TOBACCO LEAVES 



SMOKING on shipboard is made impera- 

 tive, for does not the captain " pipe all 

 hands " on deck? 



rr t? rr 



ONE of the most interesting sights to 

 be seen in the prominent cigar factories 

 in Havana is the tobacco artists at work 

 on the expensive cigars for the European 

 markets. The number of men qualified to 

 manipulate the tobacco put into these 

 high-priced smokers is small, and most of 

 them work only a few hours at a time. 

 They earn big wages, and can afford to 

 take things easy, for the demand for la- 

 bour as skilled as theirs is always greater 

 than the supply. The writer recently sat 

 for an hour, watching one of these nico- 

 tian artists working on a difficult shape 

 for one of the European courts. After 

 his long, tapering fingers had finished the 

 work of putting the wrapper on the cigar, 



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