1 Jury, 1898. ] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 79 
General Notes. 
AMERICAN CIGARS, 
STOGIES AND TOBIES. 
_In takes the visitor from the East a long time to understand the Pittsburg 
toby, otherwise known as the stogie. The man who thinks no gentleman 
should—and, in fact, that no gentleman can—smoke anything but an imported 
Havana cigar, is surprised at the ubiquitousness in Pittsburg of the plebeian, 
cheap-smoking stogie. ‘To see a well-dressed, well-groomed man, who from 
appearances should be an emulator of those who want the best in the smoking 
line, puffing with apparent pleasure a long, ragged-looking apology for a cigar, 
1s at first sight a shock to the nerves of the average smoker from other cities. 
He might be tempted to believe that the rough-looking cigar is a truer index 
to the social standing of the smoker than his clothes and language and bearing, 
but a brief acquaintance with the man would dispel this belief, and to sample 
his rugged-looking “smoke’’ might reduce the critic to the condition of 
enjoying one himself. There are cases on record of New Yorkers who once 
smoked two-bit cigars, but who went to Pittsburg, saw, smoked, and were 
conquered by the stogie, became devotees to its use, and looked back with 
wonder and regret to that period in their existence when only an imported 
Hayana was worthy to be placed between their lips. 
When Pittsburgers read in Zhe Sun that Speaker Reed had been seen in 
the House lobby at Washington smoking a stogie they were not a_ bit 
surprised ; it was rather a proof to them that the Speaker knew a good smoke, 
and they had a feeling of commiseration for the tardiness with which he had 
become acquainted with the stogie’s qualities. Once the toby, or stogie, was 
known only in Pittsburg and Wheeling, W. Va. By degrees its fame and use 
sped to near-lying towns, and from these points inherent good qualities carried 
it far and wide, though nowhere is it smoked with the assiduity that is practised 
in the two cities named. High and low, rich and poor, smoke stogies in 
Pittsburg and Wheeling. Of course, those who can afford use imported cigars, 
but even the lover of the finest perfecto is glad to vary his favourite indulgence 
with an occasional whiff from a mild stogie. 
The words “‘stogies” and ‘‘toby” are synonymous, but the lattertermisapplied 
exclusively in Pittsburg. However, the dealers there are now using the word 
stogie, as being the more correct and wider-known appellation. The smokers 
themselves in the two centres of the stogie trade cling tenaciously to the term 
used in their respective cities. In Wheeling a toby is known as a stogie, in 
Pittsburg the stogie is known as a toby. No Pittsburger would ‘‘ go back” 
on his town so far as to say stogie, and the Wheelingite is just as particular 
not to say toby. ‘Toby and stogie look alike, smoke alike, and are alike, but 
they bear different names according to the place of manufacture. Wheeling 
folks justify the use of the word stogie by an ancient tradition. 
One firm alone in Pittsburg turns out 200,000 tobies every workday in 
the year. There are many brands of tobies or stogies, but there are but two 
kinds, the “seed” toby and another that is called in Pittsburg the “Wheeling” 
toby. ‘The latter is made of strong Kentucky tobacco, for which reason it is 
called in Wheeling the “Kentucky stogie.” They are made mostly in 
Wheeling, whence the name used in Pittsburg. The seed toby is manufactured 
from tobacco grown from Havana seed in Connecticut, Virginia, and Lancaster 
county, Pennsylvania. Jt is mild, and many more of that variety than of the 
Wheeling stogie are smoked. Of course, seed tobies are also made in 
Wheeling. 
