▲ TRIP TO CUBA AND THE SOUTHERN STATES. 



and enjoyed less fruit in consequence, tlioujrh we could jud«;c of no diminution, 

 except in the pine-apple. The sugar-cane was not so tall as usual, but tliis wa3 

 compensated for l)y nu increase of saccharine matter in what prrowth there was. 



.Tutlgino; from the aljove records, even the s\inimers are not at all unl)earal)le ; 

 ]iersons not ohliired to move al)out in the sun when at its warmest, might pass the 

 summer here nearly as comfortal>iy as in our own climate, and more so than in 

 many of our ))rinci])al cities. Tlie health, too, is as uniformly gooil as in the 

 States, the yellow fever rarely penetrating to the interior. Living always iu the 

 open air must conduce to healthy action ; the drawback is probably found iu the 

 absence of clianf/es, which impart a zest we ]icrhai)s undervalue at home. 



Tobacco. — Kespecting this popular article, and its manufacture of cigars, it 

 may be expected, in our rambling notes, that we should say a few words. It is 

 well known, that the tobacco plant is the product of but a small portion of the 

 island — the southwest. A ])crson confining himself to short rides from Havana, 

 and to the vicinity of the railroads, would see about as much of the weed growing 

 as he would in Pennsylvania or Connecticut, the soil in the other parts not being 

 more propitious to the flavor than that of our own country. Good toijacco is 

 thus a dear article, and becoming annually more so as the cultivation recedes from 

 the great mart by the wearing out of the land, which is the case yearly. For- 

 merly, the tol)acco lands were about eighteen miles from the city ; they are now 

 at least one hundred and fifty miles distant. Large dealers in cigars make their 

 own bargains for the crops of ttie extensive cultivators whose tobacco is known 

 to them, and thus acquire a kind of monopoly of the best ; smaller operators 

 endeavor to have as good an article, by assisting the grower to new lands, and 

 taking an interest in them. The consumer of a few thousand cigars, watches his 

 opportunity, and when sure of a good seroon or two, purchases, and conveys it to 

 his own house, where it is manufactured under his own eye, from a known article, 

 and therefore to his taste. The cigar maker comes to him for a week, more or 

 less, and charges by the thousand. 



In addition to these plans, varied with the various degrees of enterprise and 

 capital embarked, there may be seen, all over Havana, blacks and whites most 

 industriously employed in rolling cigars ; and, ten chances to one, if you stop at 

 a posada in your rides in the neighborhood, however humble, there will be found, 

 under a shed, or in some corner, a parcel of dark looking fellows similarly engaged ; 

 and yet, with all this industry, it is still a wonder whence proceed all the millions 

 of smokable cigars which perfume the civilized world. Their source is to be 

 sought for in out of the way places, in garrets, and private domains, which are 

 out of sight, and which are delivering more or less, daily, to the great dealers 

 who supply the capital and the raw material. Cigaritas are made by women and 

 men who can follow at the same time another employment, such as keeping watch 

 at the door of a hotel, &c. 



Numerous small manufacturers sell their article at a low figure to the great 

 dealers like Partigas, or the Cabanas' houses, who subject them to a rigid picking ; 

 the best looking on the outside, and which may have cost in the unpicked state, 

 ten dollars per thousand, are number one, and will be charged to the unthinking 

 American customer who looks only to the external appearance, at fifty dollars, the 

 seconds at twenty or thirty, and the cullings will Cud a market at about the origi- 

 nal price ; so that one man smokes, at six or seven cents, the same tobacco ex- 

 actly that better informed and more economical people get for one cent. The 

 reputation of the (nominal) maker has much to do with the price, and this reputa- 

 as in a thousand instances in all countries, is kept up by outside appearances. 

 a particular brand, size, and shape, have become popular in any country. 



