WHAT IT COSTS FOR SMOKE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 384, 27 August 1880, Page 7

WHAT IT COSTS FOR SMOKE.

The New York correspondent of the Troy Times says : — The amount spent in smoking by some of our citizens is surprising. New York pays more for cigars than for bread, and this is easily seen when individual cigar bills run up to 300 dollars per annum. I know one man who was unable to save anything on an income of 12,000 dollars a year, and who gave among the reasons that it cost him 10 dollars per week for cigars. If all his expenses were at such a rate there could be little chance at accumulation. There are many smokers who average 100 cigars a week. These are the men who build np such fortunes as the Gilseys and others have made. Peter Gilsey landed in this city a poor emigrant. He was a piano maker, but opened a cigar shop in the Bowery, which his wife tended while he wrought at his trade. From this humble beginning Gilsey became one of the most extensive dealers in the city. He had at one time nearly a dozen cigar shops, and he left an estate worth 2,000,006 dollars. The Gilsey House is one of his creations, and the Bplendid establishment known as the " Gilsey Building," corner of Broadway and Cortland street, is another. The first Broadway cigar store that reached dig* tinction was John Anderson's. The unfortunate Mary Rogers, better known as the " pretty cigar girl," was in his service, ana her tragic end will always be one of the mysteries of New York crime.