Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1907 — ABOUT TOBACCO. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ABOUT TOBACCO.

Ther Sorvo Oat CKsrara to tko lok dlora ta Italy. Physicians, chemists snd physiologists (many of them smokers thepselves) agre9 that imoklng before maturity Is reached always leads to s waste of nerve power and brain force and thus squanders life by weakening the very center of strength. lb all Lord Wolseley's campaigns he made It a rule where possible to nllow each soldier one pound of tobacco per month, which be considered a fair al-

lowance. In It|ly the military author!* ties recognize the weed as one of the comforts essential to the troops and cigars are served out to them with their daffy raitofig. ~ In France there are 6.000,000 smokers, and of every fifteen there are eight who smoke a pipe, five who smoke cigars and only two who are cigaret smokers. Still the French consume more than 800,000,000 cigareft a year, or enough to go around the world 500 times If they were placed end to end in a line. In the total quantity of tobacco grown the United States rivals Cuba and the Philippine Islands combined; British India 1s not very far behind the States. It takes 6,500,000 acres to grow the world’s tonacco, Louisville Is the largest tobacco market in the world. The best cigars manufactured come from Cuba, the tobacco for which Is cultivated In the famous Vuelta de Abajo district, west of Havana. This favored spot ft located on the banks of aTrlvcr, the nature of the soil being such that in no other part of the world can leaves of such excellence be produced. The most expensive cigars cost about $7.50 each. The largest cigars of them being eighteen inches In length. Italy has the reputation of manufacturing some of the strangest smokes In the world. A good cigar will burn slowly and

equally; the weed that smolders up one side Is of Inferior quality.

This photograph of the bow of the Lusitania, taken a moment before she was launched, gives an idea of her enormous proportions. Her beam, or width, is 88 feet.