CHAPTER X 



GKAPES 



"The Grape that can with Logic absolute 

 The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute." 



— Omae. 



I begin this chapter on grapes with much the 

 same feeling that Napoleon's soldiers must 

 have had when they stood before the pyramids. 

 Certainly, several centuries of grape-growers 

 and grape-writers have preceded me and when 

 I think of all they have accomplished I feel like 

 a grain of sand in the desert. 



There is no denying that grapes have had a 

 tremendous effect on literature — in America 

 there have been more books written about 

 grapes than about all other fruits combined. — 

 And the influence of grapes on other kinds of 

 writing can not be estimated. One wonders, 

 though, if Omar would have been as happy 

 "underneath the bough" if his jug had con- 

 tained only the Josephus Daniels' brand of 

 grape juice. The making of ' ' juice with a kick ' ' 

 was the reason back of the first cultivation of 

 the grape, not only in world history but in the 

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