CIGAR MAKING 
It was inevitable that modern progress should 
‘invade and revolutionize the old and slow 
methods of cigar making; and so it has. Smok- 
ing is a sentimental occupation and lends itself 
easily to romantic associations. A good deal 
of romance and sentiment still hangs around the 
hand-made cigar and cigarette. In an up-to- 
date cigar factory, however, the whir of ma- 
chinery and the precise, regular movements of 
automatic contrivances give little scope for 
sentiment. 
Up to 1870 cigars were hand-made. All that 
was necessary was an inexpensive board, a cut- 
ting knife, and a block of wood with a station- 
ary knife, known as a “tuck,” for measuring and 
cutting the finished cigar. 
About the time stated the “mold” was intro- 
duced. The mold is a wooden block about 
18” x 6” x 8”, a tool which facilitates the shap- 
ing of the “bunch” or filler part of the cigar 
and presses it into shape. This mold is now 
used in most “hand-made” cigar factories where 
the labor is subdivided into “bunch-makers” 
and “rollers,” the latter putting on the binder 
and wrapper and finishing the cigar. 
It is the introduction of practically auto- 
matic machinery, however, which is revolutioniz- 
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