Cigars 193 



absurd. There is also the pretty fable that cigars 

 made of paper impregnated with tobacco-juice are 

 imported from America. More credible is the account 

 of how old cigar-butts are worked up into cigars 

 again. The high duty on imported cigars and the 

 vigilance of the Excise authorities on their manufac- 

 ture in this country render such fraud unprofitable 

 and difficult of execution. At the worst the body 

 of the cigar is of cheap and poor tobacco, concealed 

 under a showy outside leaf. The cigar-wrapper, like 

 charity, covereth a multitude of sins. 



To say that a man exercises more care in selecting 

 his cigars than in choosing a wife does not imply 

 much for either his smoking or matrimonial taste. 

 In both transactions he is the victim of illusions, 

 and his choice is determined by ignorance rather than 

 knowledge. It is dangerous to dogmatize anent 

 the best sort and condition of cigars, since every 

 smoker has his own opinion on the matter, and 

 neither reason nor judgment has part or lot in the 

 eccentricities of taste. Nevertheless, some few points 

 about cigars may be appended here. 



English smokers like dry cigars and damp pipe- 

 tobacco, while foreigners reverse the qualities — damp 

 cigars and dry tobacco. When cigars were intro- 

 duced into England some eighty years ago there was 

 little demand for them, and consequently they became 

 dry and brittle before being sold. With a stock of 

 dry cigars on his hands, the retailer persuaded his 

 customers that cigars were best dry and brittle, being 

 fully seasoned. The legend remaineth unto this day. 

 A cigar should not be so dry as to crumble at the 



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