The First Cigars

1895

The Havana Variety Was Smoked In Paris as Long Ago as 1813.

When were cigars first smoked? According to a French authority who has been making investigations in this subject, the weed in this shape was not introduced into France till the return of the French army from Spain in 1823. This fact is on the authority of Hippolyte Auger, the dramatic author, who writes thus in his memoirs:

"Our return from Paris was by way of Orleans. On the route we met quite frequently officers returning from Spain. They had generally cigars in their mouths — a new habit, since become general. From this point of view the campaign of 1823 had the good financial result of establishing a new branch of import trade."

Another document, however, carries back the use of the cigar to a slightly earlier period. The "Hermit of the Chassee d'Antin," 1813, going to see his nephew, a young officer at Paris, finds him at his hotel in morning costume and smoking a Havana cigar. The taste for cigars seems at this time to have been sufficiently extended to make them a common article in the stock of every grocer who was careful to cater to the wants of his customers. — New York World.