MANUFACTURE. 53 



" There 's no " cigar hut cmi " assume 

 Some mark of virtue on its outward parts." 



The outside may be fair whilst the inside is 

 verily foul — "a goodly apple, rotten at the 

 core." Indeed it is this very synthesis which 

 accounts for the different prices of cigars — of 

 confessedly British manufacture — varying from 

 21s. a lb. down as low as 7^. Assuming that 

 only the best Havannah leaf has been worked up 

 throughout, 21^. would not yield an exorbitant 

 profit, considering all the items of cost ; but 

 unfortunately such genuine cigars, all Havannah, 

 seem to circulate at a price which presupposes 

 the payment of ds. duty — in plain English, the 

 smoker pays for " foreign" Havannah and gets 

 British. Every possible compound of tobaccos 

 enters into the formation of cigars as sold to the 

 public. Some aie compounds of low-priced 

 Havannah with German outsides ; others are all 

 German ; some are Havannah inside and Manilla 

 outside ; — in short, it is utterly impossible to 

 know what a cigar is made of until it is smoked 

 — and not even then, except by the experienced 

 veteran. Cheapness is the order of the day ; 



