Read Ebook: Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature Science and Art Fifth Series No. 45 Vol. I November 8 1884 by Various

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Of the endless varieties of cigars which are met with in various tropical localities, the majority are used for local consumption, and only find their way into England in very small quantities. The bulk of our cigars are either Havana or Manila, European or British, and of these it has been computed that considerably over two hundred million are consumed annually in the United Kingdom. It is evident, therefore, that the manufacture of this luxury is a business of great magnitude, irrespective of the other forms of tobacco used; and if we remember that the duty obtained from tobacco of all kinds puts nearly nine millions per annum into the national exchequer, it becomes possible to realise how much the comfort and happiness of a large number of Her Majesty's subjects depend on the products of the tobacco crop.

The manufacture of the finished article requires highly skilled labour, and long practice gives the workman an amount of accuracy and dexterity in producing cigar after cigar, alike in shape and size, with a rapidity that is truly wonderful. After the leaves have been properly cured, they are sorted according to size and colour. The centre rib is then extracted, an operation requiring great care. Each workman is seated before a flat board, and is supplied with a bunch of perfect leaves and a pile of broken tobacco. With his fingers, he quickly rolls up some broken pieces, inclosing them in one of the less perfect leaves, forming what is called 'the bunch.' This he proceeds to cover with the wrapper or perfect leaf, which he has already cut with his knife to the required size. The most difficult part of the process has now to be completed, namely, closing in the point. This he does by modelling it with his fingers, quickly twisting the wrapper round it, and fixing the end with a drop of gum. With one sweep of his knife--his only implement--he trims the broad end, and the cigar is ready to be carried to the drying-room, afterwards to be sorted and packed in boxes.

It is easier to know a good cigar when you smoke one than to describe the points by which a good cigar may be selected. A good cigar, however, should have a good wrapper or exterior; it should have a faint gloss, not amounting to greasiness, due to the essential oil contained in it; and it should have a fine hairy 'down' on its surface. In addition to this, it should be firmly rolled, and yet not be hard, or it will not draw well. When lighted it should burn evenly, and not to one side; it should carry a two-inch ash without endangering your coat, and if laid aside for three or four minutes, should still be alight when taken up again. It is worth remembering the golden rule known to the lovers of the fragrant weed, namely, when holding a lighted cigar, always to keep the burning end turned upwards, so that the smoke may escape into the air--never downwards, as that causes the smoke to pass through the body of the cigar.

In concluding these brief remarks, it may not be amiss to say a word or two about the markings which will be found on the boxes, and about which a good deal of ignorance exists. On most boxes there are four distinct markings, which have each their own significance. First comes the brand proper, which consists either of the maker's name or of some fancy name adopted by the firm; such, for example, as Partagas, Villar y Villar, Intimidads, Henry Clays, &c. The quality of the tobacco is next indicated by Flor Fina, first quality; Flor, second quality, &c. Various names, such as Infantes, Reinas, Imperiales, &c., are used to represent the size or shape of the cigar. The fourth mark gives us an idea of the strength or colour of the tobacco contained in the box; and for this purpose the following terms are used--Claro, Colorado claro, Maduro, &c. To attempt to give any advice to our readers as to the best brands to buy would be beyond the scope of this paper. Experience will soon teach them what to accept and what to avoid; what suits their tastes and their pockets, and what does not.

ONE WOMAN'S HISTORY.

'Phew! There's not a breath of air in this valley. One had need be a salamander to appreciate a morning like this. But what a lovely nook it is--eh, Mac? Quite worth coming half-a-dozen miles to see.'

The time was the forenoon of the day following the evening on which Madame De Vigne had been so startled by the sudden appearance of one whom she had every reason to believe had died long years before.

The scene was a small but romantic glen. Over the summit of a cliff, at the upper end of a rocky ravine, a stream, which took its rise among the stern hills that shut in the background, leapt in a cascade of feathery foam. After a fall of some fifteen or twenty feet, it reached a broad, shallow basin, in which it spread itself out, as if to gather breath for its second leap, which, however, was not quite so formidable as its first one. After this, still babbling its own liquid music, it fretted its way among the boulders with which its channel was thickly strewn, and so, after a time, left the valley behind it; and then, less noisily, and lingering lovingly by many a quiet pool, it gradually crept onward to the lake, in the deep bosom of whose dark waters lay the peace for which it seemed to have been craving so long.

'Look, Mac, look!' exclaimed the vicar, 'at those two speckled darlings lurking there in the shadow of the bridge. I must come and try my luck here one of these days.'

'You look just a bit feckless this morning without your rod and basket.'

'Where was the use of bringing them? No trout worth calling a trout would rise on a morning like this, when there's not a cloud in the sky as big as one's hand, and not breeze enough to raise a ripple on the water. I've brought my hammer instead, so that I shan't want for amusement. Ah, Mac, what a pity it is that you care nothing either for angling or geology!'

'So that's your idea of a picnic, is it?' The question came from Miss Gaisford, who had come unperceived upon the two friends as they were leaning over the parapet of the bridge. 'To bury yourself among the trees, eh,' she went on, 'and gloat over some dreadful pictures that nobody but a doctor could look at without shuddering? Allow me to tell you that you will be permitted to do nothing of the kind. You will just put your treatise in your pocket, and try for once to make yourself sociable. Perhaps, if you try very hard, you may even succeed in making yourself agreeable.'

'My poor Mac!' murmured the vicar as he settled his spectacles more firmly on his nose.

The doctor said nothing, but his eyes twinkled, and he pursed up his lips.

'I have arranged my plans for both of you,' said Miss Pen with emphasis.

'For both of us!' they exclaimed simultaneously.

'O-h!' It was a double groan.

'Don't interrupt. Lady Renshaw will be here presently. As soon as she appears on the scene, you will take charge of her. I have special reasons for asking you to do this, which I cannot now explain. You will amuse her, interest her, keep her out of the way, and prevent her generally from making a nuisance of herself to any one but yourselves, till luncheon-time.'

'My dear Pen,' began the vicar.

'My dear Miss Gaisford,' pleaded the doctor.

'You will do as you are told, and do it without grumbling,' was the little woman's reply as she shook a finger in both their faces. 'I've arranged my plans for the day, and I can't have them interfered with.'

'Blackstone Hollow,' interrupted his sister, 'in order that you might have another look at that big trout about which you dream every night, but which you will never succeed in catching as long as you live.'

'Neither of you is afraid of her. Of course not,' remarked Miss Penelope. 'You would scorn to acknowledge that you are afraid of any woman. But why run any risk in the matter? Why allow her ladyship to attack you separately, when, by keeping together and combining your forces, you would render your position impregnable?'

'Impregnable!' both the gentlemen gasped out.

Miss Gaisford's merry laugh ran up the glen. 'What a pair of delicious, elderly nincompoops you are!' she cried. 'Septimus, you dear old simpleton, haven't you discovered that this woman would like nothing better than to bring you to your knees with an offer of marriage?'

'Good gracious, Pen!' cried the vicar with a start that nearly shook the spectacles off his nose.

'Doctor, did you not see enough of her ladyship's tactics last evening to understand that her plan with you is to induce you to believe that she has fallen in love with you? and when one of your sex gets the idea into his head that one of our sex is in love with him, why, then, a little reciprocity of sentiment is the almost inevitable result.'

'The hussy!' exclaimed Mac. 'I should like her to be laid up for a fortnight and let me have the physicking of her!'

'I noticed that she did press my arm rather more than seemed needful, when we were walking last evening by the lake,' remarked the vicar.

'And I remember now that she squeezed my hand in a way that seemed to me quite unnecessary, when she bade me good-night on the steps of the hotel.'

'Gentlemen, let there be no jealousy between you, I beg,' said Miss Pen with mock-solemnity. 'If you decline to combine your forces, then make up your minds which of you is to have her ladyship, and let the other one go and bewail his sorrows to the moon.'

'Her ladyship is the widow of an alderman and ex-sheriff of London, who was knighted on the occasion of some great event in the City. Her husband, who was much older than herself, left her very well off when he died. That pretty girl, her niece, who travels about with her, has no fortune of her own, and one of her ladyship's chief objects in life would seem to be to find a rich husband for her. At the same time, from what I have already seen of her, it appears to me that Lady Renshaw herself would by no means object to enter the matrimonial state again, could she only find a husband to suit her views.'

'A dangerous woman evidently. We must beware of her, Mac,' said the vicar.

The doctor shook his head. 'My dear friend, your caution doesn't apply to me,' he said. 'Lady Renshaw is just one of those women that I would not think of making my wife, if she was worth her weight in gold.'

They had begun to stroll slowly forward during the last minute or two, and leaving the bridge behind them, were now presently lost to view down one of the many wooded paths which intersected the valley in every direction.

But a few minutes had passed, when Lady Renshaw and Miss Wynter appeared, advancing slowly in the opposite direction. They halted on the bridge as the others had done before them.

'What a sweetly pretty place!' exclaimed Miss Wynter. 'I had no idea it would be half so lovely. I could wander about here for a week,' adding under her breath, 'especially if I had Dick to keep me company.'

'Pooh! my dear; you will have had quite enough of it by luncheon-time,' responded her aunt, who had seated herself on the low coping of the bridge with her back to the view up the glen.

'I always thought you were an admirer of pretty scenery, aunt.'

'So I am--when in society. But now that we are alone, there's no need to go into ecstasies about it. On a broiling day like this, I would exchange all the scenery of the Lakes for an easy-chair in the veranda, a nice novel, and the music of a band in the distance.' Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she gazed around and said: 'By-the-bye, what has become of Mr Golightly?'

'I saw him strolling in this direction a few minutes ago,' was the innocent answer. 'I have no doubt that he is somewhere about.'

'Now that Archie Ridsdale has been called away, you will be able to give him the whole of your attention. There seem plenty of quiet nooks about where you will be able to get him for a time all to yourself. He certainly seems excessively infatuated, considering how short a time he has known you, and I should not be a bit surprised if that waterfall were to lead him on to make violent love to you before you are six hours older.'

'Aunt!'

'Oh, my dear, I've known stranger things than that happen. When a susceptible young man and a pretty girl sit and watch a waterfall together, he is almost sure before long to begin squeezing her hand, and then what follows is simply a question of diplomacy on her part.'

'He may do it this very day for aught one can tell. He seems infatuated enough for any thing. When he does propose, you will accept him--conditionally. You will take care to let him see that you care for him--a little. You have known him for so short a time that really you scarcely know your own feelings--&c., &c. Of course, before finally making up your mind, we must have some more definite information as to the position and prospects of the young man, and what his father the bishop has in view as regards his future. Besides, Mr Archie Ridsdale may possibly be back in the course of a day or two.'

'But in what way can Archie's return affect me?'

'You stupid girl! have I not already told you that Sir William is nearly sure to refuse his consent, and that Archie's engagement with this Miss Loraine may be broken off at any moment. Then will come your opportunity. Archie seemed very fond of you at one time, and there's no reason why he should not become fond of you again. Young men's fancies are as changeable as the wind, as you ought to know quite well by this time.'

Bella only shrugged her shoulders and sauntered slowly over the bridge.

The expression of Lady Renshaw's face changed the moment she found herself alone, and her thoughts reverted to a topic over which they had busied themselves earlier in the day.

'So this high and mighty Madame De Vigne--this person whom nobody seems to know anything about--could not condescend to come in the same wagonette with us poor mortals! She and her sister must follow in a carriage by themselves, forsooth! Last evening, when we got back from the lake, she had retired for the night; this morning, she breakfasted in her own room. I feel more convinced than ever that there's some mystery about her. If I could but find out what it is! Of course, in such a case it would become my duty at once to communicate with Sir William.'

Lady Renshaw took a survey of the young man through her glasses. Feeling safe in his disguise, Richard had now discarded some portions of the clerical-looking costume he had worn yesterday, and was attired this morning more after the style of an ordinary tourist.

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