nstantly given to one
at the various stores, and were commonly received as current coin.

Physically the cigar and cigarette makers are a sorry lot. The
continual odor of tobacco, their constant labor, with bodies bent over
tables, calling into play no muscle, no exertion, indeed, whatever,
excepting the exercise of their fingers--this cannot fail to have its
effect. The cigarette makers are injured, too, by the inhalation of an
almost invisible dust arising from the small particles of tobacco. The
compensation received appears very small. Four or five cigarettes a
minute is accounted good work, and even at this rate two days' steady
labor is required to fill a hoop, for which they receive less than two
dollars.

The larger number of cigarettes manufactured at Havana are made by
machinery which is exceedingly ingenious, and has proved thoroughly
successful. The cigarettes made by machinery are not only more tightly
wrapped, but also manufactured at a much reduced cost. Each machine is
capable of making thirty cigarettes per minute, 1,800 per hour, or
43,200 per day, thus replacing the labor of fourteen men, presuming
them to be capable of working ten hours per day. For such persons as
prefer making their own cigarettes, pressed packages of tobacco, with
little paper books containing the envelopes, are sold. The tobacco is
so neatly put up that were it not for the accompanying book, one would
almost fancy it to be a package of the most delicate French chocolate.
As illustration of the consumption of cigarettes it may be of interest
to state that three million cigarettes are made in the Honoradez
factory each year, while it is estimated that in their manufacture over
six million dollars is annually expended in the city of Havana alone.
The Cuban, indeed, is much more of a cigarette than a cigar smoker; the
cigarette is his constant companion. Even after dinner the cigarette
seems to be preferred. I remember once, at a very charming dinner
party, being quite astonished--for it was shortly after my arrival in
Havana--to find myself and the host the only cigar smokers. The rest of
our number, some six or seven, all Cubans, took to their accustomed
cigarette with a unanimity which has always led me to believe that my
good host himself felt called upon by his sense of politeness to do
violence to his own preference.

In connection with the manufacture of cigarettes, nothing strikes one
with more astonishment than the many i