n that
shape in New York. To the truth of this last proposition,
anyone will readily testify who has ever been so unfortunate
as to have had to ride from Harlem to New York in a late
smoking-car, with half a dozen roughs smoking cheap cigars
on board.

"The cigars sold in this market may be divided into three
classes--the imported, those made of imported tobacco, and
those made of domestic tobacco. These may be again
classified under many different heads, as there are many
kinds and grades of each. The cheapest cigars in New York
are dispensed by dilapidated Chinamen, who have little
stands about the streets and markets. These are certainly
the vilest cigars made anywhere in the world, and are sold
from one to five cents each. Next in order come the common
domestic cigars. They are sold at five cents each, or six
for twenty-five cents, and are of the kind kept at the cheap
refreshment stalls, lager beer saloons, and low groggeries.
After these are the more pretentious home-made cigars,
manufactured of selected domestic tobacco, which are sold
all over the city, and in the making of which Havana
'fillers' are supposed to be used. A filler, be it known, in
technical parlance means that portion of the tobacco of
which the inside of the cigar is made. Price, ten to fifteen
cents. Then comes the best class of cigars in which domestic
tobacco is used, those which are made with clear Havana
fillers and Connecticut wrappers. Fifteen cents is the
price, and many are palmed off on the unwise for the real
imported article. Cigars made wholly of imported Cuban
tobacco come next on the list. Some of them are excellent,
and compare favorably with many of the imported. They bring
from fifteen to fifty cents each at the cigar stores. Last
in line, but best of all, is the genuine, imported Havana
cigar. Few and rare are they, and great is the price of the
higher grades thereof.

"There are some places in New York where an imported cigar
of a reasonable size may be bought for fifteen cents, but
they are few and far between. Twenty or twenty-five cents is
the price usually charged, and from that to a dollar. All
the cigars made in the United States are invariably put up
in imitation Havana boxes, with imitation Havana labels and
br