Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1878 — Smokers Should Read This. [ARTICLE]

Smokers Should Read This.

The popular belief that bail cigar 3 are made of cabbage leaves is not justified by the last official report on tobacco adulteration. This document contains a tabulated account of the seizures of spurious tobacco made in the United Kingdom since 1864, and in the whole paper there is no mention whatever of the much-suspected vegetable. Its place in the black list is supplied by a variety of ingredients large enough to rejoice the heart of any member of the Anti-Tobacco League. The dishonest dealer in things smokeable is shown by the report to make use of three different sorts of materials beside that which he professes to employ. The first sort for the actual substance of the cigar; the second, for improving its outward appearance, and the third for imparting to it what is supposed to be a better taste. In the former category the favorite substances seem to bo the leaves of the lime tree, the husks of wheat and oats, cotton, yarn and tonquin bean. But there are numerous eases where the ingredients have been much more curiously selected, and have included cocoanut fiber, small seeds, cotton, wood and bread. At one establishment fifty pounds of “ tobacco dust” were found and analyzed, when it was shown to contain string, wood, nails, grindings of tobaooo-pipe, dirt and all sorts of refuse. Another large class of .materials is apparently psed for securing the adhesion and consistency of tfie cigar when made. Among these starch is the most prominent; but it includes gum and amidine, blue, gum arabic, glue, glycerine and essential oils. The color of the fabrication is the next thing to be attended to, and for this purpose resort is had to yellow ocher, red sandalwood, logwood, lampblack and Venetian red. As for the flavor of the cigar, it is varied to suit the most diverse tastes, but the usual object seems to be to impart to it a pleasing sweetness of tone. Accordingly saccharine matter, and especially treacle, is very largely pressed into the service. For those who like a rather more decided taste, liquorice, salt, logwood, glycerine and aniseed are used.r It is in Dublin where the latter ingredient is most fashionable, while Edinburgh is fondest of treacle and sugar and East London is addicted to liquorice. —Pall Mall Gazelle."

—The threadbare story about a cloth-ing-dealer who cautioned a customer against mentioning the terfns of his bargain to the dealer’s partner, as the latter was subject to the heart disease, is suggested by an accident occurring recently in Connecticut. Samuel Calhoun,, a cigar-manufacturer, aged fortyfive, when offered an unusually low price for his tobacco, suddenly fell insensible, and has since djed from the shock." ’ '