The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-20

grower, viticulturist he prefers to call
himself. In the past ten years this pro
pensity for strong drinks has grown
weaker among the Chinese, and on the
other hand there has been a notable in
crease in tho use of sherry. port. catawba,
muscatel, angelica. and champagne
They are popular in all of the treaty
ports, whether on. the seaboard or far up
in the interior on the great river Yang
Tszee. They are found some $50 miles
inland from the nearest seaport. Came
ron found sherry in Yunnan, and Little,
the distinguished author and traveller
ran across champagne in SZ-Chuin, the
province which borders on Thibet.
Much of this is due to the action Of the
treaties between China and the great
powers Every minister and consul must
call upon the leading mandarins of the
place TO which he is accredited, and they,
in turn must call upon him.
According to Chinese etiquette, these
Official visits are held at a luncheon table
and not in an open drawing room The
bill of fare is always the same and con-
sisUs of three drinks, sherry, champagne
and tea, and an assortment of biscuits.
small cakes, fruits, preserves and fine
candy. In general, the guests eat one
cake, fruit and a piece of candy and
sip one or two glasses of wine. This be-
ing the fashion among the high manda-
rims, ii is adopted by thousands of lower
ones as a rule of distinguished society In
this way a knowledge of European and
American vintages is gradually pene-
trating the entire Middle Kingdom.
The moderation of John CLinaman is
well illustrated by his wine cups Nearly
all are so small as to seem comical TO an
American. They are not on average so
capacions as the toy cups which are en-
ployed to furnish doll houses. The vast
ma jorlty contain a tablespoonful while a
few contain two toblespoonfuls The
tumbler goblet stand. schoppen, toby,
mug, tanKard, pewter, Tom and Jerry cup
and the schooner, are unknown in the far
east. Where 1T is necessary, as in the
case Of sickness, to drink large amount
OF stimulants in hurry, an ordinary tea
cup is employed for the purpose. For a
man to use tea cup regularly with his
alcoholic beverages is proof consumptive
that he is a confirmed drunkard or a
chronic invalid.
The wine cups are usually very simple
and very cheap "A good, serviceable ar
ticle can be purchased for three cents a
dozen. T liner ones cost more. About
the every day kind are fragile ones made
from the finest kaolin. These are scarce
ly thicker than Bohemian glass, and are
of creamy whit5ness. Above these are
fancy designs, which are often very ex-
penSlve. One seen in Swallow was of
thin white porcelain moulded to repre-
sent the bell of a lily; another was a
white rose in full bloom; a third repre-
sented rustic cup made by folding an
oak leaf; fourth was a delicate tfuted
cell; fifth was tiny nautilus: a sixth
was grotesQe fish a seventh a piece of
bamboo All of these were marked by
splendid workmanship. Those which
seemed the most artistic were cream
white in color. But there were others
finished with tinted or colored glaze /:
still others in two, three and four colors
and last, even white cups, ornamented
with vines and flowers birds, and other
pictorial objects in natural cOlors
Nearly all these patterns were very
beautiful; few bordered on the humor-
Gus or groJe5que. One tiny cup had little
green crabs and shrimps crawling on it's
sides another had black beetles and
green bugs upon its walls, a third had a
stripe serpent coiled around its exterior
These fanciful designs are MOI very popu-
lar, however, and are difficult to find out
side of Canton, Swallow and Chow Chow
Foo.
Alcoholic drinks in China are regareed
and treated as food They are serued on
the dinner table, and seldom or never at
other meals. They are never used alone
The idea of a man going into a cafe, no
matter how gilded and artistic. and tax
tug cocktail, sour or punch would scare
the average Monaghan Men who do
such things in the Middle kingdom be-
come famous or Infamous in consequences
The great Chinese poet, 500 Tung Poh,
who was an eastern equivalent of Edgar
Allan Poe in more was than one. DIS
carded water add tea in the beginning of
his career and distinguished himself by
the inordinate quantity and variety of in
toxicants he used, both at meals and all
other times OF the day and night. He
must have had good, strong constitution.
as he lived TO good age and boasted that
his strength, health and longevity were
entirely due TO his antipathy to what we
would style ten perance fluids.
Another poet. LII Tai Beh. had the
same weakness for John Barleycorn. and
wrote all his best stanzas when two or
three sheets in the wind. AS a conse-
quence, his name has come down through
the centuries as the synonyme or folly
AT the table OF a Chinese gentleman,
the standard wine is shoa-shing. 1t is of
a pale brownish color, pleasant taste,
and bouquet suggesting ripe hickory-nuts
II contains a small percentage of alcohol
and minimum Of organic matter and Of
lime. IL Is served OF all Official and state
dinners as well as at private banuuets
and family festivals. Frequently il is
the only stimulant served at a meal 1t
is cloudy when cold. When heated it is
tilterad before service. The warmth
brings out the flavor and perfume. and
makes It much more appetizinR. Al ban
quets it is the wine in which the toast of
welcome is invariably drunk
After this opening round the guest has
the option of continuing with shoa-shing.
or can pass on 10 all OF the different wines
on the list.
What shoa shing is TO gentlemen sam
shut is 10 the masses. Sam-shui, by the
way, is not Chinese name, but two
Chinese words meaning third water'' or
third fluid, and means what we call a
triple extract or a triple distillate.
The early Europeans who first visited
China liked strong liquor. and in the
triple distillate Of rice beer found a fluid
exac9ly 70 their liking. The fact that il
was practically cheap raw spirit did not
lessen their appetite for IT, They used
II with avidity, and used its name for all
Chinese stimulants Many Chinese have
adopted the name for its convenience. so
that the term is In general use in the far