gs us to
spacious store-rooms, where loose cigarettes, and those already packed
in bundles, are kept. The walls are literally papered with cigarettes in
wheels, which look like complicated fireworks. As we move from one wheel
to another, we are invited to help ourselves to, and test, the different
qualities, which some of us accordingly do in wine-tasting fashion;
taking a couple of whiffs from each sample and flinging the rest in the
dust. Further on, we come to a small apartment where the operation of
sorting the labels for enveloping each packet of twenty cigarettes,
takes place. The labels are fresh from the printers; a workman is
standing before a round movable table, and as this revolves, he drops
them into little boxes belonging to their respective patterns. Each
label is stamped with the Honradez figure of Justice, accompanied either
by a charade, a comic verse, a piece of dance music on a small scale, an
illuminated coat of arms, or a monogram pattern for Berlin wool-work.
Some are adorned with artistic designs of a superior order, such as
coloured landscapes, groups of figures, or photographs of eminent
persons.

Another ascent, and we are in the stationery department. It seems odd to
examine large sheets and thick reams of paper, which we have been
accustomed to see only in the form of cigarette books or tubes of small
dimensions. A wonderful variety of rice and other paper is before us.
There are two or three qualities of white, and endless shades of brown
and yellow. Some are lightly tinted as the complexion of a half-caste;
others are quadroon-hued, or of a yellow-brown mulatto-colour. We are
shown medicated and scented papers. The first of these, called pectoral
paper, is recommended by the faculty to persons with weak chests; the
last, when ignited, gives out an agreeable perfume.

Yet another floor, and we are introduced into a long chamber with rows
of long tables, at which a hundred Chinese workmen are engaged in
counting the already twisted cigarettes into bundles of twenty-six, and
enveloping them in their ornamental labels or covers. To accomplish this
operation with necessary speed, much practice and dexterity in the
handling is required. The coolies--a thousand of whom are employed on
the establishment--are, however, great adepts at the art, and patient
and plodding as beasts of burthen. But among the celestials there is one
master-hand who distinguishes himself above all the others by his
supe