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Show TOBACCO AN ITS SLAVES. Some Curious' Facts Relative to Weed Not Generally Known. (Washington Post.) Tobacco is a thing of mystery. Some of its features and peculiarities are beyond be-yond the ken of mortal man. No doubt a gentleman of profound erudition erudi-tion and unanswerable logic might go to St. John's parish, Louisiana, and after conventional scrutiny prepare a paper proving exclusively that perique tobacco can be produced just as well in Rapides or in Terrebonne as there. No doubt a highly scientific analysis of the soil near Tampico, Mexico, would show that in all chemical respects re-spects it is identical with that of the Vuelta Abajo, in Pinar del Rio province, prov-ince, Cuba. But can any true smoker be converted to either of these beliefs? It is easy enough, perhaps, to prove a thing on paper with formulae, etc., the question is one of proving it to the satisfaction of the consumer. There Is a very great difference. A whole library of calculations and statistics goes for nothing when the untutored smoker takes the weed in his teech and subjects it to the vulgar test of use. The question, then, degenerates into one of nersonal. though doubtless un informed, taste. There are nameless and indescribable factors In the equation. equa-tion. There are mysteries as astounding astound-ing as the mystery of life itself. The most constant and faithful devotee de-votee of tobacco cannot tell whether or not his cigar is burning if you blindfold him or put him in a pitch-dark pitch-dark room. He may resort to unlawful means. He . may burn his fingers at the lightPd end or he may inhale the smoke. But; in default of one or. the other-of these expedients he has not the faintest idea whether he is smoking smok-ing or not smoking. Take off the bandage band-age or light the room so that he can see and in a second he becomes an expert and can discriminate between the genuine Vuelta Abajo articl, and the best cigar produced in any other part of the world. No one has ever yet explained it. The fact remains. Similarly, no one can give a scientific scien-tific reason why cigars fully equal to those made in Pinar del Rio cannot be produced in Mexico with the same seed the same handlers and makers and ' with soil chemically identical. Similarly, no one has yet been able to expound the impossibility of raising the real perique tobacco In Louisiana, outside of a certain very limited locality. lo-cality. These problems do not yield to science, so far as the smoker is concerned.' con-cerned.' The mysteries we have mentioned men-tioned still stare science in the face. |