ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FA Kill XC. 2C9 



he gets more jokes than attention. Many a sly story is 

 told ; some of them have visited wine countries and now 

 begin long yarns thereof; the clamor of laughing, and 

 anecdote, and criticism — the necessity, in consequence, of 

 re-tasting, and tasting again to arrive at a conclusion, 

 brought them, we doubt not, to a most lamentable conclu- 

 sion, although the report only obscurely hints of it, as we 

 shall see. Had any of them mairied into the Caudle con- 

 nection we might have had a graphic account of their 

 several arrivals at their homes — at what time, by whose 

 help, in what condition, etc. 



The tabular report given in has evidently been studiously 

 framed. We suspect that if the opinions had been set 

 down just in the order of their occurrence, they would 

 have afforded an index of the condition of the committee as 

 well as of the wine. But though they have mixed them 

 up, they cannot elude our vigilance — we can pick out the 

 chronological order. At first such opinions as these were 

 given : " Tolerably good," " Inferior," " Poor, fermented 

 on skins." They were critical yet ; but warming a little 

 they express more generous sentiments ; " Good," " Very 

 good Cape," " Very good, resembling old Madeira." The 

 next step shows the genial advance — some were getting 

 disputatious. " Good, considered by some better than 

 Xo. 8, by others not so good," — they evidently had a row 

 about it. They next advanced into the patriotic mood as 

 is seen in the judgment of our foreign wines, "Good dry 

 wuie, but supposed to be foreign," " Inferior, a foreign 

 wine," "Xot American wine." Here the gradations of 

 contempt are very plain. We have next, melancholy evi- 

 dence of their progress in the necessity of a stronger body 

 to their wines, — " Not liked, supposed to have been injured 

 in the bottle." Why not say it right out, that it was a 

 weak, thin wine? Here we have it, '•''Good strong wine." 

 The last record made is "Good new, not in a state for judg- 

 ment." Does this refer to the wine or to the committee ? 



