The United States holds first rank among the nations of the world as producer, exporter, importer, and consumer of tobacco. Our production of leaf of all sorts averages somewhat more than 1,000,000,000 pounds a year, having a value to the producers of about $100,000,000. An enormous quantity is exported--considerably more than a third of the production in normal years--and the sales of tobacco abroad are excelled by only seven other products. They exceed in value such items as cotton manufactures, electrical machinery, paper and paper products, and leather and leather manufactures. Taking the export figures of the department of commerce for the eight months ended with February this year, the exports of leaf tobacco amounted to 221,129,872 pounds, valued at $28,077,684, and of manufactured tobacco were valued at $4,209,054. The dislocation of trade resulting from the war has had its effect on tobacco sales, however, as on most other businesses. Unmanufactured leaf has suffered most. It is practically impossible to ship leaf to some of the belligerents, while factories in the warring countries that are accessible are not taking their usual supply because of insufficient labor. Manufactured tobacco is holding its own, due to the increased demands from the Far East and Oceania. In the actual war zone the increased consumption by the men in the field is more than offset by the economies that must be practiced by noncombatants. Oldest Circus Man Dead. Charles H.--“Pop”--Baker, seventy-nine years old, known as the oldest circus man in the world, died recently at the county infirmary in Toledo, Ohio, from the infirmities of old age. Baker brought out George Primrose, the minstrel, and twelve famous side-show curiosities. Baker was born in Buffalo. He was an intimate friend of President Cleveland. He was in the circus business fifty-nine years. Triplets Ride in Baskets. Doctor George G. Hartzel, of 1460 Bryant Avenue, and Doctor Edward C. Joyce, of 1926 Clinton Avenue, New York, took to Bellevue Hospital a set of triplets. The little ones were born to Mrs. D. C. Attridge, of 826 East 180th Street. Believing they would have better care in the hospital, the physicians carried the babies from The Bronx to Bellevue in a clothes basket in an automobile. The three children, shortly after their birth, were christened Margaret, John, and Dominick. The father declared that if the triplets had been born in Ireland he would have been entitled to a queen’s bounty of $2,500. Tale of Two Sharks, One Caught by Tail.