288 FEMALE CIGAR-MAKERS. 



beams running parallel from end to end, where the gathered 

 tobacco leaves were hung to be thoroughly dried by the sun. 

 " Then Wilklns conducted us for some distance along the 

 river bank ; we jumped into a boat and rowed perhaps half 

 a mile, landing by the side of a little shop-like building, 

 where we heard the hum of voices and the commotion of 

 many busy persons. We entered and found ourselves in a 

 long, low room, having wide tables ranged along the 

 walls ; here, working rapidly, were rows of chatty country 



MAKING CIGARS. 



girls, who, as they worked, laughed and talked, and now 

 and then hummed a verse of some familiar ballad. 

 Neatly packed piles of the dried and cured leaf lay upon 

 the table before them. 



" Each was armed with knives and cutters, and we watched 

 the quick transformation of the flat leaves into the smooth 

 and compact cigars. The tobacco grown upon the farm was, 

 we discovered, only used as wrappers for the cigars. The 

 good farmer imported, for the interior filling, a fine tobacco 

 from Havana. Strips and little pieces of this the girls 

 placed in the centre of the cigar, wrapping the Connecticut 

 tobacco in wide strips tightly about it, then pasting each of 

 the last with some paste in a pot bv their side. It seemed to 

 be done almost in an instant ; the Havana slips were laid 



