The Counterfeit 'Rye Straw' Cigar Scam

Among the latest deceptions successfully introduced into the tobacco trade of this and other cities are cigars, the wrappers of which are made out of a specially prepared paper. A gentleman well known in the iron manufacturing circles of this vicinity was the first to inform one of our reporters that smoking material of this kind was in use. He had recently returned from a visit to Norfolk, Va., where he met a drummer for a large tobacco city firm of New York state. This informative traveler told the Pittsburgher that he had seen an imitation cigar wrapper which was so deceiving in its character that experts could not easily distinguish it from the genuine. This preparation was made from rye straw, and one portion of the process was to keep the material in a strong solution made from tobacco stems. The grain of the straw, together with the manner in which the material was dressed, would lead any person to suppose that it was a sample of the leaf in making wrappers for cigars of a more than ordinary quality. The flavor of tobacco was also present, owing to the material having been soaked in the solution made from the genuine article. A well-known tobacco salesman in this city, when asked yesterday if cigars of this kind were sold here, replied in the affirmative; he had seen numerous samples and they were very hard to detect.