The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-26
Consumes 4,5OO,OOO Quarts of
 Champagne Every Year
PRICE NEVER FLUGTUATtS
The Champagne Cellars of France Are Greater Than All Subways of New York or London
 Combined.

| the cost of bread and meat and other Q , cessaries of life is higher than 1t has
 for many years America is impe
 champagne in increased quantities
 year. The increase, as shown in fe- port from Consul J. Martin Miller at Rheims, has been S5 per cent in the last
 five years The United States now con sumes. annually, 45OO,OOO quarts of ''bub- bles' from France.
 Making allowance for the fact that a quart of champagne may be divided among several persons, and considering upon the other hand the fact that the man who drinks champagne at all drinks 1t oftener than once year it is proba- ble that not more than one American in twenty-five gets taste of genuine French flag" once year.
 Pays Uncle Sam Handsomely.
 The high tariff keeps out low grades of champagne and only the best grade Is | imported. Customs duties paid on inn ported champagne aggregate sS.m00oo. If champagne were on the free list certain grades could be sold in this country for what the tariff amounts to under the present law, but the grade would be of the sort which the discreet hostess serves only after the guests have beco~-c mellow and uncritical. and which she directs the walters to serve so that the label is con cealed under the napkin
 Great Britain is the greatest wine drink ing country. importing almost 9,oOO,0oo quarts annually, but the United States is ! second as champagne consumer and Russia is third Statistics show that the French consume less champagne than Great Britain, and that this is mostly of a ] low grade, and not suitable for export rade Of first grade wipe France eon~ snmes only about half as much as does ] inc United States and about one-fourth as much as Great Britain.
 To the twenty-four Americans who get no champagne it may not be consoling to know that the one who can afford it is pretty fair guzzler. The United States consumes one-seventh of the champagne which the world drinks.
 The Japanese have at last become dag zled with the sparkle of the vintage with the sudden sunshine and the subsequent headache concealed between it's bubbles. The trade between France and the Sun fever Kingdom is growing rapidly. Elf teen years ago the Japs hardly knew what champagne was. The Chinese have pie joys of hitting the pipe are good enough for the Celestial.
 Peculiar Feature of Wine Trade. peculiar feature of the champagne trade is that the retail price is about the same in all countries. The United States import duty is four times as high as that of England and Greece has cham pagne on the free list. There is no gov ernment tax in France. Yet the logical accompaniment of the hot bird costs prac- tically the same in New York London, Paris. St. Petersburg. Berlin Rome or elsewhere. Another thing about high champagne is that the price does not fiuctuate Everything from diamonds to doughnuts may go up or down, but cham pagne remains the same, wholesale and retail regardless even of the size of the crop of champangne grapes. Cheap cham pagne made from imperfect grapes or fourth and fifth pressings, retails in France at from two to three francs pint. but the first grade sells for as high a price as in Brazil where a duty of s1 A a quart is levied.
 Cannot Counte -feit the Sparkle. N. All of the sparkles you get in imported champagne are, according to Consul Mill Ter, from natural fermentation. Some cheap wines are artifcially charged. It is easy to detect the imitation by the fact that the effervescence dies away rapidly while the bubbles in real cham pagne continue for some time to float upward
 It Is commonly stated that American wine Is sent to France and manufact- ured into champagne. Mir. Miller says that this cannot be done because the French laws prohibit the use for that pur- pose of any material grown outside of the champagne district California ex- ports wine to France. but Mir Miller's explanation is that the French are the greatest consumers of cheap wine on earth. It Is used more generally than milk in America and even small children drink it. It is given to pupils in the public schools.
 Five years are required to put cham pagne on the market after the grapes are pressed, but the wine does not improve with age The immense stock carried by the wine making establishments accounts for the fact that there Is no fuctuation on account of the variation in the crop of grapes.
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 '~rhe great caves or cellars of the great wine houses. Pomnery, Mumm. Moet & Chandon, krug, Ruinart. Roed- erer, Cliauot, Piper Heidsieck. and others, says Consul Martin. ''are miles in ex- tent dug in solid chalk from twenty to one hundred feet under ground, under one another. In these caves champagne is kept from three to five years before it is sold. Six of the largest firms have caves from eight to eleven miles in ex- tent, rivaling the catacombs of Rome, and lighted by electricity. In the number of miles they are much greater than the subways of New York and London com bined The city of Rheims is completely honeycombed underneath by the cham pagne caves. in which the temperature every day in the year is 45 degrees.
 ''The various caves are named after leading cities and in large enamel letters one sees New York. Boston. Philadelphia. Washington. Chicago. San Francisco. Lon don. Paris, Berlin. Rome. Yokohama, St. Petersburg, Melbourne, Calcutta and