Southwest-sentinel. [volume] (Silver City, N.M.) 1883-189?, 1894-02-13
uNcLe eAMs wINg oELLAa.
no Doesn't Drink, but He aas lots ofRarI
Wines on Hand.

10 Doesn't Drink, but He IIas lots ofRars
Wines on Hand.
a ghostly silence pervadcs tho place.
II is like the silence of the tomb. The
outside world seems already centuries
away. The air is cool and soothing,
and three haring gas Jets cast an intri-
cato combination Of shadows upon the
massive masonry Of the arches. says a
writer in the Boston Herald, in describe
ing the wine vaults under the Boston
custom house.
After hundreds of years, when Bos-
ton is only a hole in the ground like tho
ancient cities in the Mediterranean,
some a~rch@ologist will dig down
through tho accumulated dust of cen
turtles and find those hewn arches stand
ing as they stand now.
And yet the whole substantial struc-
ture is like the foolish mans house,
founded upon the sand and mud of Bos-
ton harbor. Three thousand tall pine
trees stripped of their limbs, were
driven down close together in the black
ooze to form a foundation for the build
ing. These piles would last but a few
short years in the outer air, but sunk
in tho harbor mud they are believed to
be as i~ndestructible as the earth itself.
When it was built, the custom house
was upon the water front, and even now
the cellar is below high water mark,
yet there is no drier cellar on Beacon
hill. The builders seemed TO have been
the builders of pyramids and cata-
| o~,,1r was,,,ow~pFn on1 kIa rrr1r1r vvrad
done to stand after the builders them
selves were long forgotten. Upon the
heads Of the piles, i'll the form Of a
Maltese cross, was laid a Gaping of
granite in hydraulic cement. Around
it were built the massive walls of solid
granite G feet thick, which were to be
a protection against heat and cold, fire
and water and all tho elements. With
in these walls rose the puzzling scheme
of sturdy pillars and arches which made
the cellar a maze of how rooted cham
bers, inches, crypts and passages.
When the visitor enters the basement
and storehouse, which is on the street
level, he feels instinctively conscious Of
the huge pile Of granite over his head.
This floor, within tho surrounding row
of Offices, is used for the storage oil
champagne and bottled wines. Thu
cases, which hold two dozen bottles, arr
piled in regular tiers as high as the cell
ing, and under the main entrance they
arc packed in solidly. There are usually
between 5000 and 1000 cases, OF ovei
40, 900 bottles, which if popped all a
once would make the granite dom,
tremble and might drown the attend
ants in u foaming food.
When a consignment of rum, whicl
mean anything from champagne t
brandy, is landed from a foreign vessel
the government orders 1t to be sent t
the custom house cellar. If no owne
appears to claim it, it is kept for a yea
and then is sold at auction to pay tn
duties and warehousing charges.
If the owner appears, he can pay tn
duties and withdraw his liquor for i'm
mediate consumption, or he can Civ
bonds for the duties and keep his stoc
stored in the government vaults unit
he wishes to withdraw it. The govern
ment charges him storages according {
the capacity Of packages and allow
him to take 1t away by degrees as b
needs it, paying duty only ON til
amount withdrawn.
Very often an importation of win
and spirits may change hands severe
times while it lies in bond deep undC
tho granite dome. In such cases ii
sold in bond, and the owner, instead
the importer, pays the duties and make
the final entry % the merchandise.