Life, 1904-09-01 · page 38 of 38
Life — September 1, 1904 — page 38: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is a full-page advertisement for Cabañas cigars, a Havana brand. There are no cartoons or satirical content—it's purely a commercial advertisement from Life magazine (dated September 1, 1904, not 1994 as the OCR suggests). The ad emphasizes Cabañas cigars' reputation for mildness and quality, claiming over one hundred years of excellence. It notes the brand is "aggressively imitated," using this as evidence of its superiority. The manufacturer, H. de Cabañas y Carbajal, is located in Havana, Cuba, with Leopoldo Carbajal listed as president (identified as Marquis of Pinar Del Rio). For modern readers: This reflects the early 1900s cigar trade's prominence and Cuban tobacco's prestige before the later 20th-century cigar embargo. The ad's tone assumes readers understand fine cigars as status markers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
September 1, 1994 DE CABANAS cigars are known to almost all who have any knowledge of fine cigars as the one Havana brand that unvaryingly holds its exceedingly high standard of excellence and mildness. The highest percentage of fine and mild tobacco from Y CARBAJAL San Juan and San Luis sections of the Vuelta H. de Cabanas y Carbajal Abajo district that is grown in Cuba, goes to the world’s most discriminating smokers in the CABANAS brand. The characteristic traits of the CABANAS brand are its aroma and mildness, what the Spaniard calls “suave.” It has made its reputation on these qualities more than on any others, so difficult is it to find a mild Havana cigar that has character; that is not neutral, yet not so pronounced that it is unacceptable :—that is really mild and yet has individuality. It has taken more than one hundred years to bring the CABANAS biand to its present perfection, and the fact that it is to-day the most aggressively imitated brand in Havana is the strongest evidence of its established, continued and present excellence. Dealers who are not interested in substituting brands made to imitate the CABANAS brand will confirm these statements and recommend the CABANAS brand to you for these qualities. All known sizes are made in the CABANAS brand. H. de CABANAS Y CARBAJAL, Manufacturers, LEOPOLDO CARBAJAL, Marquis of Pinar Del Rio, President. Zulueta 10, Havana, Cuba. comicbooks.com