ing the cigar-making business, and slowly but 
surely driving the “hand-made” cigar into the 
position occupied by the “hand-made” cigar- 
ette. And the writer cannot see why this should 
not be so. As it has been said, there is much 
sentiment about hand-made cigars. But com- 
mon sense seems to be on the side of the ma- 
chine. We quite understand the difficulty of 
killing old prejudices and time honored cus- 
toms; but it is difficult to understand how the 
flavor or quality of a cigar filler can be different 
whether it is pressed into the shape by a ma- 
chine or by the hand of a workman; or what 
the precise improvement is when a wrapper leaf 
is put on and licked by a workman rather than 
by a clean machine under perfect sanitary con- 
ditions. However, sentiment still persists. Im- 
aginary, or perhaps real, charms are ascribed 
to the hand-made goods and the smoker is will- 
ing and even wishful to pay a higher price for 
his fancy. The result is that the small factory 
is still predominant. It depends more on labor 
than on capital. But the large factories have an 
immense production. The condition will be 
best shown by stating that in less than 1 per 
cent of the cigar making establishments of the 
U. S. nearly 50 per cent of the entire output 
is made, or, putting it another way, nearly 
three-fourths of all the licensed cigar’ factories 
; 102 
4 
