24 THE CUBA REVIBDW 
La Corona, Special Box. 
when the story of the beginning of the “Corona” form is known. It is said that a 
cigar-maker in one of the old Cuban factories in 1875, when lighting by lamp and 
candle only was in vogue, set his candle down on his bench one evening. Happening 
to notice its form, the thought came to him that it would be a good shape to adopt 
for a cigar. He at once placed his idea into practice, resulting in the straight well- 
drawing cigar known by this name wherever high-grade cigars are consumed. 
Changing economic conditions have driven from the markets of today the cheaper 
sizes that formerly prevailed. The tremendous increase in the cost of the raw 
material, and the still greater increase in the cost of labor and workmanship, have 
today rendered impossible the production in our high-class factories of the Gass of 
cigar formerly obtainable for from $45 per thousand up, Today prices range from 
$80 per thousand to $400, not to mention even higher prices for fairly standard 
goods, and orders that will average less than $120 per thousand are not sought and 
cannot be filled with profit. The recent increase in duties levied on tobacco and 
cigars by various of the European countries, principally England, with its 50 per 
cent. ad valorem tax, and in prospect in the United States, at present tends to make 
everything connected with the cigar making industry in Cuba black in the extreme. 
So hard hit has been the industry that we are given to understand that by the end 
