The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-16

Tho Abad Romano dates from 1854, Muscadel
de Granada from 1776; while from the Canary
Islands comes Pdbnlen wine hundred years
old. Portugal and Madeira yield also their
treasures, and the Tokay wines come next.
Among the italian names we hear sounds
familiar to us from the odes of Horace Here
are the Massic and the Falernian, which once
flowed at the table of M@cenas, with which
Catullus cooled his fevered lips, and for which
the exile of Tomos (Ovid) longed when the
pain of his banishment pressed sore upon his
heart.
Even Syria and Persia have thirteen kinds
of wine on the list, and the Cape of Good
Hope has six. 1t cannot be denied that such
list as this has cosmopolitan, almost
historical character, not only that of business
enterprise. Enjoyment, that has been the
master passion of the world for thousands Of
years, and the vine was the magic plant, the
sweet treasure, which was concealed in the
earth to be discovered by man for his
need and for his pleasure He cast his cares
and his gloomy thoughts into the bottom of
the cup where he found his comfort and de-
light. And the people of to-day, too, lift the
cup to their lips, but they drink no
more as did those of former times.
The genius of enjoyment, the Olympic
in their pleasure, has gone with
the old days, and out of the ancient reveller
has come the modern gourmand. The
ITeuCuIuhu sips his champagne Wull0 He
dimes with fair ladies, the Italian drinks his
Marsala and reads the OpintOne, and the Ger
man lifts his goblet of Rhine wine, and sings
one of Ernst Moriz Arndts songs But as
they drank in the days of Augustus none
drink now the eating and drinking has be-
come means to an end only. The ancient
carouser is dramatic, the modern bOn-0tUdnt
a comic figure. How can one call it other
wise when in the hall of the ''Three Moors
~,
grease drinks Falernian wine? Does not
in such a case Horace's ode become a
satire
In no hostelry in all Germany is the con-
trast between past and present so forced upon
one as in the "Three Moors. 1t meets you
on every stair and in every room, and in the
great saloon, where the annual ball is always
held, the ladies wear as masks the same taste
| full dress which, three hundred years ago, the
patrician daughters of the time were used to
wear. When the dance is over the gentle
men sit in the room above and smoke their
cigars with their nightly glass, and they sit
in the same room and by the same fireplace
where the old Count Fugger Sat when he
threw the bond of Charles into the fire.
Passing through the passage-way in the
morning, we often meet young couples who
keep close together, as if the narrowness of
the stairs compelled it, and the little wife is
as closely yelled as if she were in Turkey
instead of Augsburg. Who might they be !?
The young mans entry yesterday in the book
was 'Mr. -- and aoIte." He wrote it as
if he had done it a hundred times, and yet
this was the very first occasion. 'The bride
and groom" have become a very common
type in the travelling community, and the
typical hotel for this type is the "Three
Moors' in Augsburg.
But besides this visitors book, in which is
| inscribed tMr. and 2Dife y there
is another, where the names of all the
great ones aforementioned are written. 1t
is, perhaps, one of the most valuable collec-
tions of autographs in Germany, for, accord
ing to the estimate of connoisseur in such
matters, it would readily bring 10000 gulden.
There are some, however, who desire to pro-
cure them more cheaply, judging from the
frequent defacing of the book done by Eng
lish and Americans Many names have, in
consequence, been inserted by other hands,
and now the book is scarcely ever exhibited
| to strangers.