Judge — October 23, 1897 — page 11: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Sudge THE CIGARETTE. A FEW WREATHS PUFFED BY “JUDGE.” CeTHE cigarette is the compensation of repose,” is the epigrammatic remark of Frangois Coppée, the Academician, and foremost living poet of France. Charles Formentin, reporting in the Paris Figaro a recent interview with Coppée, who had undergone a serious and painful surgical operation, says: “It was not yet ten o'clock in the morning, and already Coppée was at his second package of cigarettes—a growing mound ‘of white ashes in a saucer attested the burnt-incense offering. Evidently tobacco is not inimical to surgery ; for the poet smokes, smokes, smokes continuously, and yet his bronchial apparatus is in splendid condition.” The luxury of a former generation becomes a common necessity of the present as civilization advances. The cigarette is the latest flower of perfection in modern tobacco-smoking. It is a refinement of pleasure closely allied to the esthetic, and as such worthy of a place of honor in the epicurean philosophy. Like all zesthetic enjoyment, cigarette-smoking rests upon a sound physical basis; and its principle, as distinguished from that of cigar-smoking, is one of fastidious delicacy. It is obvious that the materials of the standard cigarette must be of the purest, the daintiest, and selected with the most scrupulous care. In a country like ours, which consumes no less than four billions of cigar- ettes annually, eternal vigilance is the price of continued success for any brand or house which has established itself in the popular favor. It is a significant fact that of the 4,000,000,000 cigarettes consumed each year in the United States fully one-half, or two billions, are of a single brand— the output of one manufactory. Probably this, with the half-dozen or so of other well-known and favorite brands, divide amongst themselves about nine-tenths of the trade. For the cigarette, like Cxsar's wife, must be above suspicion. The ephemeral “ wild-cat" brands of too-cheap cigarettes that are put forth tentatively from time to time cannot, in the nature of things, survive. ‘Their effect, however, is to give rise to a certain prejudice against the tiny roll of tobacco-solace whose origin, ingredients and manufacture are a mystery to ninety-nine out of a hundred, even of its devotees, For the reassurance of such as may have found the serenity of their blissful mo- ments ruffled by reflections of this nature, let it be stated that within the last few years all the principal makes of cigarettes in this country have been subjected to official investigation and the most minute analysis by leading chemists and medical authorities of England and the United States, including Professor Odling, F.R.S., of Oxford; Professor Dewar, F.R.S., of Cambridge; Professor H. W. Wiley, chief chemist of the United States department of agriculture at Washington, D. C.; Professor Willis G. Tucker of the Albany medical college, and analyst for the New York state board of health; and Professor James F. Babcock, whose expert testimony on the manufacture and sale of cigarettes was given before the Massachusetts legislature's joint committee on public health. Their pub- lished reports, one and all, constitute so complete a vindication of the purity, wholesomeness and delicacy of the cigarette that they might fur- nish convincing arguments in favor of its universal adoption. You'll change your mind if you think that Evans’ Ale is of the common type once you’ve tried it. THE CELEBRATED SOHMER heads the list of the highest grade Pianos. It is the favorite of the artists and the refined musical public. SOHMER & CO., Piano Manufacturers, 149 to 155 East 14th St, N. ¥. are tho best suspeaders for careful dressers Style combined with comfort and service as In no others, The standard American suspender Best Furnishers keep theme ‘Sample Pair, mailed ‘A cheaper model CHESTER SUSPENDER COMPANY, 3 5 DECATUR AVE., ROXBURY, MASS. 0000990008: pouty go cents THE GENUINE JOHANN HOFF'S MALT EXTRACT MAKES FLESH AND BLOOD AVOID SUBSTITUTES Lobe REE Fga,will get more prompt sttention and Detter 267 Professor Tucker, for example, establishes by the roundabout way of chemical analysis, what everybody who had taken the trouble to investigate knew before, that “the tobacco used in the manufacture of cigarettes is much less frequently flavored and otherwise artificially treated than is or- dinary chewing and smoking tobacco and that employed in the manufact- ure of cigars.” He points out that “there is no reason why an impure or poisonous paper should be employed, and there are many reasons why it should not.” In truth, the tobacco from which the famous brands of American cig- arettes are manufactured is th: best of “ Bright Virginia "—the choicest and mildest leaf grown in that favored state, and in North Carolina. Chemical sharps who have spent their time in analyzing the weed inform us that the product in question contains on an average only about one to one and one-half per cent. of nicotine—which is less than one-fourth the amount contained in the very mildest Havana tobacco used for cigars. This exquisite leaf is selected with expert care, kept in storage three years to season and mature, and then blended for bouquet and color as scien- tifically as the wines of Bordeaux. Finally the tobacco is shredded by ma- chinery, and wrapped in dainty tubes of filmy paper, imported from France. where its manufacture is one of the fine arts of that country. If the printing-press and the locomotive deservedly rank first among the nineteenth-century marvels of machinery, the cigarette-making machine certainly comes in for a“‘place.” It is almost human in its complexity and sensitiveness, and in its line possesses a hundred-fold greater capacity for execution than any man, or woman either. Think of turning out a volume of perfect cigarettes—all moulded, wrapped, and fastened—at the rate of 200 a minute, or 120,000 a day! That is what the cigarette-mak- ing machine does continually, and thinks nothing of it. It is not so pictur- esque as Carmen of Seville, but vastly more up-to-date and generally satisfactory. So much for the present of the cigarette—and it is essentially a thing of to-day. It has no past, to speak of, though some historians date the be- ginning of its universal vogue from 1830, when romanticism was renascent, and Victor Hugo's drama of “ Hernani” started the craze for Spanish things. The Spaniards first developed the elegant luxury of modern cigarette-smoking ; and one of their sovereigns, Ferdinand VII., owes his place in history chiefly to the fact of his having possessed the rare accom- plishment of making two cigarettes simultaneously, one with each hand. From the glad, indolent life of New Spain, in Mexico and Lower Cal- ifornia, came the inspiration of the song, “ My Cigarette,” by Charles F. Lummis—perhaps the best of the many poetical tributes offered at the shrine of the goddess Nicotina : ** My cigarette ! the amulet That charms away unrest and sorrow ; The magic wand, that far beyond To-day, can conjure up to-morrow. Like Love's desire thy crown of fire So softly with the twilight blending ; And, ah! meseems, a poet's dreams Are in thy wreaths of smoke ascending.” Millions of bottles of Cook's Imperial Cham- pagne, extra dry, have been drank, always leav- ing a taste for more. HORSMAN'S GAME of KLONDIKE. ‘at 25 cents. oad Apoundiog in thrilling Interest for young and old. Sold everywhere. Sent prepaid on receipt of One Dol= Tar.” Agents wanted. ‘Tubllahed by E. I. HORSIMAN, 512 Broadway, N. Y. OPIUM, DRUNKENNESS Oured. DR. J.L. STEPHEN! by mentlouing Jvbes when answering advertisements. comicbooks.com