The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-28
MUST PAY THE WINE BILL,
Edgar Miner Tries a Bon Mot
on Harry Wise and Then
Sues Him.
ALL A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE.
Attorney Ashe Attempted to Com
promise the Matter, but Neither
Side Would Have 1t.

Just two sparkling, sizzling cases of
champagne-that's all; but they promise
to create as lively row in the Justices
Court as the broaching of two kegs of
waterfront whisky on returned whaler.
Who drank them nobody knows nor cares.
It's the pay for them that causes Edgar
Miner to draw up his big frame in way
that means war up Benicia way and Harry
Wise to knit his brow in resolute frown.
The cost of those two cases OF wine has
caused a lot of talking already, and no
body can estimate the trouble already
darkening the horizon. Attorney Porter
Ashe was drawn into the maelstrom long
ago, and he has been pouring oil on all
sides ever since. He even added case of
champagne; but two cases of oil and one
of champagne cannot counterbalance the
two cases of wine in the present instance.
Principle is involved; honor! Fiat JUS
titia, ruat celum. That's what Miner
and Wise think, though they express it
differently, but just as tersely.
"Ruinart c@lum, pay up, says Miner,
with calm inslstenee.
''Pay be =, not even maybe" returns
Wise, not dropping into poetry, like the
great Silas Wegg, but making use of poetic
license to express his ardent feelings.
Miner, as is we'll known, like the emf
nent Harry Veuve, Donald de V. Graham,
Ed Greenway and others who drink from
peach blow vases, eases the dowdy hours
between glasses of wine by trying to pre-
vail on others to buy their favorite brands.
Miner is looking after the interests of
Ruinart champagne. Last March he sold
two cases to j. Hetherington, who kept
saloon on Montgomery street.
Things did not go exactly right with the
I'LL 1.
man around to look after the fate Of the
two cases of wine. The wine-tracker re-
ported that the two cases were rapidly
ascending in spirit to the land flowing
with milk and honey.
On making close inquiry for the $40 due
him Miner was referred to Harry WISE
Wise said Hetherington was all right, and
that he would see that the money was
paid, according to Miner
On this hint he let the wine flow. So
did Hetherington.
Then came the grand eye-opener, when
the Miner office man, armed with all the
bristling bills of a big steamer day, tried to
collect the $40.
The Miner man turned pale at the re-
ception he received and stumbled back to
the Office broken-hearted bill collector.
1t took the profits of four days in the wine
business to bring him to his normal con-
dition.
Miner was so wrought up about the
matter that he cut his P. M. at the b.
hemian Club and went around himself to
see the fire-eaters and the wine-drinkers.
He was mad man clean through at the
way he had been treated, but the attitude
assumed by Harry Wise when he refused
to again stand by HetheringtOn tickled
him so intensely that he burst into one of
his famous Benicia laughs and, shaking
all over. said-but what he said will come
out in the Justices Court when the case is
called for trial next month. The cunning
lawyers have laid the seal of secrecy on
their clients lips, and under no considera-
ton will they let them speak now and give
their case away. Ashe says quite forcefully
that two cases are enough for Miner to
give away in one dispute over wine. If
the next wine crop had been at stake
Advocate Ashe could not have worked
harder to compromise the matter. He i'm
pressed both parties with the fact that two
cases of wine were too poor prize for
them to get into the Justices Court and
wrangle over.
The dignity they represented in the wine
and wool way hardly warranted it. But
Miner was insistent. Wise was defiant.
Miner got off again that little saying of
his about Ru;nart celum.
Wise said he could squirt it all over the
heavens before he'd pay cent.
Ashe heaved sigh, called them hasty-
headed and sorrowfully filed the suit in the
Justices Court for the $40 in dispute.
Now justice is brushing up her boomers,
wiping her glasses on the sideboard and
getting the courtroom ready for the great
case. She figured out yesterday that if
Miner lost he'd be out two cases of cham
payne, and if he won he'd be out two more
cases of wine in celebrating the victory.
At present she's trying to figure what he'd