In a Spanish Tobacco Factory.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5573, 19 September 1889, Page 4

In a Spanish Tobacco Factory.

The great tobacco factory at Seville is one of the tirrst sights the stranger is taken to see. Everybody in Spain smokes cigarettes. Little boys begin at the age of eight, and from that time the cigarette is rarely absent from the Spaniard's lips. Many of them die smoking. The consumption of cigarettes is naturally enormous, and the bulk are manufactured in Seville. The Government factories give daily employment to about 7000 people, and of these only a hundred or two are men. When you enter the enormours rooms crowded Avith girls dressed in bright colors, the coup <l y ndl is striking in the extreme, In one immense low-vaulted room there are 1,500 girls. They sit in endless rmV s — about 20 girls to a row— on either side of the room, all at little tables, all rolling cigarettes. There is a blaze and blur of color, a baoel of tongues. Every girl has a gay handkerchief about her neck -every girl lias a bright flower stuck in her hair. All along the walls hang the gay outdoor dresses of the little cigarette makers. As T walk blusliingaiul nervous, down an endless avenue of Hashing eyes,l grow almost giddy. It is a sea of women's faces, and undulating ocean of flower-decked heads. One has to pick one's way carefully down the central avenue, for it is blockaded all along the line with cradles. The married cigarette makers are allowed to bring their babies with them to the factory. They rock the cradle with one foot, while their busy fingers roll the cigarette. The girls earn good wages. At many of the tables whole families are working together. But the hours are long, and the atmosphere awful. The damp warm odor of the tobacco in the long low-roofed rooms is in itself almost stupefying. But there is no ventilation, and the atmosphere is absolutely indescribable. Many of the girls smoke cigarettes at their work. I was very glad bflight one myself long before I had done the round of the factory. - G. R. Sims.

" Osman, the pig-faced boy," is on view at Sydney. His face is narrow, and his mouth, which is usually open, is like the snout of a pig, and he has only four teeth like tusks. Miss Genevieve Ward and Mr Vernon are playing in England in a new play named "Forgotten." During the recent gale at Canterbury, at Methven a man got struck on the head with a nying scantling and had his forehead kid open badly. Tn noticing the reception and welcom given to Lord Onslow in New Zealand, the London Standard makes some remarks about New Zealand which seem to show that at last its financial editor has come to his senses. " New Zealand,"' it says, "has passed through somewhat troublous times ;uicl still suffers beneath the depression of » very large debt. But, nevertheless, it is acknowledged on all hands that the prospects of the colony are brilliant, for the resources of the land are unrivalled, and some half -million inhabitants occupy a country capable of supporting twenty millions. ... It is gratifying to observe that the appointment of Lord Onslow is unusually popular The frankness and sincerity of Lord Onslow's speecli have evidently increased the good impression the colonists had formed of their new Governor, and his term of office opens with all possible promise of happy results."