n to
make the number stated above, and the whole force to be employed, we
have the immense sum of eight hundred thousand dollars worth of segars
from this mammoth Tobaccary per diem. Each operative receives one real a
day, but there are others not enumerated in this class, such as male
laborers, overseers, inspectors, accountants, book-keepers, &c., who
receive from twelve to thirty dollars per mensem, so that two thousand
dollars daily is not a large estimate of wages paid out by this
establishment.

The interior is divided into sections, of which there are nine or ten.
In each section from eight hundred to one thousand women are engaged. At
the head of each sectional division are rooms for inspection, where are
stationed persons to examine the segars, who return those which do not
come up to a certain standard. Of those that pass the test a sample is
placed, after being marked and numbered, in a glass case suspended in
the apartment.

Every morning a certain quantity of tobacco is given to each person, and
water is measured out sufficient to dampen it. The operatives are held
accountable for the material. Out of the number of hanks of the leaf so
many segars are to be produced, and if the water is used for any other
than the specified purpose, no more can be procured. They are said to
resort to many ingenious expedients to eke out the allowance. From eight
to ten women are employed together, squatted at a low table; and there
are double rows of these tables, leaving a space to pass through the
centre of the room. At each table the entire process of making the
cheroot is performed. The leaf is untwisted from the form into which it
is fashioned by the grower, spread out and dampened. For the purpose of
flattening these leaves they are supplied with stones, with which, and
their tongues, an incessant and most infernal clatter is kept up. One of
the party selects and arranges the tobacco, another fills the segar and
hands it to her neighbor, who rolls it into shape and passes it to the
next person, who cuts it, and it is thus quickly transferred from hand
to hand, until the care-dispelling cheroot is perfected and prepared for
inspection. As each is completed, it is dropped into a basket placed at
the end of the table nearest the passage way, from which the cheroots
are taken and tied up into bundles. The Cortada into bunches of ten. The
Havanas always in bundles of twenty-five.

The factory, as may be supposed, is ver