I go The Soverane Herbe 



have long held in that of Anglo-Indians. People 

 who have once smoked them will have no other. 

 The reason for this, however, does not commend 

 them to the smoker. In India tobacco is grown on 

 the same soil in alternation with opium ; the tobacco 

 absorbs a flavouring of the drug, and the smoker of 

 Indian cigars misses in Havana or American cigars 

 the subtle flavour of opium. The idea that tobacco 

 is adulterated with opium is absurd, for the drug costs 

 three times the price of tobacco. 



European cigars are not to be commended. German 

 cigars are always bad, and can be recognised by their 

 uniform thickness and rotundity. The Italian sigarro 

 is incredibly vile. The manufacture and sale of 

 tobacco is there, as also in France, Austria, and 

 Spain, a Government monopoly. Cigars are served 

 out in the Italian army as part of the daily rations. 

 Bad as are the cigars sold to the public by the R^gie, 

 the military ones are worse. Some years ago they 

 were found to consist of a piece of lime, powdered 

 gypsum, a quantity of earth, a splinter of wood, and 

 a length of string. The abominable cigars of 

 Trieste are 8 inches long, and have a straw running 

 through the centre. This is essential, as, owing to 

 their greenness, and the tightness with which the 

 leaves are rolled, they could not be smoked other- 

 wise. 



The high duty on cigars imported into this country 

 has greatly encouraged their home manufacture, and 

 the reduction of the duty on unmanufactured tobacco 

 has further aided the industry. The poor Cuban 

 crops of the last seven or eight years consequent on 



