The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-03-07
MEN, WOMEN
 AND 7TNINGS

What is your fad? Are you a col 1ector? I do not mean bill pusher To put it plainly, do you run to chick' ems, flowers, poetry, blue china, cats dogs. golf of something else? You might as well own up. Every body has some weak spot, some one thing that gets their time or money or both. In my day I've run across many women and men with a side ! line.
 I met a rich American in Europe. I couldn't get him to talk about mu- sic, art, literature or politics. He was dumb as an oyster until I happened to mention something about wines.
 At once his eyes began to sparkle, his lips to twitch and his words to flow. Drawing a great wallet out of his pocket, one by one he began 10 fondle labels that he had taken off of various bottles of wine that he had drunk in his tour throughout the con- tinent
 
 Each label suggested a hotel, a wine garden, a famous cafe He had gone out of the beaten path of travel to find rare old wines. It was wonder full to know just how persistent he had been in ferreting out wine lists
 I remember to this day with what zest he told of making journey into Norway to get a chance to find spe- cial vintage that some chance traveller had told him was procurable at cer- tain little known hotel in a great city
 I found him to be an authority aop, wines. He was a sure enough connois- seur. His taste and his reading had joined in making each country of in terest to him only in so far as it gave him chance to study it's wineries.
 He took absolutely no interest in any wines. learned more about the diff ferent varieties from him than I ever knew before. He could have made fortune as a wine agent. He was not g. winebibber in the sense that he was slave to drink.
 He told me that wherever he found any rare wines in out of the way places in hotels where the price on the wine list failed to show their true value that he bought all in stock and had them shipped to London.
 in a big hotel in one of our great cities and just amused himself while in Europe buying wine for it. In this way he was able not only to gratify his love of visiting places where wines were retailed, but also to get in touch with the great wine growers.
 Later I met him in America, and re- calling our many conversations about wines while abroad he told me that thu bulk was lost in shipment to this country by faulting packing. In some way most of the bottles froze and were broken.
 To make this tale correspond with the truth I have to confess that while he drank no liquors and gave his pref erence to the vineyards. he made an exception and although he lived in the middle west he had his beer from Munich freighted to him in wood.
 We went down to Potsdam togeth- CT. Our guide took little interest in us, merely showing us the palace and other sights in a perfunctory way, un- til my friend stopped in a beer gar den and, taking up great stein, drank it without taking it once from hl~ lips.
 The guide became new man. He was all interest. My friend had bees adopted into the inner circle of Ger many's men of valor. Anyone who could quaff a quart of beer without stopping to take breath was to the manner born.
 This is no plea for wine or beer drinking. I do not know how the in cident came into my mind However. 1t did and I just wrote it out If any of you who read this care to ask my ad- vice about taking up a fad, why sure ly I wouldn't counsel you to follow in the footsteps of my chance acquaint- ance. Anyway, you would have to give it up after July 1 and so it isn't worth bothering about. So just forget it.