THE TOBACCONIST.
1. It is the business of the tobacconist to convert the leaves of the tobacco plant into snuff, cigars, and smoking and chewing tobacco.
2. Although there may seem to be a great variety of snuffs, yet they may be all reduced to three kinds, viz., Scotch, rappee, and maccouba. These are variously modified by the quality of the tobacco, by some little variation in the manufacture, and by the articles employed in communicating the desired flavour.
3. In manufacturing snuff, the tobacco is ground in a mill of a peculiar construction. Before the weed is submitted to this operation, it is reduced to a certain degree of fineness, by means of a cutting machine; and then spread in a heap, one or two feet thick, and sprinkled with water, that it may heat and sweat. The time required in this preparation depends upon the state of the weather, and the kind of snuff for which the tobacco is designed.
4. Scotch snuff is made of the strongest sort of tobacco, and is put up in bladders and bottles without being scented. Rappee and maccouba are put up in jars and bottles; and the former is generally scented with bergamot, and the latter with the ottar of roses. Sometimes, several ingredients, agreeable to the olfactory nerves, are employed.
5. Cigars are composed of two parts, called the wrapper and the filling. The former is made of pieces of thin leaves, cut to a proper shape, and the latter of those which are more broken. In all cases, the leaves used in the manufacture of cigars are deprived of the stems, which are reserved, either to be converted into inferior kinds of snuff, or for exportation to Holland, where they are usually flattened between rollers, and afterwards cut fine for smoking tobacco, to be sold to the poorer class of people.
6. The value of cigars depends chiefly on the quality of the tobacco. The best kind for this purpose, grows on the island of Cuba, near Havana. Tobacco from this seed is raised in many other places; and such, among tobacconists, is called seed; but it passes, among smokers of limited experience, for the real Havana. A very fine silky tobacco of this sort, is cultivated in Connecticut, which is much esteemed.
7. An expert hand will make five or six hundred Spanish cigars in a day, or from one thousand to fifteen hundred of those composed of Maryland or Kentucky tobacco. Making cigars, being light work, is well adapted to females, of whom great numbers are regularly employed in this branch of business. Tobacco intended for the pipe, is cut in a machine; and, after having been properly dried, it is put up in papers of different sizes.
8. Chewing tobacco is almost exclusively prepared from the species of this plant which is cultivated in Virginia, chiefly in the vicinity of James river. It is better adapted to this purpose than any other, on account of its superior strength, and the great amount of resinous matter which it contains.
9. The first operation in preparing chewing tobacco, is that of depriving the leaves of the stems. The former are then twisted by hand into plugs of different sizes, or spun into a continued thread by the aid of the tobacco-wheel, which is a simple machine moved by a crank. The thread thus produced is formed into bunches, or twists, containing a definite amount of tobacco.
10. The tobacco, having been put into the form desired, is moistened with water, packed in strong kegs, and then pressed with powerful screw-presses. The whole process is completed by heating the kegs, with their contents, for several days, in an oven or a tight room made for the purpose. The same change in the quality of the tobacco is also produced by suffering it to stand nine or twelve months, before it is disposed of to the consumers.
11. Snuff is very commonly used in the Southern states, as a dentifrice; or, at least, it is applied to the teeth with this ostensible object. The application is made by means of a small stick, having the fibres minutely divided at one end. Although the tobacco seems to have the desired effect upon the teeth, so far as respects their appearance, yet its stimulating and narcotic powers are more to be dreaded in this mode of using it than in any other. Many females ruin their complexion and constitution, by rubbing snuff; and the deleterious effects of the practice are so well known, that few are willing to avow it.
12. Tobacco is used, in some one of its various forms, by a great majority of mankind; and, although it is generally acknowledged to be, in most cases, injurious to the constitution, and often destructive of health, yet its consumption seems to be on the increase. It is one of the objects of trade, even in the most obscure parts of the world; and its devotees must and will have a supply, even though they stint themselves in food and clothing.
13. As regards the influence which this plant assumes over its votaries, it may be classed with alcohol and opium; although its effects are not so destructive; nor is the expense so considerable; yet this is an item by no means unworthy of attention, as the aggregate sum annually expended for this useless narcotic in the United States, would be sufficient for the support of common schools in every part of the country.
14. The general use of tobacco is perpetuated from generation to generation, by the desire, common to children and young people, to act and appear like older persons. Few ever begin the use of this nauseous weed, because it is agreeable to the senses to which it is applied; but because they fancy, in their childish simplicity, that it confers upon them some additional importance.
