Part 52
As the young plants spring up and begin to grow, they are thinned out, watered and cared for until along in October or November, and as soon as the weather becomes settled for the season, the little seedlings are transplanted into the field. Some growers use shade, but most of the tobacco is grown in the open. The plants are placed in rows, very much as corn is planted, only farther apart. The plants are carefully protected from weeds and insects, and in December the early tobacco is ready to be harvested. Here the mode of procedure differs according to the discretion of the grower. The plan universally in vogue until recent years was to cut the plant down at the base of the stalk. Lately, however, the more scientific growers harvest their tobacco gradually, picking it leaf by leaf, according as they ripen and mature. The tobacco is then allowed to lie in the field until the leaves are wilted. The stalks (or stems, according to the method followed) are then strung on _cujes_ or poles, so that the plants hang with the tips down. The tobacco is then allowed to hang in the sun until it is dry and later carried into the barns, where the poles are suspended in tiers until the barn is full. Tobacco barns everywhere are constructed with movable, or rather, adjustable, side and end walls which permit of a constant adjustment of the ventilation. While hanging in the barn the tobacco undergoes its preliminary cure and changes in color from the green of the growing plant to a yellowish brown. The climatic changes have to be carefully studied during this process. If the weather is extremely dry it is customary to keep the barns closed in the daytime and to open the ventilators at night. It is generally desirable to keep the tobacco fairly dry while it is undergoing the barn cure. After a few weeks, and when the hanging tobacco has reached the proper stage of maturity, a period of damp weather is looked for so that the dry leaves may be rehandled without injury. When the desired shower comes along the tobacco is stripped off the poles and placed in _pilon_--that is, in heaps, or piles, on the floors of the barns and warehouses, each pile being covered with blankets. Here, being in a compact mass, it undergoes the _calentura_, or fever, by which it is pretty thoroughly cured, the color changing to a deeper brown. After about two weeks in the piles it is sorted, tied into small bundles or carrots, and these in turn are packed in bales. After being baled the tobacco, if allowed to remain undisturbed, undergoes a third cure, by which it is greatly improved in quality. It is then ready for the factory.
The Shade-growing Method.
The shade-growing method is one of the institutions of modern tobacco cultivation. The principle is this: The sun, shining on the tobacco plants, draws the nutrition from the earth, and the plant ripens quickly, the leaves having a tendency to be heavy-bodied and not very large. To defeat these results and produce large, thin, silky leaves for cigar-wrapper purposes, the grower sometimes covers his field with a tent of cheesecloth or with a lattice-work of lathing which protects the growing tobacco from the direct rays of the sun. Thus the ripening process is slower, causing the leaves to grow larger and thinner and less gummy; and being thinner and less gummy, they are of a lighter color when finally cured. This method is employed by some growers in cigar-leaf districts, such as Cuba, Florida and Connecticut.
How Are Cigars Made?
While many labor-saving devices have been introduced in all branches of tobacco manufacture, it is a curious fact that in the production of the best grade of cigars, namely, the clear Havana, the work is done entirely by hand. In fact, it may be said that in the process of manufacturing fine cigars exactly the same principles are followed as those of two centuries ago. There has been much improvement in the artisanship of the worker, of course, but no rudimentary change in method. In the manufacture of snuff, chewing and pipe tobacco, cigarettes and all-tobacco cigarettes, machinery plays an important part; and mechanical devices are also used extensively in the production of five-cent cigars and in the still higher priced grades of part-domestic cigars, such as the seed and Havana. Some of these appliances are almost human in their ingenuity. But in fashioning the tobacco of Cuba into cigars that are perfect in shape, in formation and in all the qualities that go to make a good cigar, there is no substitute for the human hand.
Upon opening a bale of tobacco the workman takes each carrot out separately, shakes it gently to separate the leaves, and then moistens it, either by dipping it into a tub of water from which it is quickly removed and shaken to throw off the surplus water or else by spraying it with a blower. It is left in this condition over night, so that the leaves may absorb the moisture and become uniformly damp and pliable.
The tobacco is then turned over to the strippers, who remove the midrib from each leaf, at the same time separating the wrapper from the filler. From this point on the treatment of the wrappers and fillers is different.
The half leaves suitable for fillers are spread out and placed one on top of the other, making what are called books. These books are placed side by side, closely together, on a board, and a similar board is placed on top of the tobacco to hold it in position. Later, it is packed into barrels, the tops of which are covered with burlap, and there it undergoes a fermentation. It is usually allowed to remain in this condition for ten days or two weeks, when it is rehandled and inspected, and if found to be in the right condition, it is placed on racks, where it remains until it is in just the proper state of dryness to be ready for working.
~THE GREAT CARE NECESSARY IN SELECTION~
The wrapper leaves, after leaving the hands of the stripper, are taken by the wrapper selector, who sits, usually, at a barrel, and spreads out each leaf, one on top of the other, over the edge of the barrel, assorting them as to size, color, etc., into several different piles or books. Each of these piles is divided into packs of twenty-five each, and each lot of twenty-five is folded over into what is called a “pad” and tied with a stem. It is in this form that they go to the cigarmaker.
Every morning the stock is distributed among the cigarmakers. Each workman is given enough tobacco to make a certain number of cigars, and when his work is finished he must return either the full number of cigars or the equivalent in unused leaves.
The tools of the cigarmaker consist merely of a square piece of hardwood board, a knife and a pot of gum tragacanth. He sits at a table upon which rests the board, and at which there is also a gauge on which the different lengths are indicated. Fastened to the front of each table is a sack or pocket of burlap into which the cuttings that accumulate on the table are brushed. The operator deftly cuts his wrapper from the leaf, fashions the filler into proper form and size in the palm of his hand (this is known as the “bunch”) and rolls the tobacco into cigar form, In winding the wrapper around the “bunch” the operator begins at the “lighting end” of the cigar, called the “tuck,” and finishes at the end that goes into the mouth, which is called the “head.” A bit of gum tragacanth is used to fasten the leaf securely at the “head.” The cigar is then held to the gauge and is trimmed smoothly off to the proper length by a stroke of the knife at the “tuck.” The cigars are taken up in bundles of fifty each. They next pass into the hands of the selectors, who separate them into different piles, according to the color of the wrappers, and who also reject any cigars that may be of faulty construction. Broken wrappers, bad colors or any other defects are sufficient to cause the rejection of a cigar. The rejected cigars are known as _resagos_ (“throwouts”) or _secundos_.
From the selectors the cigars go to the packers, whose duty it is to place them in the boxes, and to see that the colors in each box are uniform, marking the temporary color classification on each box in lead pencil. After being packed, the filled boxes are put into a press and so left for twelve hours or until the cigars conform somewhat to the shape of the box which contains them. On being removed from the press, if to be banded, the cigars are carefully removed in layers from the box, the bands affixed, and the cigars replaced. The goods are then placed in an air-tight vault to await shipment.
When the cigarmaker ties up his bundle of fifty cigars, he attaches to it a slip of paper upon which is marked his number. This enables the manufacturer to keep an accurate account of the number of cigars made by each workman and also to place the responsibility for any defects in the workmanship. Cigarmakers are paid by the piece, the scale of wages ranging from $16 to $100 per thousand. In nearly every factory there may be found advanced apprentices or old men working at the rate of $14 per thousand and also there may be found skilled artisans making exceptionally large odd sizes at more than $100 per thousand, but these are not generally considered in the regulation scale of prices. In averages, the workmen earn about $18 a week and make about 150 cigars a day.
Just a Few Figures About Tobacco.
The internal revenue from tobacco for one year would build fourteen battleships of the first-class; or it would pay the salary of the President of the United States for nearly a thousand years. It would pay the interest on the public debt for three years, and there would be enough left over to add a dollar to the account of every savings bank depositor in the United States.
The money spent by smokers for cigars only, _not counting_ cigarettes, smoking and chewing tobacco and snuff would more than pay for the building of the Panama Canal, besides taking care of the $50,000,000 paid to the new French Canal Co., and the Republic of Panama for property and franchises. And in addition to this it would cover the cost of fortifying the Canal.
Or it would build a fleet of thirty-five trans-Atlantic liners, each exactly like the lost _Titanic_, coal them, provision them and keep them running between New York and Liverpool with a full complement of passengers and crew, almost indefinitely.
There are 21,718,448 cigars burned up in the United States every twenty-four hours; and 904,935 every hour; and 15,082 every minute; and 251 _every second_.
The annual _per capita_ consumption of cigars in the United States, counting men, women and children, is eighty-six cigars.
_If all the cigars smoked in the United States in one year were put together, end to end, they would girdle the earth, at its largest circumference, twenty-two times._
AS TO THE CIGARETTES, there are 23,736,190 of them consumed in the United States every day; and 989,007 every hour; and 16,482 every minute. With every tick of your watch, night and day, the year around, the butts of 275 smoked-up cigarettes are dropped into the ash tray.
Cigarette smokers in the United States, not counting those who roll their own smokes from tobacco, spend $60,645,966.36 for the little paper-covered rolls.
If all the cigarettes smoked in the United States in one year were placed end to end and stood up vertically they would make a slender shaft rising 512,766 miles into the heavens.
_If strung on a wire they would make a cable that would reach from the earth to the moon and back again, with enough left over to circle one-and-a-half times around the globe._
If this quantity of tobacco could be placed on one side of a huge balancing scale it would take the combined weight of four vast armies, each army consisting of 1,000,000 men, to pull down the other side of the scale.
The weight of the tobacco consumed in the United States in a year is equal to the weight of the entire and combined population of Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama.
The Story in a Finger Print[7]
[7] Engravings and story by the courtesy of Scientific American.
Our Fingers.
One of the most interesting facts about our fingers is that every member of the human race, irrespective of age or sex, carries in person certain delicate markings by which identity can be readily established. If the inner surface of the hand be examined, a number of very fine ridges will be seen running in definite directions, and arranged in patterns, there being four primary types--arches, loops, whorls, and composites. It has been demonstrated that these patterns persist in all their details throughout the whole period of human life. The impressions of the fingers of a new-born infant are distinctly traceable on the fingers of the same person in old age. The fact that these patterns on the bulbs of the fingers are characteristic of and differentiate one individual from another, makes it an ideal means of fixing identity. Even men who look so much alike that it is virtually impossible to tell one from the other so far as facial characteristics are concerned, can be identified by their finger impressions.
Innumerable illustrations can be given of how the perpetrators of crime have been identified and convicted by their finger prints. Impressions left by criminals on such articles as plated goods, window panes, drinking glasses, painted wood, bottles, cash boxes, candles, etc., have often successfully supplied the clue which has led to the apprehension of the thief or thieves. One of our illustrations is that of a champagne bottle which was found empty on the dining-room table of a house which had been entered by a burglar in Birmingham, England. There was a distinct impression of a thumb mark on the bottle. An officer of the Birmingham City Police took the bottle to New Scotland Yard, London, and within a few minutes a duplicate print was found in the records. The burglar was arrested the same evening.
Many similar instances could be given of how thieves have been caught by handling bottles and glasses. On one occasion a burglar entered a house in the West End of London, and before leaving helped himself to a glass of wine. On the tumbler used he left two finger imprints, and these were subsequently found, upon search in the records at New Scotland Yard, to be identical with two impressions of a notorious criminal, who was in due course arrested and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment.
A somewhat gruesome relic is a cash-box which bears the blurred thumb mark of a man who was convicted of murder. The box was found in the bedroom of a man and his wife who were murdered at Deptford, London, in 1905. The cash-box was taken to New Scotland Yard, and the impression photographed and enlarged. Two brothers, suspected of the crime, were arrested, and the thumb print of one was found to be identical with that on the lid of the box. Our photograph of a gate recalls a curious case that recently occupied the attention of a London magistrate. In this instance a thief successfully climbed the gate, which was ten feet high. In his attempt to reach the ground on the inner side he placed his feet on the center cross-bar, at the same time holding the spikes with his right hand. In this position he fell, and the ring he wore on his little finger caught on the spike indicated by the arrowhead. This caused him to remain suspended in the air until his weight tore the finger from his hand. The ring with the finger was found on the spike, and in due course was received at New Scotland Yard. An impression was taken of the finger, and search among the records revealed a duplicate print, which led to the man’s arrest.
If a criminal handles a piece of candle or removes a pane of glass and leaves these behind, it is a hundred to one he has left a valuable clue for the police. The candle shown on the following page bears the imprint of a man’s thumb, and was found in a house which a burglar had entered. By handling the candle, the thief virtually signed the warrant for his own arrest.
The system was first used by the police in the Province of Bengal, India, at the instigation of Sir William Herschel. Its value was at once apparent. The work of the courts was considerably lightened, as the natives recognized that a system of identification had been discovered which was indisputable. Then from the police it was introduced into various branches of the public service, and here again its value was quickly demonstrated. When native pensioners died, for instance, friends and relatives personated them, and so continued to draw their allowances. By recording the identity of pensioners by finger prints, this evil was quickly stamped out.
The wonderful lineations, in the form of ridges and patterns, which adorn the palmar surface of the human hand, had, of course, been known for many years. Mr. Francis Galton, the famous traveler and scientist, was perhaps the first to give serious attention to the subject of finger prints. He discovered many interesting facts about them. Then, in 1823, Prof. Purkinje, of Breslau, read a paper before the University of Breslau on the subject. Up to this date, however, no practical use could be made of the impressions for the want of a system of classification. Prof. Purkinje certainly suggested one, but little notice appears to have been taken of it.
Naturally, to be of any value to the police or to any government department, it is absolutely essential to classify the prints in such a way that they could be readily referred to and identity established without undue delay. It was virtually left to Sir William Herschel, of the Indian Civil Service, to invent a really practical system of classification, so it may be claimed that the finger-print method of identification, as at present adopted, is the discovery of an Englishman. Then it is only fair to add that Sir Edward R. Henry, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police of London, has also devoted much time and study to the subject. His book, “Classification and Uses of Finger Prints,” has passed through many editions, and has been translated into several foreign languages.
Impressions are divided up into four distinct types or patterns. First, we have arches in which the ridges run from one side to the other, making no backward turn. In loops, however, some of the ridges do make a backward turn, but are devoid of twists. In whorls some of the ridges make a turn through at least one complete circuit. Under composites are included patterns in which two or more of the former types are combined in the same imprint. Although similarity in type is of frequent occurrence, completely coincident ridge characteristics have never been found in any two impressions. It is not necessary here to enter into a detailed account as to how the classification of these wonderful lineations of the human hand is effected. It is based on a number value, attained by an examination, by means of a magnifying glass, of the “deltas” and “cores,” which break up a collection into as many as 1024 separate primary groups, each of which can again, by a system of sub-classification, be further split up into quite a number of sub-groups. When the British police discover finger prints on articles at the scene of crime, the latter are at once conveyed to New Scotland Yard. If the impressions are very faint, a little powder, known to chemists as “grey powder” (mercury and chalk), is sprinkled over the marking and then gently brushed off with a camel-hair brush. This brings out the imprint much more clearly. If one places his dry thumb upon a piece of white paper no visible impression is left. If powder, however, is sprinkled over the spot and then brushed off, a distinct impression is seen. In the case of candles and articles of this nature, a drop of printer’s ink is lightly smeared over an impression, in order the more clearly to define the ridges and patterns.
At the headquarters of the British police at New Scotland Yard they possess special cameras and a dark room for photographing these thumb marks. The dark room is 21 feet long and 7 feet wide. When finger prints are required for production in court they are first enlarged five diameters with an enlarging camera. The negatives are afterward placed in an electric light enlarging lantern, with which it is possible to obtain photographic enlargements of a thumb mark 36 inches square. The lantern is arranged on a specially made table 12 feet long, the lantern running between tram lines, so that when moved it is square with the easel.
Criminals have naturally come to dread the value of their thumb marks as a means of identifying their movements. Some will try to obliterate the markings by pricking their fingers, but so far this has not availed them. To successfully accomplish this it would be necessary to obliterate the whole of the palmary impressions on the tip of each finger of each hand.
Then the system, too, is far in advance of any other, both in reliability and simplicity of working. Compared to anthropometry, for instance, invented by M. Bertillon, in which measurements of certain portions of the body are relied upon as a medium of identification, the finger-print system is certainly preferable. In the first place, the instruments are costly and are liable to get out of order; while the measurements can only be taken by a fairly educated person, and then only after a special course of instruction. In the finger-print system the accessories needed are a piece of paper and ink, while any person, whether educated or not, after half an hour’s practice, can take legible finger prints. Then the classification of the latter is much simpler and readier of access than the former.
At the time of writing there are some 164,000 finger-print records in the pigeon-holes at New Scotland Yard, and the number now being added to it is at the rate of about 250 weekly. The system, too, is not only in use in Great Britain, but in all the provinces of India, including Burma, and in most of the British colonies and dependencies. It is being rapidly extended, not only throughout Europe, but also through North and South America.