" STRIPPING " TOBACCO. 305 



warehouse by the officer, and although the property of 

 the manufacturer, could not be touched by him till the 

 custom-house officer again weighed out another supply. 

 Now a return is made of the manufactured quan- 

 tity kept on sale, so that it may be seen how that 

 tallies with the quantity of leaf delivered from the 

 docks ; the old restrictive policy was occasionally inju- 

 rious to the manufacturer, whose work sometimes 

 stood still for want of access to the leaf-tobacco in his 

 own warehouse. 



The tobacco "hands", are now "weighed out " in 

 certain quantities to women employed in the ware- 

 house, termed " strippers ; " it is their business to 

 " strip " from the centre of each life, the main stalk, 

 which is never retained in the tobacco used by the 

 smoker, except in one instance — the manufacture of 

 " bird's eye ; " — when the stalk is cut up in the leaf, 

 which is carefully laid at right angles with the knife, the 

 section made through it produces the thin circular 

 slices appended to the long fibres of the leaf; this 

 name has been given to the tobacco from a fancied 

 resemblance to the eye of a bird ; for the same reason 

 it has been also appropriated to spotted woods, pocket- 

 handkerchiefs, and cotton gowns ! 



The " stripper " performs her duties by folding the 

 tobacco -leaf, and with a thick-backed knife (an old 

 razor being usually preferred) cutting under both sides 

 of the thick end of the stalk ; retaining the hold thus 

 given, securing the two sides of the leaf in the left 

 hand, and so rapidly drawing out the large central 



