1 86 The Soverane Herbe 



five to eight dollars a day, while the torcedor's daily 

 pay varies from three to five dollars. Underhands 

 engaged in making up the poorer leaf are paid from 

 two to four dollars per thousand cigars. 



The finished cigars are sorted into bundles of 

 twenty-five, and packed in the familiar cedar-wood 

 boxes, which most factories make themselves. 



One of the first factories in Havana turns out 

 30,000,000 cigars a year. Spain, England, Latin 

 America, and the United States take 5,000,000 

 each. France and Germany buy 3,000,000 apiece, 

 while the remaining 9,000,000 are retained in 

 Cuba for home consumption. The finest cigars 

 never leave Cuba, for the merchant is a smoker 

 before a seller of tobacco. The crop of the finest 

 Vuelta Abajo tobacco is so small that not more than 

 30,000 cigars can be made of it. Some find their 

 way to Europe to delight the palates and soothe the 

 minds of monarchs and multi-millionaires, but the 

 greater number are smoked in Cuba. Selected cigars 

 of the finest growth and of celebrated harvests are 

 treasured by their growers as European connoisseurs 

 store wine of fine vintage. The cigars are kept in 

 oiled-skin envelopes, and smoked on great occasions 

 only. They are handed round on silver dishes, and 

 lit from a glowing splinter of the aromatic ceiba-wood. 

 The most phlegmatic of European smokers, when 

 once he has been privileged to smoke one of these 

 priceless cigars, no longer is amazed at the more 

 emotional Cuban addressing such a cigar as ' My 

 soul ! Light of my life !' as he inhales the entrancing, 

 divine perfume in an ecstasy of delight. 



