TRIUMPH OF THE .CIGARETTE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2146, 23 March 1908, Page 2

TRIUMPH OF THE .CIGARETTE.

Tobacco is popular in the United Kingdom as it has never been before, but it is tobacco- in a lorm which would be ■unrecognisable to old-time smokers. Each year now the peopilo of’the country arc spending twentyfive millions, in tobacco. Hero is an expert’s estimate as to how the money goes:— Cigarettes ,£15,000,000 Pipe tobacco 0,000,000 Cigars 1,000,000 Total £25,000,000 “The cigarette has gripped us as it lias gripped the rest of fine world,” said ono of the most prominent of London tobacconists tlio_ other day. “The clay pipe is practically dead; ether kinds of pipes are being relinquished for cigarettes. Even hardened pipe-smokers are giving way. Cigar smokers are coining into line, too. The chief reason is the convenience of the. cigarette. This hustling age does not allow of the leisurely pipe in business hours. In walking from one. office to another or in returning from lunch, there is just time for a cigarette. So the pipe is reserved till night. Then, when night comes, the cigarette often triumphs over the pipe, tor no cigarette smoiker even relinquishes them when once they have exerted their influence. They appeal to ::ill classes. Connoisseurs smoke them, the bricklayer smokes them in preference to ’his clay pipe. The use of cigars is .diminishing, hut that is due not only to tho fascination of the cigarette, but also to the fact that cigars, from, various .reasons, arc more expensive.” Eighty per cent of the men in this country are, it is calculated, users of tobacco in some form or other. The a verage consumption or cigarettes is eight by each person each day. Assuming that a cigarette lasts ten minutes, it is possible to estimate the time which 80 per cent, of the men of this country spend in smoking each dav. The figures are: Cigarette smokers, Hi 20min; pipe smokers, 2h. —“Daily Mail.”