When they first appeared in the 1850s, cigarettes were viewed with
disdain and considered “the smoke” of the lower classes. Cigarettes
were first adopted by urban immigrants and particularly adolescent
boys. Initially sold individually, not in packs, cigarettes were far less
expensive than cigars. That the cigarette wasn’t the choice of any “real”
man was made clear by its name, formed by adding the feminine suffix
“ette” to “cigar.” Despite the stigma, circumstances made cigarette use
more common. The Civil War battlefields were not well suited to leisurely smoking a cigar; a
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