Due South; or, Cuba Past and PresentBallou, Maturin M. (Maturin Murray)
History
Due South; or, Cuba Past and Present
Ballou, Maturin M. (Maturin Murray)
Cuba
We were told that gentlemen who have the means to procure them smoke
on an average what is equivalent to a dozen cigars per day, and those
of the other sex addicted to the habit consume half that quantity. Of
late the larger proportion, however, takes the form of cigarettes,
which are far more subtle in effect when used to excess. The
consequence of this large home consumption, in addition to the export
of the article, is that a very numerous class of the population is
engaged in the manufacture, and little stores devoted solely to this
business are plentifully sprinkled all about the metropolis. The
imperial factory of La Honradez, already described, occupies a whole
city square, and is one of its curiosities, producing from three to
four million cigarettes per diem. This house enjoys special
governmental protection, and makes its annual contribution to the
royal household of Madrid of the best of its manufactured goods. A
snuff-taker is rarely to be met with, and few, if any, chew the weed,
if we except the stevedores and foreign sailors to be seen about the
shore and shipping. Havana has no wharves, properly speaking; vessels
are loaded and discharged by means of lighters or scows. The negroes
become passionately fond of the pipe, inhaling into their lungs the
rich, powerful narcotic and driving it out again at their nostrils in
slow, heavy clouds, half dozing over the dreamy effect. The postilion
who waits for a fare upon the street passes half his time in this way,
dreaming over his pipe of pure Havana, or renewing constantly his
cigarette. The price of manufactured tobacco in Cuba is about one half
that which we pay for the same article in America, either at wholesale
or retail, as shipping expenses, export duty, and import duty must be
added to the price charged to the consumer.
In discussing this habit one naturally looks back about four hundred
years, recalling the amazement of the Spanish discoverers, when they
first landed here, at seeing the Indians smoking a native weed which
was called tobacco. The practice was, at that time, entirely unknown
in Europe, though now indulged in as a luxury by nearly half the
population of the globe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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