Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-03-31
WEIRD SCENERY.


Pushing further into the vault, we we're soon
well under the water, and here we saw the wine
vault fungus, which further back was weak in
growth, swaying hither and thither in the most
graceful profusion. 1t is lighter than cobwebs,
and takes shapes like crysta!izations. It grows
sometimes like coral forming pendants which
are swung by every zephyr, and are finally
brought In contact aad cling together in great
lest02nS. The ceiling or roof is covered with
aeld of the fungus four or five inches in dersh.
and out OF this grows or gathers the most curl
GUS formations, the most interesting of which
are the round balls, like hornets nests, in color
and shape or great gray sponges.
In the vaults where oil is used they soon get
black and dirty but, when gas is burned,
they remain as white as snow for long time,
and are exquistely beautiful. If the light is
held up to them, as soon as they feel it's heat.
they shrivel away with sickening odor and dis
appear To the touch they are damp unpieas-
ant and sticky. The vault men are very proud
of them, and they dislike to see them destroyed,
although it sometimes becomes necessary to do
so. Their presence is regarded as proof of the
adaptablty of the vault. If they gather quick
" over a lot of wine that has been recently laid
down. the wine and the cellar are both deemed
to be good. Down at Lewes is what is said to
be the best vault in the world. 1t was used in
former times as prison and torture chamber,
and it reaches out under the sea quite a dis
lance. 1t is very lofty and wine has been
slowed there since 1914 over which the fungus
hangs eight or nine Icet long. When it gets
filled with dust and becomes too heavy for the
delicate fiber that supports it, it breaks away.
and being too light to fall entirely down. it
floats through the vault like an enormous bal
loon, with the most extraordinary ghOst-like
effects.
Our guide explains all this as we go from one
lot to another, completing our tasting list which
ranges through all the still wines you can name
and he leads to one dark corner. where the
fungus hangs in mushroom forms. and declares
with proper pride that that particular corner
has not been cleaned since the vaults were built
in 1904. Well the corner looks like it; and now
that we have spent two hours under ground. we
are glad enough to come into the open air,
fOggy and murky though it be. and proceed to
the great stOrc-house where our guide proposes
to test his skill at tasting wine.
WHAT THE PALATE CAN TELL.
He bindfolds himself and there is poured
into glass four different kinds Of sherry. He
takes a mOuthful on his tongue and at once de-
clares mixture of four cheap bar-room sher-
ries, two of which have been swcetened with
brown sugar and called by the abomnable title
of brown sherry. He is right, and his next eX-
pertinent is with port, which he correctly tests
on each trial. But when bottle of champagne
from st. Louis is opened he hestates and de-
clares it a new one for him, but it is good
wine, with more brandy in it than it ought to
have, and he thinks it is from some northern
grown grape. He was entirely nOnplussed over
some apple whisky; but when bottle after bottle
of champagne was opened he named every one
with great accuracy. In each case he simply
brought taste to his lips and spat it out again
almost directly. and then inhaled a breath from
some ammona-favored water. | am told that
he has an income OF nearly $4,000 a year from
this branch of business alone, but that he is so
inOrdnateiy vain of his faculty that he will neg
lect everything to show it off, and even buy the
wine himself to do it with. if he can secure q
isn't it?