many of them concentrating on a sales leader in smoking 

 or chewing tobaccos for a local market. Together with 

 the larger, well-established firms they were all under 

 the necessity of creating brand names, preferably some- 

 thing new and novel, for their products. 



There simply wasn't shelf room in retail outlets for 

 more than a small part of the tobacco commodities then 

 available. By the end of the century and for part of the 

 first decade of the 20th century, there were more than 

 12,000 brands of plug, twist and fine-cut chewing to- 

 baccos, over 7,000 smoking tobaccos, over 3,600 snuffs 

 and 2000-odd cigarettes, cigarros and cheroots on the 

 domestic market. Plagiarism of what seemed to be an 

 appropriate brand name was the order of the day. But 

 when the catalog of sensible names ran out, manufac- 

 turers no longer bothered to be sensible. 



Perhaps under the influence of the classic query, 

 "What's in a name?" various Virginia manufacturers in- 

 vited consumers to try their chewing tobaccos under 

 such labels as Cockeye, No Trust, Little Worth, Blarney 

 and Bluster, Jail Bird, Nonsense, Our Goat, They're 

 After Me. 



The nomenclature of cigarette, cigarro or cheroot 

 brands offered in Virginia, apart from many suitable 

 names, often had only local significance or was facetious 

 or plain dizzy. Trade registries included such choice 

 items as Good Enough, Little Masher, Old Rip, Buzz 

 Saw ( also a chewing tobacco ) , Sour Grapes ( a snuff and 

 a chewing tobacco as well). Garter Buckle and Moon- 

 shine (both also snuffs, smoking, and chewing tobaccos). 



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