English dealers to send out British cigars to
Havannah and bring them back again, that they
may be charged duty and stamped as foreign.
This proves either that the difference between
a good British cigar and a foreign one is very
slight, or that those who buy and smoke them
are unable to distinguish it. There are some
persons who do not care about strawberries
except when they pay a guinea each for them;
so, there are some who do not trust a cigar
unless it is warranted foreign and costs a
shilling. At the same time the most fragrant and
grateful tobacco may occasionally be smoked in
a Pickwick; just as a very sweet and juicy
orange may be bought of an Irishman in the
streets, though he is condemned to select his
stock from the leavings of Covent Garden. The
general deterioration of all kinds of tobacco of
late has been the direct result of the American
war. We have been driven to seek for tobacco
elsewhere, and chiefly in the Palatinate of
Germany, where the growth is of a very inferior
kind. European tobacco, like Indian cotton, is
a very poor substitute for the products of the
western hemisphere. Old and damaged stocks,
too, have been used up, and the market has
been supplied with the vilest rubbish. If the
manufacturers and dealers had not been able to
fall back upon these "last resources," the trade
would have been obliged to submit to the
disadvantage of a great advance in prices.

I have not yet quite finished the history of the
cigar which you are now smoking—pray throw
that stump away, and help yourself to another—
but, I cannot leave this hall to follow it through
its next stages, without a word or two about its
fair manufacturers. I am sure the head of the
firm would be quite hurt if we were to leave
without hearing about his girls, for he takes a
deep interest in them, and, from what I gather,
is as much concerned for their health, comfort,
and well-being, as for the profits of the concern.

He finds it necessary, like the rest of us, to
put money in his purse, but not in the spirit of
a slave-owner, or a slop shirt-maker. Perhaps
it is some amends to humanity for what the poor
negroes suffer in the plantations, that the workers
into whose hands the tobacco falls at last, are
treated with kindness and consideration.

And first of all, this firm deserves special
credit for the employment of female labour in a
branch of business which, though peculiarly
adapted for women, is in most cases, both at
home and abroad, monopolised by men. It
required no ordinary courage to face and resist
the opposition which the male workers offered
to the innovation; and even when this was
overcome, many difficulties remained to be
surmounted. In one respect cigar-making was an
employment well suited to women and girls;
but in another respect it was not. The work
itself was light, but the smell of the tobacco,
which strong men could withstand without
inconvenience, was found to have a prejudicial
effect upon the health of young and delicate
girls. This was traced, not absolutely to the
noxious qualities of the tobacco, but to an
excess of the effluvium in a given space. The
perfume of otto of roses, in moderation, is
exceedingly pleasant and not unwholesome, but
too much of it would be positively injurious.
So it is with tobacco. The consequence was,
that the room which served for the men was not
suitable for women and girls. The girls soon
began to look delicate. Fainting was a common
occurrence. Sometimes, half a dozen girls fainted
in a day, and the proprietors were constantly
under the obligation of cancelling their
indentures of apprenticeship. At that time the
breathing space in the manufactory was ninety
square feet to each individual. To remedy the
evil consequences of so much confinement, the
firm greatly enlarged the premises and improved
the ventilation, and at the present time the
breathing space to each individual is three
hundred feet. The result is, that fainting in the
manufactory is now unknown, and the girls are
all as healthy as any work-girls can be under
the most favourable circumstances. One proof
of this is to be found in the fact that the sick-
fund established by the proprietors during the
infancy of the experiment, and before the
enlargement of the workroom, has been
discontinued. In the old building, the fund entailed a
loss upon the firm; but when the new one was
erected, and health improved, the hands, finding
that the firm was making a profit, discontinued
their subscriptions.

The hours of labour are from nine o'clock in
the morning until seven in the evening, with one
hour for dinner and a half-holiday on Saturdays.
Married women are allowed to enter the works
until ten, and to leave at noon and at six in the
evening, to prepare the meals of their husbands
and children. Women, even in these short
hours, can earn from ten to twelve shillings a
week. The average earnings of a journeywoman,
who makes a full week, are from
fourteen to sixteen shillings. A few expert hands
earn eighteen shillings and a pound. All the
hands are upon piece-work, and each one is paid
in proportion to the number of cigars she makes.
Apprentices are taken at two shillings until they
can make cigars, when they are paid at the rate
of two-thirds of a journeywoman's wages. One
girl was pointed out to me who made her
eighteen shillings a week regularly. Several little
chits of things, mere children in appearance,
carry off from ten to twelve shillings every
Saturday. I do not know any other employment
of the kind where girls so young could
earn half the money. Happy cigar girls! What
would not your pale-faced sisters of the needle
give to have such a workroom as yours, such an
opportunity of earning good wages by only nine
hours work a day? These cigar girls are cared
for in many thoughtful ways. There are
thermometers to mark the temperature, and
practicable windows to regulate it, and in
another part of the building there is a dining-room
furnished with a fire, a kitchen range, and all
the appliances for cooking a simple meal.

The firm, exercising judicious supervision and
watchfulness, trust to the honesty of their