marvellous; a man might be poor to-day and worth a million dollars
to-morrow. In the morning he could not raise enough money to buy a
breakfast, and at noon his credit would be good for the purchase of a
first-class steamship. A man might be working as a day laborer this
week, and his wife would be taking in washing at a dollar a dozen.
Six days later he would be a millionnaire clad in broadcloth and fine
linen, and wearing a diamond like a calcium light, while his wife
would be arrayed in silks of the most costly character, and wearing
them as uneasily as a bull-dog wears a pair of trousers tied around
his neck.
A good story is told of a woman one day selecting some diamonds in
a jewelry store on Broadway. Two other women were standing near and
observing her motions. One of them suggested to her friend, “Evidently
shoddy.”
The diamond purchaser raised her eyes for a minute, and said, “No,
madam; petroleum.”
A great many stories are told of a youth in the oil regions who was
brought up on a farm, and who, for a year or more, after the outbreak
of the oil fever, was driving a team at fifteen dollars a month. He
had a grandmother, as most young men have, but she was unlike a great
many grandmothers, as she was enormously rich. She owned a large farm,
and leased it to speculators who wished to search for oil. She always
stipulated for half the oil, and her farm was so productive that she
had a magnificent income, and accumulated money at a very rapid rate.
A common report was, that she had eleven barrels and four trunks full
of greenbacks.
[Sidenote: THE MILLIONNAIRE YOUTH.]
One day she did as all good grandmothers do,—she died. The youth,
whom I will call John, as that was half his name, became heir to her
vast estate. He dropped into two millions of cash, and into the farm,
which yielded about two thousand dollars a day. He had never had so
much money before in all his life. Ox-driving at the compensation he
received would require a long time for the accumulation of such a
fortune.
He thought the matter over, and determined to have a good time. He
engaged several youths of his acquaintance to assist him in wasting
his substance in riotous living. The party went first to Cleveland.
At the railway station they had some dispute about a carriage, and so
John bought a carriage to take them to their hotel. When he reached
the hotel he concluded that that was not the kind of carriage he
wanted, and so gave it away. He secured all the best rooms in the
house, ordered the best supper the proprietor could furnish, and the
party went to bed on the floor as drunk as a quartette of badgers.
They rose the next morning with very large heads on their shoulders,
and were occupied during the forenoon in removing their Mansard roofs
by means of soda water and cocktails.
John sent for the best team in Cleveland, and obtained a four-horse
one, with a carriage gorgeous enough for a third-rate emperor. He
picked out one of the drivers round the front of the hotel, told him
they were going to stay in Cleveland a few days, and if this driver
would take the team and drive them round during their stay, he should
have the whole concern, at their departure, for his trouble.
John next proposed to charter a grog-shop, and another institution
which shall be nameless, for the exclusive use of himself and friends
during their stay. They made things lively for a few days, and then
left for Philadelphia by way of Buffalo.
They stopped at Niagara Falls, and proposed hiring a boat-load of
people to be sent over the falls for their amusement; but, somehow,
they could not find anybody willing to make the jump. John wanted to
buy the Falls and run them as a private show, but he changed his mind
and continued his journey.
[Sidenote: WASTING HIS SUBSTANCE.]
In Philadelphia, and subsequently in New York, the party was guilty
of various extravagances, and sometimes displayed absolute ingenuity
in getting rid of their money. On one occasion they treated a party
of fifty or more street laborers to champagne, filling each of them
up to his chin, and sending them home blind drunk. They bought horses
and carriages to give away next day. They chartered hotels and other
public resorts for their exclusive occupation. They used to give away
ten-dollar bills, and sometimes hundred-dollar bills, as gratuities to
servants.
John seemed to be troubled to know what to do with his money, and it
gave him more anxiety than he was ever blessed with during the days
of his ox-driving experience. I believe he died after a year or so of
this new life. It was too much for him; he could endure poverty, but
he could not enjoy or endure such an accumulation of wealth.
There was a case similar to his of a young man growing suddenly rich
through petroleum, who started on a riotous career, and managed to get
heavily in debt. The wells gave out, and left him without money, and
no prospect of obtaining any. In a year from the time of his becoming
so suddenly wealthy, he was at work again as a day laborer, and
meditating upon the uncertainties of life in the oil regions.
On one occasion an oil speculator came to New York with fifty thousand
dollars or more in cash, and claiming that he had a flowing well
yielding two hundred barrels a day. In less than a fortnight he had
gambled away his money, sold his wells, and the last I saw of him he
was on his way to the station-house for default of paying the amount
of his hotel bill. He was kept there a short time, and then released.
I believe the hotel never received anything from him.
A great many extravagances have been committed by the petroleum
aristocracy. Persons suddenly raised from poverty to affluence are
nearly always anxious to effect an entrance into society. They take
fine houses, and sometimes they manage to get people of repute to
visit them, though not often.
[Sidenote: GETTING UP A PARTY.]
Three or four years ago a family that had suddenly grown rich
determined to give a party that should introduce them to society. They
made preparations, and sent out a great many cards of invitation.
They ignored their former acquaintances altogether. They selected the
names of their guests from the City Directory, taking those that were
prominent in the social world. They even pretended to an aristocratic
descent, and I believe their card of invitation bore a crest of some
sort or other.
The evening of the entertainment came. Madame, almost smothered in
silks, with a large amount of store hair, and decked with diamonds
enough to set up a jewelry store, was all ready to receive her
guests. The daughters were in their best, and expected to make a
dozen conquests apiece in the course of the evening. A magnificent
supper had been prepared, and a troupe of servants were awaiting the
commencement of their duties. Eight o’clock was the hour fixed for the
party.
At eight o’clock there was not a guest in the house. “Surely,” said
Madame, “they will be here very soon.” Half past eight o’clock came.
Nobody. Nine o’clock. Nobody. Half past nine. Nobody; and then ten
o’clock, and still Nobody. It was then the great truth stood revealed
that the party was a failure.
The servants, who had been standing about with their tongues in their
cheeks, were commissioned to eat what they could of the gorgeous
banquet, and the aspirants to social honors smothered their sorrow,
and made no more attempts, for that season at least, to get into
society.
XXIII.
WINE AND BEER CELLARS.
WINE CELLARS.—HOW THEY ARE MADE.—PLACES FOR STORING
BEER.—THEIR EXTENT.—THE GREATEST WINE CASK IN THE WORLD.—ITS
CAPACITY.—PECULIARITIES OF WINE AND BEER VAULTS.—VISITING A CELLAR
IN POLAND.—CURIOUS SIGHTS.—THE ANTIQUITY OF THE BOTTLES.—WHAT A
VISITOR DID.—THE RESULT OF TOO MUCH WINE.—A DANGEROUS BRIDGE.
A German resident of New York, engaged in the manufacture of beer,
visited the excavations at Hallett’s Point, near the upper end of
Manhattan Island, and, on viewing the large space which had been dug
out of the solid rock, exclaimed, “What a capital place for storing
lager beer.” Many a wine and beer manufacturer has made the same
remark on visiting the Mammoth Cave, or other huge caverns. The best
places for storing malt or vinous liquors are under ground, for the
reason that an equal temperature can be maintained at all times;
summer’s heat and winter’s cold make but very little change of the
thermometer in the depths of the earth.
[Sidenote: PLACES FOR WINE UNDER GROUND.]
In various parts of the world, particularly in Europe, there are vast
underground spaces specially designed for the storage of wine, beer,
and similar beverages. Nearly all these articles require to be kept
some time before they are fit for use; especially is this the case
with wines, some of which improve steadily during a year, or for ten,
or twenty, fifty, or it may be for a hundred, or five hundred years.
Some of the wine cellars of Europe have been hewn out of the solid
rock, or dug out of the solid earth, at vast expense, for the simple
purpose of storage. Other wine cellars were, originally, quarries,
or mines; and after they had been abandoned by the miners, they were
taken up by the wine and beer manufacturers, and adapted to their
present uses. The same is the case in America. Reference is made
elsewhere to the cellars of Dubuque, Iowa, which are nothing more nor
less than exhausted lead mines. At several places on the Mississippi
and Missouri Rivers there are cellars which originally were quarries
or mines. Their natural treasures were taken from them, and they are
now filled with artificial ones.
In California, particularly in the Sonoma Valley, are some wine
cellars which have been dug out of the rock for no other purpose
than for that of storage. Some years ago I visited one of these
establishments with a small party, and the proprietor, in order to
give us an idea of the temperature, shut us up a little while, and
left us to ourselves. The place was not cold, but it was cool compared
with the outer atmosphere, and we very soon began to sneeze. Had we
been kept there for any length of time, I suspect that we would have
had sore throats and all that sort of thing; but they were prevented
by the select assortment of liquids which the wine manufacturer
supplied to us with such liberality that some of his visitors’ legs
became very much entangled, and refused to perform the duty usually
required of them.
All through Europe, and particularly in France and Germany, there are
cellars of great extent. The wine makers of France and Germany are
able to store away thousands of casks, and other thousands of bottles,
every year without any difficulty. The same is the case with the beer
makers of North and South Germany, particularly in the vicinity of
Munich and Vienna. There is one wine cellar on the Moselle, which
is said to be capable of containing a million bottles and twenty or
thirty thousand casks of wine at one time, and I have heard of one
wine cellar even larger than this. The capacity of the beer vaults of
Munich is, I think, greater than that of the German and French wine
vaults. It is certain that a storage capacity sufficient to supply the
annual consumption of beer in Munich, Vienna, or Berlin, must approach
the dimensions of a small city. It is well known that the average
German can get outside of a great quantity of beer in the course of
twelve months. As an illustration, I may mention that the day before
writing this paragraph I was told of a strike among some German
laborers in an establishment near New York. Their strike was not for
wages, but for beer. They were satisfied with the pay they received,
but not with the quantity of beer furnished to them. Their employer
allowed them two five-gallon kegs daily for every three men, and in
their strike they demanded a daily keg of beer per man. They said
that two thirds of a five-gallon keg were not sufficient, but they
would manage to get along with five gallons each per day. The employer
agreed with them, and they resumed work as soon as he consented to
their demand.
[Sidenote: FAMOUS BEER DRINKERS.]
It is on record that one individual German drank one hundred and
fifty glasses of beer per day, and I believe there was an instance
in Cincinnati, a few years ago, where a German consumed, on a wager,
one hundred and eighty-eight glasses between sunrise and sunset of a
summer’s day. It is not fair to take these ambulatory beer casks as an
indication of the drinking abilities of the Teutons, but it may safely
be assumed that an ordinary community of Germans can get outside of an
average of twenty glasses a day per man without feeling it.
[Sidenote: THE GREATEST WINE CASK.]
It is not my province to describe the process of making beer or
wine, as the work is mainly performed above ground, but simply to
allude to the space where these beverages are stored. I have visited
a fair proportion of them in various parts of the world, and they
are all pretty much alike. They are simply large vaults or caves,
sometimes arched over to prevent the falling in of the earth, while
in other cases they are cut out of the solid rock, and require no
arching. Sometimes a wine cellar will consist of a single vault,
with regular pillars or arches sustaining its roof, while in other
cases there will be a great many galleries, or tunnels, running off
in different directions. Sometimes the casks containing the wine or
beer will be of a size that will permit of their being rolled about,
while in other cases the casks or tuns will be so large that they
always remain stationary, and are filled and emptied without being
moved from their places. An example of this is the celebrated tun of
Heidelberg, constructed in 1751, and capable of containing forty-nine
thousand gallons. It has been filled but two or three times since its
construction, and the process of filling occupied on each occasion
two or three weeks. It is sufficiently large to allow the erection of
a ball-room upon it, and several festivals and dances have been held
there. It is the largest cask which has ever been made, or probably
ever will be made.
The preparation and preservation of wine require great care, and,
above all things, an even temperature. Many a cask of wine has been
spoiled by being kept too hot or too cold; and this is one reason
why the preference is shown by wine makers for underground places
of storage. Apart from this fact is the saving that can be made by
utilizing the space under the earth where the surface is of great
value.
As before stated, a visit to one wine cellar is very much like a visit
to another. The stranger is led or guided among rows of casks and
bottles, and sometimes his underground journey will amount to a mile,
or two or three miles, of linear distance. He wonders how the demand
can be so great for this material, just as a countryman wonders, as
he walks through the market of a large city, how all the beef, pork,
and mutton can find purchasers. He may go through a market and think
the supply exceeds the demand, just as when he walks the streets for
an hour or two, and sees the crowds of people, he will wonder where
all this mass of humanity can find sufficient food. In the same way a
person unfamiliar with the business may have alternate surprises about
the supply and consumption of wine.
[Sidenote: A WINE CELLAR IN WARSAW.]
One of the first wine cellars which I visited in Europe was in the
famous city of Warsaw, Poland. I had entered Europe by the back door,
as it were, coming from Asia over the Ural Mountains; and consequently
the first ancient city I found where there was any wine trade of
significance was Warsaw. A travelling friend and myself were under the
guidance of an officer serving on the staff of the governor of Poland,
and while pointing out the curiosities of the city, he suggested
taking us to one of the oldest wine cellars in Europe. I think he
said there were a few, but only a few, which had greater antiquity.
Our party was small,—only three of us altogether,—and we drove in a
single carriage to a very unattractive place in the Jews’ quarter
of Warsaw. We entered a narrow and rickety-looking building, which
gave no promise of the wealth stored away beneath it. The officer
was acquainted with the proprietor of the place, so that we easily
obtained permission and escort for our underground journey. The
proprietor himself took charge of us, and was accompanied by a servant
to assist in showing us round, and possibly to see that we did not
stow away in our pockets any of the valuable bottles in the cellar.
We descended a narrow stairway, so narrow, in fact, that we went
singly, and so low that we were obliged to stoop to avoid hitting our
heads. The place was hewn out of the rock on which Warsaw is built,
and it was arched over to sustain the weight resting upon it. Reaching
the floor of the cellar, we were first led between rows of casks, and
the ages of the casks were stated as we walked among them. One was
pointed out that had been in the cellar thirty years, and another that
had been there two or three times as long. They were covered with dust
and cobwebs, and looked as if good for a much longer stay. Over our
heads we could hear the rumbling of carriages in the streets, just as
one can hear the carriages in exploring the ruins of Herculaneum.
Cask after cask was pointed out, until our eyes were wearied, and we
were then taken to the old cellar where the bottles were stored.
Our guide explained that the cellar we had just visited was a modern
one, only two hundred and sixty years old. The old cellar, he said,
was made in the days when Poland was a kingdom, and more powerful by
far than the now great Muscovite empire. I do not remember positively
the age he gave it, but I think it was some nine hundred or a thousand
years old. I was too busy looking among the bottles to take particular
notice of what he said, and am not willing to trust too much to my
memory, especially on the occasion of visiting a cellar like this. The
real interest of the place began when we entered the locality where
the bottles were stored. Here were little shelves—I say little, though
many of them were three or four feet wide—covered with bottles, some
standing upright, while others were carefully packed away. There was
one shelf where the bottles had been lying undisturbed for twenty
years; another where they had not been touched for thirty, another
for forty, and another for fifty years. Above most of the shelves
a date was chiselled into the rock, and the date, as I was told,
indicated the time when the wine was bottled and placed there. These
chiselled places were, however, comparatively few, as the most common
designation was that of a date cut in a small piece of board which
rested above the bottles.
[Sidenote: OLD BOTTLES OF WINE.]
In some places the dust of ages had almost obliterated the dates,
but our guide seemed to know them all from recollection. I remember
one date of 1750, another of 1634, and I believe there was one board
dated somewhere about 1590. Shelves were pointed out which were said
to contain wine that had not been moved or disturbed in any way for
three hundred years. I do not vouch for the truth of the statement,
but merely give it as I heard it.
It was interesting to observe how the dust and cobwebs had gathered
about the bottles, and also to observe the shapes of the bottles. The
more recent shapes were those familiar to all drinkers and friends of
drinkers of the present day. Then there were short, thick-set bottles,
while others were dumpy and very long in the neck, reminding one of
an overfed goose or a camel suffering with the dropsy. Some of the
earlier bottles indicated that the art of blowing glass was not well
known at the time of their construction, as they were badly shaped,
and frequently had deep indentations in their sides. Some of them
could be called flasks, rather than bottles, as they had no necks at
all, and were round at both ends. All the bottles that I examined
were carefully sealed, and I was shown several bottles with long,
tapering necks, that had been tightly closed by melting their ends
in a flame after the wine had been placed inside, just as the tube
of a thermometer is closed after it has been filled with quicksilver
or alcohol. In order to get at the wine enclosed in this way, it is
necessary to break away the top of the neck.
[Sidenote: ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS A BOTTLE.]
The cellar was perfectly dry, so that no moisture collected anywhere.
I may remark, by the way, that a dry cellar is always desirable. There
was no moisture, but there was a liberal supply of dust and cobwebs.
On bottles that had been in their places only a few years, there
would be a slight film or covering of dust. Those that could boast of
twenty years, and those that had remained undisturbed a hundred or two
hundred years, were covered so thickly that it was almost impossible
to distinguish the bottles from the mass which covered them. I saw one
shelf—I forget its age—where not a bottle was visible; it seemed to be
a mass of cobwebs, and nothing more. To judge from its appearance, I
would not have given twenty-five cents for the contents of that shelf;
but if I had offered twenty-five hundred dollars, my offer would have
been spurned with disdain. I asked the value of the wine on this
shelf, and was told that it was twenty guineas a bottle. I did not
want any of it at that price, but I presume that there are plenty of
men in the world who are ready to pay it.
After we had seen the curiosities of the place, the proprietor
insisted that we should make a practical test of his wine. He did
not open any of the twenty-guinea stuff, and we could not expect him
to, though I secretly hoped he would consider himself sufficiently
honored by our presence to do the handsome thing, and break a bottle
or two of it just to give us a taste. The best he would do was to open
a ten-guinea bottle from another shelf. It is not every day you can
smack your lips over wine worth fifty dollars in gold a bottle, and we
sipped it very carefully, and allowed it to trickle not too rapidly
down our throats. I found it a very agreeable wine; it had a rich and
fruity, though rather sweetish taste. I know nothing to which it can
be compared, and therefore I will not make any comparison.
[Sidenote: WINE TASTING AND ITS EFFECT.]
The proprietor treated us on the descending scale, for the next bottle
he brought us was a five-guinea one. It was only forty or fifty years
old, a very juvenile stuff, but we were unable to discover any great
difference between it and the other. Two or three kinds of this wine
were shown us, and then he brought all sorts of new wines just in the
cellar, that is to say, they had only been there some five or ten,
or it may be twenty years. Other wines were brought forward for our
deglutition; and after a time the thing became a little monotonous,
and I suspected that we might get our heads and feet a little tangled.
I suggested that we had other business to attend to, and had better
not indulge in the wine business any longer; but the proprietor was
polite, and was constantly offering us just one more sample.
“Have the gentlemen taste this one,” he would say to the officer who
accompanied us, and at the urgent request of the officer we would
indulge the proprietor.
The officer repeatedly stated, on presenting the wine, that that would
be the last; but somehow there was always something new to be tasted,
and something that we could not decline without giving offence. Before
we got through, we tasted nearly every wine in the cellar, and finally
asked to be let off.
When we reached the foot of the stairway, we found it had shrunken
greatly in size. We had descended without difficulty, but now it was
necessary to move up edgewise, and I firmly believe, that if we had
remained below much longer, the shrinking process would have made the
staircase so narrow, and the roof above so low, that we should have
been unable to get out, and might have staid there forever. Think of
one’s terrible fate in being shut up in a wine cellar to die.
[Sidenote: TURNING AN AMERICAN HEAD.]