Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-03-29
MINISTER HUNT.
How He Captured the Czar with Gen.
IennIal sherry from Louisiana,

HOW ne NEhT Sen-
IenniaI sherry from Louisiana.
Washington Dispatch to Philadelphia Record.
Minister Hunt has captured the Car.
The story goes that Hunts first few
months at the court Of the Car made
him homesick. Everybody was won
derfully polite to him. aimost as polite
al himself, in fact-but he didn't seem
to get on. He couldn't get near enough
to the smiling faces around him to see
whether the smiles were real or false.
Perhaps it was his own frigidity, inten-
sified by the Russian atmosphere; per-
haps it was the general uncertainty of
the court as to the precise moment at
which the subterranean mines which
underlie the whole surface of Russia
were to explode; or 1t may
have been the Cars way Of show
ing his disapproval of our atti-
tude towards the Liberals of Russia.
At any rate, our Minister couldn't get
into confidential relations with any
body, and the story goes that it fretted
him. He was growing thin and pale,
when one bright morning he received a
cablegram from New Orleans informing
him that Don Jose Domingo, a rich to-
bacco importer who had been his client
and friend, had died, leaving him his
entire estate. Hunts heart .leaped for
Joy. Not because he was to receive
legacy in money or lands, although he
knew very well the importance such
an addition to his slender fortune; but
because he remembered DOmingo's
wine-cellar and some particular wines
that slumbered in its recesses. The
A L. Al,l Nrinal onI Hn
all the Russians. Minister Hunt
recalled golden days at the
dead Senor's house, when he had
than century old. He smiled all over
as he thought of the sherry made on
Don DOmingO'S ancestral estate in
Spain, which he had brought with him
when he was exiled for his adherence
to the Pretender sherry fifteen years
old, mahogany cOlOred; sherry fifty
years old, olive cOlOred; sherry hun
bred years old, pale and clear as amber,
and with bouquet that filled the room
with romance and poetry. Then he sat
down at his desk and replied to the ca
blegram i'm some such terms as these:
"Send me cask of DOmingO's hundred
year-Old sherry" Then he waited
SIDlIluHlS. IItSSuliN TIC Shelly oliA''N
and was bottled. Then the Minister
gave one of the incest dinners ever given
IN st. Petersburg. He got the best
wines he could, and he got to-
gether number of prominent
dignitarieS, including some of the
cronies of the Car. At the proper mo-
ment he made his guests acquainted
with Don JOse's century sherry. They
were per?eptibly pleased. They were
hind enough To compliment. One of
the cronies remarked, half audihly, that
the Gar must hear of this. When the
Gar had heard of it, and had expressed
or intimated halt desire To hear more
Of il. Minister Hunt cOntrived to get a
bottle of it to him in very pleasing
way. 1t was not long before the Car
gave the Minister special audience,
and the latter had the pleasure of re-
cciving graceful compliments on his
ability as cOnnOiSseur. His Magnifi-
rence was kind enough to ask half face
tiously whether the world held any
more Of that wonderful wine. And
then the conversation drifted to other
matters, and every minute the Minis
ter got nearer to the Car. The Car
has tasted the century sherry since, and
our relations with Russia continue to
he of a character that is mutually sat
i~IaCtOry.