SMOKING HALF-GUINEA CIGARS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2287, 30 December 1897, Page 50

SMOKING HALF- GUINEA CIGARS.

Facts about Wealthy West End Smokers.

" If I had to count the cities in the world where the best judges of cigars were to be found I could do it on three fingers, for London, St. Petersburg, and Sin Francisco are the only spots where the true connoisseur thinks life worth living. Englishmen koow more about cigars than any "continental, and in no part of the world can a better judge of the weed be found." Thus a famous cigar merchant to a representative.

" And the money spent in cigars ? " queried our contributor.

"Is enormous. There are many gentlemen whose bills amount to L3OO or L4OO a year. The most expensive cigars are Flor de Cubas, luiimidade, and Li Coronas. These are truly aristocratic smokes, their price being 12i G'l each, or LSO per 100. Daring the South African boom there was hardty anything else smoked by the cream of brokers. I may say that 12i 6 1 is the proper price for them, but in Piccudilly the same cigar wonld cost you at least a sovereign. After these come Pedro Marias, Cortina Mora?,, and Cabanas, their price being from L3O to LlO per 100. For weight, the most costly cigars are those similar in shape to cißartt e3. They go 5.z to the 100, and a box or cabinet of 1000 of tbeae whiffs oosts Lls"

" Who smokes these cigars 1 "

" The most costly cigars aro smoked by the biggest solicitor?, one or two gentlamen iv the Cabinet, and the Russian aristocracy. Their price for a cig ir seldom goas lower than 78 6 A peculiar fact to ba noted is that the man who gives a LSO order does not spend so much money as he who drops in occasionally. There are three or four gentlemen who drop in here three times a week and lay out 50a each time. Hurley street doctors, Bg*in, purchase very costly csg.»rs, and ona now on my books spends his L 350 a year regularly in tbis way.

" A few years ago," coalinuad this gentlej man, "a shop was opened in an hotel in London that is the resort of foreigners. In | tbis shop tobacco in every shape and brand can be found, and no matter what part of the world the visitor comes from he can find his native tobacco. Now, since the Cecil, Savoy, j and other big hotels have been opened, and I although the visitors go to these hotela to j stay, they invariably drive to the oiiginal j shop for their soother, and from Miy to October more money is taken there than at any other place in London." A paep at this gentleman's private ledger' 1 revealed many interesting facts. Althoogh the errand boy can call in and get his halfounce of shag, this «hop is visited by the highest in the lanjl. When a distinguished gentleman purchases a box of cigars the brand is registered in this ledger ; at his second visit, if he orders a different make, this is also entered, buc if the first purchase i* repeated no notice is taken. Thus at a glance one can tall what different people smoke. Army and naval effijsrs choose a cigar varying from 40j to 70^ a hundred. Solicitors as a class orefer a LlO brand.

When we come to M.P.'s, the taste is very divergent. The ordinary MP. smokes a6l cigar ; those a bit higher in the socUl scale purchase one between 2i and 4s Gd. M mbers of the Cabinet, for the most part, choose the more co3tly brands, although there are one or two members who never buy anything but a 70d a hundred kind.' Take the Londoner as a whole, and it would be found that the bigger the man the cheaper the cigar.

" A curious anomaly," continued our informant, "ia -npticeable between the foreigner and the Englishman. The former will have his cigars web and his tobacco dry, whereas the latter reverses this order. Wby ? When cigars were first inJroduced they were not sold quick enough, and therefore were often dried up ; in consequence the retailer persuaded the smoker that a dry cigar was the best. As a matter of fact the green cigar is always the finest to enjoy."

Ia conclusion we may say that so closely are smokers bound to one another that men who are often together generally^purchase from the same person. This is specially noticeable in the Houses of Parliament, for during the last Government all the members of the Cabinet excepting one were clients of ono cigar merchant. Oae gentleman invariably smoked two cigars a night at 4i. 61 each, purchasing them every evening. He stated that he could' get three hours' solid enjoyment out of every two cigars, and that was cheaper than anything else in London.