Show GEN GRANTS CIGARS 1 A friend once said he made a calculation cal-culation that the value of the cigars smoked by General Grant during eanipaigns ould < pay the whole cost of the late war and leave a respectable re-spectable balance begin the next This was probably exaggeration buthe certainly didsmpke a great j many fine and costly cigars during I I the period alluded to The writer I was a witness and partly an actor I when four of General Grants very costly cigars were consumed or rather destroyed in a very brief I space of time Shortly before the close of the war he had occasion to bring some Important dispatches to headquarters and aa soon as they were opened and digested by the general an invitation to breakfast tollowed after which a cigar was tendered and accepted and the general gen-eral and the writer proceeded down towards the wharf Tliis which was an entirely new structure was of immense length and had been built to replace one destroyed by fire the result of an explosion of shells which were being landed for the use of the army There had been great loss of life from this accident and to guard against repetition of it the general had issued an order that no smoking smok-ing should be allowed on the whart To carry out the order the more effectually sentries had been posted at each end with directions to allow no one to pass with a lighted pipe or cigar The general who desired to give some instructions to the writer to be adopted on his return had evidently forgotten the terms of his own order about smoking and stepped on the wharf cigar in mouth He was immediately confronted by the sentiniel who happened to jea colored man who presented arms most respectfully but added Beg parding ginerai but deres no smoking lowed heah The general Hung his cigar into the James the writer followed suit and we proceeded slowly down the wharf Upon arriving at about the center of it the general stopped to emphasize some particular he was desirous to impress upon me when he mechanically took from his II breast pocket two other cigars handed me one arid from his fusee case produced a light After we got our cigars well started he proceeded pro-ceeded toward the other end of the wharf entirely oblivious of the fact that there was another sentinel thereUpon there-Upon arriving at the end however how-ever the sentry another colored man draw himself up to his full height saluted the general and immediately im-mediately added Beg parding gineral but deres no smokin lowed heah Whereupon the general I gen-eral turned to me and said Confound Con-found these niggers lets go somewhere some-where where we can smoke and flung his cigar into the river which I was followed by mine It was supposed sup-posed at one time that no cigar could be manufactured too strong for General Grant but that has proved a fallacy When he became President some friends knowing his taste for high I flavored tobacco sent an order to Havana for five thousand of the largest and strongest cigars that could be made cost being no consideration con-sideration They were duly sent when the order was completed to Xev York and cost without duty SSOO a thousand or eighty cents apiece They were so strong how ever as not to be smokable even by the General and he had to give most of them away to any of his friends who would accept them Philadelphia Press |