Tobacco in France [pp. 168-169]

168 APPLETONS' JO ijIRNAL OF POP L7ILA [AUGUST 6,
there; I chose to come here, and speak in this beloved house. I
can boast and say, and tell the truth, that none of my forefathers, nor
any Choctaws, ever drew bows against the United States. They have
always been friendly. We have held the hands of the United States
so long that our nails have grown to be like birds'-claws, and there is
no danger of their slipping out. My nation has always listened to the
white people. They have given away their country, until it is very
small. I repeat the same about the land east of the Tombigbee. I
came here, when a young man, to see my father, President Jefferson.
He told me, if ever we got into trouble, we must run and tell him. I
am come. This is a friendly talk. It is like a man who meets
another and says,'How you do?' Others will talk further."
One of the objects of this delegation was to sell certain lands
which they owned on the Red River. After Pushmatahaw had described them, in the most glowing terms imaginable, as a country
where the valleys were filled with black earth, and the waters were
very pure, the secretary of war said to him:
"Good chief, you are contradicting yourself. When you wanted
to buy these very lands in 1820, you told General Jackson they were
all rocks and hills, and that the waters were only fit to overflow the
crops, put out fires, and float canoes. What is the meaning of the
great change?"
"I can only say, good father," was the reply, "that I am imitating the white man. In 1820, we wanted to buy; now, we are anxious to sell."
Another speech that Pushmatahaw delivered in Washington was
remarkable from the fact that it expressed the opinion of a stoic of
the woods, concerning one of the leading men of the time-General
La Fayette, who was then in the metropolis. The Choctaws called
upon him in a body; and, after several of them had spoken, Pushmatahaw rose, and said:
"Nearly fifty snows have melted since you drew the sword as a
companion of Washington. With him you fought the enemies of
America. You mingled your blood with that of the enemy, and
proved yourself a warrior. After you finished that war, you returned
to your own country; and now you have come back to revisit a land
where you are honored by a happy and prosperous people. You.see
everywhere the children of those by whose side you went to battle,
crowding around you, and shaking your hand, as the hand of a father.
We have heard these things told in our distant villages, and our
hearts longed to see you. We have come; we have taken you by the
hand, and are satisfied. This is the first time we ever saw you; it
will probably be the last. We have no more to say. The earth will
part us forever."
Shortly after this interview, the symptoms of the old Choctaw's
sickness became alarming; and, when told that he might die, he
spoke of the event with the utmost coolness. His uppermost thought
seemed to be that the capital of the nation was an appropriate place
to die in, and his leading desire that he might be buried with military
honors, and that big guns might be fired over his grave. Toward the
last, he called his companions around him, and gave them particular
directions as to his arms and ornaments; for he said he wanted to
die like a man, and his dying words to them were as follows:
"I am about to die; but you will return to our country. As you
go along the paths, you will see the flowers, and hear the birds sing;
but Pushmatahaw will see and hear them no more. When you reach
home, they will ask you,'Where is Pushmatahaw?' and you will say
to them,'He is no more.' They will hear your words, as they do the
fall of the great oak in the stillness of the midnight woods."
And then the stoic died. The Government had him buried, with
suitable honors, in the Congressional Cemetery. A procession, more
than a mile long, followed his remains along Pennsylvania Avenue;
minute guns were fired from Capitol Hill, and a "big gun" over the
grave of the chief. Among those who attended his funeral was Andrew Jackson, who frequently expressed the opinion that Pushmatahaw was the greatest and the bravest Indian he had ever known.
A number of years after his death, John Randolph pronounced
upon him, in the United States Senate, the following eulogy:
"In a late visit to the public graveyard, my attention was arrested by the simple monument of the Choctaw chief, Pushmatahaw.
He was, as I have been told by those who knew him, one of Nature's
nobility, a man who would have adorned any society. He lies by the
side of our statesmen and high magistrates in the region-for there is
one such-where the red man and the white man are on a level. On
the sides of the plain shaft that marks his place of burial, I read
these words:'Pushmatahaw, a Choctaw chief, lies here.' This monument to his memory was erected by his brother-chiefs, who were associated with him in a delegation from their nation, in the year 1824,
to the Government of the United States. He was wise in council,
eloquent in an extraordinary degree, and, on all occasions and under
all circumstances, the white man's friend. He died in Washington,
on the 24th of December, 1824, of the croup, in the sixtieth year of
his age."
TOBACCO IN FRANCE.
T was in the year 1811, under the reign of Napoleon I., that the
French Government first took the monopoly of tobacco. Previous
to that date, French smokers, possessing but moderate means, had
fared as ill as those of England and the United States do to this day.
But one night, at a ball at the Tuileries, the emperor noticed a lady
who was covered with diamonds. He asked his chamberlain who she
was. On being told that her husband was a tobacco-merchant who
had made a colossal fortune within a few years, he at once suspected
that a fortune built up so rapidly could have no very honest foundation.
Ten months afterward he signed, in his usual arbitrary way, a decree
which secured to the state the exclusive right of fabricating and selling tobacco. The monopoly has been renewed since, every ten years,
by successive legislative bodies. The present monopoly does not expire until the 1st of January, 1873, before which time, however, it will
doubtless be renewed. From the 1st of July, 1811, to the 31st of
December, 1867, the gross receipts of the "R6gie," or Government
Tobacco Establishment, were nearly thirteen hundred million dollars;
the expenses were about four hundred millions; the net profits about
nine hundred millions.
The government has every interest to see that what it sells should
be of good quality, in order, firstly, that the demand for the thing sold
should be general; and, secondly, that there should arise no suspicion of trickery or adulteration in the public mind. To this end, the
supervision exercised over the tobacco-manufacture is exceedingly
strict. A director-general, responsible to the minister of finance, is
placed at the head of the administration, and all the inferior posts of
superintendence are filled by officers selected from the tcole Polytechnique: which means that they are men of honor and unquestionable capacity.
The number of the imperial manufactories is seventeen. Five
hundred and twenty-four officers are intrusted with the management
of the plantations, and the surveillance of the manufactories. There
are thirty-one store-houses; three hundred and fifty-seven wholesale
warehouses; and thirty-eight thousand eight hundred and thirty-one
retail establishments.
The tobacconist in France is an official. The post is in the direct
gift of the government, and is tenable only during good behavior. IHe
or she (for a great many of the holders are women) generally owes the
appointment to the recommendation of the receiver-general of the district: the applicant is obliged to go through the form of drawing up a
petition, which is submitted to the minister of finance, and signed by
him on ratification. It is needless to say that the number of candidates to fill each vacant place is very large. Owing to the limited
number of tobacconists' shops, the business is very lucrative. The
net profits of some of the shops on the boulevards range from five to
twelve thousand dollars a year. The famous Civette, opposite the
Palais Royal, is said to yield twenty-five thousand dollars a year; but
in the case of these well-situated establishments, it is not unusual for
the business to be let and sublet half a dozen times, the titular owner
being often a person of high position: the widow of a general officer,
who has died poor; or often an old retired officer himself, who has
rendered secret services, and must be recompensed otherwise than by
promotion or the Legion of Honor.
Every year introduces some new improvement into thke system of
preparation. Some scores of scientific men are continually employed
-they are paid to do it and to do nothing else-in studying new
methods of ameliorating the culture of tobacco, improving the flavor
of the leaves, and so blending the different varieties as to form finer
and more wholesome cigars. But it is in the making of snuff that
the French have attained rare perfection. The time required to turn
a leaf of tobacco into snuff, according to the method of the "Rdgie,"
APPL-ETO-YS' JO UP,,-YAL 0-F POPULA
[AUGUST 6,
168