THE CUBA REVIEW 



of the cigar must be packed tightly into the 

 narrow shoulder and that such a cigar does 

 not smoke evenly, nor does the draught 

 reach all its layers alike. That is the 

 reason for the growing popularity of 

 straight sided, blunt tipped cigars. 



"The skillful tabaquero has no mold, no 

 binder, not even a pattern. Yet when he 

 has finished fifty cigars of one vitola they 

 are absolutely the same in measurement. 

 The modelling must all be done in the 

 rolling; for if he tried to pinch or pull it 

 into shape after it was finished, the to- 

 bacco would not be evenly distributed and 



the cigar wouldn't burn. Nothing can be 

 used to hold the leaves in place except 

 a touch of gum tragacanth, mixed fresh 

 twice a day, at the tip, where, as a rule, 

 it is bitten off by the smoker. 



"In this country girls can learn to make 

 cigars with a mold and a binder in a few 

 months. In Cuba the simplest shapes re- 

 quire two or three years apprenticeship, 

 and a tabaquero will sometimes be ten years 

 in perfecting his making of a difficult shape. 



He is well paid and well treated, however. 

 Some of them receive $C or $7 a day for 

 making only twenty-five or thirty cigars. 



Tobacco plant grown under clieesecloth. showing fine size 



