Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1890 — FACTS ABOUT CIGARS. [ARTICLE]

FACTS ABOUT CIGARS.

Soma Little-Known Truths About the - Nicotine Delectable*. “A good dinner without a cigar is like a beautiful woman with one ave.” says the Spaniard. * * ' Every one knows what a cigar is and the usq to which it is put, says the New York Telegram. No one will deny its widespread popularity, although some question its beneficent effects upon the human family. Yet, while postage stamps, monograms and cigarette pictures have all found enthusiastic collectors; but one man has been found to face the many difficulties attending a collection of cigars gleaned from all parts of the world. Capt. Mike Flaherty is well known in the tobacco world and has a wide circle of acquaintances among the pilots, from whom be now and aga n received a present of a queer-looking cigar from some foreign land, and it was this decided him to commence his present collection, which now numbers about 150 varieties of cigars, about each one of which a quaint, interesting story might be told. In the first place the word “cigar” is of modern date, and is derived from the fact that when first smoked cigar# they were shieked in the orchard, or “cigarypl,” sog'a’led from its being the abiding . pjace of those soothing, sleep-pi-6EUicmg insects, the calm crickets. •flonpe “cigarro,” a small roll; “cigarton,” afarge rblb, and ultimately “cigar, ” linked aven in name with the sound in hature. The first cigars made toy the Spaniards were of tobacco loosely rolled and held together by the silken lining of corn shucks, and always with a straw running through the center, to be withdrawn before smoking, so as to secure a good draught These were first introduced into England in 1787 by the son of a Spanish grandee visiting London, and from there spread through all Europe. This is the history of the birth of the cigar into civilization, but we must look considerably further back to find the first records, and then can find no origin, but only data, of its being in existence. The cigar of the native Bornean, living in the Indian archipelago, is a black roll three inches long, tapering to either end, the outer leaf covered with a network of gray veins like a cobweb. These might be aptly called “dude killers.” They were smoked by the old Dyaks, and the smoked inhaled to intoxication, while at the weddings the bride and groom held cigars in their hands, and after their heads were knocked together three times, each placed the cigar between thedips of the other, and the ceremony was ended. The cigar in the collection came from Chittagong. When the Patagonian smokes to really enjoy himself he gives a smoking party. All assemble in a hut, seating themselves in a circle, with a bowl of water in the center. A cigar is lighted and passed around, each one drawing into his lungs as much smoke as possible, and retaining it as long as he can, lying flat on his face, with his curious cloak thrown over his head. As each expels the smoke, he groans and grunts until a perfect babel reigns. Then a fresh cigar is lit, and as it passes around quiet comes again. After the third cigar, each smoker sits quietly for a few minutes, takes a drink at the bowl, and silently flies out. Religion is supposed to form the basis of this custom.