Evening star., 1901-05-11
CIR ATTY WINE BUYERS.
Collectors Who Get Part of Thefr
Subtraction in Good BarGnins.

Collectors Who Get Part of Their
Satisfaction in Good bargains.
From the New Orleans Times Democrat.
New Orleans is still first-rate hunting
field for collectors of rare vintages" said a
local wine dealer the other day. Every
winter we have lot of wealthy northern
visitors who own fine cellars and they take
great delight in prowling through the Old
Quarter, looking for treasure trove in the
quaint little foreign shops. You'd natural
iy suppose that the whole district had been
raked bare years ago, but it seems mex
haustible, and never a season passes with
out something good turning up.
of course collector of wine is like any
other collector" the dealer went on by
which l mean he has conscience what
ever where his fad is concerned, and, re-
gardleSs of how rich he may be- nothing
pleases him more than to get the best of a
bargain. Some of the ruSes these foxy old
bon vivants resort to are very amusing
Last year, for instance, noted connos-
seur who is on the wine committee of a
leading New York club was looking
through the show window of a dingy little
saloon near the river front when he dis
covered couple of dozen of very scarce
claret, buried under a lot of Othe- stuff in
one corner. 1t had evidently lain there un-
disturbed since the place was opened and
meanwhile the vintage had grown to be
worth anything you chose. The connos-
Seur managed to diSSemble his Joy COW
cred up the ciaret again and presently ask
ed for price on some curious f1agOnS of
cordial that formed the top layer The
proprietor was a gOod-natured, easy-going
Latin who loved to bargain, and the two
haggled for an hour over a difference of
$50 Finally the New Yorker pretended
to notice the claret and dragged it to light
Hello" he exclaimed. here are a few bot
ties of red wine, probably spoiled.
III tell you what III do he added ;
throw N tal..
dials! The saloon keeper snapped I'D the
offer, and the willy cOnnOiSseur carried off
his prize in basket. When he got to his
hotel he gave the cordals to the porter
suppose some of the claret is now in his
cellar at home.
But the schemes Of these sly old BOYS
don't always turn out so successfully Oc-
casiOnally they overreach themselves and
/ heard of a funny case of that kind only
a few days ago. The hero of the episode
was a Philadelphia man and, like the New
Yorker, he had accidentally discovered a
plant of very fine claret In a little old
shop in the suburbs of the city. The pro
prietOr, however, had a vague idea that
the stuff might be valuable and named such
a steep figure that the collector went away
to think up some scheme for bringing him
to terms. The upshot of it was that he
sent around friend. who sauntered in
priced a number of things and finally snie5
the claret. He picked up a bottle remark
ed casually that that particular yinta go
had all spoiled In the glass and declared
the stuff wasn't worth shelf room The
caller was a big pompous individual and
the shopkeeper was duly impressed. Next
day the Philadelphia collector appeared
and asked whether he was willing to talk
reason about that red wine I'm sorry.
monsieur said the proprietor, but I had
no idea you would return and I sold it last
night to ship captain What did he
give you for it?' groaned the connoisseur
Ten cents bottle said the other 4
found out after You left that it was spoil
ed he added, cOnfidentially"