the senses; while a high-flavored prime cigar, as it wastes and floats away in air, is the fairy wand which opens the enchanted gates of Reverie and Imagination.

What need of a friend under such soothing circ.u.mstances? What need of the jolly _camarade_ of former days to sigh back sigh for sigh, puff for puff, and wander in gentle reminiscences over the Lesbian labyrinth of the past, when Julia was most kind, or Cynthia, darling girl, delighted in the perfume of a capital havana? Here, in this quaint old city by the sea, is the place for dreams and reveries and the utter rendering of one's self up--to a good cigar. Is it not a place for reverie? Has not one with this most respectable weed, this prime _havana_, the concomitants of a thousand reveries? Will not one puff of that narcotic breath drowse deep all watching dragons, and make for him the sleeping beauties of his will? And, _presto_, there they are! and, oh! ye houris of the South, with what a smile and glance between the azure puffs! Well let me not forget myself. With a sterner morality he sees how the bending Bedouin fashions his pipe in the moistened ground; he sees the slender Indian reed with the flat bowls of Lah.o.r.e and Oude, the pipe of the Anglo-eyed celestial, the red clay of Bengal, and the glittering gilded cups in which the dark-skinned races of Siam, the Malacca Isles, and the Philippines, love to enshrine their dreamy opium-haunted spirits of the weed. He sees how in the squatter's hut the old squaw sits by her hunter lord, and puffs at the corn-cob sweetness, and how by lonely ways the traveler rests and thinks of home, and in the blue smoke greets once more the faces of the loved, perhaps forever gone. He sees how the Esquimaux, with his hollow Walrus-tooth, makes bearable the stifling squalor of his den; or, sterner and graver still, some item of historic lore mingles rudely with his dreams, and elbows sharply the airy spirits of his smoke-engendered thoughts. Softly tremble in the delicate blue mist and the azure spirals from his old Virginia clay--the domes of a sea-bathed city. Loftily pierce the tall white minarets into the quivering heavens, while the solemn cypress throws its shade below. Before him, silent-paced as in a dream, files the weird array of Arab camels, bowing their long necks tufted with crimson braids, and measuring the brown sands of the desert with ghost-like tread. 'Tis the moon of Egypt and the waters of the Nile; 'tis the palm-bough waves for him; and women, free-limbed, with flashing eyes, and antique water-vases on their heads, move past him from the low-rimmed shadowy wells. And he sees them there and smiles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: By the sea.]

He sees on beach by the sea the summer idler sitting beneath the jutting rock, gazing far out upon the sea, yet ignoring the white sails that pa.s.s up and down before him, as well as the open volume upon his knee, while his thoughts float outward and upward with the graceful wreaths of smoke that encircle his head; and if of a practical turn, he listlessly wonders why, if his own delightful land furnishes some twentieth of the whole Tobacco produce of the world, and does honor to her native weed by being its mightiest consumer, why, in the name of all disasters, the product is so dear--ay, doubly dear? And thus as his pipe burns low, a hundred other statistics; then, knocking out his whitened ashes on the floor, he reads sedately (his pipe being out) that the "Tobacco plant furnishes ashes to the amount of one-fourth of its bulk, being a much greater proportion than that of any other vegetable product," and, moreover, that "Tobacco exhausts the soil at the ratio of fourteen tons of wheat to one of Tobacco!" Oh, base insinuation! But, as he relights his pipe, and the graceful vapor circles in fresh buoyancy and grace before him, he only, in his contented mind, retains that one supreme expression--"_One ton of Tobacco!_" Ah,

"Think of it, picture it Now, if you can!"

From "A Paper of Tobacco,"[63] we extract the following humorous description of Yankee cigar smokers, which to a certain extent is true to life, but like most of the articles descriptive of American life by English Authors, who travel in America and write _a book_ afterwards, it is exaggerated or overdrawn:

[Footnote 63: London, 1839.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: An American smoker.]

"The Americans, who pride themselves on being the fastest-going people on the 'versal globe'--who build steamers that can out-paddle the sea-serpent and breed horses that can trot faster than an ostrich can run--are, undoubtedly, ent.i.tled to take precedence of all nations as consumers of the weed. The sedentary Turk, who smokes from morn to night, does not, on an average, get through so much tobacco per annum, as a right slick, active, go-ahead Yankee, who thinks nothing, 'upon his own relation,' of felling a wagon-load of timber before breakfast, or of cutting down a couple of acres corn before dinner. The Americans, it is to be observed, generally smoke cigars; and tobacco in this form burns very fast away in the open air, more especially when the consumer is rapidly locomotive, whether upon his own legs, the back of a horse, the top of a coach, the deck of a steamboat, or in an open railway carriage. The habit of chewing tobacco is also prevalent in 'the States,' nor is it, as in Great Britain and Ireland, almost entirely confined to the poorer cla.s.ses. Members of the House of Representatives and of the Senate, doctors, judges, barristers, and attorneys chew tobacco almost as generally as the laboring cla.s.ses in the old country. Even in a court of justice, more especially in the Western States, it is no unusual thing to see judge, jury, and the gentlemen of the bar, all chewing and spitting as liberally as the crew of a homeward-bound West Indiaman. It must indeed be confessed that Brother Jonathan loves tobacco 'not wisely but too well,' and that the habits which are induced by his manner of using it are far from 'elegant.' The truth is, he neither smokes nor chews like a gentleman; he lives in a land of liberty, and takes his tobacco when and where he pleases. He spits as freely as he smokes and chews--upon the carpet or in the fire-place--for he is not particular as to where he squirts his copious saliva, and does not think with the late Dr. Samuel Parr, that a spitting-box is a necessary article of household furniture. The free-born citizen of the States laughs at the aristocratic restrictions imposed on smoking in England, where, on board of the numerous steamboats that ply on the Thames, conveying the pride of the city to Gravesend and Margate, no smoking is allowed abaft the funnel, and where, in public-houses ash.o.r.e, no gentleman is permitted to smoke in the parlor before two o'clock in the afternoon. A pipe of tobacco, or a cigar, after a day's hard exercise, whether mental or bodily, and after the cravings of hunger and thirst are appeased, may be fairly ranked amongst the most delightful and most harmless of all earthly luxuries. It fills the mind with pleasing visions, and the heart with kindly feelings. A hard-working laborer, smoking by the side of his hearth at night, presents a perfect picture of quiet enjoyment. I see him now in my mind's eye. He is seated in an old high-backed, cushionless arm-chair, but an easy one, nevertheless, to him, who from dawn till sunset, has been engaged in ploughing, thrashing, ditching, or mowing. With one leg thrown over the other, he quietly reclines backward, and with an expression of perfect mental composure, he gazes on the smoke that ascends from his pipe. There is a sentiment-exciting power[64] in the smoke of tobacco when perceived by the eye, as well as a pleasing sedative effect when inhaled; and those smokers who have any doubt of the fact should take a pipe with their eyes closed. A person who smokes with his eyes shut cannot very well tell whether his cigar is lighted or not. How soothing is a pipe or a cigar to a wearied sportsman, on his return to his inn from the moors! As he sits quietly smoking, he thinks of the absent friends whom he will gratify with presents of grouse; and, in a state of perfect contentment with himself and all the world, he determines to give all his game away. Full of such kindly feelings, he retires to bed; but, alas, with day-light, when the effect of the tobacco has subsided, the old leaven of selfishness prevails, and his good intentions are abandoned. 'Mary,' said an old c.u.mberland farmer to his daughter, when she was once asking him to buy her a new beaver, 'why dost thou always tease me about such things when I'm quietly smoking my pipe?' 'Because ye are always best-tempered then, feyther,' was the reply. 'I believe, la.s.s, thou's reet,' rejoined the farmer; 'for when I was a lad, I remember that my poor feyther was just the same; after he had smoked a pipe or twee he wad ha' gi'en his head away if it had been loose.'"

[Footnote 64: The smoke ascending from the snuff of a candle could excite a sentimental feeling in the minds of Wordsworth and Sir George Beaumont, though it seems to have had no such effect on the mind of Crabbe.--_Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott._]

The following ode to a Cigar is no doubt familiar to many, yet will pay a re-perusal:

"And oft, mild friend, to me thou art A monitor, though still; Thou speak'st a lesson to my heart Beyond the preacher's skill.

"Thou'rt like the man of worth, who gives To goodness every day, The odor of whose virtues lives When he has pa.s.sed away.

"When in the lonely evening hour, Attended but by thee, O'er history's varied page I pore, Man's fate in thine I see.

"Oft, as thy snowy column grows, Then breaks and falls away, I trace how mighty realms thus rose, Thus trembled to decay.

"Awhile, like thee, earth's masters burn, And smoke and fume around, And then like thee to ashes turn, And mingle with the ground.

"Life's but a leaf adroitly rolled, And time's the wasting breath, That, late or early, we behold Gives all to dusty death.

"From beggar's frieze to monarch's robe One common doom is pa.s.sed; Sweet nature's work, the swelling globe, Must all burn out at last.

"And what is he who smokes thee now?

A little moving heap, That soon, like thee, to fate must bow, With thee in dust must sleep.

"But though thy ashes downward go, Thy essence rolls on high; Thus, when my body must lie low, My soul shall cleave the sky."

In Charles Butler's "Story of Count Bismarck's Life," a good anecdote is told of the Count and his last cigar:--

"'The value of a good cigar,' said Bismarck, as he proceeded to light an excellent Havana, 'is best understood when it is the last you possess, and there is no chance of getting another. At Koniggratz I had only one cigar left in my pocket, which I carefully guarded during the whole of the battle as a miser does his treasure. I did not feel justified in using it. I painted in glowing colors in my mind the happy hour when I should enjoy it after the victory. But I had miscalculated my chances.' 'And what was the cause of your miscalculation?' 'A poor dragoon. He lay helpless, with both arms crushed, murmuring for something to refresh him. I felt in my pockets and found I had only gold, and that would be of no use to him. But, stay, I had still my treasured cigar! I lighted this for him, and placed it between his teeth. You should have seen the poor fellow's grateful smile! I never enjoyed a cigar so much as that one which I did not smoke.'"

In European cities juveniles offer the smoker, at every street corner, a "pipe" or a "cigar light." The following description, ent.i.tled "Light, Sir," is from an English journal, and contains much interesting information on the various modes of lighting pipes and cigars.