local users concocted a distinctively American method 

 for giving the chew a special flavor. This homemade 

 process may possibly have been knov^n a little earlier 

 in Kentucky but settlers from there perfected the method 

 in a Missouri setting. 



A portion of tobacco leaves, treated with wild honey 

 and homemade peach or apple brandy, was wedged with 

 a mallet into a hole bored in a log of green maple or 

 hickory. The hole was then plugged. In a little while 

 both log and tobacco had become properly dry. When 

 the log was split, the leaves had been cured to a desirable 

 flavor. This special sort of chewing tobacco promptly 

 acquired the logical name of "plug," and rapidly became 

 the people's choice. Local manufacturers with better 

 equipment than boring knives or chisels, mallet and logs 

 and with ready access to a variety of flavoring sauces put 

 plug in mass production. The toothsome chew, treated 

 with licorice, honey, sugar, rum, spices and other pun- 

 gent flavors, soon became the chief output of St. Louis 

 tobacco factories. 



American manufacturers during the chewing tobacco 

 era were offering a choice of 12,630 brands to their 

 strong-jawed customers. This abundance of products put 

 an extra strain on sales departments searching for a dis- 

 tinctive brand name. Some of the labels were sensible 

 but unimaginative, some were designed for laughs, some 

 were provocative and unexpected. As examples of fancy 

 gone far afield these were among the choice items off^ered 

 around the turn of the century by manufacturers of 

 chewing tobaccos in Missouri: My Wife's Hat, Revenge, 

 Lock and Chain, Sweet Buy and Buy, Wiggletail Twist, 

 Scalping Knife, Toss Up. 



