UNPLEASANT FACTS FOR SMOKERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 700, 28 July 1882, Page 2

UNPLEASANT FACTS FOR SMOKERS.

The following letter, addressed by a Wairarapa “ Planter ” to a Northern contemporary, will not prove very com* forcing to lovers of the “fragrant weed —“ When Miss Phely spoke of visiting the kitchen to inspect things, and to ascertain what Aunt Chloe was doing, St. Clair dissuaded her by saying that she might find the old goddess washing the dishes with the foot of one of her old stockings. The thought of things being done on such a gigantic footing, I have no doubt often interfered with Miss Phely’s dinner in that home. What I am about to state relating to American tobacco scraps may also spoil many dinners, by interfering with a number of after dinner smokes, and the flourish of not a few smooth fine-looking weeds, whose inner parts have been resurrected from the spittoon and floor. However, if facts will induce consumers to go in for more expensive or cleaner locally-grown and manufactured smokes, I am content. Cigar-makers in the States generally operate in large rooms. A spittoon is placed between each pair. The greater portion of the operatives chew tobacco, all smoke, and many take snuff. The result of all this is copious expectoration, old quids, and cigar stumps. Sometimes these things find their way into the receptacles placed to receive them, oftener they reach the floor. The operations of the day commence. Stripper boys remove the shorts, empty the spittoons, and sweep the floor. All the sweepings are put into barrels (old quids, stumps of cigars, and the rest) until large quantities of this scavenage is collected. Then it is purchased by a cousin of the “ ole do’ ” man. He consigns this “ Araby the bless’d ” to European manufacturers, who cover it with a de-cent-looking wrapper, decent only in appearance, though quality it has none. If light colored cigars are the fashion they are made light; if dark are leading, they are dyed. The cigars are dried in heated rooms, packed in Honduras cedar boxes, stamped, and covered with spurious Havana labels j shipped foreign, and sold in bond in the colonies at from 30s to L 6 per 1,000. Even at the above quotations shippers realise large profits, and no wonder, for they can purchase sufficient of these second innings to make two hundred thousand cigars at the cost of

one thousand Lavelano cigars. The honest invoice price is the test of a cigar’s quality. Lavelanos, or other decent brands cannot -be landed here for less than Ll 6 ios per thousand, and they are not the best cigars that are manufactured by some pounds per thousand. Many a lavender-kidded exquisite twirls*nis stick, flourishes his resurrection, antf exclaims—* By Jove ! Splendid cigaws, by Jove ! ’ I have no doubt he paid sixpence for it, and had it out of the favored box.”