Tobacco

Ever oiio kuowH tluit Uu; moBopoly of j , maniifaeturiiiK tobáceo Ty the State was , KiifiRosteil to Napoleon III. by the , geons appearanee of a lady at one of tho ] Oonrt balls. Her cfiamonds, in fact, excited much ulmiration and not a little. envy. " Who is she V asked the Emporor, and the answer was, " The wifo of a retired tobáceo manufacturen." Fröm tliat e.voning free trade in tobáceo was doomod in Franco, nor has a republican form of goverament cared to do away w-ith a most prolitablo souroe of i-ovi'iiiie. At the same time it must bc oonfessed tliat the produce of the Regie. is, for the most part, "cheap and nnsty." A visit whieh I have just paid to the manufactory on the Quai d'Orsay, one of the fiftaen which exist in Franco, I has confirmed me in this belief, thouRh I ame away with the impression that tobáceo and no other loaf was, whether good or bad, cxclusivcly used. The tírst thing which strikes a visitor on entering the r.stablishment irttho rank, overpowering smell of nicotine which pervades the viiolo place - a smell, moreover, which is utterly indeseribable to those who do not know it. In the lower rooms, hnlfnuked men, browu with the juice of tho plant, were u)t;aged in wetting the lt-aves and pacldng them in great stacks for tho purpose of fermentation, which goes on for eigjjteen months. Close by, uu. Ier a shed in an open yard, is the i po werf ui steani-engine, of English make, which givcs rotary power to all the machines on the premises. A largo part of this machine work is devoted to ' tho making of snuff, and this I was shown in all the various stages of its fabrication. Hcro, I ñnd, it is composed of vurious tobáceos, Buch as Yirgiman, Hungarian, umi French, together with all contraband tobáceo - some of it vcry KUHpicious-looldng stuff- sefaea by the Custom-Houso offieers. ïhis mixture ', in proportionately dividetl, and makes a ! total of 100 parte. The snufftnakers I aa-e, I v.as informeel, the least healthy of ii 11 the persons employee! in the es1 üiblishment. It may be stated that the Liiiniber is 2,000, of whom 1,600 are women and girls. Up-stiirs are roms dovotod to the sorting of the leaves by experienced hands, who can teil at once ïf tho tobáceo be of foreign or of home growth, thoiigh I must confesa that to me it looked much the same. In addition to the various Bnuff-cutting 1 au.l pounding machines, a long gallery is iilled witli implements, ulso worked ; by stenm, -which neatly slice the compressed leaves into the pipe tobáceos i known as " Marylimd" and " Caporal, the latter being considerably coarser, but, it is said, purer than the former. " Caporal," indeed, is the favorite kind with whiit my guide called " les vraia fumeura," When ualted and dried these tobáceos are, aftor being wcighed, compressed into paper packets by hydraulie pressnre, fastened, and then reweighed, any overweight or the opposite being at once detected, and the packet condeinned on the spot. This is entirely done by women. and the qnickoess and del'tness whieh they display in " making np" is really astoniahing. During the last two yem tlu'.r! has htWTin very ciaat demand for cigarettes - so great, iudeed, j tliat it has occasionally been greater than i the supply. OonaequenÜy, thero are many rooms fllled ñth girls with strips of ntamp(Ml cut by machines in another room- before them, and each, j ■n-ith tlie nid of a gum-bottle and au ingenious little instrument, turns out 1,000 to 1,500 cigarettes a day. Tho rJUmfiicture of a eigar is certainly not a pleasiaa opi'ration. The woman takes a handi'ul of coarse-Jooking tobáceo, gives it a roll with her hands, rolls a trimmed leal round it, touches tho end witk brown paste to make everytking secure, and the result is a cisrar, wiiich is then mado of tho requíred lengttí by m instrument liko a miöiatUüe turnip cutter. Somo of thoso oigars cost as littlo as two for tliroc halfpenoe, aud few government branda are sold at more than 3d apiece. The JJegie próvidos tobáceo suited to overy tiisti-, theivfore a wliole depMtment is devotcd to the process of twisting rolls into what is known in Eugland as pigtail, destinad, for the most part, to be chewed by sailors and tho popiüations of seaport'tmvns, though I was shown a milder kind which is made cxpressly for anl smoked in several departments. The governmont factory is certanüy a curions, but not by any meaua a pleasant sight, aud if any parent wishes to cure bis sou of the " pernicious habit of smoking" he could certainly not do bettov tlüin tafee him to see tlie j ment on the Quai d'Orsay. Auy coniirmed srnoker, however, I would advise not to go, a ïte would probably be