The Key West Citizen Newspaper, November 24, 1952, Page 6

Page 6 THE KEY WEST CITIZ EN Monday, November 24, 1952 By DOROTHY RAYMER Poets and peasants, the rich ty- coon who smokes an expensive the street who buys a cheap stogic, and even women, have long laud- ed the delights of a cigar. Per- haps the most famous and most quoted line of praise was written by Rudyard Kipling: “And a wo- man is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke.” It’s « phrase from one of his ballads with the notation above, “You must choose between me and your cigar,” evidently uttered by a lady who was jealous of the smoker’s “harem of dusty beau- ties, fifty tied in a string.” The name of the ballad is “The Be- trothed.” Kipling begins: ‘Open the old cigar-box, get me a Cuba Stout, for things are running cross ways, and Maggie and I are ou! and, the quote continues, “We quarreled about Havanas, we fought o’er a good cheroot.” He eompares cigars to women, and concludes, ‘‘A million surplus Mag- gies are willing to bear the yoke And a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke. Light me another Cuba: I hold to my first sworn vows... If Maggie will have no rival, I'll have no Maggie for spouse.”’ Advice to Maggie would be to visit one of the few small factories in Key West where the choice handmade cigars are formed and let her contemplate the loving care with which her “rivals” are turn- ed out. She might be better able to sense. the affection with which a confirmed cigar smeker regards his favorite brand, For there is a certain. beauty in the dark, fragrant tobacco leaves and there is an art, now almost lost, to the production of the fine cigars turned out by hand—deft, knowing hands like those of Al- fred Lucignani and his two work- ers at Cigar Factory No 56 in the old Key West type house just a smoke wreath or two away on Olivia Street, across from the Ernest Hemingway mansion. THE CRAFTSMEN A slight studious-looki.g man with fine features, Alfred Luci- gnani supervises and also takes his own turn at the making of cigars just as they did years ago, During a visit to his factory, he stopped taking tobacco from a big cutter long enough to show us around the two rooms where he conducts his business. His two workers continued silently, scarce- ly pausing while photographs were taken and questions asked. Said Lugignani, ‘Production is very limited. I cannot cormpete with machinery, But this is not the point. I #0 not strive for mass production, Handmade cigars are finer. We use Cuban tobacco, and we select carefully.” He showed the big bales of im- ;States now, Lucignani has contri- | buted an exhibit which is at East | Martello Gallery near the airport. after-dinner cigar, or the man on | He gave the museum handmade Yuban chairs and a cigar bench; | as well as the equipment and some |old account and order books so I that the unique art of cigar-making | | by hand can be preserved for pos- |terity. The museum display the same type of equipment still used by the few cigar eraftsmen | |left in the Island City, one of the jlast outposts of an industry | which was once the mainstay of Key West's prosperity. Now, in four | homes here where the work j is carried on, the “bench,” some- thing like a desk, is still used. The | worker sits in a straight-backed chair facing his bench. At desk contains jf height, there is the flat surface with a trough of canvas at its | front edge. In the trough, tobacco | binders are placed. The actual rolling, shaping and cutting is fascinating to watch. | You can see Lucignani at work, and also Armando Bermudez, who | with a partner, runs the Tropical | Cigar factory at 918 Duval St., or | Rex Shaw on Fleming Street. Visi- tors are welcomed, Shaw’s sign | says. Bermudez began the art of cigar making when he was 16 years old i ' and has been making cigars for , |36 years. Shaw has been at the | job for 40 years. INTRICATE PROCEDURE The work requires a deft sure | hand and patience. After taking the dark, light, or olive brown filler | |from the cutter, the leaves are placed on the “bench” tops. The | worker then selects a wad of them, | just enough to enclose in his hand. With a light squeezing and smooth- old days, a wooden implement, shaped like a spatula, square at one end, curved at the other, with a metal ring in the center, was used to estimate the size. Now the bunch is rolled, shaped and put into a wooden mold like a foot- long tray with ten grooves of the |wanted length, shape and diame- ter. The mold, with its ten bunches, jis next placed in a metal press | which is tightened by a big handle |attached to a shaft screw, The jentire mold is left in the press | from 10 to 15 minutes depending on the temperature and the humidity of the day. The bunch must be put into the | mold “‘just right,” Luecignani em- phasized, “‘not too’ tight or too \firm.” The knowledge of this is {part of the art and comes only with long practice. A weather-eye lis also acquired after much ex- perience. Lucignani laughed when |asked about the drying period. |‘‘Ah, but in Key West, where the jclimate is always perfect, the ing gesture, the leaves are formed | into a rough sheaf or “bunch,” | and covered with a binder. In the } ported leaf covered with burlap | whole year ‘round, it is easy to which contained tobacco that had | know how long the pressing takes!” been cured from one to five years |For him, it is easy, He began and brought. from warehouses in | cigar making in Tampa when he Cuba, sometimes by plane, some-|was only 15 and has been at it times by small sailing boats. Recognizing that the craftsman- | for over 30 years in such scattered climates as New York and Key ship which once flourished in Key | West. West is a rarity in the United | Back to the process, After the HE SMOKES HIS OWN an 's a top recom Factory at 918 D reet. Co-owner dez uses a m the outer leaf und the “bunch” n are stacked | | ROLLING A “BUNCH, tion for the “bin¢h.” t mold is taken out of the press, delicaté step ‘of encasing in the wrapper is. begun. The wrapper is one large: perfect leaf kept in a tall earthenware jar covered with damp burlap so’that the leaf re- tains the proper. pliancy. FINISHING TOUCH Armando Bermudez demonstrat- ed how. he selects a wrapper leaf and cuts it just so, depending on leaf-runs to left or right. The cut- ting is done with an oval-shaped blade, a knife called a ‘“‘chaveta.” The wrapper, a perfect leaf from the jar, is put around the bunch from left to right and adroitly rol- led on a pressed block of seasoned wood to form a round head at one end, then ‘fitted, cut with the cha- veta and placed in a small hand cutter for the clipping of the other end, To secure the wrapper, a powder or. paste of moistened tra- gacanth is used. It’s a white subs- tance, odorless and tasteless, ob- tained from an Asiatic gum tree. After the last finishing touches, the cigar is slipped into its cello- phane jacket, and arranged in ce- darwood cigar boxes for market. Citizen Staff dation by Armando Bermudez of the Tr cheretta blade, or tobacco k lected from choice tobacco kept in an earthenware jar. which has been removed from the moid. a round head on the other, securing it with traga- packets of 50 cigars ready across the way from the Ernest Hemingway hot in a canvas roller, something like a larger r Key West—Last Outpost Of The it worker at Alfred Lucignan: e on Olivia Street. C Ciuizen ordi «000 i's Cigar Factory, No. 56, just . A wad of filler tobacco is put of the kind of little hand rollers used to make cigarettes during the depression. He has already sheped the leaves to his hand after careful selec- READY FOR T made of seasoned kiln har igars By Hand” Citizen Staff tobacco leaves for a handmadé cigar are shaped on a block or box i wood. The rolled “bunch” is measured for size and placed in a wooden mold, shown in the picture. It has ten grooves of the desired length. The mold is then - put in a metal press for ten or fifteen minutes before it is removed and. made ready for the wrapper, a flawless outside leaf. Box capacity for 25 cigars con- | sers to add to the shock, smoked ; Filibustering, smuggling of arms | 13, or arranged in four alternating rows of the same number for boxes of 50 cigars. Unboxed cigars are tied in bundles of 50, Individually initialed cellophane covers are obtainable. Some men order their own names printed on the jackets. Bermudez specializes in cellophane containers with pink or blue storks on them for proud fathers who wish to announce a girl whether or not the vein of the | or boy arrival in the family, Stamps on the cigar boxes are according tc federal classification running from A through F An apparatus, called a cutter, for short filler had anyam notation on the direction 4 ¥ The cleaner screen or filter, which removes excess tobacco dust before the filler is bunches, is also handy for removing “nails, pins, screws, buttons, bones, chalk, coal and peach stones. Also hair and dust from scrap tobacco.” The excess dust is saleable as. fertilizer and for insecticides. The best market season for Key West cigar artists is during the tourist season, and, of course, for the Christmas season. Good cigars make excellent gifts, however, at any time of the year. The most expensive include the fragrant very special Palmas with 100 per cent heavy Cuban tobacco in them, Others are various grades and some have a blend.of Puerto Rican tobacco. The names of hand- made brands have a poetry of their own. There are for example, Hava- na Conchitas, Coronas, Coronitas, Tropical Specials, Panetelas and Havanas, POET'S PRAISE ‘These Iast are also famed in verse, Arthur W. Gundry, quite a philosopher, on¢e wrote some qua- trains called “My Cigar,” and after noting the tumult and the rush and riot of the world, drew con- templative view in smoke, ending: “T will puff my mild Havana, and I quietly will query Whether, when the strife is over, and the combatants are weary, Their gains will be more brilliant than its vain expiring flashes, Or more solid than this panful of its dead sober ashes.” Lord Byron wasn’t so particular about what brand he enjoyed. In an unfinished ode from “The Is- land,” Byron penned: “Sublime tobacco! East to West Cheers the tar’s labour or the Turkman’s rest: Which on the moslem’s ottoman, divides His hours and rivals opium and his brides: Magnificent in Stamboul, but less grand, Though not less loved, in Wrap- Ping or the Strand: Divine in hookers, glorious in a which from pipe, When tipped with amber, yellow, rich and ripe: Like other charmers, wooing the a More dazzling when daring in im fall dress Yet they true lovers more ad- mire by fa Thy nake< a cigar! FEMININE ADVOCATES Men were not the only devotees t s Sand, the we Vistoriad agt, and who wore ou |tess, used to puff conentedly in | public, although some say she did so only for affectation. There was, too, the American siren, Vic- toria Woodhull, who involved the sedate Henry Beecher Stowe in a romance which took on internation- al aspects when: she married an English baronet. Her: firing of ci- gars was a shot of gossip heard around the world. Kipling’s little Burmese beauty, is only on the list of ladies: “Her name was Supiyaw- Tot, just the same as Theba’s queen, and when I first espied her, sh@ Smoked a white cheroot, ahd. was wastin’ Christian kisses on a bloomin’ idol’s foot.” That was somewhere on the road to | Mandalay. © ; THE ROAD BACK On the road back through his- tory, Key West had its own pe geant ofginternational i.trigue. The | cigar buginess was originated here in 1831 by William Wall. In the Key West newspaper, then called “The Gazette,” he ran an adver- tisement proclaiming that his firm the bunches are removed and the | sists of a°row of 12 and a row of | cigars. Amy Lowell, American poe- | to Cuban rebels, was centered here | land in Tampa. Jose Marti, the | | great patriot, had headquarters | | here. Cubans believed, with ground | |for belief, that Spanish operatives | would also mean Spanish spying on the activity. They objected and | threatened harm if. Spanish work- ers entered the Key West area. Despite these thunderheads on ‘the horizon, a committe: of Key | West business men went to Cuba |to assure the Captain General that |his men. would be protected. The tension tightened like a taut wire | | ready for snapping. A Cuban “‘jun- ‘ta,’ or committee, New York jbranch, sent a lawyer named Ho- |ratio Rubens to Key West to in- vestigate. Horatio stood at the | bridge of events with notable cour- age and the committee who had gone to Cuba to get Spanish labor } were charged with “having aided | jand abetted violation of the con- jtract laws of the United States?” | They were found guilty of violating | | contract labor laws of the federal | | government. This came about when bh |the Cuban junta protested to the imported the pest, mauyece fro | Attorney General of the U. S. and} oy caine ef eee tate the Secretary of State of the eabi- factory on Front Street between | Duval and Fitzpatrick. A fire in ee : Zi p his hands and his project and 18% devastated the spot. | moved his factory to Tampa, Meantime, other companies form- | ra OF AN ERA ed. According to the record in | ND NER : book by Jefferson B. Browne, pub-| In Tampa, there was no union | lished in.1912, Estava and Williams | organization. The migration of employed 16 cigarmakers in 1837, | workers and big factories away | and within a year, Odet Phillips | from Key West began. The inroad | net. The harrassed Seidenberg threw man shop. Also in business by | troduction of machinery did for the | 18@, were Francisco and James | rest. The million dollar (and then } Amau, joined five years later by | some) industry of handmade cigars | and Shubale Brown opened a six | of cigarette popularity and the in- | their brother Albert. From this spark, cigar making | fanned up into full-sized industry which began in earnest with the Cuban Rebellion in 1868. Hundreds of Cuban migrated to Key West Vicente Martinez Ybor, for whom Ybor City is named, built a large factory named “El Princepes de Gales.” Espaniola,” Seidenberg Company E. H. Gato, George Nichols, Fer- dinand Hirsch, Cortez Cigar, Ha vana-American and Ruz Lopez com panies were among the initial big time manufacturers. Scores of other small groups, called “buck | hand. SAGA IN SMOKE The holocaust of 1886 burned many of the large companies to the ground including the Ybor and Seidenberg buildings. Tampa busi- nessmen were quick to seize the Jopportunity to offer sites on the | West Coast. Ybor accepted t jcommission’s offer and moved. | | Seldenberg returned to Key West | Then in 1894, another kind of blaze began destruction of the huge in dustry which was annually pro | dueing one hundred million cigars Labor disputes flared up. 1 day, there were 15 walkou | Seidenberg’s factory. He decided | not to employ Cuban workers and 5 h Span freedom. Natura! | importing Spaniards incensed the | Cuban patriots. Dowbtlets, part of in Key West. which was goimg on Others were formed. “La Rosa | yees,” also turned out cigars by} | settled down to a mere glow. | The Tampa commission kept of-! fering ad ges and the com- | panies began further exodus. Flei- |tus, Theodora Perez, Julius Elin- | ger and a manufacturer named | O'Halloran, moyed to Tampa. Flei- jtus returned finally and. Gato, | Nichols, Hirsch and Sol Falk re mained for a while along with about 40 small companies, but the decline had set in, In 1912 Mar-} tinez, M. Perez, the Murias Co., Manuel Cr Gwynn, Martin and s. perating. From tion dwindied un- jt rn rickle of the one-time yp inued. ts the gars makers, labored at their j “reader” perched j r and read aloud to papers and books. classics like “Don Qui ther apers were what was t books,” slick read to the rows $s, radio take absorbed. e old order changeth ! new.” One thing ed. The hand the regal kind, still days wa | kno mag ) and the FINISHED PRODUCT, produced with a personal pride for per- fection in the nearly lost art of handmade cigars, is offered for inspection by another cigar maker, Rex Shaw, who has been in the business for 40 years. He vows that handmade cigars are much better than the machine made ones, due to more careful selection of the tobacco leaves. He once filled a single order calling for 50 million cigars from a Chicago whole- sale firm. Here he shows the cellophane covered, boxed, com- pleted product of long filler, Havana leaf, six inch Coronas. eigenen ©) Rounp TRIPS ep DAILY! MIAN: 47 MIN. NON-STOP