ing the cigar-making business, and slowly but 

 surely driving the "hand-made" cigar into the 

 position occupied by the "hand-made" cigar- 

 ette. And the writer cannot see why this should 

 not be so. As it has been said, there is much 

 sentiment about hand-made cigars. But com- 

 mon sense seems to be on the side of the ma- 

 chine. We quite understand the difficulty of 

 killing old prejudices and time honored cus- 

 toms; but it is difficult to understand how the 

 flavor or quality of a cigar filler can be different 

 whether it is pressed into the shape by a ma- 

 chine or by the hand of a workman; or what 

 the precise improvement is when a wrapper leaf 

 is put on and licked by a workman rather than 

 by a clean machine under perfect sanitary con- 

 ditions. However, sentiment still persists. Im- 

 aginary, or perhaps real, charms are ascribed 

 to the hand-made goods and the smoker is will- 

 ing and even wishful to pay a higher price for 

 his fancy. The result is that the small factory 

 is still predominant. It depends more on labor 

 than on capital. But the large factories have an 

 immense production. The condition will be 

 best shown by stating that in less than 1 per 

 cent of the cigar making establishments of the 

 U. S. nearly 50 per cent of the entire output 

 is made, or, putting it another way, nearly 

 three-fourths of all the licensed cigar factories 



102 



