Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-08-04

Two Casks Spanish Plus One of Water
 Equals Three Casks Bordeaux.
 The French wine is weak in it's nat ural state. It must be strengthened The Spanish wine is strong, but not strong enough. 1t must be made stronger. How? That was the mys- tery the French authorities unraveled. In 1887. for example, France imported seven million hectolitres Ia hectolitre equals twenty-two gallons) of Spanish wine, and in the same year Spain im- ported eight hundred thousand hec- tolitres of alcohol from Germany. The alcohol of commerce is know it's own father. It might be the simple product of the grape, and then, again, it might not, with the accent on the mot" The foundling has many reputed fathers-corn, rice and other grains, potatoes, beets, honey, starch, etc, all produce alcohol-alcohol that may be used to strengthen the wines of France, which by the way, is not al- ways to be taken as the juice either of the pure and tender grape or of grape mixtures D "When the lions skin falls short, we eke it out with the fox's." When the harvest fails, wine can be made of dried raisins, figs, To- cust beans, etc., etc. Thousands and thousands of boxes of poor quality raj sins, figs and beans annually find their way to French territory from eastern lands, but we will leave them out of the reckoning and confine ourselves to the wines of France. Nor will we take to the water just yet. But, my friends of the clubs, you who have your spec ial fancies in brands of wine, can you believe that your Macon, your Li- bourne, your Beaujolais all come out of the same vat? That your Bordeaux and your Burgundy are twin brothers. with their birthmarks slightly altered in the cradle? You are not compelled to believe me if you do not wish to. but Magma est veritas ct praevalebit." ;" Truth lies at the bottom of a well and knows great deal about the wine business.
 And now will give you one of our authors definitions of coupage. "To take mediocre or bad wines wines ar tifcially alcoholized or poor, unite them in the bonds of a close carriage with the wine of Spain, and make wine of agreeable taste and of a nature to give satisfaction to the consumer" And he adds: s'It is veritab1e art, that of mixing. wines. l can easily believe it when 1 see those rows of enormous vats, containing from 300 to a 1000 hectolitres, where repose so many different wines. 1 think, not without melancholy, of the days when my father would say to me, Little one, we will take some wine today" In that happy time the con- sumer was not what he is now: he knew and appreciated wine; he had not misguided and depra.ved palate.
 Mouillage explains itself. A wetting down is wetting down; it may be little more or little less, but it is al. ways wetting. There is simple equation which the wine concoctors are continually solving, to their own satisfaction, at least. It is, two casks Spanish wine plus one cask water equals three casks Bordeaux. This is simple, too simple, in fact, for it leaves the French wine out altogether, and it must be brought into the reck- oning of what becomes of the home products. Let us start again: One cask Spanish wine equals two casks Bordeaux. That is beginning, and the pump is near. Two and one make three. Now we have three casks of the improved" wine. But there are two empty casks waiting to be filled. We have it. Here, you Gustave, bring up another cash of improved wine. :" Now we have four full and two empty casks. Each caslS contains 225 htres. We will draw off 75 litres from each. Seventy-five plus 75 equals 15O. Put it in empty casl No 1. Again, T5 plus 75 equals 150. Put it in No. 9 Now we have six casks and each containing 150 litres. But what is the matter with the pump9 Nothing! Good! Pump, pump, pump. Now we have six full casks-four equals six. Oh, the won ders of arithmetic-in the wine trade. Here is a mans stock in trade in- creased 3316 per cent by simple addi- ton and substraction. with a sligh twist of the wrist around the old pump handle. If, peradventure, there is added little too much pump water, little more alcohol will remedy that, and little coloring matter to bring back the blush to the not quite ruby wine. e.-Philadelphia Ledger.
 Plenty of Money.
 Susie-My sister has got new piano. It's awful fine. Pop bought it. It's the best make, and it's parlor grand, too, and it cost thousand dollars just think of that!