D

Gift of
Mrs. Edward T. McLaughlin
1913

THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTEY.

THE

CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.

ROBERT TOMES.

NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON,
459 Become Street.
1867.

Entered according to Act of CoDgress, in the year 1867, by
Robert Tomes,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southem District of
New York.

RIVERSIDE,, OAMBRIDGE:
PIUNTED BT H. 0. HOUGHTON AXB COUPAHT.

To
MY FRIEND,
RICHARD E. MOUNT, Jr., Esq.

PREFACE.

"DHEIMS, pronounced by its people as if it
were spelled Bans, is but a four hours' ride
from Paris, on the railway to 'Strasburg. Its
great Cathedral, its other antiquities, Roman and
mediaeval, and the more material objects of in
terest which the town offers as the chief centre of
the manufacture of champagne wine and woolen
fabrics, can be seen, as travellers are wont to
see, in a half a day. Our countrymen, however,
though swarming over Europe, are so fond of
hiving within the luxurious delights of Paris, or,
when on the wing, of fluttering in the glare of
fashionable notice, that they care not to wander,
even for a moment, from the lustfulness of the
ITrench capital, or the publicity of the European
highways. It is thus that Rheims, with no in
citement to expense and no occasion for display,
is generally unheeded by the profuse and osten
tatious American traveller. During my residenca

X PREFACE.
of nearly two years in the town, there was not
more than a dozen of my countrymen who visited
it, notwithstanding that at the same time Amer
icans in Paris were counted by tens of thousands,
and unnumbered flocks of them were thronging
the fashionable routes of France and the Conti
nent of Europe. I hope, however, to have shown
that Rheims, though unnoticed by the frivolous
traveller, is of sufficient interest to justify, in the
opinion of the sober-minded, this record of my
observations.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
PAGB
A Preneh Town in Olden Time — Change — Arrival at
Rheims — From Railway Station to Hotel  1
CHAPTER n.
Lion d'Or at Rheims — Cold Reception — ^,The Shade of the
Cathedral — An Old Hotel — Ancient and Modern Com
forts — A Luxurious Landlord — A French Marriage —
Cook and Waiter — Living — Guests — Commis Voya-
geurs — English Travellers — Broad and Narrow Church
— British Eccentricity — American Visitors  10
CHAPTER m.
The Great Cathedral — Familiarity does not beget Con
tempt — A Perfect Work of Art — Emotions — Unity —
Magnitude — Grand Entrances — Profusion of Statues
and Ornaments — Religious Poem — Temple of Beason
— BeUs — The Beau Dieu — The Resurrection — Humor
in Stone — Sodom and Gomorrah — Architects of Middle
^ges — Sturdiness of Faith — Influence of the Cathedral
Good or Bad .'  25
CHAPTER IV.
The Great Cathedral the Scene of Great Events — Baptism
of Clovis by Saint Kemi — A Great Priest of the Olden
Time — The Miracle of the Ampulla — Heretical Inter
pretation — Worship of Bare Bones — The Sacred Oil a

Xll CONTENTS.
PAOB
Power in the Church — Joan of Arc at Rheims — Royal
Anointing — The Revolutionists and the Holy Oil  39
CHAPTER V.
Church of Saint Eemi — Specimen of Early Art — A Good
Study — Tomb of Saint Remi — Holy Bones — Skeptical
Osteology — Fair of Saint Eemi — Jugglery inside of
Church — Jugglery Outside  51
CHAPTER VI.
Champagne Wine — Export to the World — To the United
States — The Manufacturers — Genuine Wine — Consular
Seal — History of Brands — Comparative Excellence of
Champagnes — The Widow Clicquot — Russian Invasion
of her Cellars — A Shrewd Commis Voyageur — Fictitious
Brands  59
CHAPTER VIL
Champagne a Modern Wine — Hautvillers — Dom Perig-
non — A Jolly Monk — Petits Soupers — A Pious Pil
grimage — Bacchus Street — The Champagne Trade —
How conducted — A Great Effort — Failure — The Wine
Travellers — Effect of Champagne on Health  74
CHAPTER VIII.
The Germans at Rheims — The Mayor of Rheims — The
Good Apprentice — An Imperial Favorite — A Baron in
the Wine Trade — French and Germans compared — A
Nation of Shopkeepers — Aristocracy of Wine-makers
— Nobles in the Business — Reflected Glory — An Old
FamUy  86
CHAPTER IX.
The Wine Country — The Famous Vineyards — Sobriety
of Scene — Subdivision of Land — Villages and Inhab
itants — Chateaux — Extent of Vineyards — A Travelled
Wine — A Delicate Native — The Grape — Different
Qualities  98

CONTENTS. xm

CHAPTEE X.

The Wonderful Season of 1865 — Hopes and Fears of
Wine-Growers — The Vintage — A Trip to Verzenay —
Prom Rheims into the Country — A Still Scene — Mon
sieur Jacquesson and his Projects — Sillery — A Comic
Opera Scene  109
CHAPTER XI.
At Verzenay — Among the Vineyards — A Cheerful Scene
of Labor — A Near View of the Vintagers — The Vint
agers at Work — The Grapes at the Wine-Presses —
The Wine-Pressing — The Grape Juice — Supervision of
Wine Manufacturers — The Mayor in Working-day Suit
— A Taste of the Grapes — A Luscious Feast — Kind
of Grapes — Comparison of Vintages — Growing Excite
ment — Departure from Verzenay  119
CHAPTER XII.
The Must in the Wine Manufactories — The Wine Estab
lishments — Convents and Monasteries — The Awakened
Spirits of Jolly Monks — Old Vaults — The Arrange
ment and Structure of Wine Manufactories — Tasting-
Room — Cellars — A Subterranean Visit  131
CHAPTER XIII.
Manufacture of Champagne Wine — Marriage of Wines —
The Cuv^e — Test of Sugar — A Delicate Operation —
Careful Nursing — Drawing Off — Raw Wine — Effer
vescence — Breakage — Change of Temperature — Effect
of Age on Champagne  141
CHAPTER XIV.
Sediment of Wine — How Deposited — Dosing — Dry and
Sweet Wine — Corking — A Miniature Guillotine —
Cording, Branded, Packed and Delivered  151

XIV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XV.
TAOZ
How to choose Champagne — Excessive Popularity no
Recommendation — Pop and Froth — Strength of Bottles
— Tests of Quality of Wine — False and True — A Uni
versal Distillery — When to drink Champagne — Corked
— Ice or no Ice — How to drink Champagne — Inno
cence of Good Champagne — Social Qualities — An Aris
tocratic Wine-mixer  162
CHAPTER XVI.
Merinos and other Woolen Productions — Their Superiority
— The English Factory — Annual Production of Woolen
Goods — Wonderful Effect of Free Trade — Duty of
Consul at Rheims — No Necessity for One — Biscuits
de Rheims — Gingerbread — Gingerbread-maker to the
Emperor  175
CHAPTER XVII.
Dullness of Rheims — How Accounted for — Antiquities —
Ph^rus — Palace — Jovinus — Les Arcades — An Old
House — Where the Family of Joan of Arc put up —
Origin of Rheims — Roman Arch — H6lel de ViUe — Li
brary — Rare Books — Pictures — A Brazen Lie  182
CHAPTER XVIIL
A Cheerful Resort — Cemetery at Rheims — Death and
Champagne — The Balls of the Embarcadere — Police
Morality — The Theatre — Respectability — An OfBcial
on Exhibition — Carnival at Rheims — Masked Balls —
Fairs and Holidays — Easter Fair — Public Promenades
— Their Frequenters — An Inland Town — Canal —
Walks and Illusions — Forest of Ardennes — Shake
speare and Sportsmen  192
CHAPTER XIX.
An Old Proverb — Ingenious Interpretation — The Boeotia
of France — Intellectual Cliaracter of the People — One
Newspaper — One Public Lecture — Reading and Writ-

CONTENTS. XV

ing — Ignorance of Better Classes — Schools — Priestly
Pedagogues — Clipped-winged Youth — Rarity of Books
— Conversation — The Club — Imperial Academy —
Deep Drinkers and Gross Feeders — Tripe and Slugs —
Inhumanity — Hat Politeness — Insult  205
CHAPTER XX.
The Delectable City — Plenty of Churches — Tenacity of
Belief — Abounding Priests — Their Character — The
Cardinal Archbishop — Skulking Priests — Exclusion
firom Society — The Man of the World Cure — The
Priestly Cure — The Tidy Girls of Rheims — Rentrereuses
— Beauty and Corruption — Famous Beauties — Licen
tiousness — Mariage de Convenance — Fast Married Wo
men — No Society  217
Appendix  229

THE
CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.

CHAPTER I.
A French Town in Olden Time — Change — Arrival at Rheims
— From Railway Station to Hotel.
IT was something of an event, in olden times,
the getting to a French provincial town. The
stout Norman horses of your post-chaise, or of
the diligence, their blood heated toward the last
stage by the joint efforts of the heavy boots and
smarting lash of the postilion, galloped through
the great iron gate, past whiskered sentinel, into
the very midst of the place. Your arrival was
announced by the loud cracks of the whip of the
postilion, who had been busy for the last mile or
two in adjusting a new snapper for the occasion ;
and your lumbering vehicle, swaying from side to
side until it almost touched the projecting houses
of the narrow street, clattered loudly over the
great stones, and awakened the sleepy old town
to a lively consciousness of your arrival.
You were a traveller in those days, and appre
ciated, as a traveller hkes to be. A flock of the
1

2 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
" sons and daughters of poverty," as Sterne calls
them, followed you. The bended head of the aged
' beggar bent lower, the pale face of suffering woman
forced up a beseeching smile of welcome, and tat
tered boys and girls strove to check their instinctive ,
laughter, and assume a seeming respect. They all
saluted you, and each demanded of milor Anglais a
sou for " the love of God." Coppers rained down
upon them. Whether vanity or charity was the
source of the shower it mattered not, at least as far
as they were concerned. It brought some crumbs
of comfort to their spare feasts. " Let no man say,
' Let them go to the devil,' — 't is a cruel journey
to send a few miserables ; and they have had suffer
ings enow without it. I always think it better,"
says Sterne, " to take a few sous out in my hand ;
and I would counsel every gentle traveller to do so
likewise ; he need not be so exact in setting down
his motives for giving them ; they will be registered
elsewhere." You drove with great noise into the court-yard
of the old hotel, and your travelling, importance
became still more manifest. A more obsequious
group welcomed you. They were all there, — the
maitre d^hotel with his freshly combed wig and
blandest manner ; the maitresse d'hotel in her most
expansive cap and with her sweetest smile ; the
gar^ons with their napkins, the badges of service,
hanging from their arms, keeping respectfiilly with
in the shadow of their capacious master ; the/ejnmes

A WELCOME. 3
de chambre giggling in the rear ; and the chef taking
the occasion of ventilating himself at the door of
his kitchen as he lifted his white cotton cap in
honor of the new-comer, and scrutinized his prob
able capacity for filets and his other claims to con
sideration. Every one said that he was charmed to see you,
and said it with such an emphasis of apparent
frankness that you believed it. You were bowed
and smiled by all out of the chaise, you were bowed
and smiled up the stone steps, you were bowed and
smiled into the hall, you were bowed and smiled
up-stairs, and finally bowed and smiled into your
room. Each one seemed almost ready to kiss you,
not excepting the snuffy landlord and the greasy
cook. The welcome you received radiated so warm
a glow that you hardly remarked the chilly discom
fort of the stone halls, windy corridors, and naked
rooms of the decrepit old structure, in which you
had taken up your temporary home. Intensely be
loved, as you had reason to believe, by every one
in the hotel, from the expansive Monsieur Jacques
in the white waistcoat to the trim Httle Mademoi
selle Sophie in the red velvet bodice, who in the
warmest expressions have daily given you the
strongest pledges of affection, you did not doubt
that each man, woman, and child, was ready to
sacrifice his or her all for you, until you had seen
the bill. Twelve bougies, three bottles of Chateau
Margaux ! — there were only two, — fifteen francs

4 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
a piece, and bad at that. " It 's enormous ! it 's a
swindle ! I won't pay it."
" Pardon, Monsieur ! Monsieur deceives himself.
The Lion c?' Or never makes some errors. Ask of
milor Anglais who lives in London, Sir Smith or
Sir Brown, I know not what, I cannot call back to
myself his name, and Monsieur the Prince of Es-
terhazy, who comes here all the days when he
makes visits to France. All the great world comes
to the Lion d^ Or, and one never hears a complaint
before Monsieur. Monsieur deceives himself."
"You must change the bill. Monsieur Jacqi;es,
or I will positively not pay it."
Your resolute attitude compels the extortionate
landlord, possibly, to make a deduction of a third
part or so of the overcharge, and you may be
smiled and bowed out, as you were smiled and
bowed in ; but you depart with a suspicion that
Monsieur Jacques was not so friendly, and Made
moiselle Sophie so loving, as they pretended to be.
This is all changed now. The railway with its
iron paths extending all over France as elsewhere,
and its quick communications, has pushed down the
old barriers, and let into every ancient town and
village a daily crowd of visitors. The whole
world, ever going and coming, has become mixed
into a flowing and uniform mass. The individual
ity of the traveller is lost in that indefinite aggre
gate of humanity termed the travelling public.
Sterne would be puzzled now-a-days to distinguish

CHANGE — ARRIVAL AT RHEIMS. 5
one from another in the " whole army of peregrine
martyrs." He would be forced to put the quick-
moving throng under the one class of " Travellers
of Necessity," for all are irresistibly impelled by
steam. No one seems to have any other motive
than to arrive and depart, and hardly an eye for
aught but the time-table. There are still doubtless
idle, inquisitive, lying, proud, vain, splenetic, and
simple travellers ; but they are all so shaken up
together, and so rapidly swept forward in the
flowing mass, that they are neither sufficiently dis
tinct nor at rest to be recognized.
I was much struck, on my first arrival at Rheims,
with the great change effected by the modern system
of travel. This old town, where the first Christian
king of France was consecrated ; where church and
cathedral, a thousand years old, still stand defiant of
time ; where the Black Prince had fought, and Joan
of Arc triumphed, — the Ville Sainte, as it has been
called, the Christian capital of the Gauls, — must
surely, I thought, have successfully resisted modern
innovation. When, therefore, after having been
shot out of the very heart of Paris at the rate of
thirty miles an hour, through the vine hills of
Champagne, and, in less than four hours' time, dis
charged with a large load of miscellaneous people
at a station which I was told was Rheims, I could
hardly believe the fact.
The station, or gare, as it is called, is like most of
those in France, a pretty enough structure of light-

6 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
colored stone, and of iron and glass. The railway
servants and gens d'armes are polite but arbitrary.
They will insist upon subjecting you to a sort of
military discipline, ordering you into single file, and
halting you, until they have done twisting their
mustaches and are ready to march you out. All
this is very systematic and possibly necessary, but
it is not flattering to one who is old enough to have
travelled in the ancient days of post-chaise and dili
gence. Your railroad official is evidently no re
specter of persons, — in fact, he does not regard the
individual at all. Voire billet, Monsieur, " Your
ticket. Sir," and according to its classification and
address, you are thrust in here or put out there,
just like any other package which, without any re
gard to the nature or value of its contents, is trans
ported from place to place as marked and directed.
At Rheims, as now almost everywhere in the
provinces, your dignity is not even complimented
with the offer of a separate carriage, but a loud
shout of " Omnibus ! Lion d' Or!" " Maison Rouge ! "
"•Eotel de Commerce!" "¦LArbre d'Or! " "-L Hotel
Colbert!" addressed to no one in particular, but to
the crowd in general, salutes your ear. You are
borne out with the throng, and catching by a quick
glance the name lAon d' Or, you twist yourself in
the direction of its omnibus, whose door gapes wide
open, in a line with some half-dozen others, and you
are finally, if alert, swept into the right vehicle on
a wave of tossing crinoline and confused broadcloth.

FROM RAILWAY STATION TO HOTEL. 7
Once in the omnibus with crushed hat and ruffled
temper, you strive in vain to settle yourself. You
are resisted by heaps of unaccommodating band
boxes and angular travelling inconveniences of all
kinds. You get no practical sympathy from the
whiskered monsieurs and crinolined madames, who
are the most politely uncivil people in the world, —
crowding you out of your seat, puifing.bad cigars
into your face, and doing other very disagreeable
things with the utmost profusion of apology and
sweetness of smile. You complain of a neighbor
who is stifling you with the smoke of a three-sou
cigar. " Mille pardons, Monsieur. Monsieur, you
have reason, truly; one does not find more good
cigars ; " and he goes on puffing more vigorously
than ever. You express, by a very translatable
phrase of countenance, the uneasy sensation pro
duced by the constant rubbing against your knees
of the iron-bound sac-de-nuit of the female passen
ger opposite. She gives you an ineffable smile of
sympathy in return, but her confounded box con
tinues to chafe you until the end of the journey.
There is little to be observed from a low-roofed,
crowded omnibus, where all the senses and faculties
you may possess are fully occupied in taking care
of your best Parisian hat, and guarding your toes,
knees, and ribs against the dangerous encroach
ments of your fellow-passengers and their inexorable
accompaniments. In your rapid transit from gare to hotel you.

8 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
however, catch a glance now and then, in spite of
your preoccupation with the care of yourself, of the
town and its people. You discover at once that
Rheims has two existences, the old and new.
From the station, with its fresh structures of
Caen stone, where all is flurry, movement, and
noise, there extends around the town a wide belt
of new streets and buildings. This part has all the
modern look of useful uniformity that belongs to
the era of the railway, and dates from its construc
tion some eight or ten years ago. There are long
boulevards, with rows of pretentious private houses,
great structures with tall chimneys, new churches,
and a wide suburb of small tenements filled with
working people, and smutty with the smoke of the
foundries and factories about which they cluster.
With that unfailing regard of modern France for
the pleasures of the people, there has been provided
a wide walk with gardens, which are already gay
with parterres of flowers, and adorned with an ex
cellent statue in bronze of Colbert, the great minister
of finance. The trees of a few years' growth cast
as yet but a spare shade ; but the old men, nurses,
children, and loungers of Rheims do not fail to seek
what they can get of it.
Leaving the new gare and the stretch of its
contemporary boulevard, with its cheerful prom
enade and showy row of pretentious houses, the
omnibus passes through an older bilt still modern
portion of the town, which is enlivened by thriving
shops and gay eafis.

HOTEL DU LION D'OR. 9
I did not become fairly conscious of the existence
of the old town until the omnibus drove up to the
Hotel- du Lion d' Or, which shrinks humbly in the
shade of the great Cathedral. That stately monu
ment has stood for more than six centuries ! With
such a venerable witness to testify to the age of
Rheims, I could no longer doubt its antiquity.

CHAPTER II.
Lion d'Or at Rheims — Cold Reception — The Shade of the
Cathedral — An Old Hotel — Ancient and Modern Comforts
— A Luxurious Landlord — A French Marriage — Cook and
Waiter — Living — Guests — Commis Voyageurs — English
Travellers — Broad and Narrow Church — British Eccentri
city — American Visitors.
XF any one who, in this era of railroads, is
-*- dropped out of the omnibus into the sombre
court-yard of the Hotel du Lion W Or of Rheims,
expects to be received with the honors of ancient
days, he will be disappointed. The democracy of
modern travel does not recognize the milor of the
old regime. There is no bland Monsieur Jacques
or sweet-smiling Madame at the Hotel du Lion
d!Or, at any rate, to offer service with bended
knee and obsequious protestations of fidelity.
A little squat tallow-faced man, with a big head
of greasy hair, fat, hmped, and pale from want of
light, air, and exercise, shows himself momentarily
at the door, and bestows a sickly smile upon the
whole omnibus load. Each passenger thus comes
in but for the faintest share of the weak welcome
of the factotum of the establishment.
Overhearing myself described as un des gens qui

COLD RECEPTION. 11
sont arrives par T omnibus, " one of those people
who came by the omnibus," I became at once
conscious of my diminished importance, and sum
moning all my powers of self-reliance, looked out
for my own interest.
A tired traveller, unsoothed by the flattery of
polite words and officious attention, is easily ruffled
in temper, and sharpened by anger is quick to feel
the discomforts of an ill-provided hostelry. I was
no sooner within the bleak walls of the Lion d' Or,
than I discovered its want of all the requisites of a
well-appointed inn. Kept standing on the stone
floor of the bare hall awaiting my turn to be in
scribed on the ragged entry-book, until my pa
tience was nearly exhausted, I finally received a
key, heavily weighted with brass chain and number,
and was left, with a few confused words of direction,
to find my way to the appointed bed-chamber.
The room, uncarpeted, and its floor alternately
sticky and slippery from irregular polishing, with
its decrepit furniture and faded hangings, gave no
promise of comfort. The sun was shining brightly
as I alighted in the court-yard, but as I entered
my chamber, although it was still noon, I found
it as dark almost as a dungeon. I drew aside
the curtains and looked out of the window. My
sight was, as it were, suddenly blocked by a dark
mass, the limits of which, in any direction, I could
not discover from my point of view. This was
the great Cathedral, which, separated from the hotel

12 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
only by a narrow street, darkens it with- a per
petual shadow.
As time habituated me to the sombre atmosphere
of my room, and my consciousness became fully
awakened to the presence of my imposing neigh
bor opposite, I learned to appreciate the gloom in
which I was shrouded, and would not have ex
changed it for the brightest sunlight that ever
shone. The obscurity was in tone, with the archi
tectural massiveness of the great Cathedral, and in
the day-time there was light enough to follow,
with my eye, the intricacies of the rich tracery,
and the ever-varying lines of the sculptured fig
ures of that part of the colossal structure which
closed up my window.
There has been a Hotel du Lion d! Or on the
same site as the present one, ever since the first
stone of the Cathedral was laid, more than six
centuries since. The hotel, as It now stands, may
be a hundred years old. It is a plain structure
of stone, and although when it was built it may
have been deemed a marvel of convenience, it by
no means offers those comforts which the traveller
now demands. In the time of the post-chaise and
diligence, when those who travelled were rare, and
landlords appreciated them accordingly, the Hotel
du Lion d' Or acquired the reputation of being one
of the best in France.
The American, accustomed to the manifold com
forts of the hotels of the large cities and towns of

A LUXURIOUS LANDLORD. 13
his own country, is surprised at the comparative
wretchedness of provision of the Hotel du Lion
d'Or. He has been told that it is the best inn
in Rheims, a town of great trading importance,
containing no less than sixty thousand inhabitants,
and naturally expects, if not the luxury, at least
some of the convenience of the modern hotel. He
finds neither. There Is no reception or reading-
room. If one cares to read the solitary copy of
the Journal des Lebats taken by the establish
ment, and has patience to wait until every one
else has read it, and is then fortunate enough in
finding it, he will be obliged to peruse it probably
while standing in the hall. There is no bath to
be had. There Is not a solitary female servant in
the hotel, and in many of the rooms not even a
bell to awaken the sleepy male ones. The locks,
keys, and fire implements having been made a
hundred years ago, when all France was not capa
ble of making either one of them, it is impossible
ever to close door or window perfectly, and to
make the attempt without skinning your knuckles,
or to lift a coal until after a dozen persevering
efforts. At the Lion d'Or you may see the landlord
occasionally dining sumptuously in the best parlor,
and absorbing the attention of cook and waiter at
the expense of every guest. He is of course too
much occupied with his partridge and champagne
to be disturbed by any one. If you have occasion

14 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
to see him at another time, you will be told
probably that he has gone to the races, trying a
new horse, or dining in town. Guests come and
go without ever knowing that there Is any other
hotel proprietor than the little flaccid factotum in
the hall, who is every thing by turns, — treasurer,
maitre d'hotel, and head waiter.
The present is the third of the three generations
of the same family by which the hotel has been
kept. The first proprietor had been a cook, who
was enabled by the drippings of the grease-pot to
make money enough to purchase the hotel from
his master. The second, his son, inherited It in
the " due course of nature," and having retired
with a fortune of half a million of francs or so,
lives, a portly bourgeois, grandly at Rheims. Hav
ing two children, he has given the hotel to his
eldest, a scapegrace of a son, who considers that
the Lion d' Or exists only to administer to his own
pleasure, and who accordingly gives no heed to
the comfort of his guests. The reputation of the
hotel, established by the father and grandfather,
has still a sufficient traditionary influence to make
it the most frequented and best paying Inn of the
town. Of course it will not be long before some
stranger, a son of modern enterprise, will come to
Rheims, and starting near the railway station a
Grand Hotel, gather all the scattered travellers,
who now are so ignominiously treated by the dozen
little mean taverns of the place. The jockey pro-

A FRENCH MARRIAGE. 15
prietor of the Lion d' Or, finding his inheritance
thus sensibly diminished, will be forced to come
down from his high horse, or any other animal in
his keeping.
There was an episode in the history of this young
prodigal which is so illustrative of French society
that I cannot forbear telling it. His father, finding
that what with his costly stud of fast horses and the
expenses of a faster mistress, he was not only neg
lecting the business of the hotel, but spending more
than its profits, determined to make the attempt
to reform him. The appointed means In France is,
as is well known, marriage. The father accord
ingly looked out for a wife for his son. This was
easily found, as money, not character, Is what is de
manded by the anxious parents of France, and of
the former, the family of the would-be husband had
a goodly share.
The wife of the younger brother suggested her
bosom friend, a girl just out of school, as a suit
able victim. Proposals were immediately made and
accepted by her parents. In two weeks after, the
young proprietor of the hotel brought back a bloom
ing bride of some eighteen summers. Before her
marriage, by which she, or rather her parents, had
bargained away her life-long existence, fi'om the
verge of childhood to the end of her days, for the
small consideration of the uncertain profits of the
lAon d' Or, she had seen her husband but a single
day, and then only under the watchful eye of her
mother.

16 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
The fast young proprietor of the hotel, by a
perseverance in his wild pranks, kept the eyes of
his tender young bride constantly bathed in tears
throughout the whole honeymoon. Parents, how
ever, having interposed and bribed away a saucy
rival, I am happy to record that the pretty wife of
mine host of the Lion d! Or was beginning to smile
again at the prospect of the commencement of her
husband's reformation.
Thanks to Henri, the head waiter, and Anselme,
the cook, who have descended from the time of the
father of the present proprietor of the hotel, a fair
dinner, tolerably well served, can be had at the
table d'hote for four francs, w,ine included. Both,
however, presume occasionally upon their privi
leges as old and indispensable servants of the house,
and have their troublesome humors even when
sober, and while drunk, — no rare occurrence, —
sauce, service, and temper are alike turned awry.
A wide-awake stranger, or an habitue of the
hotel, can live tolerably cheap at the Lion d' Or. I
had two of the best rooms in the house, and all my
meals, for about three hundred francs a month. It
costs ordinarily from eight to ten francs for a day's
living, but a sharp eye must be kept on the charges
for bougies and other extras, or this amount may be
greatly exceeded.
Like most hotels, the Lion d ' Or receives a very
miscellaneous throng of visitors, but the commis voy
ageurs — bagmen or commercial travellers — greatly

HOTEL GUESTS. 17
preponderate. These accordingly give tone to the
house, which, as_ may be inferred, is not of the
most refined kind.
These commis voyageurs have none of the clean,
wholesome air of the English bagman, or of the
sprightly dandyism of the American commercial
traveller. They are generally heavily whiskered
fellows, who look as if they had slept out a week at
least without changing their linen, which is always
of dubious whiteness. Though one -would gladly
avoid their society, it Is quite impossible at the
Hotel du Lion d' Or, where you get so inextricably
mixed up with them, that, in spite of the greatest
efforts at exclusiveness, you find yourself cheek by
jowl with one or the other. You of course soon
learn all about the price of wool, the demand for
merinoes, and the state of the wine market. These
grave topics are generally enlivened by a descrip
tion con amore of the last dancing nudity of the
French opera at Paris, the newest feminine meteor
circulating in the orbit of the Bois de Boulogne, or
of the infernal debaucheries of the Bal MasquS.
Of politics you hear not a word. Louis Napoleon
has put his firm finger on every lip ; and these men,
every one of whom was formerly the reddest of Red
Republicans, now dare not whisper the words liberie,
fraternite, Sgalite, or hum the faintest stave of the
Marseillaise. Their ignorance of every other country but their
own is sublime, and you must not be surprised to
2

18 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
be asked by any of them, if you came from Amer
ica by land or sea. The common Frenchman is
not only ignorant of all other parts of the globe
except France, but wilfully so. He Is so absorbed
in the admiration of la belle France, that he cannot
admit the possibility of a rival. He therefore reso
lutely blots out of his map of the world every other
country but his own.
During the season of travel, there is always at
the Lion d' Or a goodly number of English tour
ists. These are generally of the ordinary staple of
continental travellers. They are barristers, Oxford
and Cambridge fellows and students let loose by
vacation ; clergymen who can afford to keep curates
at home to do duty for them ; rich old maids, in
search of attention, and willing to pay for it ; un
easy invalids and restless idlers striving to forget
themselves ; titled personages, who travel for no
other reason apparently but because they are titled
personages, and that an occasional continental tour
is a manifestation of their rank ; and thriving citi
zens with their families, who leave home because
they can afford to, and those they think their bet
ters do so.
The clerical portion of the English travellers was
easily classified. A single glance was sufficient to
distinguish the degrees of Church, whether high,
low, or broad. The evangelical parson was mid
dle-aged, round, rosy, and only severe-looking when
an unfortunate Romanist distorted his vision. The

NATIONAL PECULIARITIES. 19
white cravat and the general sombreness of color of
his dress, were the sole external indications of his
profession. The straight-cut waistcoat, the long black frock
made without lappels and collar, to look as much as
possible like the robe of a Catholic priest, the faint
est show of white cravat, the premature baldness
carefully exposed, so that it might be mistaken for a
tonsure, the clean-shaved face, and the rigid move
ment of the whole person, indicated the Ritualist.
The broad churchman was hardly distinguish
able by dress. He might be in shooting-jacket,
and have his face as much hid in hair as a " whis
kered Pandour," with no external indications of
the priestly office. You might converse with him
for hours without recognizing the profession to
which he belonged. If a theological question, how
ever, should perchance arise, you would soon dis
cover by his liberal treatment of it that he be
longed to no other than the " Broad " party of the
Church. The story is well known of the Cockney who de
clared the French to be the strangest people in the
world because they called a cabbage a shoe (chou).
This is a fair illustration of the judgment passed
by one people upon the national peculiarities of an
other. A foreigner is often laughed at for habits
and dress which are as much the result of the
nature of his country as its language. There are
undoubtedly certain peculiarities which cannot be

20 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
sustained by the logic of necessity, but which are
nevertheless adhered to with the utmost tenacity :
as, for example, the itch of the Scotchman, who, on
going up to London, would not be cured of it, for
"it reminded him of Maggie and Bonnie Dundee."
The like prejudices are fair subjects for derision,
•and as soon as Frenchman, Englishman, or Amer
ican are laughed out of such as they have, the bet
ter for them and those who may be exposed to their
contact. Let the Scotchman by all means submit
to a course of sulphur, the Frenchman employ a
washerwoman, the Englishman sweeten his sour
face with a smile, and the American swallow
his saliva. It is their duty to purify, cleanse,
brighten themselves, and to mend their manners.
The" world has a right to laugh them all into de
cency. There are, however, national peculiarities which
have their foundation in reason, that should be
clung to tenaciously by their possessors, and re
spected by others. The French, apparently uncon
scious of their own ludicrous weaknesses and vices,
are the greatest scorners of all those who differ
from them. The sons and daughters of perfide
Albion are especially made the objects of their in
discriminate ridicule. The Englishman's fidelity
to his wife, his observance of the Sunday, his ill-
fitting suit of heavy broadcloth, his devotion to
roast-beef and pale ale, his awkward attempts at
French, his frosty manners, his moody temper, and

BRITISH ECCENTRICITY. 21
his sneer at all that is not British, his virtues and
vices alike are ridiculed by his Gallic neighbor.
L' excentricite Briiannique is a favorite topic with
the scornful Frenchman, and yod hear of some
strange illustrations of it, — for an example : of one
Englishman who blew out his brains because he
was tired to death of putting on and taking off his
clothes ; or of another who plunged the carving-
knife into his own brisket because the sirloin before
him was overdone. These I accepted as humorous
exaggerations, and without the remotest relation to
truth, until at the Hotel du Lion d' Or I witnessed
some specimens of British eccentricity, which
seemed to bring the stories I had heard within a
nearer range of probability.
A stout John Bull, of capacious stomach and full
purse, alighting one day at the Lion d' Or, asked if
Rheims was the place where champagne was made,
and asked nothing else. On being answered in the
affirmative, he immediately pushed for the dining-
room, where he took up the wine-card and began
business. Pointing to the long list of the different
brands of champagne, he ordered the first. Hav
ing received and drank this, he sent for the second,
then for the third, and so on until he was so drunk
he could neither drink nor order more. The waiter
now, as he had been previously directed by the ec
centric Englishman, made a mark on the wine-list
with a pencil to indicate the point to which the
force of swallow of the capacious guest had brought

22 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
him. On the next day, at an early hour, the Eng
lishman resumed his day's work, beginning where
he had left off, and drank bottle after bottle, until
he could drink no more. The waiter again made
his mark ; and once more, on the third day, the
Englishman having partly slept off during the night
the effects of the wine, came to his work with re
newed vigor. He did as he had done before, and
this time finished the list, but was borne off insen
sible to bed. Next morning he was prepared to
continue his labors, but finding by an inspection of
the wine-card that his work was done, he expressed
himself perfectly satisfied, paid his bill, and took the
first train for Paris. He had drank twelve bottles
of champagne in three days, during which time he
had not left the hotel, and hardly the dining-room,
•and departed from Rheims without having put a
foot in its streets.
Another English oddity, a dowager Lady C  ,
drove up to the hotel, producing a very lively ex
citement within its sombre stone walls, and supply
ing me with a distraction in that dullest of dull
places. The dowager came in her own travelling
carriage, one of the old-fashioned sort, with rumble
behind and great square cases above and below.
Such a sight had not been seen in the court-yard
of the Lion d' Or for many a year, and the little
tallow-faced clerk was in a state of unusual agita
tion. First from box descended courier and coach
man, then from rumble two maids, and finally from

AMERICAN VISITORS. 23
carriage itself, dowager, a little withered old wo
man, smothered in furs, followed by first little dog,
second little dog, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh,
eighth, and lastly by meek man in white cravat
and black suit. One of the maids, who dined at
the table d'hote by my side, became very communi
cative over the vin-ordinaire, and recounted to me
the whole history of her mistress and her peregri
nations. " My lady " was the distinguished Countess
C  , the mother of two grown-up sons, pillars of
the British state. She was always on the move,
and travelled in the state in which I had beheld
her. She was never without her suite of eight
puppies and the clergyman (for such was the meek
gentleman in white cravat whom I had seen bring
ing up the rear of the long line of dogs). " My
lady " and her dogs always travelled Inside, and the
clergyman sometimes, when countess and puppies
required priestly consolation. On other occasions
he took his seat in the rumble with the maids, or
with the flunkies on the box.
Not half a dozen Americans came to the hotel
during the eighteen months I lived there. They
were the usual money-spending Americans who
had strayed by some accident from Paris, or the
hio-hways of travel, and finding neither the show
nor the sensuous delights they desired, soon went
away again. There was one studious young coun
tryman of ours, who, having read in Murray's
" Guide Book " that Pitt and Wilberforce had in

24 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
their youth come to Rheims to learn French, was
emulous of their example, and had determined to
do likewise. He had resolutely decided in Paris
upon abandoning its pleasures and the society of
his idle friends, and staying six months at least at
Rheims. He remained just six hours, finding the
place too dull, and went back by the first train.

CHAPTER in.
The Great Cathedral — Familiarity does not beget Contempt —
A Perfect Work of Art — Emotions — Unity — Magnitude
— Grand Entrances — Profusion of Statues and Ornaments
— Religious Poem — Temple of Reason — Bells — The Beau
Dieu — The Resurrection — Humor in Stone — Sodom and
Gomorrah — Architects of Middle Ages — Sturdiness of Faith
— Influence of the Cathedral Good or Bad ?
rilHE great Cathedral was proof against that
-*- severest test of sublimity, — familiarity. For
eighteen months I saw it almost every hour of the
day, and hardly less often in the night. Waked
at early dawn by the sonorous chimes of its bells,
my eyes, as I lay abed, first opened upon the mas
sive structure. Though dimly visible in the gray
twilight, I was fully conscious of its majestic pres
ence. It seemed to reveal itself to my conscious
ness by some spiritual force, while still dark and
indistinct to my obscured vision. There was a
feeling akin to that of which every one is con
scions on the approach of a storm, when there is
not only the visible thunder-cloud to herald its
coming, but a vague influence which mysteriously
indicates its nearness to all, even to the blind.
In or out of bed I could not turn my eyes

26 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY,
toward the window without seeing the great Ca
thedral, for it covered the whole field of vision,
above, below, and on every side. If I descended
from my chamber, its gigantic presence still ab
sorbed my view. I could neither go out or come
into the hotel without passing close by its sublime
front. Wherever I went, in the town or many
miles out in the neighboring country, the Cathe
dral, visible from any direction, was still omni
present. Though it thus was seen by me daily and almost
hourly. It never lost its impresslveness, aud I could
never pass It In going or coming, whatever might
be the preoccupation of my mind, without turning
up my eyes to it in unaffected reverence and ad
miration. It was some time before I cared to analyze the
causes of the effect produced by the great struct
ure. I was contented to look upon it and feel
its influence as a work of art, perfect in itself as
the statue or picture of the greatest sculptor or
painter. Few buildings have ever affected me in
this way, and I have looked upon many of great
architectural pretension. These have excited more
or less ray wonder, by their magnitude, the con
structive skill they displayed, and the grace of
proportion or richness of adornment of their sep
arate parts, but have seldom filled my mind with
a contented consciousness of a complete oneness
of beauty. This impression is made, however, by

MAGNITUDE OF THE CATHEDRAL. 27
every perfect work of art, whether It be statuary,
painting, or architecture, and coriiing at the first
glance precedes every attempt at analysis. Such
an impression is produced by the Cathedral at
Rheims upon all who have the least sympathy
with art, and is quite Independent of a knowledge
of its technicalities. I am sure that one who could
not distinguish by name the nave from the spire,
would be unable to resist the Impressive influence
of this great work.
Those who have studied architecture say that the
Cathedral at Rheims is remarkable above all other
structures for its unity. They declare that it must
have arisen out of the conception of some single
mind of genius. One in his enthusiasm calls It
" petrified music." This harmony of parts and
proportions in so large a structure is indeed mar
velous, and is undoubtedly one of the essential
causes of its effect as a work of art.
The magnitude of the Cathedral is remarked by
the passing observer, not so much from the im
pression it makes from its own massiveness, as from
the littleness to which every object exposed to its
contrast is reduced. The whole length of the
building from the steps in front to the last exterior
buttress of the abside in the rear, is about six
hundred feet. It is three times as long as the
wide front of the Astor House ; and three Trinity
Churches, placed in a line One after another, would
not extend so far as the length of the Cathedral.

28 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
Three streets open opposite to each of its great
sides, and these thus face as many blocks of build
ings. Some critics have declared that the Cathedral is
disproportionately narrow, but this, if a defect, is
only observable in the Interior. Like most others
of continental Europe, it has never reached its due
altitude of spire ; but the two towers nearly three
hundred feel; high which crown the front, though
not completed, are, with its colossal columns re
duced by height and justness of proportion, models
of aerial grace.
The grand entrance of the church is universally
conceded to be the finest in the world. It is com
posed of three lofty arched porches, each at least
a hundred feet high, and so deep and spacious that
many hundred people might easily find refuge with
in them without entering the Cathedral.
These porches are crowded so thick with figures
and decorations, as, in fact, is almost every other
part of the Cathedral, that the building seems built
of statues, flowers, and ornaments. I could only
compare this abounding sculpture to those curious
specimens of Chinese ivory carving, where the fig
ures are so crowded, together that it is impossible
to discover the ground from which they have been
deftly cut. One cannot sufficiently admire the skill
and taste by which these innumerable statues and
ornaments have been sculptured, and adjusted in
harmony with the lines and proportions of the great

A RELIGIOUS POEM. 29
Cathedral. When it is viewed in the twilight of
the morning or evening, or at a distance so that
the forms of the figures cannot be distinctly seen,
their lines and varying shades so harmonize with
each other and the immense structure, that the Ca
thedral loses nothing of its graceful beauty. The
whole building assumes in the obscurity of uncer
tain light or remoteness, a vague massiveness of
fretted ornament and intricate tracery. Some
seven hundred statues can be counted in the three
porches alone, five hundred of which are little less
large than life, and the rest colossal. All the niches
are filled with them : they are crouching under the
capitals ; they line the successive arches of the
porch ; they are climbing thick upon all the col
umns, and are standing in close array along the
base. There is besides a profusion of flowers,
leaves, and ornaments of all kinds. " It is a re
ligious poem carved out by the sculptor," says
Baron Taylor ; " it Is an animated book which
relates In action the legends of saints; episodes
from the Old and New Testament, and subjects
taken from the history of Rheims."
There are statues of saints, bishops, angels, proph
ets, kings, queens, and men and women of all de
grees and condition. The whole history of Adam
and Eve is recorded in thirty- eight bass-rehefs. On
the lintels of the doors, there is given in stone a full
account of the conversion of Clovis, the first king
of France. He is there, just after the battle of

80 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
Tolblac, beseeching Saint Waast to instruct him in
the knowledge of the true God ; again, he Is saying
his catechism to Saint Remi ; thirdly, he Is on his
knees before him, demanding to be baptized ; and
finally he is up to his waist in a tub of holy water,
receiving what he had asked for.
Among the colossal statues there are Moses, Jo
nas, Ellas, Habakkuk, Saint John, and Saint Remi.
Under one arch there is a representation, in all its
details, of the Passion of our Saviour. Under an
other there is a representation of paradise and hell ;
and under a third all the virtues, illustrated by Sol
omon, David singing. Saint Louis, Saint Cecilia,
Noah planting vines, and Saint Bernard preaching.
Above all these, crowning the porch, are groups of
gigantic figures representing the triumph of the
Virgin, the Crucifixion of our Saviour, and the Ex
altation of the Cross. These groups are considered
marvels of art for the thirteenth century.
The flowers which crown the columns of the
porch are said to be as faithful and complete a ren
dering of the -whole fbra of Rheims as Linnseus
himself could have described.
Many of these statues and ornaments have been
roughly handled by time and the revolutionists of
1789, who, after having in vain attempted to de
molish the Cathedral, finally inscribed upon its sa
cred front : " Temple de Baison. Le peuple Frarir-
pais reconnait I'JEtre Supreme et VimmortalitS de
I'ame." " Temple of Reason. The French people

ARCHITECTURAL ORNAMENTS. 31
acknowledge the Supreme Being and the immortal
ity of the soul." ^
Above the porch, even to the summits of the
graceful towers, there is a continued succession of
statues, bass-reliefs, flowers, and architectural orna
ments. There Is the magnificent circular window,
called by the French la rosace, over the middle of
the three entrances. Its Immense size, with a diam
eter of at least fifty feet ; the intricate yet orderly
interweaving of Its ogives flowing together in grace
ful and unchecked continuity ; the rich fretting of
its frame, and its perfect harmony of proportion
and design, with the noble front in which It is set,
almost justify the audacious conception of the ar
chitect who designed it as a symbol of eternity,
"the eye of Invisible Divinity." On either side
of this great circular window rise two turrets. In
their niches, formed by isolated columns, are colos
sal statues of the Virgin and of three of the Apos
tles. Above the rosace is a sculptured group represent
ing the combat of David and Goliath, and around
its border there is a host of biblical figures. Then
just above is a moulded cornice indicating the sum
mit of the body of the structure. From this there
arises a gallery of double ogives, which from below
looks like a mere border of moulding, but which is
1 The inscription at present is ; " Deo Optimo Maximo sub
invocatione beatse Mariae Virginis Deiparse templum seculo
XIII. reedificatum."

32 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
in fact a strong stone balustrade inclosing a wide
parapet, to which on Palm Sunday the whole clerical
force of the Cathedral ascend and chant the Gloria in
excelsis and the Laus Leo. The gallery has in con
sequence obtained the popular name of the Gloria.
Above the gallery, within seven compartments
formed by light open columns which terminate in
turrets, there are forty-nine great statues represent
ing the conversion and baptism of Clovis. These
are again surmounted by forty-two other colossal
statues, which for a long time were received as a
faithful representation of the raonarchs of France,
but are now supposed to be the kings of Judah. In
fact, the archseologists seem as little agreed about
the interpretation of much of the statuesque writing
of the Cathedral as of the hieroglyphics on the mon
uments of Egypt.
Above the gallery, at either end, rise the towers
whose graceful columns are seen miles away, cut
ting, but not intercepting, the sky, for each one is
isolated, and the air and light pass freely through
the whole structure. Within these towers are the
bells, of which no one enters Rheims without be
coming immediately conscious. They ring out the
hours, and each of the quarters and halves. They
ring up the people to work at early dawn, and ring
them home at sunset. They ring at every mar
riage, and ring at every death, when there is money
enough to pay for their purchasable joy or grief.
The great thunderer, Le gros Bourdon, tells its

CHARLOTTE. 33
own history in these words : " I am Charlotte,
weighing twenty-three thousand (lbs.), named by
Monselgneur the most illustrious Charles Cardinal
of Lorraine, Archbishop and Duke of Rheims, first
peer of France, and the most illustrious Lady Re-
n^e of Lorraine, Abbess of Saint Peter of the said
Rheims, his sister. Pierre Deschamps, native of
Rheims, made me." It was cast in 1570. It has
a diameter of about eight feet, and the thickness of
a foot. As for the power of its clapper, it fills not
only the whole of Rheims with its voice when it
speaks, but may be heard at a distance of a league
or more from the Cathedral.
When the revolutionists of 1790 decreed in their
wisdom that one bell was enough for any church,
" Charlotte " was deprived of her companions.
These were melted down at the mint. They have,
however, since been replaced by others, and the bell
choir has now its full complement of loud-voiced
performers. The side entrances are hardly less grandiose and
rich in sculpture than the porches in front. It is
impossible to enumerate, much less to describe, the
multifarious images and ornaments of all kinds,
which embarrass with their wealth every observer,
and fatigue even the patient scrutiny of the anti
quary. No good Catholic comes to Rheims without doing
reverence to what its people call their Beau Lieu,
a colossal statue of our Saviour, whose benign face
3

34 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
smiles a sweet welcome to all who pass or enter the
northern porch of the transept. The curious and
irreverent Protestant will be more attracted, prolj-
ably, by the other sculpture of the same porch.
This is a representation of the last judgment. The
trumpet has sounded, and Christ, seated upon his
throne, is pronouncing the verdict of perpetual hap
piness or misery upon the good and bad, as they are
brought up by his administering angels. Below
our Saviour sitting in judgment are two long rows,.
each extending to the full width of the great en
trance, of the dead rising from their tombs. The
artist, notwithstanding the gravity of his subject, has
not been able to resist its humorous suggestions, and
nothing can be more ludicrous, and natural too, than
the expressions of wonder on the faces of the various
figures as they get out of their beds of stone. They
are represented in every variety of attitude : some as
if pushing off the lids of their tombs, and peering
through the opening thus made ; some with their
heads just popping above the edges ; some in a sit
ting posture ; some with one leg out ; some springing
into the air, and others who have escaped entirely
are seen running for their lives. The figures,
though small, are very expressive. Surprise is the
predominant expression, but its degrees are marked
with wonderful distinctness. Some are rubbing their
eyes, as if only half-awake to the consciousness of
the great change ; some, bewildered by it, and as if
doubtful of the result, are hesitating to leave their

HUMOR IN STONE. 35
abodes of stone to which they have been so long ac
customed ; some are leaping out, in a state of frantic
excitement ; and others are hastening away, as if
fearful of being subjected to another imprisonment.
Below this comical representation of the Resur
rection, there is a line of more serious sculpture.
An angel is separating the good from the bad. The
former, a cheerful band of popes, bishops, kings,
and others, are following with readiness their saintly
guide, who is leading them up to our Saviour. The
latter, chained together, are being dragged by an
ugly demon, with a mouth extending from ear to
ear, to the devil, who is stirring up a caldron,
licked vigorously by flames and filled with bubbhng
babies. These infants are the unbaptized, of whose
skulls, according to Saint Augustine, hell is paved.
Among the sinners destined to the caldron, are
some in mitres and priestly robes. I thought it
a wonderful stretch of liberal opinion on the part of
the clergy, that they should have condemned some
of their own sacred body. A shrewd clerical
friend, however, suggested that it was probable
that the ecclesiastics who built the church were
thus taking sweet revenge upon some theological
faction opposed to their own.
In addition to these strange illustrations of re
ligious comedy and tragedy, there is a representa
tion on the same porch of the virtues and vices per
sonified. Among the latter there is an exhibition
of monstrosities more monstrous than those of Sod-

36 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
om and Gomorrah. The Chapter of the Cathedral,
not many years ago, in concession to the modern
sense of decency, ordered these figures to be defaced,
but not sufficiently to mask the original design.
They remain a curious illustration of the plain
speaking of a past age.
The interior of the Cathedral never made an im
pression upon me commensurate with the grandeur
of the exterior ; but the general tone of vastness
has been well preserved by a due harmony between
fitness and space. The windows, by a skillful ar
rangement, have been made to transmit the light in
such a way that it shines brightly within the sanct
uary where it is wanted, but glimmers obscurely
everywhere else, producing that dim, religious at
mosphere which accords so well with the sentiment
of the worshiper.
The decorations of the interiora re far leSs pro
fuse than those of the exterior, but the capitals of
the great pillars are adorned with rich and elabo
rate sculptures of flowers and leaves of all kinds, and
animals in every possible posture.
The pictures are few and not remarkable, al
though it Is claimed that there is a Titian among
them, in which I found it difficult to believe. Most
of the stained glass is modern, but that filling the
great circular window glows with a gi-eat variety of
brilliant colors harmoniously arranged.
The foundation of the present Cathedral was laid
in 1212, about six and a half centuries ago. Two

STURDINESS OF FAITH. 37
Christian churches had already stood on the same
site. The first was constructed in the year 401,
of the stones of the ancient citadel, in whose place
it was substituted. The inhabitants remonstrated
with the Archbishop for demolishing their means of
defense. " Begone, cowards ! " answered the ec
clesiastic of sturdy faith. " God will be our pro
tector." Hence the motto of the city's arms : "/S'm6
Custodia Coeli." This first church was razed to
make way for a second, built in the year 822. This
having been burned to the ground, the present edi
fice was commenced in the year 1212.
Alb^ric de Humbert was at that time Archbishop
of Rheims, and he resolved upon founding a monu
ment worthy of the Church then in the fullness of
its might. He called to his aid an architect of re
nown, Robert de Courcy. Having exposed to him
his views, the artist was so startled by their gran
deur that he asked where the means could be
found for executing a work so great as was contem
plated, and added that, if commenced, it could
never be finished for want of money and hands.
" Begin," replied the Archbishop. " God and man
will aid us." The architect, impelled by the force
of faith of the great priest, did begin. In thirty
years after the first stone was laid, the Te Beum
was chanted within the walls of the present Cathe
dral, that great monument which could have been
raised only by ecclesiastical power, inspired by
faith.

38 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
The Cathedral has defied time, though rudely
shaken by the profane hands of revolutionary icon
oclasts, and left to moulder by the neglect of an
irreverent age. The government of Louis Napo
leon, however, by a liberal grant of money for the
restoration of all the great monuments of France, is
fast reinstating the great church in its early glory.
A friend, an intelligent and liberal clergyman of
the English Church, after a morning's inspection of
the Cathedral, asked me somewhat abruptly, as if
his mind had been disturbed by an uneasy doubt,
whether I thought "the influence of this great
ecclesiastical monument had been for good or
bad?" "As ' a thing of beauty is a joy forever,' I could
not doubt," I said, " its refining influence as a work
of art ; of its religious power I was equally confi
dent, for it evidently was one of those great attract
ive forces by which the faithfiil are drawn and
kept within the fold of the Church, and the coher
ency of that great body is maintained ; as for its
good moral effect, that might be doubted, if it
were true, as is generally stated, that Rheims is one
of the most corrupt cities in the world."

CHAPTER IV.
The Great Cathedral the Scene of Great Events — Baptism of
Clovis by Saint Eemi — A Great Priest of the Olden Time —
The Miracle of the Ampulla — Heretical Interpretation —
Worship of Bare Bones — The Sacred Oil a Power in the
Church — Joan of Arc at Rheims — Royal Anointing — The
Revolutionists and the Holy Oil — A Bit of Doggerel.
THE Cathedral at Rheims has been the scene of
some great events in the history of France.
It was here where Clovis, the first Christian king,
was baptized by Saint Remi, who had already, aided
by Queen Clotilde, his first disciple, converted him
to the new and true faith.
" The way from the hostelry of the king was
prepared," says Flodoard, a monkish chronicler of
the Middle Ages. " The streets on both sides were
hung with tapestry, the church adorned, and the
baptistery perfumed with balms and other odors,
so that, with the grace of God, the people thought
that they were regaled with the sweet smells and
delights of a paradise. Then the holy bishop, pre
ceded by his clergy, bearing the Book of the Evan
gelists, the crosses, and the litanies, proceeded to
the baptistery, holding the king by the hand, and
followed by the queen and the people. But it is

40 THE CHAMPAGNE' COUNTRY.
said that by the way the king asked the bishop /if
this ceremony was the kingdom of God which h?
had promised him. ' No,' said the bishop ; ' but /t
is the beginning and the entrance of the way by
which we are to arrive there.' When they hafl
reached the baptistery, the clerk, who carried the
holy oil, could not approach in consequence of th|
great crowd which kept him back. If, after \h\
sanctlfication of the font, there was a want of oil, it
was by the will of God.
"But the holy bishop, raising his eyes toward
heaven, prayed secretly and in tears. And behold,
incontinently, a dove, as white as snow, presented
itself, carrying in its bill an ampulla (phial) fiill
of holy oil sent from heaven ; of which the odor
was so admirable, and the sweetness so ineffable,
that not one of those present had ever smelt the
like. The bishop took this ampulla, and after he
had sprinkled some of the holy oil upon the baptis
mal water, the dove vanished.
" The king, moved by so great a miracle, and
full of joy, renounced Incontinently the pomps and
works of the devil, and demanded baptism of the
bishop. When he had entered the font of eter
nal life, the venerable bishop said to him roundly
and eloquently, Miiis depone eolla, Sicamber ; adora
quod incendisti, incende quod adorasti. ' Bend thy
head humbly, Sicamber ; adore what thou hast
burned, burn what thou hast adored.'
"Alboflede and Lendelhllde, sisters of the king.

A GREAT PRIEST OF THE OLDEN TIME. 41
were also baptized, with three thousand men of the
host of the French, without counting the women
and little children. And we may well believe that
on this day the holy angels were greatly rejoiced
in heaven, as devout men received a great joy on
earth." Saint Remi was a man of genius. He was one
of those rare men gifted with the power of mastery
over his fellows. " He was grave of face, vener
able in person," says an old chronicler, " redoubtr
able by his severity, amiable from his benignity.
It is true that the austerity of his face seemed men
acing, but the serenity of his heart was soothing ;
so that to the pious and good he appeared in visage
a Saint Peter ; while, on the other hand, to ill-liv
ers he had the look of a Saint Paul. He neglected
repose, he rejected ease, he invited labor, he bore
contempt with patience, he cared not for honor,
he was poor in purse, rich in conscience ; humble
and modest with all his merits, severe and grave
toward vice. And the Lord was not willing that
such a light should be put under a bushel, but,
placing it above the lamp, caused it to burn with
the fire of divine charity, and to illumine the Church
with the pure flames of most excellent virtue."
Saint Remi occupied the see of Rheims seventy-
four years, and to his wise administration may be
traced the foundation of the ecclesiastical power of
the " holy city," as to his personal influence is due
the consolidation of the French people into a na-

42 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
tion. Clearly discerning the political subtlety, and
appreciating the military skill of the barbarian
leader, Sicamber, he determined to bend him to his
views, and divert his undoubted capacity and pow
erful influence from opposition to the Church to
its support. He succeeded by first converting the
queen, through whose gentle influence the barba
rian monarch was persuaded to listen to the teach
ing of the Christian Apostle, The rude Sicamber
became a docile disciple, but may be supposed to
have had still some lingering doubts of the new
religion until the day of his baptism, when the
great miracle of the dove descending with the holy
oil from heaven confirmed his belief, and fixed him
a devout convert to the true faith.
The Protestant, who is not bound to believe in
any miracles since those of our Saviour, may see, in
this affair of the dove and the sacred oil, merely an
ingenious contrivance to impose upon the credulous
mind of a barbarian. Supposing a fraud, — call it
pious or what you may, — it is not difficult for an
heretical mind to conceive how it may have been
executed. It might have been easy to train a tame
pigeon to come down to the baptismal font. No
other means need to have been used than that so
ingeniously devised by the present Emperor of
France to make the imperial eagle, bought of a
showman in London, to alight upon him when he
made the abortive attempt to rule over France
without asking leave of the French by a plebiscite.

SAINT REML 43
Louis Napoleon, as is well known, had trained the
bird to feed from his shoulder, upon which there
was put its daily rations of raw beef and hard egg.
Such an explanation of the so-called miracle,
would seem to the Protestant mind more rational
than the supposition that all the laws of nature
had been suddenly abolished for the sake of send
ing to the impatient priest, direct from heaven, a
phial of Venetian glass, filled with hog's lard and
scented with bergamot.
It was, however, let Protestants sneer and doubt
as they may, a genuine miracle according to the
testimony of all good Catholics. Such it was be
lieved to be at the time, and such it has been
believed to be ever since.
Saint Remi was undoubtedly a very great man.
He ruled the king, who yielded willingly to his
domination, and bestowed upon him every possible
favor. Clovis gave his own niece in marriage to
Saint Remi's near relative, Arnould, whom he cre
ated Count of Rheims. He was not only a royal
but a popular favorite, and the impression that he
made was great and abiding. The present Ca
thedral, built eight hundred years after his death,
is, as it were, a memorial of his life and his eulogy
in stone. Every incident of his career is there
indelibly inscribed, and he and his miraculous
pigeon are reproduced a hundred times in sculpt
ure and painting. At the present day, in this
nineteenth century, fifteen hundred years at least

44 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
since he lived, he is worshiped not only by the
inhabitants of Rheims, but by all the good Catho
lics of France in his bare bones. These, of ques
tionable authenticity, are preserved with pious care,
and are supposed to be possessed of miraculous
power, which is tested year after year by thou
sands with a result apparently satisfactory to all.
Saint Remi was certainly a very great man, and
merited the favor of the king, the love and honor
of his flock, and the veneration of all future ages.
If, as Protestants pretend, the miracle of the dove
and holy oil was no miracle at all, how humiliating
it would be to human nature to think that, if it
had not been for a vulgar juggler's trick, the great
Christian Apostle of France might have preached
in vain and been long since forgotten.
Whatever may have been its real origin, the
supposed heaven-'sent ampulla of oil has been a
power in the state, and has controlled some of the
great political as well as religious events which
form the history of France, The miraculous un
guent was supposed to be possessed of a force of
unction which endowed the kings of France, in
their consecration, with a right more divine than
the divine right of all other kings, " Our king is
consecrated," says a chronicler of the reign of
Louis VII,, " with an oil brought by a dove from
heaven to the baptism of King Clovis, and pre
pared by the hands of angels by divine virtue,
while the other kings pf Christendom are conse-

JOAN OF ARC. 45
crated only with a material and common oil. So
that in fact the kings of France are more worthy
and noble than all the other kings of the world."
It was the oil of divine origin which quickened
the devout heroism of the Maid of Orleans, and
impelled her to clear, by her valiant arm, the road
to Rheims. After the brilliant siege of Orleans,
and when the English were stunned with the blow,
she declared for an immediate march to the " sacred
city," with Charles VIL, that he might be anoint
ed king with the sacred oil. The English had
made a great mistake, when by their early victo
ries they might have crowned their young Henry
VI, at Rheims, in neglecting to perform an act of
such vital importance to their cause, Joan of Arc,
by her valor at Orleans, had now the opportunity
of anticipating the enemy, and this she determined
to do.
Her proposition was deemed rash by the leaders
of the French army. Not a voice was for her.
The politicians and the strong heads of the council
smiled ; they were for going slowly and surely,
that is to say, that the English might have time to
resume their courage. These counsellors all gave
interested opinions. The Duke of Alfen§on was
for marching to Normandy, to reconquer Alen§on,
and others this' or that way, as theii? interests
prompted. The advice of the ardent Maid was not heeded
until again victorious at Patay ; but even now ob-

46 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
jections were urged, and on arriving before Troyes
obstacles, which seemed insurmountable, presented
themselves, and gave a momentary triumph to the
party of temporizers. The king had no artillery
or provisions.
" We can take the town in three days," declared
the resolute Joan of Arc.
" We would readily -wait six," said the Chancel
lor, " if we were sure of the truth of what you
say." _
" Six ! you shall be there to-morrow," rejoined
the Maid.
The town was taken, and Joan of Arc became
still more urgent for an immediate march to
Rheims. The march began, Joan of Arc, " armed at all
points," leading the way and hastening on the king
with unceasing diligence. On arriving at Rheims,
the Maid, who entered the city with the king and
his people, was greatly regarded ; and the Dukes of
Bar and of Lorraine, and the Lord of Commercy,
accompanied by a goodly array of warriors, came
and offered their services to her.
On the next day, which was Sunday, it was de
termined that the consecration should take place.
During the night preparations were made with such
diligence that every thing, marvelous to say, was
ready in the morning. As the Abb^ of Saint
Remi, its guardian, is not accustomed to deliver the
sacred ampulla, except with a certain , form and

ROYAL ANOINTING. 47
ceremony, the king sent the lord of Rais, mareschal
of France, the lord of Boussac, also mareschal of
France, the lord of Greville, the master of the
Bowmen, and the lord of Culant, the high admiral
of France, to get it. After having taken the usual
oath that they would conduct the holy ampulla in
safety to the church and back again to the abbey,
the Abbe, clothed in all his ecclesiastical robes,
accompanied them, bearing it to the door of the
Cathedral. Here the Archbishop, with his canons,
received the ampulla, and taking it within the great
church laid it upon the high altar,
Charles VIL now came clothed in the proper
robes for the service, and was anointed and con
secrated king of France. The Maid of Orleans
was by his side, holding her standard in her hand.
" She was in fact," says the old chronicler, whose
authentic record is the basis of this description,
" the cause of this consecration, and of the great
assemblage. When the sacred ampulla had been
borne away to be taken back again to the abbey of
Saint Remi, all who saw the Maid embrace the legs
of the kneeling king and kiss his foot, weeping hot
tears, were moved to pity. She incited many to
weep as she said : ' Gentle king, now the will of
God is done, who caused you to come to Rheims to
receive your consecration, and thereby show that
you are the true king to whom the kingdom should
belong.' "
Thus was accomplished one of the most impor-

48 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
tant events in the history of France, and, as has
been seen, the little phial of scented oil was not
the least effective of its causes. Forty-eight royal
personages, kings with their queens, have been
consecrated at the Cathedral of Rheims. Among
them were Francis I,, Charles IX,, Louis XIV.,
Louis XVI., and Charles X. It is recorded of
Louis XVI., that on the crown being placed on
his head, he remarked, Hlle me gene ; " It feels un
easy." The poor monarch was soon relieved of its
uncomfortable weight, by what the surgeons call a
capital operation.
The mode of applying the oil is as follows : The
archbishop opens " respectfully " the sacred am
pulla, plunges Into it a golden needle, and mixes
the oil that adheres on withdrawing it with other
oil, which is placed in a chalice on the altar. With
his finger he mixes the two as intimately as possi
ble, and when it is thus prepared he opens the vest
ment of the king. He now kneels upon the same
cushion as the king while the Kyrie Eleison is being
chanted. After the Litany, the archbishop arises,
and, holding the cross with his left hand, says over
the king some Latin words, which may be thus
translated : " Deign to choose this thy servant (X.
or Y.) for king ; we beseech thee to hear us, O
Lord. Deign to bless, elevate, and preserve him;
we beseech thee to hear us, O Lord. Deign to
lead him to the height of the kingdom; we beseech
thee to hear us, O Lord."

TEE BROKEN AMPULLA. 49
When certain other litanies and prayers have
been said, the archbishop proceeds to the anointing.
He first anoints the head of the king, secondly his
breast, thirdly between his shoulders, fourthly on
the shoulders, and fifthly at the bend of the elbows.
At each application the archbishop says : " I anoint
thee king, with holy oil, in the name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost." The clergy at the same
time chant over and over again the verse of the
psalm beginning with, " Unxerunt Salomonem."
After the ceremony is over the king's shirt, deemed
too holy for use, is burnt.
The sacredness of the ampulla did not save it
from the profane hands of the revolutionary fanat
ics of 1790, one of whom wrested it from the grasp
of the priesthood and dashed it into pieces at the
base of Louis XV.'s statue in the Place Royale.
There was, however, a pious and loyal observer,
who was fortunately at hand, and as soon as the
day closed he issued out from his hiding-place and
carefully collected the scattered fragments of the
phial, and scraped up every remnant of the holy
ointment. These he preserved with devout care
until the fury of the Revolution had passed, when
he delivered them up to the church. By a second
miracle, hardly less potent than the first, the quan
tity of the oil had not been sensibly diminished by
its scattering on the pavement, and it is now rev-
. erently guarded, though in a new bottle, for future
use. 4

60 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
Charles X. was the first and last of the French
sovereigns to be consecrated with the oil that had
been profaned by the rude hands of the revolu
tionists, and it may be reasonably inferred, con
sidering his unfortunate reign and forced exit from
France, that the oil had lost its ancient virtues by
its contact with irreverent republicanism.
" The wretch," we are gravely told, " who was
guilty of the profanation of destroying the sacred
ampulla, died on the next day in frightful agonies."

CHAPTER V.
Church of Saint Remi — Specimen of Early Art — A Good
Study — Tomb of Saint Remi — Holy Bones — Skeptical Os
teology — Fair of Saint Remi — Jugglery inside of Church
— Jugglery outside.
FTIHERE is another great church at Rheims —
-*- Saint Remi. Many students of architecture
affect to admire it more than the Cathedral. For
them it has an historical interest, apart from the im
pression it may make, as a work of art, upon the
unlearned observer. The Church of Saint Remi,
as it exists at present, was built in 1041, in the
early part of the eleventh century, about two hun
dred years before the Cathedral.
As a specimen of earlier Christian art. Saint Remi
has certainly an interest which cannot be claimed
for its great rival. Though its original purity has
been affected by subsequent changes and additions,
it still presents many features, in all their native
boldness, of the transition period, when the sim
ple massiveness of Roman construction was yet
comparatively unbroken by the rich embroidery of
Oriental art. Upon this sturdy stock of original
growth there have been, however, successively

52 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
engrafted various shoots of the Romano-Byzantine,
the flamboyant, and Greek styles, with their re
spective beauties of efflorescence. The church thus,
in its single edifice, presents a complete school of
ecclesiastical architecture, worthy of the resort of
every curious student.
Various chapels and churches had been already-
built upon the same site, before the construction of
the present church. The first was founded at the
time of the conversion of Gaul to Christianity,
The body of the great French Apostle, Saint Remi,
was buried within its walls in the year 545, and it
became in consequence the resort of pious pilgrims
from wherever the Cross was raised. Queen Clo
tilde, grateful to her saintly master who had con
verted her and her royal husband Clovis to Chris
tianity, endowed the church with liberal gifts. In
the year 633 this first chapel was reconstructed
with more vast proportions ; but although at the
time it was deemed a marvel of architecture, it had
hardly existed two centuries when its walls on all
sides began to open, and threaten to fall. Toward
the close of the eighth century, it was accordingly
demolished, and a new structure, still more vast,
erected upon its ruins. This proved even less vig
orous than its predecessor, and stood but a hundred
and fifty years. The foundations of the present
building were then laid, and so deep and broad
that " no one," records a contemporary chronicler,
" dare promise himself a life long enough to see the
completion of the church."

CHURCH OF SAINT REML 53
This was a period of sturdy religious faith whose
earnest and vigorous expression still forcibly im
presses us in the massive simplicity and the deep
solemnity, grave even to sadness, of the sacred
structure. The two towers flanking the facade, with their
massive squareness and broad arches, are fine speci
mens of Roman architecture, as are the mighty but
tresses which support the body of the building on
either side. The porch, of the sharp ogival style,
is of a date at least a century later than the towers.
The side doors are still less old, and above the prin
cipal one will be observed one of those lofty ogival
windows, composed of three sections, the central of
which rises above the two others. This was a fa
vorite disposition in the thirteenth century, and is
supposed to symbolize the Trinity.
The facade of the right transept is entirely of
the flamboyant style, and was executed in the fif
teenth century. Its colossal sculpture of the As
sumption of the Virgin is in every respect analogous
in treatment to that of the same subject on the
Cathedral, and is probably by the same artist.
The interior of Saint Remi, more vast than that
of the Cathedral, is wonderfully impressive. Its
grandeur and harmony, subduing all other emotions,
elevate the mind at once to a sublime and tranquil
contemplation. The ordinary observer will not re
mark any difference in the parts ; he will hardly
regret his want of power to analyze the work. He

64 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
is content with the sense of solemn beauty produced
by space artfully subjected to grace and proportion.
The student of architecture will discover the
various styles of different eras, but is forced to
acknowledge the wonderful skill of the successive
artists living centuries apart, who, while giving defi
nite expression each to the artistic sentiment of his
day, have succeeded in harmonizing their work.
The triple row of arches, rising one above the
other, and the galleries, which surround the inte
rior, and seem to form as it were a church within
a church, strike the spectator as the perfection of
architectural art. The marble columns, which ai'e
grouped around the central part of the nave, are
Roman, and belonged to the prsetorlan palace which
stood formerly near the site of the' church. Their
perfectness of proportion and beauty of workman
ship prove them to be examples of ancient art of
the purest era. The deep Gothic arches they sup
port intersect each other with a graceful mystery of
involution which surprises and delights the eye.
The chief interest of the Church of Saint Remi,
to the inhabitants of Rheims, consists in its posses
sion of the supposed bones of their patron saint.
These precious relics are contained within a richly
chased case of silver-gilt, which is kept ordinarily
shut up in the tomb of Saint Remi, This tomb is
an elaborate structure placed behind the high altar
of the church. Its body is in the form of a sar
cophagus, around which are statues, of almost the

HOLY BONES. 55
size of life, of the famous counts of Champagne,
represented in their double capacity of warriors and
bishops, armed and mitred. At the door of the
tomb is a statue of Saint Remi himself, in his archi-
episcopal robes, with eyes upturned in pious ecstasy
towards the dove descending with the ampulla of
miraculous origin. In a niche by his side, within a
casket of gold, there is kept the genuine oil as re
ceived from heaven, though now in a glass phial of
terrestrial manufacture, but of celestial pattern.
The tomb is of white marble, and though some
what too crowded with figures, and oppressed with
ornament, is a creditable work of modern art. It
was raised, within the last few years, by the city
of Rheims, in concession to the public veneration
for the remains of the great Saint Remi.
The revolutionary destructives, in the muck they
ran against all that was venerable, knocked the an
cient tomb of the revered saint to pieces, and scat
tered his bones. Here, however, as in the case of
the broken ampulla, there was a pious guardian
conveniently at hand, who gathered up the remains
and buried them, by night, in the public cemetery.
When the people forsook their " temples of reason,"
and returned once more to their ancient idols, the
bones of Saint Remi were brought back and re
stored to their sacred resting-place.
The skeptics, however, persist in declaring — and
I have the highest surgical authority for the fact • —
that by some means or other the bones of the great

56 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
Saint Remi got so mixed up in the common burial-
place with those of others, that his skeleton came
back with the right thigh-bone of one of his un
known and possibly unshrived neighbors. If Saint
Remi had had the good luck to leave his right instead
of his left leg, all would have been well, and there
might have been no scandal raised by the unbeliev
ing Cuviers of the day, upon discovering that the
skeleton was possessed of two right thigh bones.
This scientific fact, however, has been generally
rejected as impertinent, and has had no sensible
effect in diminishing the miraculous power of the
bones, or the public faith in it. The sacred tomb
still attracts daily crowds of worshipers, and there
is not a poor mother of Rheims, whose baby is in
the agony of its first tooth, who does not invoke
the interposition in its favor of Saint Remi, by
spending a sou for a sputtering bit of grease to be
burnt before his tomb, which is kept in constant
illumination by votive candles of all kinds, from
the pauper's miserable dip to the rich man's brill
iant wax.
During the Fair of Saint Remi, which begins on
the day of that saint and continues for several
weeks, a constant service is kept going day and
evening in the church. The silver-gilt case con
taining the bones is taken out of the marble tomb,
and brought before the altar, where it. is placed
under a gay canopy of plumes and banners within
sight of the people, and the reach of the officiating
priests.

FAIR OF SAINT REMI. 57
Thousands of devout worshipers throng the
church each day. Mass after mass is said, and the
long line of quSieurs, " beggars," headed by Suisse
(beadle) in glorious apparel of cocked-hat and red
plush breeches, and robed priest, and terminated
by chorister boys, keep busy poking their velvet
pouches under every one's nose, and cbnjuring the
stray sous out of each pocket. In the mean time
the devout portion of the people, generally poor
women in their best and brightest caps, shabby and
decrepit men, and little smiling children, keep
passing in continuous procession in front of the
silver-gilt box. As each one reaches the priest,
who is the operator of the day, the devotee hands
him something. This — either a ring, a locket, a
cross, a little delf-figure of the Virgin or of our
Saviour, a pocket handkerchief or a baby's clout —
is taken by the priest, who quickly applies it to the
silver-gilt case and then returns it to its owner,
muttering all the while some Latin prayer or
other. The poor people are evidently in earnest, and it
is truly affecting to witness the ardor with which
they press forward to obtain the holy touch, and
the warmth of affection with which they handle,
hug, and kiss the wretched trinkets and bits of rag
when once consecrated by it. The operating priest,
if, as may be suspected, he has not his heart in his
business. Is still more to be pitied than his honest
but credulous flock. It is not edifying to behold a

58 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
venerable man, half a century old, deeply versed
in the humanities, thus sweating hour after hour
at this work of vulgar quackery.
I hurried from the church to seek relief in the
more -honest exhibition on the outside, where the
fair was in full swing. Here the boy was getting
a solid piece of gingerbread for his sou, and the
poor men and women also something substantial for
their hard-earned money. There were charlatans
and jugglers here, too, but their pretensions were
not so great as those within the church, and I ob
served that the circulating hat evoked but a scanty
supply of coppers.

CHAPTER VI,
Champagne Wine — Export to the World — To the United
States — The Manufacturers — Genuine Wine — Consular
Seal — History of Brands — Comparative Excellence of Cham
pagnes — The Widow Clicquot — Russian Invasion of her
Cellars — A Shrewd Commis Voyageur — Fictitious Brands.
1% /TANY have doubtless noticed the word Rheims
-^-'- printed conspicuously on the labels of a bottle
of Clicquot or Consular Seal, or upon any other of
the numerous but less noted brands of champagne
wine. It is found upon most, if not all, bottles of
champagne, whether real or false, for each pro
ducer of the former Is eager to affirm the fact, as
every artificer of the latter to circulate the false
hood, that his wine emanates from Rheims, the chief
source of the genuine product, Rheims is thus
known by name, at least to all wine-drinkers, and
is more or less familiar to the eye of every Ameri
can, for the champagne bottle, though by no means
always filled with genuine wine, circulates more
freely in this than in any other country.
Of the thirteen millions of bottles sent annually
to market from Rheims and neighboring places, the
United States takes at least two millions, England,

60 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
Russia, and the East Indies, receive each about the
same quantity, and form with the United States the
four chief consumers, France may rank next ; then
Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portu
gal, and Africa,
All the chief manufacturers of champagne con
tribute to ,the supply of the United States. H,
Piper & Co., whose wine is so well known in our
country under the brand of Heidsleck (Piper), are
by far the largest exporters. They send to the
United States about forty thousand dozen annually.
G. H. Mumm & Co. and Charles Heidsieck & Co.,
export each twelve thousand ; Krug & Co,, eleven
thousand ; Heidsieck & Co,, ten thousand ; De St.
Marceaux & Co., eight thousand; L. Roederer,
Meet & Chandon, and Jules Mumm & Co., each
about seven thousand ; and Veuve Clicquot Pon-
sardin, some five thousand dozen. Other houses of
less note contribute, in proportion to their impor
tance, to make up the large quantity consumed in
the United States,
The wine thus exported may be presumed to be,
for the most part, genuine. The manufacturer of
repute would hardly venture to sell any other. Not
a few producers, however, of less note, are accused
of making their so-called champagne wine of a
grape that never ripened on the hills of Rheims or
of its neighborhood.
Though it may be conceded that most of the
champagne directly imported into this country from

CHAMPAGNE WINE. 61
Rheims and the other towns of the same depart
ment (Mame) is genuine. It can be by no means
allowed that It is of the highest quality of wine, I
have in fact the testimony of all the chief exporters
of champagne, to prove that the wine they send to
the United States, though " good and wholesome,"
is of inferior quality to that generally sent else
where, and always to that kept at home. I had
not been long in Rheims before I became entirely
convinced of the fact. Brought by my official
duties into direct and constant association with the
wine manufacturers, and partaking of their hospi
tality, I had frequent occasion to test, at their con
vivial tables, the quality of their champagne, I
had hardly turned off the first glass, when I re
marked a flavor of which my palate, though not
unused to the best of Heidsieck, Mumm, and Meet
& Chandon, in America, had been hitherto uncon
scious. It was the first time in my life that I had
enjoyed a glass of champagne, as wine. Before, I
had drunk it as a not unpleasant beverage, being
palatable from its sweetness and effervescence, and
exhilarating in its effect, I could not distinguish
the wine of one brand from that of another ; and
all, Heidsieck, Mumm, Moet & Chandon, Clicquot,
and Roederer, seemed to me to have been brewed
in the same vat, of the same proportions of syrup,
brandy, and soda-water,
I now found, instead of tossing off my glass and
swallowing its contents with a gulp, as I had been

62 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
wont to do in order to secure the evanescent sparkle
and hasten the expected exhilaration, that the wine
trickled slowly, drop by drop, over the gratified
palate. My taste had recognized, for the first time
in a glass of champagne, the flavor of a fine wine,
and was lingering in the enjoyment of its mellow
richness. My host caught the expression of my
satisfaction, and said : " You don't get such wine
in America ; " adding, with a roguish twinkle of his
eye, " we keep that for ourselves and friends,"
It is true that I had never tasted such wine in
America, but I was determined that my friends and
I should be able thenceforth to do so. I accord
ingly selected at once, from the private stocks of the
chief manufacturers of Rheims, various samples of
their best wines, and sent them to some of my
friends of the New York Union Club, They, it
must be said in justice to their connoisseurship,
chose the wine of the great vintage of 1858, which
was most esteemed at Rheims, This is the cham
pagne known as the " Consular Seal," and is such
wine as the manufacturers generally " keep for
themselves and friends."
Though Rheims is the chief seat of the champagne
wine-trade, Epernay, Chalons sur Ay, and Mareuil
sur Ay, all within the same department, are more
or less engaged in it. The most extensive manufac
turers and merchants are Moet and Chandon, who
are said to dispose each year of nearly two millions
of bottles. They carry on their business at Eper-

MANUFACTURERS. 63
nay, where they have a palatial establishment above
ground, and below great cellars hewn out of the
solid chalk which underlies the thin soil of all that
portion of the country that produces the champagne
grape. These are divided into seven vast compart
ments, which contain five subterranean passages, ten
large and a hundred and seventeen small cellars, in
which are arranged in order two millions and a half
of bottles of champagne. There are besides scores
of great hogsheads almost as large as the tun of Hei
delberg, and many hundreds of barrels filled with
wine. The establishment covers an area of twelve
acres and a half. The total length of the vaults is
nearly two miles.
The wine of Moet and Chandon being, manufac
tured for the masses, and generally low priced, is
but little esteemed by European connoisseurs.
At Rheims, however, are to be found most of the
wine manufacturers whose names are familiar to
the world. Here are the Roederers, Clicquots, the
Heidsiecks, the Mumms, and De St. Marceaux.
Though these have generally their entire establish
ments at Rheims, some, as H. Piper & Co., known
as Heidsieck in the United States, have only their
counting-houses in that town, and their wine-vaults
at Epernay.
The Heidsiecks, Piper-Heidsieck, Hiedsieck &
Co., and Charles Heidsieck & Co, are all of the
same clan. It was, however, the predecessor of
H, Piper & Co., a Heidsieck, who first gave cur-

64 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
rency to the wine so well known in the United
States by that name. This enterprising house, be
ing the first of the wine manufacturers to venture
in what was then deemed the hazardous trade with
America, succeeded, while free from competition,
in obtaining such an exclusive and wide circulation
for their merchandise, that the word Heidsieck be
came synonymous in the United States with cham
pagne. The latter was deemed superfluous ; and
some twenty years ago, no one ever thought of say
ing , more, when he called for champagne, than
" Give me a bottle of Heidsieck." Great riches
have rewarded the enterprise of H. Piper & Co.,
who are now among the largest and wealthiest
manufacturers, and have, apart from the private
fortunes of the various partners and members of
the family, a manufacturing and commercial estab
lishment wielding a capital of three millions of dol
lars. The agents of the house in New York have
shared in the prosperity of their principals; and
Renauld & Francois, whose names are almost as
familiar as Heidsieck, are now enjoying, in veri
table chateaux of France, the results of their suc
cess. With the real or affected connoisseurship that has
come with the increased wealth and luxury of our
people, a bottle of Heidsieck no longer pleases the
taste of the fastidious. It is, however, one of the
best ordinary wines that are sent to our country,
though too sweet for a discriminating palate. It

MONSIEUR CLICQUOT. 65
may always be relied upon as a wholesome and
pure wine, but not of the highest quality. Though
now rejected by the judicious taster, its traditionary
renown still secures for it the largest consumption
by the gulping crowd. The other Heidsiecks,
though far from having the success of their better
known predecessor, have discovered that there is
something in a name, and profited accordingly.
Though Piper & Co. (Heidsieck) have earned
their reputation and fortune by their superior com
mercial judgment in anticipating the importance of
the American trade, most of the other well-known
manufacturers of champagne have succeeded through
more irregular means, or been indebted to hazard
for their success.
The famous champagne of Veuve Clicquot Pon-
sardin, which is so much esteemed in Russia, and
where it has been so profusely drank for forty or
fifty years past, that its manufacturers — the noted
Widow, WerM, the Mayor of Rheims, and the
" Baron de Sachs," as he styles himself, her part
ners — have made such fortunes as to rank them
among the millionaires of Europe, owes its success
to chance. The Widow Clicquot had been the
wife of one Fran§ois-Marie Clicquot, " an officer"
vaguely says his biographer, " who had retired from
active ser-vice in consequence of his wounds." Cor
poral or Sergeant Clicquot — or whatever may have
been his rank — was naturally of a convivial turn,
and instinctively took to the wine business.

66 TEE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
"At this period" (1798), we are told by his
eulogistic biographer, " the trade in white wines at
Rheims was in the hands of mere routinists, who
were incapable of giving the least development to it.
" M. Clicquot, endowed with a lively conception
and an activity almost ardent, visited the neighbor
ing vineyards, went down into all the cellars, com
pared, weighed, meditated, and- then finally laid
the foundation of an entirely different commercial
system. " Until then, the effervescing wines of Cham
pagne came only from the cellars of the Abbey of
Hautvillers. " M. Clicquot undertook that they should also
issue from the cellars of Rheims ; with this differ
ence, however, that while the monks — excellent
drinkers — imbibed the most and best of their vint
age. Monsieur Clicquot, less thirsty or less, selfish,
resolved to offer his wines to all the crowned heads
of Europe, of whom he knew they were perfectly
worthy, " While big with this magnificent project, death
came and cut short the career of the son-in-law of
M. Ponsardin," that is to say, M. Clicquot, the
former husband of the Widow Clicquot Poiisardin.
Common rumor at Rheims tells a different story of
the exit of this notable personage, saying that he
cut his throat in despair of the success of the " en
tirely different commercial system " with which his
biographer credits him.

THE WIDOW CLICQUOT. 67
Madame Clicquot thus became Widow Clicquot,
and was left to carry out the magnificent project
which had originated in the " lively conception and
the activity almost ardent " of her late husband.
Though only twenty-seven years of age, and " with
a daughter in the cradle who became afterward^
the Countess of Chevign^," this heroic dame " ac
cepted with courage the position that destiny had
given her." She struggled on spiritedly, but with
little success, until the invasion of France by the
Allies in 1815, when the Russians came thronging
into Rheims and filled the cellars of the widow.
" All the Russian officers commanded by Saint
Priest had lifted the champagne glass to their
lips. It was said even that many of them pre
ferred the popping of the bottle of Rheims to that
of the cannon of the Emperor, and that on the
retaking of Rheims, about a dozen prisoners were
made, who had been laid under the table by the
first and pacific artillery. At the moment of the
attack of the French troops, there remained some
drinkers but no soldiers. These, dead drunk, had
not heard the sound, ' To horse ! ' "
When these officers returned to Saint Peters
burg and Moscow, they talked so much of, and
praised so highly, the delights of their debauch in
the cellars of the Widow Clicquot, that they made
her name famous throughout Russia, and gave her
wine a currency which has made her and her part
ner's enormously rich.

68 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
I knew Madame Clicquot, a dwarfish, withered
old woman of eighty-nine years, whose whole soul
was in business, scanning over each day to her last
the ledger of the commercial house to which she
had given her name. She died in 1866,
The Clicquot wine is made to suit the Russian
taste, which likes a sweet and strong champagne.
It is accordingly highly brandied and sugared, and
although doubtless generally made of good wine,
its qualities, whatever they may be, are entirely
smothered in the sweetness. Unhke other houses,
that of the Widow Clicquot never varies its wine
to suit varying tastes, A bottle of Clicquot in
America is the same as a bottle of Clicquot in
Russia or elsewhere. The Clicquot wine is fast
losing prestige, and will before long become obso
lete, if not adapted to the more discriminating taste
of modern drinkers,
Louis Roederer & Co,, who, during the last ten
years or so, have come into repute as the manu
facturers of a popular wine, are indebted for their
success to the usual means employed by charlatans
to create a demand for their nostrums. Emulous
of the fame ot the Widow Clicquot in Russia, they
sent there a shrewd German, who had become fa-
mihar with the language and trade of that country
while traveUing over it as a commis-voyageur or
bagman for some trading-house or other of his na
tive land. Not easily abashed, and of an intrusive
disposition, he determined to make himself known.

A SERE WD COMMIS-VOYAGEUR. 69
With a meagre valise of his own, and an abundant
supply of his masters' wine, which he distributed
profusely, he was not an unwelcome guest in a
country where strangers are comparatively so rare
that their claims to regard are hardly investigated,
and the thirst for wine and strong drink so eager
that any one who has them to offer is readily re
ceived. He thus for many years travelled over and
over Russia, pouring out gratuitously into the vast
and willing throat of the whole empire such quan
tities of champagne, that the Roederers were nearly
made bankrupts by the expense.
Alarmed by this profusion, which, having already
cost some hundreds of thousands, was fast beggar
ing them, the Roederers recalled their costly trav
eller, who earnestly begged for a little respite.
This being granted, he finally returned to Rheims.
His object was accomplished. He had succeeded
in so habituating the taste of the Russians to the
Roederer wine, and familiarizing them with its name,
that order after order was sent for it to Rheims ;
and the manufacturers from menacing poverty were
lifted suddenly to assured wealth, of which the
prodigal traveller, being made a partner of the
house in reward for his services, was permitted to
participate. The house of L. Roederer & Co.,
though for many years moving slowly under the
care of its founder, Schroeder, a plodding German,
now ranks among the largest and wealthiest of all
Champagne, They sell, it is said, 75,000 dozen

70 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
bottles annually. The chief consumption of the
Roederer wine in the United States is at Boston,
It is one of the best and most costly of the wines
manufactured In large quantities, but, like all those
adapted to general consumption, is loaded with
sugar, that it may be toothsome to the masses. The
wine is sold nnder the two names of Roederer, the
present proprietor of the house, and Schroeder, the
original founder.
A brand of champagne once extensively made
known, whether by legitimate enterprise, hazard,
or charlatanism, becomes a sure source of wealth.
The wine is bought and drank on the mere strength
of its name, without regard to its quality, and even
in spite of its badness, just as the much advertised
and hurtful panaceas of the nostrum-venders are
purchased and swallowed by the credulous and suf
fering millions.
The Clicquots, Roederers, and others, have been
beset by claimants to their kinship, who, though
conscious of the value of a name, have given no
better proof of relationship than in their opposition
and rivalry. The Widow Clicquot found a repre
sentative of her own name in an ambitious mason,
who, dropping his trowel, took to the bottle, and
now rivals his notable namesake as a manufacturer
of champagne.
My bootmaker at Rheims, who rejoices in the
name of Clicquot, and claims to be a cousin-ger-
man of the famous widow, told me that in the

FICTITIOUS BRANDS. 71
heyday of youth he had been tempted by the offer
of a wealthy capitalist to take him, or rather his
name, into partnership, and establish a wine manu
factory. He accepted ; but his youthful aspirations
were suddenly checked by the threat of the then
formidable widow to bring a suit against him. He
therefore shrunk back again into his little shop,
where I found him a blinking, nervous old man of
seventy, bent persistently over his last. His pos
sible success as a wine manufacturer will always be'
left to conjecture ; but it is sure that if the world
had gained another producer of Clicquot cham
pagne, that Rheims would have lost a most trusty
shoemaker. Clicquot is no uncommon name in
Rheims, and it may be seen displayed over sausage
shops, cabarets, cafes, and cobblers' stalls. It is
surprising, therefore, that the adventurous mason
has been the only one to utilize the popular patro
nymic. The name of Roederer is, on the contrary, rare
at Rheims ; and the veritable possessors of it re
posed for a long time in fancied security against any
chance of a competitor. There was, however, an
enterprising wine dealer, who, unable to give the
rapid circulation he desired to his champagne, had
long sought the indorsement of some more popular
name than his own. His researches, which had ex
tended all over France, during his travels for many
years, on the highways and in the by-ways where
his eagerness for trade had led him, were finally

72 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
successful. At a cafS in Strasbtirg he chanced
to be served with his after-dinner demi-tasse and
petit-verre by a garden who was the fortunate pos
sessor of the cabalistic name of Roederer. Here
was the prize he had so long sought in vain, and he
secured it at once. Proposals were made, and ac
cepted by the not unambitious servitor, who, doffing
his apron, and assuming with true French facility
the habiliments and manners of the respectable
bourgeois, passed with quick transition from serving
drink at Strasburg to making it at Rheims,
Bringing with him no capital but his name —
which, however, was worth more than hundreds of
thousands of francs — and that judgment of wine
which had been matured by his long indulgence in
the leakage of the cafe or the forgotten heel-taps of
its customers, he was installed as the partner of his
fortunate discoverer, whose house was thencefor
ward known as that of Theophile Roederer & Co,
The original Roederers resisted to their utmost
what they deemed a usurpation of their rights, and
appealed to the courts of law. It was decided that
a man had a legal right to use his own name,
whether for the purpose of selling or serving wine,
or for any other proper business ; but it was enjoined
upon the new Roederer that he should affix to all
his bills, invoices, and labels the date of the estab
lishment of his house, in order to distinguish it from
that of the original one. In spite of this, the public
constantly confounds the two, and I myself have

FICTITIOUS BRANDS. 73
time and again seen at the table of the Hotel du
Lion d! Or, at Rheims, would-be connoisseurs who
had been imposed upon by an artful and interested
gargon, smacking their lips over an indifferent bot
tle of the false, and loudly declaring that they rec
ognized the flavor of the better wine of the genuine
Roederer, Moet & Chandon, the Mumms, and De St, Mar
ceaux have not as yet, it is believed, been interfered
with by any importunate namesakes. The Mumms
at Rheims are branches of two great German houses,
and may be always relied on for a fair average wine,
De St, Marceaux, though of growing fame, has not
yet, in the United States, the reputation he merits.
In Rheims he is esteemed the most expert and
conscientious of manufacturers. His judgment is
deemed beyond a25peal; and when a connoisseur
wants the best the country is capable of producing,
and is willing to pay for it, he can surely get it of
De St. Marceaux.

CHAPTER Vir.
Champagne a Modern Wine — Hautvillers — Dom Perignon —
A Jolly Monk — Petits Soupers — A Pious Pilgrimage — Bac
chus Street — The Champagne Trade — How conducted —
A Great Effort — Failure — The Wine TraveUers — Effect of
Champagne on Health.
TT Is only within the last flfty years that the trade
-'- In champagne wine has become important. In
fact, although the wine of the country has been fa
mous from time immemorial, and long shared with
the clarets and Burgundies of France the esteem
of the world, the vin mousseux, as the French call
it, the effervescing wine, and what we know as
champagne, is comparatively a modern discovery.
Its origin hardly dates beyond the eighteenth cen-
tiiry, and it was still, even in the middle of that
century, so rare that only a few rich and privileged
amateurs tasted It. Moet & Chandon in 1780, who
were then as now the chief manufacturers, thought
it a bold venture to have made six thousand bottles
in the year. Their present annual sale is over a
hundred and fifty thousand dozen.
On the left of the railway from Paris to Stras
burg, within an hour's ride of Rheims, is the an
cient gray-stoned hamlet of Hautvillers. It stands

DOM I^ERIGNON. 75
at the top of the vine-clad hills which rise from the
banks of the river Marne ; and when I first saw it,
on a bright autumnal day, the spire of its old church
and Its antiquated gables were flushed with a red
hue by the noonday sun, which was fast ripening
its surrounding grapes for the coming vintage. It
looked as if warmed and exhilarated in its old age
by its own generous wine, and destined still to sur-
-vive many more sober but less vigorous modem
villages. In Hautvillers there was the famous royal mon
astery of Saint Peter, which, say its historians, gave
nine archbishops to the see of Rheims, and twenty-
two abb^s to various celebrated monasteries. Among
others, they add, there was the venerable Peter, the
Abb^ of Cluny, It gave also, to the world, for
which all wine drinkers should be grateful, a jolly
monk, who was the Inventor of champagne. This
was Dom Perignon, who died in 1715 at the ripe
age of nearly fourscore years. He was chosen the
procureur of the great Abbey for the purity of his
taste, the soundness of his head, and his unremit
ting devotion to Bacchus, His chief duty was to
take charge of its vineyards, of which the estab
lishment possessed the broadest and sunniest of the
whole country ; to receive fi-om the patient toilers
of the land the eleventh barrel of all the wine they
made, which their spiritual lords and temporal mas
ters of the abbey extorted from them ; to press the
grapes, to make the wine of the establishment, and

76 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
to store it a-w-ay in its cellars, together with that it
had squeezed out of its oppressed vassals,
Dom Perignon, born a taster and strengthened
by constant practice, became so expert that when,
in the decline of life, he was- blind, not one of his
holy brethren, even with the aid of his eyes, could
compete with him as a judge of wine. " Dom Pe
rignon," says an old chronicler, " being blind to
ward the end of his life, ordered the grapes of
different vineyards to be brought to him, recognized
each kind by the taste, and said, ' You must marry
(mix) the wine of this grape with that of the
other.' "
In the course of his multifarious wine-mixings
and experiments, Dom Perignon, who had already
by his skill raised the reputation of the wine of the
holy fathers of the monastery to the greatest height,
by hazard (or rather, it should be said, by the in
spiration of genius, for such accidents only happen
to genius) discovered the effervescing wine, now
known as champagne. The artful Dom kept the
secret to himself, and the wine for the symposia of
the holy and jovial brotherhood of the Abbey of
Saint Peter's. These spiritual fathers, however,
rewarded the piety of their royal sons and crowned
defenders of the faith with an occasional bottle.
Thus, thanks to the holy monks, the magnificent
Louis XIV. was enabled to relieve his formal tete-
d-tetes with the saintly Malntenon by a glass of
champagne ; the lively regent to give fresh impulse

A PIOUS PILGRIMAGE. 77
to the sallies of his petits-soupers; and the debauched
Louis XV. to revive in the orgies of the Petit Tri
anon the prostrated energies of an exhausted sensu
ality. Dom Perignon is said to have died in the full
odor of sanctity, gratefully remembered by his con
vivial and holy brethren, and his name should be
embalmed in the memory of every one -within the
sound of a pop of the champagne bottle. Among
his other virtues, heavenly and terrestrial, there is
not only the discovery of champagne, but that of the
cork, which he was the first to put into a bottle, for
before his time the only stopper used was a bunch
of flax soaked in oil,
I made a pious pilgrimage to Hautvillers, and,
passing along the principal street of the village, the
Bue Bacchus, which I thought must surely be the
road to the abbey of jovial fame, met a dwarfish sol
dier, in a blue capote. I asked him to point out to
me the way to the abbey. He touched his red cap
politely, and answered that he had never heard of it.
As French soldiers proverbially know nothing but
how to fight and to boast of it, I next asked a staid-
looking citizen in a black chapeau as tall as a chim
ney, who informed me that the abbey no longer ex
isted, but had been destroyed by the iconoclasts of
the first French Revolution, Lt Us avaient rai-
son ; " And they were right," muttered the prac
tical Frenchman,
The trade in champagne with the United States

78 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
is generally conducted through the medium of sta
tionary agents at New York, These receive the
wine on consignment, and dispose of it to the best
advantage of their principals. They are paid a
commission, -ordinarily varying from ten to twenty
per cent,, but which reaches sometimes twenty-five
and even thirty. When the brand of wine is well
known and esteemed, and the demand proportion
ately large and regular, the commission paid to the
agent is less ; and when unknown and of uncertain
sale, greater.
So much depends upon the mere name of a
champagne, that the most strenuous efforts are
made to give it circulation. Advertising, the brib
ing of grocers, wine dealers, hotel keepers, and
steamboat proprietors with low prices, that they
may make a proportionately large profit In retail
ing the champagne to their customers; the giving
of gratuities to bar-keepers and waiters to secure
their favor and insinuating commendations ; the
printing of showy labels and attractive cards, and
the pouring out profusely of the contents of sample
bottles to friends and chance visitors, are among
the ordinary means resorted to. These, of course,
are expensive, and if paid for by the agents, they
must be compensated by liberal commissions.
Such efforts, however great, are often unrewarded
with success, and many attempts to give currency
to a brand of wine have proved abortive. The
patience or the means, of both agent and principal,

AN EXPENSIVE EFFORT. 79
become exhausted, and after a more or less vigorous
feu de joie of the vinous artillery of some new
house, not a solitary pop of its cork is heard, I
can recollect some fifteen or sixteen years ago that
the wine of Max Sutaine burst all at once upon
us like a bouquet of French rockets. It was fizzing
here and fizzing there, dazzling our eyes with its
resplendent mottoes, and stunning our ears with its
detonations, but it suddenly went out in silence and
obscurity. Though the manufacturers of the wine were
among the richest of Rheilns, they found that the
feu d'artifice, with which their agent had been in
dulging the American public, was so costly and the
remuneration so uncertain, that they grudged the
expense and ordered the exhibition to be closed at
once. Their agent had spent some fifty thousand
dollars in the course of his display. He had, it is
true, succeeded in making known the name of his
principal, for he had printed It again and again in
every newspaper, pasted it on every wall, intruded
it by dozens of bottles into every editorial sanctum,
thrust it down the throat of every son of Bacchus,
and even displayed it in a great hall of the metrop
olis, crowning a fountain flowing with veritable
champagne wine, which he dispensed gratuitously
to a thirsty public.
Owing either to the want of persistence of the
manufacturer, or possibly to the satiety of the
American people, with a name which had been so

80 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
thrust upon them, there were none found willing to
purchase a bottle of Max Sutaine, The name was
accordingly changed, and the champagne, of a fair
average quality, was subsequently drank in the
United States under the brand of Farre & Co,,
of which house the widow of Max Sutaine was the
chief partner. She now, having got rid of the
Farres, continues the business under the brand of
Max Sutaine, which has lately been reintroduced to
American wine drinkers under the more favorable
auspices of an energetic and not immodest agent.
Such are the difficulties and the expenses of giv
ing currency to a brand of champagne, that many
years generally pass before the manufacturer is
enabled to obtain a remunerative profit for his wine.
The high commissions to his agents, or other costs
incurred in the course of making his name known,
not only absorb his profits, but frequently encroach
upon his capital.
The motives alleged by the manufacturers for
disposing of their wines exclusively through agents,
are, that the public can be sure of obtaining through
these authorized representatives their genuine prod
ucts, and that they are forced to select such agents
and secure to them a monopoly of their sales, as an
inducement to make the effort necessary to give
currency to a brand of champagne. There are two
well-known houses, however, — Roederer and Veuve
Clicquot, — which do not sell their wines in this
country through the medium of agents. The former

WINE TRAVELLERS. 81
has always sold its wine directly, but the latter has
only lately adopted the same system, with the hope
of avoiding further trouble with our custom-house
officers, by whom it has hitherto been greatly tor
mented. They each sell, however, only to a single
purchaser. In France and Europe the trade in champagne
wine is not carried on, as in the United States, by
means of stationary agents, but generally by travel
lers, or such persons as are called commis voyageurs
in French, and bagmen in English. These solicit
orders, and when they obtain them, send them to
the manufacturers at Rheims and elsewhere to be
executed. The producer of champagne thus be
comes for the most part the direct source of supply
to consumers ; and he furnishes his wine in almost
every degree of quantity, but generally in small
proportions, varying from two to five or six dozen
bottles. The trade in Europe, it will be seen, is for
the most part a retail one, and the nominal prices
of the wine, thus sold directly to European con
sumers, are much higher than those at which it is
invoiced when consigned to the agents of cham
pagne in the United States. Seventy-five centimes
(fifteen cents), or even a franc (twenty cents) a
bottle, is the estimated amount of the expenses of
a traveller. Apart from the salaries and cost of
travel, there is a large gratuitous pouring out of
wine. Taste being the only argument possible
6

82 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
wherewith to convince a customer, whether he be
gourmet, hotel keeper, or restaurateur, recourse is
frequently made to it. This serves greatly to in
crease a traveller's expenses, which rtot uncom
monly amount to seventy-five francs a day. Thus
it is that a bottle of champagne, which ordinarily
costs the producer two francs, and two francs and
a half per bottle, is sold by him In Europe at three
and a half or four francs, in which prices his profit
of ten sous or so per bottle, and the expenses of the
costly mode of sale, are Included.
As a general rule, champagne of a well-known
brand cannot be directly bought of its manufacturer
at Rheims. The agents in the United States, and
the travellers in other parts of the world, enjoy by
contract a monopoly of all sales. This privilege is
supposed to be necessary as an encouragement to
the exercise of that personal effort essential to
making known and selling the wine. It is impos
sible to obtain at Rheims, for love or money, a
bottle of genuine Clicquot or Roederer, that is to
say, a bottle with their names on, though wine of
the same vintage, or that of equally good or better
quality, can be obtained in any quantity the pur
chaser may desire.
There is no place, even in France, — if the con
sumer cannot trust to his own taste, but must have
the indorsement of Veuve Clicquot, — where he can
obtain that security except at the Grand Hotel and
the Hotel du Louvre, at Paris. It is only lately.

COSTLY LUXURY. 83
moreover, that the noted widow deigned to send
her bottles to these great caravansaries, in defer
ence, it is believed, to their Russian frequenters.
The wine of Roederer, though not sold to the con
sumer at Rheims, Is found in every hotel and res
taurant elsewhere.
Most of the manufacturers will unhesitatingly sell
the same wines as those which bear their name,
but under a different appellation. It is only the
monopoly of the brand which is granted, and not
that of the wine. An American purchaser, for ex
ample, can buy at Rheims, if he is willing to pay
for it, the best champagne ever made, provided he
will take it without the brand of Clicquot, De St,
Marceaux, or other, and substitute John Smith,
the American Eagle, or whatever may be his name
or fancy.
Though Rheims is the great centre of the manu
facture of and trade in champagne wines, it is a
costly luxury to the consumer. At the hotels he is
charged seven francs a bottle, notwithstanding that
so many millions of bottles are annually made in
the place, at an average cost to the manufacturer of
from two francs to two francs and a half each.
The functions of a traveller for a wine-house are
by no means light, and but few are able long to
perform them. The quantity of -vinous fluid he is
obliged to drink in the course of the performance
of his duties is a test of stomach, brain, and nerve,
that it would be supposed that nothing but a frame

84 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
of caoutchouc could withstand. One confessed to
me to have drunk two bottles of champagne a day
for ten years. He had thus, during that time,
poured down his throat 7300 quarts or 1825 gal
lons of wine. Beyond the scores on a rubicund
face, and perhaps a somewhat premature fullness
of the waistcoat, I did not discover any visible
record of this enormous consumption. Many of
the people, however, engaged in the wine business
of Rheims, have not been so fortunate as my travel
ling friend. Gout, rheumatism, and affections of
the nerves, stomach, and kidneys, are the not un-
frequent results of the excessive quantities of wine
absorbed by those whose business it is to make and
sell it. The tremulous hand and shaking head, I
fancied, were more common at Rheims than I had
noticed elsewhere. The wise head of the great
personage of the place has a pendulum-like move
ment, which I for a long time attributed to the
overweight of thought, but was told that it was one
of the effects of champagne drinking. The prudent
taster generally ejects the wine, after having moved
and held it long enough in his mouth for his tongue
and palate to catch its taste and distinguish its
flavor. The wine manufacturers of Rheims, most
ly of a rotundity of form and a ruddiness of com
plexion which befit their jovial trade, are not, it
must be acknowledged, substantial arguments in
proof of the wholesomeness of their product, of
which they are not reluctant consumers.

CHAMPAGNE NOT WINE. 85
The traveller of a wine-house must not only have
a strong head but a bold face, a voluble tongue, and
an indiscriminate and inexhaustible sociability. He
must never confess to a headache, he must be at
home in every company, must always have a story
to tell, never let the talk flag for a moment, and
clink glasses miscellaneously with all the world.
He is found everywhere, even In Turkey, where, in
spite of the Koran which forbids the use of wine
by the faithful, there Is a large consumption of
champagne. The conscience of the Mohammedan,
however, acquits itself of the sin of disobedience,
on the plea that it is not wine but champagne with
which he is intoxicating himself.

CHAPTER Vni.
The Germans at Rheims — The Mayor of Rheims —The Good
Apprentice — An Imperial Favorite — A Baron in the Wine
Trade — French and Germans Compared — A Nation of
Shopkeepers — Aristocracy of Wine Makers — Nobles in the
Business — Reflected Glory — An Old Family.
THE intrusive Germans who have thrust them
selves in large numbers Into Rheims, Epernay,
Chalons, Ay, and other towns and villages of the
neighboring country, have the chief control of the
wine-trade of Champagne, The Heidsiecks are
all of German origin, and the three houses known
in this country by that name are represented and
conducted either by Germans or their immediate
descendants. Piper, the chief capitalist, and for many years,
until prostrated by disease, the most energetic part
ner of the house formerly known as Heidsieck, but
now as H, Piper & Co., was born in Germany,
His associate and successor in the management of
the great establishment, Kunkelmann, came also
from the same country,
Heidsieck and the three other partners of the
firm of Heidsieck & Co., are all Teutons, and
Charles Heidsieck, of the house of Charles Held-

GERMANS. 87
sieck & Co., as his name indicates, comes of the
same stock,
Werler, the chief of the noted house of Veuve
Clicquot Ponsardin, came a poor boy to Rheims
from the Duchy of Nassau, Taken into the employ
of the Widow Clicquot as a lad of all work, with
the mere pittance of two dollars or so a week for
wages, his intelligent activity won for him rapid ad
vancement. The gossips of Rheims assert that the
blue eyes, ruddy face, and broad shoulders of the
youth, finding favor with the hitherto disconsolate
widow, caused a livelier appreciation of his moral
and intellectual qualities in the counting-house, and
gave an irresistible impulse to his progress.
The young German was soon made a partner,
and acquiring large wealth with the spread of the
brand of Widow Clicquot and the consequent ex
tension of her business, became a notable person
age. Changing his name from Werler into Werld,
and thus softening its Teutonic rudeness to please
the Gallic tongue and ear ; marrying a French wife,
and assuming, with the facility of self-expatriation
of his countrymen, who can hardly be considered
as having a country of their own, citizenship in
France, he pursued a career of shrewd compliance
which has met with its earthly reward. He is the
richest raan in Rheims, and one of the richest in
France, having, it is said, accumulated a fortune of
four or five millions of dollars. Like most thriving
French citizen traders, the bourgeois of practical

88 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
France, he is an ardent imperialist. Louis Napo
leon has accordingly taken Monsieur WerM into
especial favor, of which he has given him various
unmistakable marks. He has been decorated over
and over again with red ribbons ; been made by the
Emperor Mayor of Rheims ; and universal suffrage,
with polite deference to imperial will, has chosen
him one of the deputies to the Corps Legislatif from
the department of the Marne.
Imperial regard has condescended even to care
for the domestic interests of the imperial favorite.
The Emperor has married the son and daughter of
the wine-merchant to the children of two of his
court favorites, M, WerlS's son is now the hus
band of the daughter of the Due de Montebello ;
and M. World's daughter the wife of M. Magne,
whose father is a minister of state. Imperial maj
esty — with redoubled force of condescension, for the
Empress on this occasion was by the side of the
Emperor — honored the baptism of the infant of the
Magnes and grandchild of WerM, The Emperor,
it is said, will do any thing for his favorite wine-
merchant but drink his champagne, as his taste
having been formed during his convivial days in
England, he prefers a drier wine. Werle is des
tined to a senatorship at least, and possibly to a
renewal in his person of the ancient title of Count
of Champagne.
Another partner of the house of Veuve Clicquot
Ponsardin, is Baron de Sachs, as he styles himself.

A WINE BARON. 89
He also is a German, and a nephew, it is believed,
of Werler, Although boasting a German title, he
was not better provided for in his youth than his
poor and adventurous uncle, to whom he is indebted
for all he has in the world, except the barony, for
which neither that relative nor any of his ancestors
are in fact responsible. It seems no uncommon
thing for foreigners in France, particularly Ger
mans, when sufficiently obscure or remote from
their native places to baffle inquiry, to assume the
rank of Baron or Count, to which they are no more
entitled than to the empire of the Csesars,
This Baron de Sachs seemed always to be troubled
with an uneasy consciousness that his title, soraehow
or other, either through his own forgetfulness or the
ignorance of every one else of his claim to it, would
give him the slip. He accordingly took care, wheth
er he had a bill of wine to receipt or an invoice
to swear to, to secure a record of the barony, by
writing his title in full. In his brand new chateau
a monogram indicating the baronial claims of its
proprietor stares you from every cornice and win
dow without, and from every carpet and curtain
within. Valet and chamber-maid are enjoined
never to forget the baron and baroness in their
addresses to their master and mistress, on pain of
instant dismissal. When the baron first presented
himself to me, he brought with him a footman to
carry the invoice which it was my official duty to
legalize, I so far, under the leveling suggestion of

90 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
the Stars and Stripes which hung above my head,
forgot the distance between the height of the baron
and the lowliness of the servitor that I insisted
upon the latter taking a seat, which he resisted
for a long time, awed by the imposing presence of
his master. I finally, however, succeeded, but it
was the last time the baron visited me in such state.
He always came afterwards in solitary grandeur.
The house of Roederer owes its origin to one
Schroeder, a German, and his nephews, the present
chiefs, though born in France, have all the sub
stantial physical characteristics and plodding mental
qualities of the Teutonic race ; while their partner,
Kraft, whose trading artifices as a traveller in Rus
sia were so successful, was born and bred in Ger
many. The representatives at Rheims of the two houses
of the Mumms, are, like their principals, both
Germans. There is. In fact, not a single wine establishment
in all Champagne which is not under the control,
more or less, of a native of Germany. If the nom
inal head should chance to be a Frenchman, he is
sure to have a partner or a chief clerk of that
country. There was, however, a champagne house
which happened to be controlled exclusively by na
tives of France. It became bankrupt while I was
at Rheims, and it was a common remark that it
perished for want of a German.
When I asked how it had happened that, to con-

THE TRUE SHOPKEEPER. 91
duct so national a trade as that of champagne wine,
France had called Germany to its aid, I was told
that it was owing to the fact that there were so few
Frenchmen, and so many Germans, who had a
knowledge of foreign languages. This can hardly
be the full explanation, for it would seem easy to
employ good linguists to serve as travellers or
foreign correspondents, without giving up, as the
French have done, the whole control of an impor
tant national trade to a foreign people,
I fancy that the French have a natural inapti
tude for commerce. With an unquestioned supe
riority of taste, a precise attention to details, much
thriftiness, an easy compliance, and a polite address,
they make good workmen and excellent small deal
ers. Napoleon called the English a nation of shop
keepers. The saying in its literal sense Is more justly
applicable to the French. They are emphatically the
shopkeepers of the world. Wherever the traveller
goes, he finds the Parisian monsieur or madame in
stalled behind the counters of the confectionary,
perfumery, millinery, and curiosity shops. It is so
at Rio Janeiro, Lima, Valparaiso, and over the
whole continent of America ; but the Frenchman
is rarely found in the counting-houses of those
places. While he is the shopkeeper, the German,
the Englishman, and the American are the mer
chants. It is the same to a certain extent even in France,
The Frenchman contents himself for the most part

92 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
with adjusting a color, devising a pattern, inventing
a toy, or peddling small wares ; while he leaves the
managerrient of the great financial, manufacturing,
and commercial establishments of his country to its
adopted citizens from Germany or elsewhere.
The sound, practical education of the German is
doubtless the secret of his success in France and in
other countries, where he rivals in prosperity more
enterprising and commercial people than the French.
It is comparatively the poor man in Germany — the
one that has to seek his fortune — who is so well dis
ciplined by the excellent schools of his country for
the struggle with life. He is thoroughly drilled In
all that is essential to a commercial education, and
is generally taught all the modern languages, —
and so well taught that he can speak them fluently
without having left his native land. Being poor,
and generally unable to meet with the success in
his own overcrowded country to which his intelli
gent ambition aspires, he is ever ready to journey
into other lands, where he knows that his superi
ority to those of his class will be sure to secure for
him the object of his desires.
He seldom finds a successful competitor in France, '
for the poor Frenchman wants his educated capac
ity, and the educated Frenchman his impelling
necessities. The needy but well-instructed Ger
man, combining in his own person the means of
the one and the motives of the other, spurred by
poverty and trained by education, soon takes the

THE WINE ARISTOCRATS. 93
lead in the race and wins the prize of life. Exer
cised, too, in the forced self-denial of early poverty,
and the obsequious deference Imposed by his hum
ble origin, he is a cheap and willing servitor. He
has thus all the elements of success In trade, — capac
ity, thrift, and devotion ; and it Is not surprising
that with such qualities the German should succeed
in Rheims and elsewhere.
It would have been difficult for me to have dis
covered, from any intrinsic qualities they possessed,
that the wine-merchants constituted the aristocracy
of Rheims, That, however, being generally ac
cepted as a fact in the place, I am bound to record
it. They are certainly the plutocracy, for the
largest fortunes are possessed by them, and the
greatest capital is employed. In their trade, though
the wool-combers and manufacturers are fast gain
ing upon them.
So convinced is the wine manufacturer of his
superiority in rank, that he generally avoids all in
timate association with others than those engaged
in the same trade. Thus the wool and the wine
people form two different and distinct societies at
Rheims, The man who puts a flannel shirt on a
back Is almost sc'orned by him who pours a bottle of '
champagne into the corresponding belly. To satisfy
an artificial thirst is deemed a more dignified func
tion than clothing the naked.
There are, however, it is true, some more or less
genuine nobles engaged in the manufacture of

94 TEE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
champagne, or connected by alliance with those
who are. Without counting the Baron de Sachs,
to whom justice has already been done, there are
the Duke of Montebello and the Viscount de Bri-
mont, both of whom are makers of and dealers in
champagne. The Duke of Montebello is the son
of Napoleon's marshal, Lannes. Becoming pos
sessed, by purchase for a small sum, of an ancient
chateau on the banks of the Marne, and amid the
celebrated vineyards of Ay, he not unnaturally
took to the trade of wine-making. Though high
in the favor of Louis Napoleon, who sent him as
ambassador to Russia, and conferred upon him and
his son other offices and dignities, and withal the
son of a duke,' he thought it not derogatory to his
rank or descent to engage in the profitable business
of selling champagne. The brand of wine known
as Montebello comes directly from the Duke's cha
teau, within the ancient walls of which he has
installed his manufactory, and beneath the ancestral
domain hollowed out his cellars. The Duke, as he
is poor, has made, in becoming a tradesman, a sen
sible concession to the practical demands of the age.
Apart, too, from his necessities, he may have
thought that the obligations of rstuk, which in his
case dated back but one generation, — for his father,
the great marshal, had commenced life as a dyer,
— were too feeble to be reearded.
The Viscount de Brimont is known to cham
pagne drinkers by his family name of Ruinart, He

REFLECTED GLORY. 95
is a descendant — a collateral one. It is supposed —
of one Dom Ruinart, who was of the convivial and
holy brotherhood of the monastery of Hautvillers,
How he became possessed of his rank I have never
heard ; but the wine manufactory of which he is
proprietor is one of the most ancient in Champagne,
whatever may be the antiquity of his title. His
wine was in former times in considerable vogue,
and his bottles may now occasionally be seen with
the brand of Buinart, pire ei fils.
The wine-trade of Champagne has received a
reflected glory from the aristocratic alliances con
tracted by Madame Clicquot. As the best blood of
France can always be purchased by the heaviest
purses, she obtained by her wealth the hand of the
Comte de Chevign^ for her only daughter. " This
gentilhomme Breton, d'antique race, was descended
from parents who had the signal honor," we trans
late from his biographer, " of assisting at the balls
of Marie Antoinette, of being invited to the theatre
at Versailles, of riding in the carriages of Louis
XVL, and of accompanying his majesty to the
hunt." His countess is dead ; but she left a daugh
ter, who in her turn, so far from derogating from
the aristocratic predilections of her mother for no
bility, rather improved upon them by marrying the
Count Louis - Samuel - Victorien Rochechouart de
Mortemart. The antiquity of his descent is proved
by his arms, which bear upon them some waves
rampant, with the motto, —

96 TEE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
Avant que la mer fut au monde
Rochechouart portait des ondes.
Before God made the sea to roll,
Rochechouart bore waves on his scroll.
The Widow Clicquot, to do honor to her titled
children, bought the old feudal manor of Bour-
sault, which formerly belonged to the D'Orsays,
Not content, however, with the old-fashioned house
at the bottom, she raised an imposing structure at
the top of the hill. This, which can be seen from
the railway as you pass Epernay, Is as much like
a veritable chateau, with pepper-box turrets, as
the imagination of the aspiring architect, aided by
all the wealth of the Clicquots, could make it.
Its grandiose spaciousness and luxurious appurte
nances make It the wonder of every Parisian ba-
daud and rustic visitor. Among Its other attractions
is a dining-room, adorned with elaborate armorial
carvings in wood, with which are intertwined the
initials C. and M., of the noble names Chevign^ and
Mortemart, On one occasion a party of the neighboring
farmers paid a visit to the chateau to Inspect Its
wonders. They were conducted by a zealous servi
tor through all the show apartments. On reaching
the dining-room, he pointed, with conscious pride
at serving such distinguished masters, to the carved
armorial shields surmounted with a double crown,
and bearing in letters of gold the initials C. and M,
" You see," said the cicerone to his gaping listen
ers, " those letters mean ChevignS-Mortemart."

CONTES REMOIS. 97
" Bah ! " replied one of the knowing country
men. " Get out with your Chevigne-Mortemarts."
" But, I assure you " —
" Bah ! " repeated the confident spokesman.
" You are quite off the track : they mean, I tell
you, Champagne Mousseux. Wasn't that the mak
ing of their fortune ? "
Comie de Ghevigne has employed his aristocratic
leisure in writing and publishing a little book, en
titled Les Contes Bemois. It is a neatly printed
volume, and contains some graceful sketches by
Melssonier and Foulquier. The tales themselves
are Imitations of Boccaccio and Lafontalne, and have
none of the wit and grace, but all the erossness, of
those authors.
The Comte de Mortemart gives his spare mo
ments to art, and once painted a picture, " which
was admitted by the committee on painting into
the Paris Exhibition."

CHAPTER IX.
The Wine Country — The Famous Vineyards — Sobriety of
Scene — Subdivision of Land — Villages and Inhabitants —
Chateaux — Extent of Vineyards — A Travelled Wine — A
Delicate Native — The Grape — Different Qualities.
RHEIMS, though the chief seat of the manufac
ture of champagne wine and of its trade, is
somewhat remote from the famous vineyards. The
town lies in a basin which commences to rise, about
five or six miles away, into an amphitheatre of hills
which roll on beyond for ten leagues or so, in suc
cessive waves of low heights, until again subsiding
into the vast plain which forms the department of
the Marne.
On the acclivities of these hills grow the grapes
from which Is made the famous champagne wine.
This generous product flourishes in a soil so in
hospitable to all other that It has been long known
as Champagne pouilleuse, — lousy or beggarly Cham
pagne, — to distinguish it from the richer parts of the
ancient province of that name. The department
of the Marne is chiefly formed of a vast plain of
dry and undulating chalk, and the hills upon which
the champagne grape grows are composed of that

THE FAMOUS VINEYARDS. 99
substance, with a thin alluvial soil spread over
them. The vine is cultivated in the five arrondissements
of the department : Chalons sur Marne, Epernay,
Bheims, Sainte-Menehould, and Vitry-le-Frangais.
It is only, however. In those of Rheims and Eper
nay where the grape is produced of which the gen
uine champagne wine is made.
In the shallow valleys formed by the hills of little
height, and upon the banks of the river Marne,
which flows through them and washes their chalky
bases, are various towns and hamlets, known by
name to all drinkers of champagne. Going south
and east frora Rheims two leagues distant, leaving
on our right Ville-Dommange and Rilly, — where
excellent red wines are made, but only drank at
home, — we reach Sillery, which has a reputation,
which belongs by right to its neighbor Verzenay, of
producing a grape which is an essential ingredient
of all good champagne. The vineyards of Verze
nay commence their rise just at the outskirts of the
little hamlet of Sillery. They then extend some
five or six miles south until they reach those of
Bouzy. Descending the hills of this suggestively
named place, we reach the banks of the Marne.
We have now left the vineyards which produce the
wine called the wine of the mountain, le vin de la
montagne, and, turning westward along the bank of
the river, we arrive at Mareuil sur Ay and Ay,
where we are among the vineyards from which is

100 TEE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
obtained the vin de la riviere, the wine of the river.
Continuing the same course, we enter Dizy, another
name suggestive of its potent product, and, still
among the vineyards of the river, extend our sur
vey to Hautvillers, of jovial fame. On crossing the
Marne, we pass through the town of Epernay, and,
going south through Pierry, Cramant, and Avize,
we reach Vertus, the limit of the champagne dis
trict, ten leagues away from Rheims.
The basin in which the town of Rheims lies,
though laboriously cultivated and forced Into the
production of fair harvests of oats, barley, and other
grain, has a desert-like look. Its shallow spacious
ness, the scarcity of trees, the few farm-houses and
scattered windmills bare of all shade and shrubbery,
the want of fences or hedges, — for the divisions of
the land are marked only by solitary and almost in
visible stones, — give it an appearance to the hasty
view of a widely extended and arid plain. The
only relief to the eye are the distant hills which in
close it, the tall and scraggy poplars that stand stiffly
on either side of the canal, the scrubby growth
which hides the lazy current of the filthy Vesle, the
pepper-box turrets of some ambitious citizen's cha
teau rising out of the trim and scanty foliage which
surrounds it, and the courses of the railways,
marked by their carefully tended embankments of
grass and hedges of hawthorn.
The wine district, though by no means highly pict
uresque, affords a refreshing change to the eye from

CEARACTER OF SCENE. 101
the duller aspect of the immediate neighborhood
of Rheims. The undulations of the ground give
greater variety, of course, to the scenery. There
are little hills and shallow vales, though not moun
tains and valleys, as the Inhabitants insist upon call
ing them ; and these, with their varying forms and
position, afford some diversity. The eye meets with
an occasional surprise on shifting Its point of vision.
A step or two higher raay bring hitherto unseen
hills Into view, or a turn to the right or left reveal
an unexpected nook in which are nestling thatched
farm-house, dusty flour-mill, and old rustic church.
There is a great uniformity, however, even in the
wine country, though its careful culture, the thrifty
look of its villages, the cleanliness and excellence of
its roads, and the suggestions everywhere met of its
exhilarating product, give it a cheerful aspect. It
is, however, wondrously sober and quiet looking, for
the source of so much noise and excitement else
where ; but turbulent streams often rise from placid
springs. The conformation of the hills is very similar.
Their natural features hardly vary. Their height
is nearly the same, and whatever Irregularities there
may have been on their surfaces have been long
since smoothed over by constant and careful culture.
The exclusive growth of the vine, the even height
to which it is cut, the regularity with which it is
planted, the uniform length and color of the poles to
which it is attached, the absence of all landmarks

102 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
except the almost invisible boundary stones, and the
entire want of trees or shrubs of any kind, make
these A'ine-clad hills of Champagne so alike that
none but a proprietor, stimulated by the interest of
ownership, can distinguish one from the other.
The land is here, as in other parts of France,
minutely subdivided, and many a proprietor has a
vineyard no bigger than he could cover with the
broad linen sheets of his best bed. There are
about 16,412 hectares (41,030 acres) of land shared
among 16,095 owners. These small proprietors,
who are the principal inhabitants, live in the vari
ous hamlets and towns about which are clustered
the vine hills. They form a very thriving popula
tion, unconscious of pauperism and undisturbed by
fears of it. The villages in which they live are all
built of stone, and each house is a plain but solid
structure. All these towns and hamlets appear, very sombre
to the passing visitor, for the narrow streets are
flanked with great walls of stone behind which the
inhabitants hide their houses and gardens, and thus
seclude their homes frorri view. These people are
neither shy nor unsociable, for you will find them
each day in the public place about the old church,
engaged in lively chat with their neighbors, or in
the CafS de V Univers, playing billiards or dominoes
with any chance comer, or sharing a bottle of wine
with sorae vagrant soldier, under the bush which
hangs over the door of the village cabaret. All

CEATEAUX. 103
Frenchmen, though so fond of society, shut up their
houses close, for some reason or other ; it may be,
as it has been said, that they do so to prevent their
susceptible countrymen from becoming too famihar
with their wives and daughters. Whatever may be
the cause, this walling themselves in gives great
dullness to all the provincial towns and villages of
the French.
At Epernay, Chalons, and Ay, which are towns
of some magnitude, there are, in addition to the
houses of the wine-growers, large manufactories,
whole streets of shops, and the humble dwellings of
a numerous class of daily laborers. In alraost every
hamlet there are wine-presses, and at Verzenay
Moet & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, and others, have
their principal establishments of this kind.
Near Epernay, as I have related, is the new
chateau of Boursault, built by Madame Clicquot,
in order that she and her children might be lodged
in a dignified accordance with their purchased alli
ance with nobility. At Sillery is an old chateau
formerly belonging to, and Inhabited by, Madarae de
Genlis, but now possessed by Jacquesson, a wealthy
wine lord, who has added two or three new turrets
to it, dug out a raoat, thrown over it a drawbridge,
and renovated the whole structure with a coat of
paint or whitewash. At Mareuil sur Ay is the
chateau of the Duke of Montebello, who bought it
for a mere song from the descendant of an effete
noble family, who refused to sell it at any price to

104 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
any one who was not at least a marquis of the old
rSgime, or a duke of the new, to either of whora
he was willing to yield it for a coraparatively sraall
sum. There are various other chateaux and country
residences scattered over the wine country, but
singularly few and unattractive, when it is consid
ered that it contains so many thriving towns, among
whose inhabitants there are not a few wealthy raen ;
but the French people in fact, unlike the English
and Araericans, are not fond of living away from a
crowded population. They cannot endure the iso
lation of a life in the country, where, remote from
the cafS and the theatre, they are condemned to the
exclusive society of their own wives.
The vineyards of the whole departraent cover
about 18,000 hectares of land (45,000 acres), which
produce 636,200 hectolitres (13,996,400 gallons)
of wine, of which the inhabitants consurae 250,000
(5,500,000 gallons). This, however. It raust be
well understood, is not all vin mousseux, or what
we know as champagne wine. Large quantities of
ordinary red wine are produced in the country for
the common consumption, and some little choice
red wine for the drinking of the exclusive few. Of
the latter the Billy and Bouzy are highly esteemed,
and can only be obtained in perfection at the tables
of the wealthy wine-merchants, or by paying the
high price of seven or eight francs a bottle in the
best hotels and restaurants of Rheims and its neieh-
borhood.

A TRAVELLED WINE. 105
The history of the famous Rilly — a rare bottle
of which the hospitable Mayor of Rheiras dispenses
occasionally to an appreciative guest, yields in grate
ful vassalage to his iraperial patron, and bestows
upon his aristocratic friends and relatives — is thus
told by a conteraporary French chronicler : —
Monsieur Werle received one day frora New
York an order to send there a hundred cases of
charapagne. Profiting by the occasion of the long
voyage to be made by this wine, he sent with it for
company a dozen of red wine of the vintage of
1802, with a request to his correspondent to keep
them in his cellars at New York for three months,
and then send them back.
When the case returned the sides of each bottle
were covered with a kind of sediment and the wine
clouded. Mayor World let it repose for six weeks,
and then poured it into fresh bottles. It was now
perfectly clear and of a delicious quality. The wine
in becoming exquisite had changed color, " It had
been sent red to Araerica, and, It came back with a
beautiful shade of onion peel," " This," adds the
chronicler, " is how the house of Clicquot was ena
bled thenceforward to add to their other excellent
supplies the wine of Billy la Montagne, which is
disputed for at the table of princes,"
I have tasted both Billy and Bouzy under the
favorable auspices of a seat at the best tables of
Rheiras, and I can vouch for the justice of the
great reputation of these exquisite wines. They

106 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
have the external appearance of the red Bordeauxs
and Burgundies, but intrinsic qualities which are all
their own. With an aroraa and bouquet peculiar
to theraselves, they have the animation of Clos-
Vouglot without its headiness, and the smoothness of
Chateau-Lafitte with more unctuousness. When
perfected and ready for drinking, their organization
is said to be so delicate that they are incapable of
bearing a journey further than from the cellar to
the table, A voyage from Rheims to Paris is sure
to sicken them, and give such a shock to their deli
cate constitution that they never recover.
The ordinary red wines of the country compare
favorably with those of Burgundy and Bordeaux,
and can be had so cheap that none, even the poor
est, need deprive themselves of their freest use. At
the hotel they were supplied gratuitously at the dis
cretion of the guest, and a bottle of the best can
be purchased at Rheims for a few sous.
The grape frora which the vin mousseux, or what
we know as champagne, is made, is grown chiefly
in the vineyards of Verzenay, Bouzy, Mareuil sur
Ay, Dizy, Hautvillers, Epernay, Pierry, Cramant,
Avize, Mesnil, and Vertus, The grape, contrary
to what is generally supposed, is chiefly a red or
black one, though the champagne wine, as we all
know, which .it produces is of a light amber color.
The white grape is also cultivated, chiefly at Cra
mant, but much less abundantly than the red or
black.

THE DIFFERENT QUALITIES OF GRAPE. 107
Each place produces a wine with qualities pecul
iar to itself. The wines of the mountain are said
to have more body than those of the river. There
are still nicer distinctions which only a skilled taster
can appreciate ; but that they exist can hardly be
doubted, for no champagne wine, unless it combines
by mixture the separate qualities of each vineyard,
is deemed complete. The best bottle of champagne
may be called the ideal of the art of wine-making.
The manufacturer is like the artist, who selects his
elements of beauty from individual examples, taking
here a brilliant eye, and there a graceful curve, a
feature or an expression, and unites them in his
perfected statue or picture.
In making his wine, the manufacturer chooses
with a discriminating taste the separate products of
the various vineyards, and combining their different
qualities, thus presents us with his perfected whole
in the shape of that modern triumph of the ceno-
logical art, the bottle of champagne.
The white grape is cultivated because it gives a
light wine, which readily effervesces. It Is there
fore an element in all champagnes, but enters
more largely into the cheaper ones, intended for
popular consumption. The vulgar taste is always
pleased with and influenced by froth. The ju
dicious few in.sist upon more substantial qualities.
The choicer elements of the best charapagnes are
derived from the black grape, which gives all the
solid vinous qualities.

108 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
The skilled taste of the wine manufacturer dis
tinguishes even the lightest shades of difference
between the various products of the black grape,
and is never content with a mixture which does not
combine the peculiar qualities of all. The char
acter of the grape depends less upon the origin of
the vine than upon the soil In which it is growh,
and it would seem that the flavor of the product
is affected by the slightest change. The wine of
Pierry (from pierreux, stony), for example, has a
very perceptible taste of gun flints (I state it on
the best vinous authority), which abound in the
chalky soil of its vineyards. This gout de pierre d
fusil Is so emphatic as to distinguish the wine of
Pierry prominently from that of its nearest neigh
bors.

CHAPTER X.
The Wonderful Season of 1865 — Hopes and Fears of Wine-
Growers — The Vintage — A Trip to Verzenay — From
Rheims into the Country — A Still Scene — Monsieur Jacques-
son and his Projects — Sillery — A Comic Opera Scene.
r I IHE sumraer and autumn of the year 1865 were
-*-, the most remarkable seasons ever known to
the " oldest inhabitant " of temperate Europe.
Days of bright suns and clear skies followed each
other in almost constant succession; weeks passed,
and sometimes months, without the one being hard
ly obscured by a passing cloud, or the other tem
pered by a falling shower.
The soil had drunk deep of a plentiful moisture
from the bounteous rains of spring, and filled the
vegetation with a rich nutriment, A plentiful sap
circulated throughout every growing plant, and its
delicate vessels and tender skin were ready to burst
with distension. The swollen buds, succeeded by a
vigorous growth of wood and foliage, and a gross
but a yet immature fruit, were contemplated by
every cultivator with mingled hope and fear. His
hope was in the chance of a hot and dry summer
and a benign autumn ; these he knew would secure

110 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
for him an unexampled wealth of harvest. His
fear was in the chance of a cold wet summer and a
stormy autumn. These he knew would give him a
continued growth of the forward spring, and though
an abundant, an unripe and rotting crop.
The sumraer and auturan were favorable beyond
his hopes. They were, in fact, such seasons of
ripening power as could alone have matured a
superabundance of vitality, which threatened un
due precocity and consequent decay. The summer
and autumn of 1865 were even superfluously gen
erous of their favoring influences, " Ceres and
Pomona were so vivified," said a local French pjet,
" by the constant embraces of the fervid Phcebus,
that they even transcended the laws of their nature,
and gave birth to an immediate succession of issue,"
In plain English, plants, "vines, and fruit-trees gave
double and even treble crops. It was no uncom
mon thing to find a vine bearing at the same time
grapes ready to be plucked, those of a subsequent
growth not yet ripe, blossoms in full flower, and
shooting buds.
Wine-growers, like most of those engaged in the
cultivation of the land, whose success depends upon
the ever fiuctuating changes of the seasons, are an
anxious race. Not knowing what a day may bring
forth, they can never repose in the enjoyment of
the sun of the present, for they are disquieted by
the fear of the storm of to-morrow.
When the sun, however, continued to shine day

HOPES AND FEARS OF WINE-GROWERS. Ill
after day during the famous summer and autumn
of 1865, the anxious wine-grower of Champagne
even became confident, although I met, here and
there, some such confirmed doubters that they were
unwilling to put their faith in fine weather, how
ever constant, and would darken its cheerful brieht-
ness with a foreboding of a hail-storm.
The wine-growers, however, in spite of their
habitual querulousness, yielded gradually to the
constant and irresistible influences of the sunny
season. The hot and clear weather continuing without
abatement throughout the summer, the grapes were
ready to be plucked at the end of August and the
beginning of September, The vintage had begun
some three weeks earlier than usual. Every one
was In a joyous huraor, and talked of the abun
dance and excellence of the crop. It is difficult for
those -who have not lived in an agricultural or wine
growing country to conceive the aniraated happi
ness produced by a prosperous harvest. The ex
hilaration is universal, and heightened by the usual
uncertainties and frequent disappointments attendant
upon the cultivation of the soil. It is as if every
man had drawn a prize In a lottery which often
gives nothing but blanks.
Inspired by the general cheerfulness, with an
interest in the vintage, and curious as a stranger to
learn its conduct, I readily accepted the Invitation
of a young wine-merchant of Rheims to accom-

112 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
pany him to Verzenay, then In the fullness of its
harvest. It was on the morning of the 8th of September,
1865, — said to be the hottest day ever known in
the country, — that my friend carae rattling over the
cobble stones of the solitary court-yard of the Hotel
du Lion d' Or in search of rae. He had a hamper
of his best vin mousseux, he said, in the vehicle, and
I contributed a package of cigars and some ice,
warmly wrapped In a bit of old carpet, from the
stores of the hotel, to the provisions for that day, the
heat of which required every possible allevlalion.
Though tempered in hotter climates, I had no
sooner driven out of the sombre hotel and the deep
shade of the great Cathedral, by which it has been
darkened for ages, than I was conscious that the
temperature of Rheims even could occasionally rise
to a height to test the endurance of the most sun
baked. My corapanion had provided himself at the livery-
stable with a shabby and shaky turn-out, a one-
horse affair, in fact. It was certainly an unpretend
ing establishment, with its joints enfeebled by time
and use, and its springs bent and relaxed by the
weight of age. It made, however, too great a
noise in the world for its modest pretensions as it
rumbled over the big paving stones of the town.
We startled the pretty maidens in bright ribboned
caps and vari-colored zouave jackets, thronging the
narrow streets with great rolls of woolen cloth

INTO TEE COUNTRY. 113
under each arm, on their way to and from the
woolen factories ; we brought to the doors of the
cafes their idle frequenters, followed by the gargons
in white aprons and with flowing napkins ; we
called to each shop-door and house- window neat
dames and untidy females. In every variety of cos
tume and deshabille; and arrested at every corner
the attention of gaping soldiers and inquisitive gens
d'armes. The streets of Rheims, though Rheims
is a large and thriving town of some sixty thousand
inhabitants, are generally so quiet, and passing equi
pages of all kinds so rare, that one has only to drive
through its streets to secure the universal observa
tion of their secluded but curious inhabitants.
Our horse was in character with the shabby and
decrepit vehicle he trailed slowly after him. He
was, said my companion, doux and sage, and he
proved both gentle and discreet, always prudently
walking up the hills, and not viciously running
away down them. We could thus let the reins fall
upon his haunches, and leave him to jog along at
his discretion, while we drank our champagne,
smoked our cigars, and surveyed the country. My
companion modestly apologized for the shabbiness
of horse and carriage, saying that every bit of
horse-flesh that had life enough in it to move was
on the go, and each thing made to carry was in
requisition in consequence of the vendange and the
chasse, for the shooting had opened with the vint
age. He deemed hiraself, he said, fortunate on

114 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
that busy day In getting what he had got, unstylish
as he acknowledged both beast and wagon to be.
Making our noisy way through the quiet streets
of the old town, and obtaining more notice than we
solicited or desired, we passed through the hand
some iron gate of the city, saluted politely by its
liveried guardians in great cocked hats, into a broad
avenue planted on either side with poplars.
We were now out into the country -with 'great
stretches of cultivated field ojn all sides, which,
however, looked bare and uninteresting, as there
was neither a fence, a hedge, or a tree to vary the
dull uniformity. There was so little life raoving
that the view of. a single sportsman, who, with the
aid of a dog, was working a stubble, seeraed as
unreal to me as a picture.
After toiling in the hot sun up a hill, and
reaching the top, we could see on looking back the
great Cathedral, which, with its massive grandeur,
dominates the whole town, the buildings of which
seem so diminutive and insignificant in comparison,
that the eye hardly heeds them. This noble struct
ure rises so high and extends so wide, that the
graceful columns of its unfinished spires. Its auda
cious flying buttresses, its lofty eaves, and the solid
mass of the great body of the edifice, can be seen
miles away.
Before us, as we jog along on our route, the land
becomes more undulating, and rises gradually in
the distance into hills. There are the vineyards.

A QUIET SCENE. 115
and among other towns and villages, Verzenay,
the object of our journey, eight miles distant from
Rheims, On reaching the rising ground our view pro
portionately extended, and the country naturally
appeared more varied. The carefully planted pop
lars marked the course of the sluggish canal, upon
which great boats were being dragged with toilsome
effort. The languid Vesle was glistening here and
there in the light of the sun, where not shaded by
the scant and scrubby shrubbery of its banks. But
the stretch of desert-like and unfenced field was
still the predominating feature of -the landscape,
though its uniformity was now raore often relieved
by an occasional windmill and some scattered farm
houses. A solitary shepherd could be seen now and
then leading (for in France sheep are led and not
driven) his flock to a fresh pasture, or watching it
as it browsed upon sorae uninclosed field.
The road, in the jockey's sense, was perfect;
nothing could be smoother and better adapted for
wheel and hoof. Like all the French highways. It
was wide, direct, and most carefully tended. The
white chalk, however, of which it was mainly
formed, threw the reflection of the hot sun full
into our faces, and alraost blinded our eyes.
The quietude of the country was surprising.
There was hardly a sound but the shrill whistle,
heard but for a raoraent, of the rushing railway
engine. This told -the story probably of the ex-

116 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
cessive stillness of the old highway. The railway
had absorbed all the trade of traffic and pleasure.
No buildings were to be seen by the roadside,
except at rare intervals an inhospitable-looking tav
ern of gray stone, with no raore grace of outline
than the house a child draws upon his slate. These
stood bare, without a tree to shade them, or a vine
or a shrub to mitigate their staring aspect. Veri
table bushes hung over the door of each of them ;
and in spite of the old proverb that " Good wine
needs no bush," I thought that such ungenial
sti-uctures required every possible indication of any
good cheer they raight have to offer.
But few vehicles were met on the road, and only
as we approached the vineyards, when an occa
sional long, narrow cart came lumbering along.
Each of these carried a lengthened row of barrels
filled with juice just pressed from freshly-plucked
grapes. This was being carried to the depots of
the manufacturers of Rheiras, in whose purgatorial
cellars it was destined to lie until it should spirit
ualize itself by its own inward force, and finally be
converted into wine. Conscious of the delicacy of
their charge, the cartraen had taken care to cover
the barrels with tarpaulins, or thick layers of green
leaves, to shield thera from the hot sun.
On approaching Sillery, we passed through the
extensive but abortive vineyards of the great landed
proprietor and wine manufacturer, Jacquesson. A
resolute projector, he is ever experimenting, but

MONSIEUR JACQUESSON. 117
hitherto with no gain to the public and a great loss
to himself. With a theory peculiar to his own busy
conception, he plants his vines in deep trenches,
which give his vineyards the appearance of great
celery ,beds.
As hail-storms are frequent in that neighbor
hood, and often terribly destructive, M. Jacques
son has devised a contrivance for the security of his
property which we should deem less certain than
an insurance in some of the many companies of
France, which include among the risks they take
that of damage by hall-storras. He has erected
low posts along the edges of his vine-fields, and has
placed wide boards at hand, with the view of plac
ing thera on these posts, and thus roofing over his
threatened crops in case of a shower of hail. As
such showers corae suddenly, and fall so partially
as often to crush the grapes of one field to stones,
while they do not touch a leaf of another by its
side, it Is difficult to conceive how Monsieur
Jacquesson, with all his foresight and his numerous
gang of laborers, can give effect to his elaborate
and expensive device, I was not therefore aston
ished to hear that the projector had already ab
sorbed, in his vain struggle with the elements and
his numerous other experiments, a large portion of
the goodly fortune he had inherited from his father^
The land, moreover, of Sillery and its Imraediate
neighborhood lies too low, and is too wet for the
cultivation of the grape. The product is accord-

118 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
ingly valueless, notwithstanding the labor and ex
pense bestowed upon it by Its enterprising and
prodigal proprietor.
The reputation which has been attached so long
to Sillery belongs entirely to its neighbor, Verzenay,
the vine-hills of which coraraence just at the ter
mination of the plain on which the former lies.
We now pass through Sillery, with its half-dozen
or so of houses huddled together in the shade of the
chateau of Monsieur Jacquesson. This brightly-
painted structure, with its toy-like turrets, its petty
castellated artifices, and Its trim surroundings of
vines, flowers, shrubs, and stunted trees, has quite
the look of a scene in a comic opera. The shaded
stream, which trickles through the shallow basin in
which the little hamlet lies, and over which a pret
tily sculptured stone bridge has been thrown, and
even the gray stone houses, though by no means
comely, — being partly hid by a group of willows,
— together with the diminutiveness of the whole
place, and every thing in it, add to the effect.
Leaving Sillery, we ascend the hill, and are
among the vineyards of Verzenay,

CHAPTER XI.
At Verzenay — Among the Vineyards — A Cheerful Scene of
Labor — A Near View of the Vintagers — The Vintagers at
Work — The Grapes at the Wine-Presses — The Wine-
Pressing — The Grape Juice — Supervision of Wine Manu
facturers — The Mayor in Working-day Suit — A Taste of
the Grapes — A Luscious Feast — Kind of Grapes — Com
parison of Vintages — Growing Excitement — Departure from
Verzenay.
AS we drove up the hill into Verzenay, we were
surrounded on all sides by the vineyards.
These rolled, in regular succession of green wave,
to the right and left, as far as the eye could reach.
The color of the foliage of the vines was, however,
toned by that of their supports of oak. The light-
purple hue of these, brightened by the sun, threw
over the undulating but uniform surface of green a
warm blush, and gave to the wide stretch of vine
yard the appearance of a Scotch moor in the full
bloom of its heather.
Every hill was alive with busy vintagers, who,
crouched araong the low vines, were raoving quick
in their work. The road was thronged with carts,
donkeys, and laborers, passing with empty and loaded
baskets to and from the vineyards. Groups of men.

120 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
women, and children were gathered along the edges
of the field, and were intent upon their various oc
cupations. Some were sorting the fruit, some fill
ing and emptying, and others lifting great baskets
to the patient backs of man and beast.
It was a cheerful scene of labor, but there was
nothing in it to remind me of the many vintages I
had beheld in the gas-light of the Comic Opera. I
neither recognized the plumed cap, velvet doublet,
pink hose, and silver buckles of my stage acquaint
ance ; nor the elaborate coiffure, diamond cross-
laced petticoat, the well-filled and extensively dis
played silk stockings, and high, red-heeled little
shoes of his sweetheart. There was no love-making
as far as I could see, and I certainly heard no one
singing songs composed by Verdi or Donizetti.
I saw nothing but a great number of coarse la
borers hard at work. There was nothing in their
dress to distinguish them from the same class in any
other part of the world. They were all in their
working-day suits, — the men in shirt-sleeves and
straw or felt hats, and the woraen in tow-cloth pet
ticoats and ugly coal-scuttle bonnets. There was
great quietude and deep devotion to work. I could
see that the laborers were in earnest ; and it was
not surprising, for raost of them, being proprietors,
were working for themselves. The only pictur
esque objects were the donkeys munching their
food, with their noses in a bag, — for there was no
thistle or any weed, or even a blade of grass, at

THE VINTAGE. 121
the roadside. The wine-grower takes care that
not a particle of soil shall be lost, and he is the
cleanest as well as the most industrious and eco
nomical of cultivators.
After making our way with some difficulty through
the narrow streets of the village of Verzenay, un
usually thronged with a crowd of carriages and
carts and people, brought thither by the vintage,
we found by good luck a spare place under a de
cayed shed for our tired horse.
^ Verzenay is situated toward the summit of a hill,
frora which you look down upon declivity after de
clivity of vine3rard. It contains about five hundred
houses and twelve hundred inhabitants, each one of
whora is an owner of land, and all are thriving.
There is not a poor man in the place, and, as the
notice I saw everywhere displayed, " La mendicity
est defendue dans Verzenay," indicated, begging is
not even permitted.
Strolling down the hill I had a nearer view of
the vintagers whom I had passed In driving up to
Verzenay, and could learn something of the details
of their work. Men, woraen, and boys were pass
ing regularly alon^ the rows of vines, plucking the
grapes. Each one carried an ordinary raarket-basket
of osier, which hung by its handle on his arm, while
with a hooked knife (called a serpef.te') held in his
right hand he cut off the bunches of grapes and
placed them carefully in it. The basket when full,
was emptied Into a larger one at the roadside, and
the laborer returned to his work of plucking.

122 TEE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
The grapes thus gathered were now sorted by a
group of women and girls seated around a tray of
open wicker work, like the cover of a gigantic bas
ket. These pull off the decayed, unripe, crushed,
or otherwise spoiled grapes, which are allowed to
fall through the interstices of the tray into a recep
tacle below, while the bunches thus purified are
carefully put into panniers, which when filled are
lifted upon the patient donkeys and borne into Ver
zenay. No grapes are used In raaking what is termed
first-class wine that have not been thoroughly ex
amined and sifted of all spoiled and inferior fruit.
The latter, however, especially if of a famous vint
age, like that of 1865, is not lost, but used to make
ordinary wine, or to distill Into comraon brandies.
The grapes, on reaching Verzenay, are immedi
ately taken to the wine-presses and pressed. The
whole product of the vintage has already been sold
sorae weeks before its coraraencement to the chief
wine manufacturers of the country, who are all
obliged to buy their grapes. Some of them, it is
true, have vineyards of their own, but not of suf
ficient extent, or in such positions as to supply them
with the quantities and qualities of grape they re
quire. The product being thus the property of the man
ufacturers, is carried at once to their wine-presses
at Verzenay. When the baskets arrive, they are
emptied into a great wooden measure, called a

GRAPES AT TEE WINE-PRESS. 123
caque, which is roughly estimated to hold one hun
dred and twenty pounds weight. Each proprietor
brings in his supply himself, and eagerly watches
the measurement of his load. As each measure is
filled, a tally is kept by half a dozen at the same
time, in the rudest way, by chalk-marks on the
door-posts or on a convenient cask lying near.
There is an old saying in Champagne, that when
they cry " thief," every one at Verzenay takes to
his heels. Lors qu'on crie " au voleur," tout le
monde de Verzenay se sauve. I was not surprised,
therefore, to find that an old woman — rough,
blowzy, and dirty, it is true, but, as I was told, a
landed proprietor in her own right, and with a prod
uct of her vineyard of forty panniers at least, or
two hundred dollars worth of grapes, that year —
had marked seven, when every one else had marked
only six baskets as the nuraber she had delivered.
The wine-presses are very much like those used
in our country for making cider, although they are
never worked, like the latter, by horses. As differ
ent classes of wine are obtained according to the
degree of pressure, this can only be jjroperly regu
lated by the discreet force of men's hands.
As soon as the caque or measure is filled, its
weight estimated, and its number marked, it is
emptied on the floor of the wine-press. These
wine-presses can hold from five to ten thousand
pounds of grapes at a time. When their floors are
well covered, the fruit is first trampled down with

124 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
the feet and smoothed into a uniform layer about
two feet and a half thick. This is covered with
planks, and the machine being adjusted, its pressure
is carefully applied. The grapes are thrown in in
bunches with their stalks. The tannin which the
latter contain Is deemed an essential element of the
wine, as it gives solidity to it and renders it dur
able. The juice flows into a gutter at the base of the
press, and thence through a spout, guarded, to pre
vent the escape of the skins and pulps, by a large
wicker basket, through which It passes Into the tub
or vat below. From this It is dipped out with
buckets and poured Into ordinary wine barrels, if it
is to be moved to a distance, or if to remain station
ary, into large hogsheads.
The juice of the first and second pressures is
alone used for the manufacture of the finest cham
pagne ; that of the third for the inferior grades ; and
the fourth and fifth for ordinary red wines, or for
distillation into a common brandy. The juice, as
it comes frora the press, has a very light-pink color,
which it loses entirely in the course of its fermen
tation. Thus the red or black grape, without the
use of any artificial means of bleaching, produces the
clear amber-colored champagne wine we all admire.
Great care must be taken, however, to keep the
juice of the red grape free from the skins and pulp.
The refuse of the grapes is left by the pressure
in the form of a solid cake about a half a foot in

THE MAYOR IN WORKING-DAY SUIT. 125
thickness. This is either cut with a spade into small
square blocks, and dried for fuel, or broken up and
mixed with stable manure, to fertilize the vine-
fields. The vintage, which generally lasts at least a fort
night, is carefully watched and superintended by
the wine manufacturer. He is present during the
whole time, and keeps his eye upon every detail of
the operation, — the plucking and assorting of the
grapes, the weighing and recording of the measure
ment, the pressing in all its degrees, and the filling
of the barrels. He is not willing to Intermit his
daily carefulness until the delicate fluid is safely
cellared in his establishment at Rheims, Epernay,
or elsewhere. When it is said that if a few crumbs
of bread should fall araong the grapes, they would,
by the fermentation of the gluten they contain, pro
duce araraonia, and spoil the flavor of the wine, the
necessity of watchfulness can be appreciated. The
laborers accordingly are expected to refrain from
taking their meals near the grapes destined for the
wine-press. Some of the large manufacturers have small
villas by the side of their wine-presses at Verze
nay, where they remove with their families, and
remain during the vintage. I saw the great man
of Rheims, its mayor and depute, and the chief
partner of the house of Veuve Clicquot, busily
superintending the work in his wine-press. He
was so disguised in shabby working-day suit and

126 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
apron that I hardly recognized him. I could see
at the same time, as I accosted him among his vats
and barrels, his wife and maid plucking flowers for
the bright parterres of the pretty cottage near by,
arid in the stable-yard a grand emblazoned c£^rriage
and well-fed coachman and liveried varlets lounging
about. I was invited everywhere to partake of the
grapes, of which baskets briraraing full surrounded
me on all sides, and I did so freely. As I saw the
luscious fruit had attracted the honey-sucking bees
in swarming multitudes, I at first hesitated to share
their tempting feasts ; but after several timid at
tempts, finding that I was unharmed, I became
more bold, and thrust my hand into the abounding
heaps with confidence. The bees seemed so sated
with sweetness that they had become too kindly to
wound, or so Intoxicated with the vinous ferment
of the fruit that they- wanted the power, if they
had the Inclination, to sting.
The grape is of the Pinot ^ variety, a small round
one, of a deep purple color. Its taste was almost
too sweet and luscious, and I felt after gorging
I The varieties of black or red grape generaUy cultivated are
the Morillon and Pinot ; those of the white are the " golden
plants of Ay " and the Epinetes. From these alone is manu
factured the best champagne wine. In addition to these there
are the Gouens, called in the country Marmot, which produce a
white grape, and the Meuniers and the Fromentis, whose fruit is
red. These latter give only an inferior wine, consumed in the
country.

COMPARISON OF VINTAGES. 127
myself with it that I was almost sated to sick
ness. I was especially recommended to try the
small shriveled grapes, which had already been
dried into raisins by the excessive -heat of the
season. These were even raore sweet than the
others. I recollect that on tasting the grapes of the sarae
vineyards, but of the subsequent vintage, that they
were so acrid and astringent that I could not swal
low them. Such was the difference between the
effect of the sunny season of 1865 and that of the
cold rainy one of 1866. The crop of the latter
year was, though abundant, so poor in quality that
not a manufacturer who cared for the reputation of
his wine would buy a solitary grape of it. Not a
bottle of good champagne wine can ever be made
of the raeagre, acrid juice of that vintage. It will,
however, be probably raixed with better liquor, or
so smothered with syrup or puffed up with gas by
a plentiful ferment as to disguise its original defects,
and be sold by makers of inferior character as the
best of champagne. There wlllsjg^ drinkers, too,
who, satisfied with pop and sweetness, will be con
tent with the noise, gas, and sugar they will get for
their money. All good judges, however, with their
suspicions excited by the excessive sweetness and
effervescence, will probably be contented with a
single sip, or if disposed to make further experi
ment, will soon discover, on trial, the thinness and
crudity of the fluid, and its total want of all vinous

128 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
quality. It will have the strength of brandy, for
this will be plentifully added, but it will not have
the body and flavor of wine.
Every one was talking of the excellence of the
vintage ; and there was not a raan, woraan, or child
in Verzenay who was not rejoicing in the success
ful result. Grapes had never brought so high an
amount, having been sold at about twelve dollars
and twenty cents the caque of one hundred and
twenty pounds, or ten cents per pound, nearly dou
ble the average price. The people of Verzenay,
some twelve hundred in all, had divided among
them about two millions of francs, or four hundred
thousand dollars, which they received for the su
perb crop of 1865, Thus each adult, male and
female, of the place, had pocketed on an average
three hundred and thirty-three dollars, and every
one was swelling with the consciousness of wealth.
The whole product of the vineyards of Verzenay,
if those which belong to the great manufacturers
are included, was estimated at the value of six or
seven hundred thousand dollars.
Though the vintage was equally good in all parts
of La Charapagne, the grapes grown in Verzenay,
producing the wine which is the main constituent
of that combination known as vin mousseux (cham
pagne wine), are always in the greatest demand, and
accordingly bring the highest prices. The caque
of one hundred and twenty pounds, which sold at
Verzenay for sixty francs, was bought elsewhere

GROWING EXCITEMENT. 129
for forty and forty-five. It takes forty caques to
make six ordinary barrels of juice; so each, of Ver
zenay grape, cost four hundred francs or eighty
dollars !
The knowing ones said that the wine of 1865
would compare with that of 1822 for precocity,
with that of 1849 for quantity, and with that of
1846 for quality. There had never been, since
1811, a grape so ripe, so sugary, and one harvested
under such favorable circurastances of weather. It
was agreed, however, that the juice of 1865, ex
cellent as It was, would never be such as was ob
tained in the exceptional comet year of 1857, and
which is the basis of the celebrated wine of 1858,
the best ever raade. The grape of 1855 was said
to have been too rapidly matured by the hot sun,
and consequently too replete with sugar to have the
delicate qualities of the more slowly developed fruit
of 1857.
Still beset with memories of the opera house,
I asked if the day was not to close with the feast
and dance, but I was answered that all were so
wearied with their work that they would seek at
early sundown repose in unromantic slumber.
Toward evening, however, M'hether it was the
effect of the vapor of the new wine which filled the
atmosphere, or the drinking of the old which flowed
freely everywhere, or merely the natural exhilara
tion which comes with the satisfaction of having
completed a hard day's labor, I observed a growing

130 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
excitement. Men and women were arguing loudly
and energetically, and the rude swains were philan
dering with and kissing the " sunburnt daughters
of labor."
I found myself, too, becoming the object of a
warrath of affection I would have preferred to have
dispensed with. Brawny arms, stained red with
wine to the shoulder, were wound about ray neck,
and stuffy hands sticky with grape juice thrust into
my grasp.
As the sun began to set we took our departure
frora Verzenay, inspired by the cheering influences
of the prosperous vintage of 1865, which will be
freshly remembered for years to come in the flow
ing cups of every jovial and grateful son of Bac
chus.

CHAPTER XII.
The Must in the Wine Manufactories — The Wine Establish
ments — Convents and Monasteries — The Awakened Spirits
of Jolly Monks — Old Vaults — The Arrangement and Struct
ure of Wine Manufactories — Tasting-Room — Cellars — A
Subterranean Visit.
WE follow to the establishment of the wine
manufacturer the barrels of freshly obtained
juice — the must, as it is called in English, and
moiit in French — which we have seen flowing from
o
the wine-presses of Verzenay, Ay, Epernay, or else
where, and which has been expressed from the
grape as soon as it was plucked.
The must is nauseously sweet to the taste, and
although it has no vinous flavor and is still unfer-
mented, has an intoxicating effect if freely drunk.
Its color, if obtained by a first or second quick
pressure frora the black or purple grape, has a
slight pink hue, but if from the white, a light straw-
color. The wine manufacturer having collected the
fresh juice obtained frora the grapes, which he has
purchased sorae weeks before the vintage from
a multitude of the small proprietors of vineyards
throughout all that part of Champagne where the

132 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY
fruit is grown, stores it in his manufactory, and
leaves it to repose there until it is ready for the
manifold operations it has to undergo, before it is
converted into that sparkling and exhilarating bev
erage, which we all welcome in its lively flow from
a genuine bottle of Clicquot or Consular Seal.
The establishments of the wine manufacturers
are to be found at Rheims, Epernay, Chalons, Ay,
Mareuil sur Ay, and in other towns of that por
tion of the province of La Champagne where the
choicest grapes are grown. They abound most,
however, at Rheims.
The wine manufactories are generally large
structures extending over a wide space above, and
through a great stretch of vault and passage-way
below ground. The establishments at Rheims,
though among the most important, have not the
architectural pretensions of those at Epernay,
where some of the great wine-merchants, as Moet
& Chandon and Piper & Co., possess enormous
stone structures, which, with their wide portals
crowned with armorial bearings, and their pillars
and cornices adorned with sculptured ornaments,
have the stateliness of palaces. Those at Rheims
are mostly antique buildings, many of which had
served as raonasterles and convents when the an
cient town was held close in the erabrace of old
Mother Church, whose arras extended wide in this
seat of ecclesiastical power, and grasped the best
in the country.

AWAKENED SPIRITS OF JOLLY MONKS. 133
With the succession of political change and rev
olutions, and consequent contempt of clergy, abb^s,
monks, and nuns were ousted without pity, and
their luxurious domains confiscated. In the prog
ress of the development of the champagne wine-
trade during the last fifty years, its thriving con
ductors have become possessed of many of these,
and turned thera into places of business. Finding
below ground the convenient bed of chalk which
underlies all the town and the neighboring country,
they have bored it in every direction into vaults to
store their choice product.
In the course of these excavations the wine man
ufacturers have, not seldom, found that their holy
predecessors had anticipated thera, and discovered
cellars already made ages before, some possibly for
the deposit of wines, of which all good monks had
a stock of the best the country then afforded, and
some for crypts for sacred retirement and prayer,
and others for dungeons for the punishment and
repentance of a recreant brother, or for tombs for
the dead. These cavernous chambers now echo
with the modern pop of the champagne bottle ; and
it is to be supposed, as it proclaims the flow of gen
erous wine, that the novel sound, if it awake the
spirit of dead abb^ or raonk, whether he died with
a prayer or a curse upon his lips, will not be un
welcome to him, for, saint or sinner, he was of a
jovial brotherhood.
In the neighborhood of that famous and ancient

134 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
church. Saint Remi, on the outskirts of the city,
there are sorae caves said to be two thousand years
old. They accordingly were never bored by mole-
eyed raonk. They were discovered sorae years ago
by a wine raanufacturer while examining the ground
preparatory to making excavations for his cellars.
He found the work already done, and to an extent
far beyond any possible want. They are a hundred
and ten in nuraber, all cut out of the solid chalk,
and capable of holding ten millions of bottles of
champagne. Though there is a great diversity of
opinion, raost antiquaries suppose that they were
the quarries from which the original builders of
Rheiras obtained the material for the construction
of the town.
There are still in the sculptured ornaments of
the exterior of these ancient structures, and in the
carved wainscotings and religious paintings of the
interiors, evidences of their former sacred uses.
They are now, however, for the most part, sadly
stained with wine, and otherwise injured by bac
chanalian desecrations.
The manufacturers have generally their dwelling-
places, their counting-houses, and their manufacto
ries, if not in the same building, within the same
inclosure, and their cellars below, but extending
far beyond under the streets and the neighboring
houses. Though many of these structures are very old,
and have a more or less decrepit look, the wealthy

TASTING-ROOM.. 135
manufacturers have succeeded by dint of expense
In securing for themselves tolerably comfortable
residences, where they live luxuriously, and enter
tain, especially their best customers, generously.
The wine manufactories are divided generally
into four stories, two above and two below ground.
There are the garret, the ground-floor, and two
subterranean compartments, one beneath the other.
The counting-house and the tasting-room are either
on the ground-floor, or in a contiguous building.
Each compartment has its especial use. The bureau
or counting-room Is generally well filled with a
goodly number, mostly polyglot Germans, who are
ready to address you in any language, whether your
mother-tongue be English, Russian, Spanish, or
Italian. There are ordinarily two partners or chief
managers, one of whom superintends the commerce,
and the other the manufacture, of the wine. There
is a desk for each in the counting-house, but that
of one is generally vacant, for he to whom it
belongs is the superintendent of the manufactory,
and is away among the vineyards buying, or in the
tasting-room experimenting, or in the Cellier super
intending the mixing, dosing, and corking ; or In
the cave selecting; or in the packing-room over
looking the adorning and packing of the bottles
which are being prepared for market.
The tasting-room is generally composed of two
compartments, an outer and an inner one. In the
forraer alone customers are received. The latter is

136 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
the sanctum of the wine manufacturer, kept myste
riously closed frora comraon view, though a quick
eye may perchance obtain a stolen glance and catch
a sight of a range of suspicious looking utensils
and labeled vials, very suggestive of the apothe
cary shop, and the least sensitive nose will be sure
to snuff up a very strong indication of the brandy
distillery. In this secret chamber are concocted
the mystic liquors used for dosing. Into the more
public compartment of the Jiasting-room the cus
tomer Is always brought to taste the wines. These
are poured out from bottles containing the different
kinds into a range of the long old-fashioned cham-
pagne glasses, called flutes, and are tasted one after
the other in often repeated succession, both by
customer and manufacturer. The latter, after he
has sipped the wine and turned it about awhile in
his mouth to bring it into contact with the whole
tongue, but especially with its root and the palate,
where the sense of taste is the most discriminating,
prudently ejects it. The customer, with a mouth
not so often tempted by such seductive draughts,
and being either Incapable, or not under the neces
sity of exercising the same self-denial, will probably
swallow down incontinently the full contents of
each successive glass.
The cellier, though our word cellar comes from it,
is in the French sense a mere place of deposit, and
not necessarily subterranean. In the wine manu
factories it is on the ground-floor, and forms what

CELLARS. . 137
is called In French the rez- de-chaussSe. It Is well
ventilated with numerous windows, and has no floor
or covering to the ground. As It communicates
freely with the outer air, its temperature varies but
little from that of the surrounding atmosphere. It
is consequently colder in winter and hotter in sum
mer, than the cellars below, whose temperature Is
nearly constant. In the cellier are seen the great
vats in which the mixture of the different wines is
made. In it are conducted most of the operations
necessary In the manufacture of champagne, and
its preparation for market. To it are brought, from
time to time, out of the depths below, any of the
delicate offspring of the grape which may require
change of air and temperature. Thus a wine
chilled to torpor may be warmed into a fermenting
fervor, or one heated to a dangerous excess of effer
vescence cooled down to a safe quietude. It is very
important in the manufacture of a wine, of which
gas is an essential eleraent, whose development is
so much influenced by heat and cold, that there
should be means of regulating its temperature.
The manufacturers 'have accordingly, in the ar
rangement of their establishments, made provision
for such. Frora the garret to the lowest cellar
there is every variation required.
In the grenier, or loft, to which we ascend for a
passing glance of its contents, we find big bags of
corks, and all the stores necessary for the provision
of the establishraent. The cork branders are there.

138 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
chiefly women, who are busy over their alcoholic
lamps. Empty bottles, too, are sometimes stored
in the grenier, but more often under sheds in the
court-yard, where they lie in great heaps ready for
the rinsers when the drawing off of the wine takes
place. Below the cellier are the two ranges of subterra
nean cellars, or caves, as they are called by the
French. The upper one is about twenty feet, and
the lower forty, or even sixty feet sometimes, below
the surface of the ground. Lighting gigantic tal
low candles standing in great tin candlesticks, with
wide basins or bottom to catch the sputtering grease,
we cautiously descend the long stone steps which
lead to the regions below. If it be summer we
should take the advice of our polite guide, and
carefully button our coats and wrap our handker
chiefs about our necks, for we shall soon become
tremblingly conscious of the change to a cooler
temperature. If it should be winter we shall be
no less conscious of the comparative warmth below,
and probably unbutton or take off our heavy over
coats. All, in these cavernous compartments, is dank
with the moisture dripping from the humid Avails
of chalk, which feel slimy to the touch. The feet
slip over the floors, not only wet with the natural
huraldlty of the place, but by the wine which has
flowed from the broken bottles. There is a min
gled odor of earthiness and wine, combining the

A SUBTERRANEAN VISIT. 139
fustiness of the one' and the aroma of the other.
There is universal darkness, except where our sput
tering flambeaus extend their contracted circles of
glimmering light. By this alone we make our way
along the lengthened passages, and see rising above
our heads from the floor the thick layers of bottles
which are heaped up on each side, and seem to
stretch before and behind us for miles.
Bottles are lying by thousands in every variety
of attitude, sorae horizontally, sorae diagonally, and
others vertically. Sorae are in racks, and others
merely heaped up together without any but their
own support. All are, however, arranged in order
and nurabered, and the age and quality of each
carefully recorded on wooden labels. Many bottles
have upon their sides a great daub of whitewash,
and we may see perhaps some workmen giving
them, one after the other, a knowing shake, and
changing their position. Our guide takes a bottle
here and there, and holding it to the light of his
candle, points out to. us a muddy sediment, clouding
thick one of the sides if It has been lying horizon
tally, or if it has been in a diagonal or vertical
position, filling the neck and resting upon the cork.
There are here and there on the floor, or clinging to
the racks, fragments of bottles broken by the force
of the gas. They give out generally at the bottom,
which falls off as smoothly as if cut with some
sharp instrument.
The lower cave or cellar is deeper, darker, cooler.

140 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
and more damp, but in its arrangements there is
nothing to distinguish it frora the upper.
All the various compartments communicate with
each other, not only by the doorways and steps,
but by trap-doors, through which the wine is passed
up and down, and by ventilators for the regulation
of the air and temperature.
The large manufactories generally open upon a
court-yard, which is closed by a great gate called a
porte cochere, and there are sometimes within the
inclosure pretty, but formal gardens of the French
type', with Jeiosques, where I have often been Invited
in the summer season to share a bottle of cham
pagne of famous vintage.

CHAPTER XIII.
Manufacture of Champagne Wine — Marriage of Wines — The
Cuve'e — Test of Sugar — A Delicate Operation — Careful
Nursing — Drawing Off — Raw Wine — Effervescence —
Breakage — Change of Temperature — Effect of Age on
Champagne.
WE left the freshly expressed juice of the
grape, the raust, in the cellier of the raan-
ufactory where it had been carried in the barrels
into which it was poured frora the reservoir of the
wine-press. Five or six, perhaps seven, different
vine-growing districts have each contributed a sup
ply of their best product. There are probably bar
rels of the juice of the red grapes of Verzenay,
Bouzy, Ay, and Epernay, and certainly some of the
white of Cramant or its neighborhood ; for the last,
having a particularly, strong disposition to effervesce,
is deemed an essential ingredient in the composition
of what is known by us as champagne wine, the
vin mousseux of the French.
We shall now accompany the raust of the vari
ous vintages, which we have tasted and found of a
sicklsh taste, throughout its various natural trans
formations, and the manifold artificial processes to
which it is subjected, until it is finally converted

142 TEE CEAMPAGNE' COUNTRY.
into the pleasing and cheering beverage which
flows so sparklingly and proraptly from the cham
pagne bottle.
> After a repose of some weeks, the juices of the
various vintages are mixed together in a great vat.
The fluid has already purged itself il s'est dSbourbi
(It has cleansed itself of raud), as the manufacturer
says, and flows out limpid and alraost colorless.
That, however, coming from the red grape may
still have a slight pink hue, like the dying reflection
of the setting sun in a pure stream ; while the juice
of the white grape retains but the slightest lunar
tinge of its yellow color.
This mixing, or marriage of the different wines,
as it is called, but which is technically known as a
cuvSe, is the most important of all the various oper
ations. It was the great discovery of the jovial
Benedictine monk, Dom Perignon, to whom, as has
already been recorded, we are indebted for the ex
istence of champagne wine; There is no raanufact
urer who ever dispenses with making a cuvSe, or
who even thinks it possible that veritable cham
pagne can be made without it.
The juice of the white grape has not only qual
ities distinct from that of the red, but each variety
of the latter has its own peculiar properties. The
former gives a wine which effervesces more strongly,
and the red grape generally one that has more
body, greater fineness, an intenser spirit, and a
more vigorous constitution. These qualities, more-

MARRIAGE OF WINES. 143
over, vary in degree in the separate products of
each vineyard and of different vintages.
Though the manufacturer, with his little instru
ment called a glucometer (from the Greek yXvKv^,
sweet, and /itrpov, measure), which he is always
using, has a means, together with the ordinary
methods of analysis of the chemist, of testing the
quantity of sugar and of other tangible constituents,
he has to rely solely upon his sense of taste and
smell for the detection of the not less important but
more iramaterial properties of his wine. What he
terras bouquet, or perfurae and fineness, are only to
be discerned by the nose, tongue, and palate. And
how acute must such organs be in the expert taster,
who, with a sip and a scent, will distinguish the
gun-flint flavor of the wine of Pierry, in which I,
with the best will in the world, and with no slight
experience, could detect nothing but the usual indi
cations of Bacchus, without the faintest suspicion
of the presence of Mars.
The manufacturer, having thoroughly made his
tests by sense and Instrument, knows, or thinks he
knows, the distinctive qualities of each kind of juice,
and makes his ralxture or cuvee accordingly. He
thus gets, or tries to get, the proper equilibrium of
fineness, effervescence, body, and spirit which he
believes to be essential to the desired result — good
charapagne. The composition of the cuvees varies each year,
according to the character of the vintages of the

144 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
different places. If that of Cramant fails, for ex
ample, and that of Vizy should succeed, the latter
is substituted for the forraer, or vice versd.
The products of the different vineyards having
been poured into the great vat, are thoroughly
raixed with a long pole armed with cross-pieces of
wood. This operation completed, the fluid is drawn
off into hogsheads containing each about forty-four
gallons, called tonneaux de tirage. These are left
in the cellier for a fortnight or so, until the com
bined juices they contain have fermented under the
influence of the ordinary teraperature of the air,
which is generally warm, — the usual period of the
operation being toward thfe close of October.
When, at the end of about fifteen days, the fer
mentation is supposed to have changed nearly one
half of the sugar which the liquid naturally con
tains into alcohol and carbonic acid, the tonneaux
de tirage are sent into the caves or cellars under
ground. The cooler temperature below arrests the
activity of the fermentation. The liquid — or the
wine we may call it, for it has now much of its
vitality and spirit — is then left undisturbed until
January. In this month the wine is tested with the glu
cometer, and the quantity of natural sugar it con
tains carefully ascertained. If it has too much,
which seldom or never occurs, a less saccharine
wine must be mixed with it. If It has not enough,
which is generally the case, a pi-oper quantity of

CAREFUL NURSING. 145
the candied sugar of the cane, and never any other,
is put into it. All other kinds, even the purest
white, whether made from cane-juice or beet-root,
are said to poison the wine, giving it an easily de
tected, nauseous flavor. The sugar being the sole
source of the carbonic acid gas, as~ well as of the
alcohol of champagne wine, if there should be too
little there will be no effervescence ; if there should
be too much, the strongest bottles would not be
strong enough to withstand the enormous pressure
of the excess of gas it would generate.
A champagne wine properly constituted should
contain at least twenty grararaes (3.10 grs.) of sugar
in each litre (about two pints), and twelve per cent.
of alcohol. It is rare, however, that wine comes
into the world so favorably proportioned. Cham
pagne Is one of the most delicate offsprings of Bac
chus, and requires careful nursing, the most gingerly
handling, frequent change of air, skillful doctoring,
and not a little dosing.
The quantity of natural sugar having been ascer
tained (^peser is the technical term applied to the
process), and if deficient, as is usually the case, the
want supplied by due proportions of the sucre candi
of the cane, the wine still contained in the hogs
heads, or tonneaux de tirage, is left in the cave
or first cellar under ground. Here it is kept while
fermenting ' gently until the period of bottling
(tirage en bouteilles').
This operation comraences in April, and con-
10

146 TEE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
tinues until June. The bottles now used are the
same from which the wine is drunk, when finally
prepared for drinking. The liquid, as it flows from
the hogsheads, is of an uniform araber color, and
has somewhat the taste as well as look of an unripe
hock wine. If of superior quality, though still
green from youth, it will not be unpalatable ; if,
however, of an inferior grade, it will be found
rough, bitter, and astringent, and the taster will be
satisfied with the slightest sip from the little shallow
basin of silver, holding about a thirableful, in which
it is subraitted to his judgraent.
The bottles a^e filled to within an inch or so of
their mouths, and then corked. The corks are fas
tened down with a narrow piece of iron, bent at
either end into a hook, which catches under the rim
which borders the mouth of each bottle. This fas
tening, or agrafe, has the advantage over iron -wire
in being more rapidly applied and removed, and in
its capability of serving its purpose time and again.
The corks used are employed for this purpose only,
and are, though sound, of an inferior quality to
those contained in the champagne bottles of com
merce ; for, as we shall see, notwithstanding that
the bottles into which the wine has been originally
poured are never changed, the corks are.
The bottles thus filled and corked are laid care
fully on their sides, and arranged in order in suc
cessive lines and layers, supported by thin and
narrow pieces of oaken wood placed horizontally.

LOSS FROM BREAKAGE. 147
They thus form, according to the number, more or
less long, broad, and high heaps of the utmost reg
ularity and squareness of angle. In the great man
ufactories their length may extend many hundred
feet. Their width is ordinarily from ten to twelve
feet, and their height always within reach of a
man's arm.
When the wine has been properly made and bot
tled, its fermentation goes on vigorously, and gener
ally reaches its height in about three weeks. This
is a period of great anxiety to the manufacturer,
and he watches the development of the effervescence
with the utraost solicitude. The power of the gas
is soraetimes so great that it has been known to
break bottles capable of resisting from twenty-eight
to thirty-eight atmospheres, thus overcoming an
immense force equal to the pressure of five hundred
and seventy pounds on each square inch.
The loss from breakage in consequence of the
inordinate development of gas is sometimes enor
mous. In the years 1857 and 1858 it amounted to
twenty-five per cent, ot the whole wine drawn off.
Ten per cent. Is the average ; and if the manufact
urer finds that it falls much below this, he becomes
fearful that his wine may be deficient in efferves
cence and prove " stale and unprofitable." The
general consumer, who is not discriminating in his
taste, demands from his bottle of charapagne a great
deal of noise and froth, and as he Is the chief and
most remunerative customer, the manufacturer takes

148 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
care that he shall have all the explosive force pos
sible. The problem, then, with the caterer to the
popular taste, is to produce the greatest possible
quantity of gas with the smallest proportion of loss
to himself by breakage. The gas is easily produced
by an abundant supply of sugar and the application
of heat ; but the breakage is avoided only by the
most vigilant nursing.
When, in the warmer seasons, the manufacturer
begins to find, in the course of his constant visits,
the floors of his cellars strewn with unusually nu
merous fragments of glass and wet with wine, he
carefully inspects his bottles, and, finding many of
them broken and all seething with excessive fer
ment, he removes them at once to a cooler atmos
phere. This he finds in his lower and deeper cel
lar, where his wine is promptly placed, and its fer
mentation moderated by the cold. The tempera
ture of the lower or second cave, in which the bot
tles now lie, varies frora 40° to 45° ; while that of
the higher or first cave, from which they have been
removed, generally ranges between 50° and 55°.
During the cold seasons, on the other hand, the
wine may be chilled, and becorae too torpid to
generate the quantity of gas required. The bottles,
then, are brought up from the lower to the higher
cave, and frequently to the cellier on the ground-
floor, or even raised to the grenier or highest story
of the establishment. In a frosty autumn and in
the winter, the relative temperature of the higher

CONSTANT MOVEMENT. 149
and lower compartments is reversed from what it is
in a warm spring and in the summer. In the for
mer seasons it is higher above than below ; while
in the latter it is lower.
The wine is thus carefully nursed for two, three,
four years, and even more, and during the whole
time is more or less in perpetual motion. Now it
is shifted from cave to cave, again to cellier and
grenier, and thence back again from the highest com
partment of the manufactory to its lowest depths,
only to renew its periodical journeying. Thus it
passes its restless existence of raoveraent until ready
for the final transformation which is necessary to fit
it for its destiny.
Tlris offspring of Bacchus is like some feeble
child of humanity who from his birth requires the
most tender care. He is closely watched by nurse
and doctor. The influence of the vicissitudes of
the seasons upon his tender constitution, more
sensible than the thermometer, is minutely ob
served, and each blush of heat or ripple of cold is
no sooner noticed than the cause is removed. Thus
fostered, he may attain his full growth ; but is still
so weakly and sensible to the changes of terapera
ture, that he is forced to travel from one place to
another, — here seeking heat to warm his torpid
blood into motion, and there cold to check its fe
vered agitation. He is thus kept in constant move
ment season after season, and finds no rest until
the present is changed for another existence.

150 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
The wine which is used to make the ordinary
champagne of commerce is seldom kept more than
two years after being bottled. The more choice
wines of the great vintages, only appreciated by
connoisseurs, are kept for a much longer time.
The wine of 1858, now ten years old, which is
considered the finest ever made, has but just
reached perfection. Its age, which involves a great
loss of Interest upon the original cost, which was
exceedingly high, renders it necessarily very expen
sive, and it therefore can only be obtained by those
willing to pay largely.
Let us suppose that the wine, whose course of
change, both natural and artificial, we have fol
lowed to its bottling, is of the average quality
of that out of which is made most of the cham
pagne sent to our market. Two years have now
elapsed, and the raanufacturer, knowing that his
wine, being of ordinary quality, will not improve
by age, and unwilling to incur any further loss by
interest, prepares it for consumption. The wine,
before it has undergone the various processes of
preparation, is called brut, or raw. It is highly
effervescing, but has a bitter, astringent taste, and
is not drinkable.
Let us now follow it in its various stages of prep
aration, until it becomes what the raanufacturer
calls vin prepari, prepared wine, or what we know
as the champagne of commerce.

CHAPTER XrV.
Sediment of Wine — How Deposited — Dosing — Dry and
Sweet Wine — Corking — A Miniature Guillotine — Cording
— Branded — Packed and Delivered.
TF the bottles of brut, or raw wine, whose migra-
-¦- tions from place to place we have chronicled,
are closely observed in the course of any of their fre
quent journeys, we shall find them much disturbed.
The fluid they contain has becorae thick and turbid.
The raotion to which It has been subjected has
stirred up frora its depths a muddy sediment, which,
clouding the whole wine, has rendered it dull and
opaque. The first step in the preparation of cham
pagne, the conversion of the vin brut (raw wine)
into vin prepare (prepared wine), is the fixing of
this sediment in such a position in the bottle that it
may be readily removed.
For this purpose the bottles of raw (brut~) wine
are carefully placed on their sides in one of the
cellars, and left in perfect repose. In a very short
time the muddiness of the liquid disappears, and
it may be seen floating pure and limpid above a
thick sediment which has fallen upon the side of
the bottle upon which it lies. The bottles are

152 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
now changed from a horizontal to a diagonal posi
tion, with their necks inclining downwards. They
are, to use the technical phrase, placed sur /pointe.
Racks, made of two boards, united in an acute an
gle above, in form like a half-opened portfolio, and
with their sides pierced with holes, are provided
for this purpose. The necks of the bottles, thrust
through these holes, incline downwards within the
two boards, and the raised bottoms project outward
toward the passage ways of the cellar, so that they
may be within convenient reach of the workmen.
After the bottles are thus arranged sur pointe, a
workman daily, for six weeks or so, takes hold of
each by the bottom, gives it, with a succession of
slight turns with his wrist, a half rotatory motion,
and changes slightly its position. There is always
a daub of whitewash put on each bottle to indicate
the original place of the sediment, so that the work-
md,n raay gauge the extent of each day's move
ment. The sediment is thus finally shaken down into
the neck by means of this daily maneuver, aided
by the Inclination of the bottle placed diagonally in
the rack.
Madame Clicquot first devised this simple con
trivance. So says, at any rate, her biographer.
Having received an extensive order from Russia,
which was to be immediately executed, but which,
however, had been already greatly delayed, she
went down into her cellars in order to stimulate

SEDIMENT OF WINE. 153
the activity of her workmen. She found them at
"work in the old-fashioned way, holding the bottles
by the neck, turned .downwards, and knocking
upon their bottoras to detach the sediment, and
then, after finally shaking them up, laying them
on their sides until they were ready to renew the
operation. This mode of proceeding generally
lasted many months, and, besides requiring a va
riety of drugs and clarifiers, which poisoned the
wine, was never very effective,
" It is impossible, my men," said Madame Clic
quot, " for this to continue so. You have at most
fifty thousand bottles ready, and the order is for
double that amount."
" But, Madame, you can't send the wine filled
with sediment,"
" No. I will have it perfectly clear, and every
bottle ordered shall be sent."
" You will never succeed : there is no other
way than ours."
" I will find another."
" No ; it 's impossible."
" You will see," replied Madame Clicquot, half-
angry with the obstinacy of her workmen, whom
she now ordered to abstain henceforward from their
interminable work. She then, with a happy con
ception, contrived the rack as now used, and had
all her bottles placed in it.
The workmen shrugged their shoulders. One
exclaimed, "A great improvement, indeed ! As if

154 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
the wine was going to settle any quicker for that
machine ! " Another added, " We shall see : the
wine will only become the thicker for it ; for the
sediment will have to fall to the bottom again, and
then we shall have a mess."
Madame Clicquot let thera talk ; and, slipping
quietly into the cellar day after day, while all the
workmen were at dinner, she moved herself some
hundreds of bottles in the rack, and in due time
triumphed In the perfect success of her contrivance.
Sometimes the sediment clings so firmly that it
is necessary in order to detach it to strike the bot
tle with considerable violence, and place it in a ver
tical position, with its cork pointing directly to the
ground. When the sediment has all passed into the neck,
and rests upon the cork, the bottle is ready for the
next stage of the process of preparation. This is
called the dSgorgement, — the disgorging of the
sediment. The workman whose special function it is to per
form this operation — the dSgorgeur, as he is called
— places himself, with his apparatus, at the side of
the rack containing the patients ready to be oper
ated upon. He raust be so near that he can
grasp at once each bottle, without any intermedi
ate change of position, which would be sure to
disturb the sediment, and render a postponement
of the work necessary.
The disgorging apparatus is quite siraple, con-

TEE DISGORGING. 155
sisting of a basin, opening into a reservoir below,
supported by a wooden frarae, and partly covered
with a hood. Its appearance is not unlike that of
an ordinary wash-stand. The workman wears a
leathern apron, and has no other implement than a
piece of hooked and sharp-pointed steel called a
crochet. Placing himself before the basin, he seizes
the bottle, holding it diagonally with its neck down
ward, removes its iron fastening (agrafe') with a
single touch of his hook, and the cork, driven out
by the gas, pops out with great force, followed by
the sediment which was clinging to it, and a spirt
ing flow of fi'othy wine. The Issue of the latter is
checked somewhat by the finger of the operator,
who at the sarae time gives the bottle several quick
half-rotatory turns, that the wine which is allowed
to escape may rinse out from the neck every par
ticle of deposit. The whole operation is completed
in an instant of time, and with a loss ordinarily of
not more than a couple of tablespoonfuls of wine.
The basin, with its hood and reservoir, has
served the obvious purposes of catching the flying
cork, wine, and sediment, which have issued from
the bottles during the process, and protecting sur
rounding objects frora injury and defilement. The
corks with their iron bands are kept for future use.
The wine mixed with sediment can serve no possi
ble purpose, and is thrown away.
The bottles, as soon as disgorged, are ready for
the subsequent stages of preparation. To prevent

156 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
the further escape of gas and wine, the degorgeur
puts into each bottle a cork which, having been
already used and well compressed, is easily applied.
The wine is now hoisted from the cave to the
cellier above. Here it is to be dosed, corked, and
fastened down with string and iron-wire. The
workmen, whose duty it is to perform these several
operations, are seated in a row together, with the
necessary tools and mechanical contrivances at
hand. The bottle passes first through the hands of the
doser. This he takes, and, uncorking it and trust
ing solely to his eye, allows what he deems a suffi
cient quantity of wine to escape, and then fills, to
within a short distance of the mouth, the emptied
space with a fluid which he pours out of a tin
measure, very like that carried in olden time by
the street lamp-lighters. The liquid, moreover, as
it flows smoothly of a glistening amber color from
the narrow nozzle, has the appearance of the purest
spermaceti oil.
This liquid is what is called by the manufacturer
the liqueur. It is generally composed of sugar-
candy, white wine of the best cuvees, and the spirit
of Cognac (^esprit de Cognac'^'), and is a constitu-
1 The following is the composition of the ordinary liqueur
used : — Sucre Candi blanc .... 150 kilo.
Vin  125 litres.
Esprit de Cognac .... 10 litres.

DRY AND SWEET WINES. 157
ent of all the wine known in commerce as cham
pagne. The quantity used depends upon the origi
nal character of the wine, and upon the degree of
sweetness it is proposed to give to it.
The wines of the finest vintages, containing natu
rally more sugar and alcohol, require less of the
liqueur to bring them to the same degree of sweet
ness and strength than those of inferior years,
which are constitutionally weak and acrid.
The proportion of liqueur varies also according
to the supposed taste of the consumer for whom
the wine is destined. The French and the conti
nental drinkers demand a light and s-weet wine, the
Russian a sweet and strong one, and the English a
very dry but withal an exceedingly vigorous cham
pagne. The Americans are supposed to have a
taste between the French and English, and to pre
fer a wine less sweet and light than that of the
former, but not so strong and dry as that of the
latter. It Is for the interest of the wine manufacturer
that a taste for a very sweet win^ should predom
inate in the world. A dry champagne, to be pal
atable, must be made of the finest raw wine. A
sweet champagne can be made of almost any ma
terial. The excessive quantity of sugar in the
latter masks completely its original character. In
the former every natural feature is distinctly ex
pressed, and its virtues or vices, if it have them, are
at once discerned. As fine wines are the excep-

158 TEE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
tion, there being hardly one positively good to six
ordinary or bad -<'intages, it is clear that the wine
manufacturers could not supply all the iraraense
nuraber of their customers with the product of the
choice years alone. If, however, every champagne
drinker was sufficiently of a connoisseur to appre
ciate a dry champagne, none but the choicest juice
of the grape could be used in its manufacture. The
very best wines only are sent to England, for there
it is impossible to sell the bad disguised with sugar,
for the taste rejects excessive sweetness.
As long as the consumption of champagne re
mains so large, and the vicissitudes of the season
continue, most of the wine produced and drunk
will not be the best. It is well, perhaps, that the
popular taste is so little discriminating that it de
lights in froth and sweetness. If the common
palate was more judicious, it would probably be
seldom gratified with champagne, for nothing but
the dry and best would then be in demand, and it
would become too costly and rare for general use.
The liqueur, though generally containing nothing
but white .sugar-candy, wine, and spirit of Cognac,
is not always so simply composed. When the
English consumer had a fancy for a hue of his
national color of red, the wine raanufacturer grati
fied it by mixing a certain quantity of port wine
with all the champagne destined for England, The
caprice, however, has had its day, and John Bull,
even with all his roseate predilections, has finally

A MINIATURE GUILLOTINE. 159
given in his adherence to the natural yellow, Ma
deira wine, Kirsch, tinctures of various kind, straw
berry syrups, and vari-colored brandies, hav£ also
been added at times,
A bottle of ordinary champagne contains from
thirty to forty per cent, of liqueur. The dry fine
wines seldom contain more than from ten to fifteen
per cent.
As soon as the liqueur has been poured in, the
bottle is passed to the corker (boucheur'). He is
seated before a machine which looks very much
like a miniature guillotine, frora which tragic in-
struraent Indeed the idea was derived. To attach
so painful an association to all the joyous expecta
tions awakened by the sight of a champagne bottle,
may seem a treason to jovialty ; but history de
manded the truth, and that truth seemed less bitter
when sweetened—bythe reflection that each execu
tion of the little guillotine is destined to be reversed
with a burst of joy. The guillotine is for putting
in the cork ; it is the cheerful work of every jovial
fellow to get It out.
The duty of the machine is twofold, — the com
pressing of the cork, and the driving it into the
neck of the bottle. The corker (boucheur) places
the bottle at the lower part of the instrument, on
a projection which fits exactly within the deeply
hollowed bottom found in all champagne bottles,
and doubtless made expressly for the purpose. The
cork — already branded on the lower end, generally

160 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
with the image of a comet,^ and on the side with
the narae of the manufacturer, by an iron die
heated over an alcohol lamp, — is at least one third
too large.
The workman takes it thus and gives it to a pair
of claws with which the machine is provided, and
which open just above the mouth of the bottle.
These grasp, compress, and hold it, and then the
corker lets go a string which suspends on a pully
an iron mass weighing some twenty pounds. This
falls directly upon the cork, and drives it home.
In the old machines there is no weight and pully,
and the force is applied with a heavy mallet driven
down by the hand.
The bottles thus corked are passed to the man
whose business it is to apply the string. This he
does with great rapidity and force. The cord is
very strong, and, as the man applies it with all
his strength, it brings down the edges of the
cork, which are originally sharp like those of any
other, until they are entirely effaced, and the top
becomes round as we see it In the champagne bot
tle of our tables. The workman now, after giv
ing the bottle two or three rapid turns, passes it to
the man or boy at his side, who attaches the wire.
He also gives the bottle two or three quick shakes
before he places it down. Every one about the
establishment who has occasion to touch the bottles
1 This in honor of the " comet year," which produced so fine
a vintage.

PACKED AND DELIVERED. 161
frequently repeats these shakes, the purpose of
which is to ralx the liqueur and wine well to
gether. The prudent manufacturer retains in his estab
lishment for about a fortnight the wine thus pre
pared and corked, in order that by careful inspec
tion he may ascertain if the various processes of
preparation have perfectly succeeded. If the corks
prove sound and well applied, the liquor remains
clear and transparent, and the effervescence appears
brisk, the bottles are removed into another com
partment of the cellier, called the packing-room.
Here the corks and necks are covered with tin
or gold foil or wax, and the sides of the bottles
adorned with the etiquette or label of the house.
They are now carefully packed in small wooden
cases, or osier baskets, containing a dozen each, if
intended for the Araerican or English market, or in
larger ones, holding thirty or even raore bottles, if
to be sent to a French or continental custoraer.
Each package being marked with the especial sym
bol of the manufacturer, and the address of the
distant agent or customer, is now ready for ship
ment. 11

CHAPTER XV.
How to choose Champagne — Excessive Popularity no Recom
mendation — Pop and Froth — Strength of Bottles — Tests
of Quality of Wine — False and True — A Universal Dis-.
tillery — -When to drink Champagne — Corked — Ice or no
Ice — How to drink Champagne — Innocence of Good
Champagne — Social Qualities — An Aristocratic Wine-mixer.
IT might seem superfluous, after the minute de
scription I have given of the growth, manu
facture, and trade of champagne, to say more, but
there is an art of knowing what kind to drink, and
how to drink it, which is well worth the study of
all those who seek to refine even their animal de
sires. These, guided by knowledge and chastened
by a refined taste, lose all their grossness, and thus
their gratification is not disfigured by the coarseness
of debauch or the deformity of disease. The con
noisseur of wine, with his discriminating taste, is
the corapanionable gentleman who lives long to
cheer the social table. He is a satisfaction to him
self and a pleasure to all around hira. He who
drinks only to drink, and gulps down every flowing
glass with indiscriralnate thirst, is the frequenter of
the crowded but unsocial bar-room, or the solitary
bibber of the hidden bottle. He soon becomes a
horror to himself and a terror to others.

POP AND FROTH. 163
The connoisseur, in choosing his champagne, is
rather repelled than attracted by the excessive pop
ularity of a brand. Knowing the comraon predi
lection for sweetness, pop, and froth, he is sure that
the wine in general circulation will have been en
dowed with these superficial qualities at the ex
pense of more substantial attributes.
The champagne which explodes the loudest and
flows out the frothiest, is like a great raany other
things in this world of sound and show, by no
means the best. It is, in fact, a proof of its inferi
ority. Good wme absorbs largely the carbonic acid
gas generated in the course of its manufacture. In
bad wine the gas, instead of being absorbed, accu
mulates in the vacant space above the liquid, and
thus, when the bottle is opened, the cork explodes
with great violence, followed by a cataract of froth.
When this escapes the wine remains comparatively
flat. In good wine, on the other hand, the cork
may require a great effort to draw, and when
drawn there may be little or no froth, but the
liquid will be seen to sparkle full with those minute
gems of brightness tossed up and down by the jug
gling spirit of the ethereal element. The explosive
force and effervescence of poor champagne, great as
they may be, soon vanish like those of soda-water,
but the sparkle of good wine will continue, even
if uncorked, for twenty-four hours. At the first
opening hardly one third of the whole gas escapes.
The demand on the part of the public for a noisy

164 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
and frothy champagne is so urgent, that the manu
facturers do their utmost to satisfy it. The strength
of the bottles is the only check to their efforts.
These are seldom able to bear a pressure amount
ing to more than five or six atmospheres. That of
seven and eight will be almost sure to break them.
New bottles are much stronger than those once
used, for the old ones have been weakened by a
distension of the particles of glass, by the previous
expansive force to which they have been subjected.
In the charapagne district the manufacturer uses
none other but the new. In this country old bot
tles are employed for holding the native efferves
cing wines, and the many imitations of the foreign.
Breakage Is consequently a frequent occurrence,
even after the wine has come into possession of the
consuraer. I knew a youth in whose hand a bottle
of Araerican charapagne burst, and so wounded the
intricate net-work of vessels, that the blood could
only be stopped by the surgeon, who was forced to
tie the main artery of the arm for the purpose. I
have never heard of a similar accident frora a gen
uine bottle of champagne.
The manufacturers, however, meet soraetiraes
with great losses frora the breakage even of the
new and strongest bottles. One dolefully records :
"In the year 1746 I bottled 6000 bottles; 120
bottles were all that remained of the lot. In 1747
the wine did not contain quite so much liqueur
(sugar and wine) as in the preceding season, but

TESTS OF QUALITY. 165
Still one third of the bottles burst, and in 1748
(using probably still less sugar) only one sixth."
A strong effervescence is always accompanied by
excessive sweetness, which comes from the large
addition of sugar to produce the popular pop and
froth, both of which are indications certainly of too
much liqueur, and generally of an inferior cham
pagne. The acridity and meagreness of this can
be so completely disguised by the " dosing," that
no manufacturer cares to waste his best wine,
whose fineness of bouquet and flavor could not
possibly be recognized, smothered as they would
be by the lusclousness of the syrup or liqueur.
In judging of champagne the connoisseur relies
mainly upon his senses of taste and smell. His
sight, too, is brought into requisition, and if he sees
that it flows out smoothly, but yet sparkles briskly
in the glass, is transparent, glistening, and of a pale
araber color, he at once is disposed to believe that
he has a good and old wine before hira. If it
coraes forth fizzing and foaraing, and is of a dullish
white hue, he is alraost ready to conderan it, on
first appearance, as a raeagre youngling, which,
however skillfully treated, and whatever may be
its pretensions, will never be fit to be introduced
into the best company.
The wine to be tasted should have the terapera
ture of from 50° to 54° of Fahrenheit, A great
degree of cold will mask the vices of the bad as
well as the virtues of the good. The season of the

166 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
year and the state of the atraosphere, too, are not
without their effect. In March and April all wines
are said to be in motion or undergoing a certain de
gree of decomposition, and the taste of the best
will be consequently injuriously affected. Thunder
storms and strong gales, either by their electrical
influences or the concussions of air they produce,
likewise disturb the nicely balanced qualities of a
fine champagne and spoil its flavor.
Before tasting the wine, the connoisseur often
pours a drop or two in the palm of his hand, and,
rubbing it, tests it by the sense of smell. If good,
it will have an aromatic odor ; if bad, a raixed
sugary and spirituous smell.
The skillful degustateur, as the French manufact
urer calls hira (the taster), only sips the wine sub
mitted to his judgraent, and, turning it slowly,
brings It again and again backward and forward
in his raouth. He has learned by practice what
the physiologist has long taught in theory, that the
nerves of taste are placed at the point, and the still
raore delicate ones of flavor at the root of the
tongue. The former can only distinguish, for ex
ample, the obvious difference between the sweet
and sour ; while the latter, particularly if prac
ticed, can discrirainate the nicer degrees of each.
The bouquet of wine, which appeals at the sarae
time to the taste and smell, is onfy to be detected
by the palate, or rear part of the tongue. Here,
say the anatomists, are clearly interwoven the
nerves which serve both these senses.

FALSE AND TRUE. 167
Good charapagne should never be heavier than
water ; but, to settle this question, recourse must
be had to the science of the chemist. An instru
ment, however, has been contrived for this purpose
which is soraetiraes used by the raanufacturer, and
is called an areometer. This has a graduated scale,
and the point to which it sinks in pure water Is
marked with a zero. When placed in any other
fluid, if it sinks to the same depth it is an indication
that it is of the sarae weight as water ; if not so
deep, that it is lighter; and if deeper, that it is
heavier. Although there is a great deal of so-called cham
pagne, the grape of which it was made — if made
of grape at all — never grew on the hills of Rheims
or its neighborhood ; there is not, it is presumed,
much that is adulterated with absolutely poisonous
ingredients. In Germany, Switzerland, even in
France and in the United States, there Is a large
quantity doubtless of liquid manufactured which
has the sensible properties — the sweetness and ef
fervescence — of champagne, but none other of its
attributes. This may be made of grapes, of spoiled
and inferior wines of different kinds, of cider, or
the juices of the common fruits of temperate coun
tries. Outwardly It displays every appearance of
genuine champagne, whose bottles, labels, and vari
ous familiar adornments it assumes. There are
always in the United States purchasers ready to
buy the old baskets and cases — which have once

168 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
contained genuine wine, and are marked with the
symbols of well-known manufacturers — of the
restaurateurs and grocers, to whom they willingly
pay a price much beyond their original cost. The
obvious motive of the purchase is that they raay be
used to pack spurious wine, and thus pass It off as
genuine. The only security for the consuraer who
desires to purchase a genuine brand. Is to buy of
the authorized agent or of him whose integrity is
undoubted. All wine that coraes even from Champagne is by
no means genuine. There are manufacturers there
who fabricate wines from grapes never grown in
the district which alone produces the real fruit.
These will sell their concoctions at three or four
dollars a dozen, give them as jaunty a look in bot
tle as the choicest Clicquot or Consular Seal, and
call them by any name the purchaser may fancy
within the limit of the law. These same artificers,
of exhanstless ingenuity, will make to order not
only charapagne, but wine and spirits of any kind
and country. When consular agent at Rheiras, I
legalized raany an invoice of " Madeira," " Sherry,"
" Port," " fine old Cognac," and the " best Holland
Gin," and of all sorts of liqueurs, " Chartreuse,"
" Curagoa," and " Kirsch," exported to the United
States from Epernay, by an expert manufacturer of
that place, I had reason to believe that within his
extensive premises he had brought together the
vinous powers of production of the whole world.

A UNIVERSAL DISTILLERY. 169
and could, without travelling beyond his own walls,
summon at his call the rich cordial of the Alps, the
fiery spirit of the Low Countries, the wine of the
Cape, the liqueur of the Antilles, or the products
of any other quarter of the globe. In fact it Is
no secret in Champagne that this ingenious and
wealthy manufacturer, whose success has been com
mensurate with his wondrous enterprise, has virtu
ally abolished all the geographical divisions of the
earth, and, recognizing their diversity only in name
and idea, produces within his own inclosure any
wine, spirit, or liqueur a customer raay demand. I
knov\ by name his agent in the United States, and
I would no raore think of drinking of his vari-col
ored bottles than I would of those of an apothe
cary shop.
Champagne, as it is known to the consumer, the
vin prepare (prepared wine) of the manufacturers,
does not improve by age. The wine, the vin brut
(raw), of which It is made, provided it be good,
does, however, benefit by increase of years. As
soon as champagne leaves the raanufacturer, and
has reposed about a fortnight from the agitation of
its voyage, it is in the best condition for drinking.
A quick passage across the stormy Atlantic by
steamer, such as most of the genuine champagne
consumed in the United States has to undergo, ira-
proves it, by thoroughly mixing the liqueur with
the wine.
As soon as the consuraer has purchased his stock,

170 TBE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
he should remove the bottles from their baskets or
cases and lay them in a cellar of about 45° on their
sides, with an inclination of the necks downwards,
so that the wine may remain in contact with the
corks. These thus kept constantly bathed with the
vinous fluid are prevented frora drying and shrink
ing and from being covered with mould, which will
spoil the flavor of the best champagne. If the
cork shrinks from dryness and heat, the gas will
escape, and the wine, losing its sparkle, become
flat. There is often heard a complaint of the wine
being " corked," The French call this gout de
bouchon, taste of the cork. With all the care of
the most cautious manufacturers, this will occasion
ally occur from some radical defect of the cork,
which may escape the closest scrutiny.
The first-class manufacturers are very nice about
the corks they use. The material is imported from
Spain, but is cut at Rheims, where a whole colony
of Spanish cork-cutters has settled for the purpose.
Each champagne cork of the finest kind costs the
manufacturer about three cents. Before it is ap
plied it has the ordinary form, but is much larger
than the common wine-cork, being of a diameter
before compressed at least one third too great. Its
flat top is pulled into the rounded head it has in the
champagne bottle by the drawing down and fasten
ing of the cord.
The taste of the cork exists much less often than

EOW TO DRINK CEAMPAGNE. 171
it is complained of The waiter of the hotel or
restaurant, who is quick at the detection of a pre
tended connoisseur, is always suspicious of such a
complaint. He, however, demurely takes away the
bottle, with probably a compliment to the nice dis-
, crimination of his customer, and quickly disappears.
If the wine admits of it, he has no sooner reached
the pantry than he recorks the bottle and brings it
back, without having given himself the trouble even
of a look into the cellar. Presenting the same
bottle with a new cork, he says, with the utmost
suavity, " Try that, sir ; I am sure you '11 find it to
your taste." The would-be-connoisseur pours out
the wine, sips it, smacks his lips with the satis
faction of a finished wine-bibber, and smiling grate
fully to the waiter, declares pompously, " It 's all
right now." With champagne this cannot be done ;
and the waiter accordingly transfers the bottle com
plained of to some other customer who has ordered
his wine iced, and to whom necessarily it is to be
presented uncorked, while he gets another bottle
for the querulous and pretentious judge.
Charapagne should always be drank cold ; but
when it is good and dry it is a palatable beverage
even though its temperature has not been much re
duced. The ordinary wine of coramerce is gener
ally so sweet that it is hardly drinkable until almost
frozen. Such charapagne may be congealed or
even mixed with pieces of ice, for excessive cold
disguises its nauseous sweetness ; and if diluted it

172 TEE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
,loses advantageously the alcoholic strength with
which it is so frequently endowed. Fine, dry
wine, however, should seldom be kept more than
ten minutes in the freezer, and never be mixed
with ice or poured into a decanter of frozen water.
Its natural lightness requires no dilution ; and ex
cessive cold, whether produced by freezing or by
dropping pieces of Ice into it, deprives it of its aroma
and vinous taste.
The effervescence of champagne depends much
upon the form and condition of the glass out of
which it Is drank. It sparkles much raore vigor
ously when poured into a glass pointed than in one
that is round or flat at the bottom. The presence
of a little dust left by a careless waiter will increase
greatly the development of the gas ; and a glass
that, after being rinsed with water, is wiped with a
towel however fine, will cause the champagne
poured into it to sparkle ; while the same wine will
be comparatively still in a glass which has been
merely rinsed and untouched afterwards. The cause
of this is owing to the fact that in the forraer case
there is always some of the lint of the cloth left
clinging to the vessel, while in the latter there is
none, A crack or a scratch will also greatly aug
ment the sparkle. The old-fashioned tapering glass,
called a flute, is the one generally preferred in
Champagne. There are some of these flutes which
will hold a half-bottle of wine. On great occasions,
when the Rheims folk indulge in high jinks, it is

SOCIAL QUALITIES. 173
the custom to fill these enormous glasses with cham
pagne and call upon each guest to drink one off at
a draught, under pain, if he fails, of paying for a
full bottle of wine to be drank by the company.
Ou ne deviemt pas ivrogne avec le champagne,
" One does not become a drunkard from drinking
champagne," is accepted as a proverb in the country
where it is produced. This of course applies only
to good wine. The ugly but clever Princess Char
lotte Elizabeth of Bavaria, the Duchess of Orleans,
however, wrote in a letter, Aug. 13, 1716, " When
my, son [subsequently the Regent] gets drunk, it is
not in drinking strong drink or spirituous liquors,
but a little champagne," Her French translator
adds in a note, " People do not any longer get
drunk with champagne."
Champagne wine is eminently a social beverage.
It breaks the monotony and the wearisomeness of a
lengthy dinner, " for ennui will pursue and catch us
even at table," says a French disciple of Brillat Sav-
arln, who adds : " Champagne wine, with its amber
hue, its eclat, its sparkle, and its perfurae, arouses
the senses and produces a cheerfulness which flashes
through the corapany like a spark of electricity.
At the raagic word. Champagne I the guests, dull
and torpid with good feeding, awake at once. This
lively, ethereal, and charming beverage sets in mo
tion the spirits of all ; the phlegmatic, the grave,
and the philosophic are surprised to find themselves
amiable ; in the wink of an eye (or the pop of a

174 TEE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
cork) the whole banquet has changed its physiog-
noray." Brillat Savarin aphoristically says, " Tell me
what you drink and I will tell you what you are."
His French disciple, answering for the drinkers of
champagne, says : " The table on which champagne
figures — let it be said, however, in passing, that I
speak of good charapagne, for all so-called is by no
means worthy of the name — is always a splendid
one, and indicates not only a certain ease of for
tune, but a grace in the habits of life."
I was told by a pompous wine-mixer of Rheims
that he only served the aristocracy. I found, how
ever, that he was no less eager to dispose of his
bottles for the dollars of the American citizen than
for the Ttopechs of the Russian prince. Boston, by
its natural affinity, perhaps, with European rank, .
is about the sole consumer in the United States of
the exalted beverage of this gentleman's gentleman
of Rheims, who so willingly assumes the livery of
the aristocracy, though not above, it would seem,
pocketing the dollars thrown to hira frora this ple
beian but profuse Republic.

CHAPTER XVI.
Merinos and other Woolen Productions — Their Superiority —
The English Factory — Annual Production of Woolen Goods
— Wonderful Effect of Free Trade — Duty of Consul at
Rheims — No Necessity for One — Biscuits de Rheims — Gin
gerbread — Gingerbread-maker to the Emperor.
"D HEIMS has been long famous for its merinos,
-¦-^ and of late years it has taken precedence in
the manufacture of flannels and other woolen goods.
In the general market of Europe, even inclusive
of that of England, its fabrics bear the palm of
superiority. The flannel of Wales, noted for its
excellence from time immemorial, cannot now com
pete in quality and price with that of Rheiras.
The remarkable fineness and softness of the me
rinos may have been at one time due to the wool
produced in the neighboring country of Rheims,
but when, as at present, the chief supply comes
from Australia, and is sold in the London market
comraon to all the" world, this cannot be the cause
of the superiority which is still maintained. There
seems no natural reason, dependent upon soil, cli
mate, or peculiarity of breed, to account for the
excellence of the woolen manufactures of Rheims.
It is to be attributed solely to superior skill and

176 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
care in workmanship. For their machinery the
manufacturers are still largely indebted to England,
and they have no processes of fabrication that are
not familiar to the whole world.
The wool is both combed and woven into tissues
at Rheims. The principal establishment for the
former operation belongs to an Englishman, a Mr.
Holden, of Bradford, in Yorkshire, which town he
represents In Parliament. His nephew superintends
the factory at Rheiras, where he has an extensive
range of buildings and a whole colony of English
workmen, who, with their Methodist Chapel sup
ported by Mr. Holden, and their Anglican habits
of which they are so tenacious, form a group of
people as distinct from the surrounding Frenchmen
as if the channel still flowed between them. The
machinery of this establishment, the invention, I
believe, of the elder Holden of Bradford, is the
most ingenious I ever beheld. It seemed endowed
not only with the flexible hands but the intelligence
of humanity. One machine takes up the dirty
wool, and when sufficiently cleansed passes it to
another, which, after combing it, transfers in its
turn to a third, which twists it into yarn and then
gives it to a fourth, which completes the process by
rolling it into a ball. All this is done without the
interference apparently of a solitary human being,
although here and there is a girl or boy to provide
against accident.
Holden's superior machinery gives him almost

VALUE OF ANNUAL PRODUCTIONS. 177
the monopoly of wool-combing, for he can do it
better and cheaper than any of his competitors.
He has sold his patent again and again, but his
French rival had no sooner started his establish
ment, than Holden had invented some improvement
to his machinery by which he still secured his pre
eminence. The manufacture of tissues is almost entirely in
the hands of the French, and in it they show their
characteristic taste, care, and economy.
The value of the annual production of the two
chief manufactures of Rheiras, wine and woolen,
is about one hundred and twenty raillions of francs
(twenty-four raillions of dollars.) Of this amount
the wine gives forty millions of francs (eight mill
ions of dollars), and the woolen manufacture, in
cluding both the combing and weaving into tissues,
eighty millions of francs (sixteen millions of dol
lars). This implies an extent of comraercial trans
action which, if account is taken of all interraedi-
ary acts of buying and selling on the spot, reaches
the large sura of five hundred raillions of francs, or
a hundred millions of dollars annually.
The comraercial treaty between France and Eng
land, which was negotiated by Cobden, has been of
great benefit to the woolen trade. In 1859 the
quantity of raw wool bought in France and in
foreign countries by the raanufacturers and com
mission merchants of Rheims, amounted in value
to sixty-five millions of francs (thirteen millions
12

178 . TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
of dollars) ; in 1865 it had reached nearly eighty
millions of francs (sixteen millions of dollars).
The total production of woolen tissues manufact
ured in 1859 was valued at sixty millions of francs
(twelve millions of dollars) ; and in 1865 at eighty
millions of francs (sixteen millions of dollars).
This substantial result has converted all those
engaged in the woolen trade in Rheims, from
furious opponents into ardent advocates of free
trade. Those whom the sound principles of Say
and pointed illustrations of Bastiat — though pre
sented for years with all the clearness of statement,
directness of application, and accuracy of reason
ing that logic, language, and exact information
could command — failed to impress, have been sud
denly and thoroughly convinced by the practical
benefits of the Cobden treaty.
Surrounded as I was by these fresh converts to
free trade, who, being new proselytes, were all the
more warm in their advocacy, I was constantly beset
while at Rheims with demands for the reasons why
a country so enlightened as my own should perse
vere in its so-called protective but in reality de
structive policy, I freely confessed, in accordance
with the convictions I had always held, that being
a free-trader myself, I had no reasons to offer, but
would leave it to my superiors in authority to
present them, I becarae, however, soon heartily
ashamed of my consular vocation, which seemed to
serve no other purpose than to place obstructions

CONSULAR EXTORTION. 179
in the way of commerce, and put fees in my pock
ets, or rather into those of the United States Consul
at Paris, who took the lion's share of them.
My chief duty was to receive thirteen francs and
fifty centimes (two dollars and a half) for signing
my name, and stamping a portentous seal of office
upon each invoice of wine exported from Rheims
to the United States. This function, in the espe
cial case of champagne, — the only article of direct
export, — being entirely unnecessary, was of no
service to the government, and a very serious ob
struction and heavy expense to trade. The duty on
champagne is nominally ad valorem, but in reality
specific, for the market-price of the, wine at Rheims
never rises high enough to bring the duty beyond
the minimura of six dollars a dozen, specified in our
tariff. Let the wine-merchants of Rheims invoice
their merchandise at the highest or lowest price,
they cannot by any possibility pay more or less
than six dollars. The governraent should at once
do away with the semblance of an ad valorem- duty
on champagne, and frankly establish, what in reality
now exists, a specific one. There would then be
no excuse, as there is now no necessity, for sending
to Rheims a consular extortioner to wring, in the
name of the United States, but for the benefit of its
superfluous official, the paltry sum of a few hun
dred francs annually from a friendly commercial
people. The woolen products of Rheims are largely con-

180 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
suraed in the United States, but they are not di
rectly exported there from their place of manufact
ure. The business is conducted entirely through
the agency of London and Paris, so the invoices
are never legalized at the Consulate at Rheims.
Consequently there need be none for the especial
purpose of receiving the woolen tribute.
No account of the manufactures and trade of
Rheims would be complete, without an allusion at
least to its famous biscuits and gingerbread. These
articles raay not count for much, in the annual
reports of chambers of commerce and statements
of dignified officials, but they have done more to
make the name of Rheiras familiar, in France at
least, than all its wine and' merinos. Les biscuits
de Bheims are found upon every, French table. It
is no exaggeration to say that there is not a single
Frenchman, woman, or child in the whole empire,
who finishes his dinner without eating one of these
biscuits, which bear the name of, if they do not
come from, Rheiras. They are little square cakes,
of great lightness, coraposed of fiour, sugar, and
eggs, and baked so dry that they never seera to
lose their freshness. When properly packed In tin
they will bear exportation to the most distant coun
tries, and I am surprised that they are not more
generally consumed In the United States. Nothing
can be raore wholesome and palatable, for though
dry, a little soaking in tea, coffee, or wine, which
Is the way that they are generally eaten, gives them

BISCUITS AND GINGERBREAD. 181
the freshness of just-baked sponge cake. Every
street In Rheims has Its bakery of biscuits, and no
visitor comes to the place without taking away with
him a box of them.
The gingerbread I have never tasted, but accord
ing to common report, it is no less delectable than
the biscuits ; and as there is a Pain-d^ Spicier a V
Empereur — a gingerbread-maker to the Emperor
— at Rheims, it is reasonable to suppose that his
Imperial Majesty Louis Napoleon, and her Impe
rial Majesty Eugenie, occasionally Indulge in it, or
keep a supply for his Royal Highness the Prince
Imperial, No French fair is deemed complete with
out it, and any child under its teens who did not
get its fairing of Rheims gingerbread, would deem
itself unfairly treated.

CHAPTER XVII.
Dullness of Rheims — How Accounted For — Antiquities —
Phaedrus — Palace — Jovinus — Les Arcades — An Old House
— Where the Family of Joan of Arc put up — Origin of
Rheims — Roman Arch — Hold de Ville — Library — Rare
Books — Pictures — A Brazen Lie.
EVERY stranger alraost who coraes to Rheims
finds fault with it for its dullness, and the
inhabitants themselves seldom refuse their assent
to the unflattering complaint. There is certainly
an air of solemn gravity about the place, which is
not favorable to the stir of the more lively emo
tions. The Cathedral throwing its great shadow
far and wide, and dominating the whole town and
neighborhood, seems to envelop them in a per
petual gloom.
The arrangement of most of the houses adds
to the sombreness of effect. Many of these hav
ing originally been monasteries, convents, or other
places of religious use, are heavy structures in
closed within thick and high walls. The modern
houses, even in accordance with the general French
practice, are closely hidden ; so that in passing
through some of the streets of Rheims nothing is

DULLNESS OF RHEIMS. 183
to be seen on either side but barriers of dark ma
sonry rising raany feet above one's head.
The large wine establishments and woolen fac
tories, some of which were also originally monaste
ries and convents, enveloped in coal smoke, and
with their surfaces stained by time and filthy usage,
are moreover not of an enlivening aspect.
The population is large for a provincial town,
there being sixty thousand inhabitants, and the trade
extensive, yet the streets are rarely thronged with
people, and seldom noisy with the stir of business.
I was ranch puzzled to know how the raany raill
ions of bottles of champagne, and the multitude
of cases of merinos and other woolen goods, which
I knew must find their exit from the town, could
be borne away so quiet and unnoticed. The fact
that the manufactories and warehouses are scattered
over an extended surface, and mostly situated in
the suburbs, may partly account for the quietude,
but still it seems strange that they should not
irapart some of their briskness of activity to the
streets. The isolated life of the more prosperous inhab
itants tends also to deprive the town of that ani
mation which comes from the presence of gajdy
dressed persons and the movement of showy equi
pages. The wealthy people and their families rarely
show theraselves in the street, and during most of
the year are entirely absent from Rheims.
To enjoy and appreciate Rheims, one must visit

184 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
it with an object, and corae prepared, if not with a
knowledge of ancient art, with some taste for it.
There are not only the Cathedral and the great '
Church of Saint Remi, but other monuments, which,'
are worthy of the study of the artist and the notice
of the curious. A large nuraber of English visit
ors, and of the most intelligent kind, inspired by
the prevailing taste, come annually to Rheims for
no other purpose than to see the churches and the
other remarkable specimens of mediseval art. Dur
ing the season of travel not a day passes without
bringing the Anglican pilgrim, generally of ritual
istic tendency, to bow in adoration before these
genuine offsprings of old Mother Church.
By the side of the Church of Saint Remi for
merly stood the ancient monastery, or rather archi-
monastery of that name, for it was elevated by the
Pope to this high distinction, in consequence of its
original possession of the remains of the great
saint. The ancient building was burnt, and the
present one, which is used for a hospital, is of
raodern date. With the monastery was consumed
the great library, among whose treasures was the
original copy of the " Fables of Mso^," translated
iftto Iambic verse by Phaedrus. The work was
discovered, copied, and given to the public by the
learned monks of Saint Remi, and to their enlight
ened care and erudition the world is not only in
debted for one of the choicest remains of classical
literature, but possibly for the charming fables of

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE. 186
Lafontalne, who evidently admired his Greek pro
totype, as he has rivaled him In sententiousness of
expression, purity of style, and simplicity of con
ception. The archiepiscopal palace by the side of the
great Cathedral, and within the same inclosure,
although its exterior has been deformed by re
peated changes and the addition of a long range of
ill-looking buildings, has within a little chapel of
graceful architecture and undoubted antiquity. It
now possesses the monument of Jovinus, at one
time in the Cathedral, but originally in the Church
of Saint Nicaise. When Santerre, the Revolution
ist of brutal raemory, demolished the fair edifice,
he had the unusual grace to save this ancient work
of art, which failed, it is said, to provoke his de
structive rage, because it was so exclusively heathen
and free from any odious indication of Christianity.
It is a fine specimen, in white marble, of Roman
bass-relief representing a hunt. Jovinus, though a
Roman, was a convert to Christianity, and unlike
his master, Julian the Apostate, was constant to the
new faith. His meraory is therefore greatly revered
by the ecclesiastical town.
It is Impossible to walk in any part of the old
town of Rheims without remarking some specimen
of ancient architecture. There are whole streets
of houses with peaked gables facing the road, and
upper stories, with arches below for the passage of
the people, projecting over the sidewalks. These

186 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
form the most cheerful portion of the town, and as
they contain the gayest shops and cafes, are well
frequented. Les Arcades, as they are termed,
are seldom without some loujiging soldiers, and
saucy girls displaying their cheap finery ; and dur
ing the idle hours of noon and evening there is
quite a crowd, for Rheims, of miscellaneous peo
ple^ clerks from counting-houses, commis voyageurs,
employSs of the public departments, officers of the
garrison, and a few strav strangers.
La Maison des Chanteurs, the house of the sing-
ers, is, though greatly changed from its original
aspect, much adraired by archaeologists as a remark
able specimen of the architecture of the beginning
of the fourteenth century. What remains of its
graceful fagade, especially the portion adorned with
five figures of musicians with their various instru
ments, is considered a valuable relic of early art.
Among the many Gothic houses inclosing the
market-place, there is one of excessively antique
aspect, supposed to have been erected in the time
of Charles VI. of France. Its range of stories
project one above the other, each being supported
by carved figures, while the whole surface, from its
wide base to its peaked gable, is covered thick with
sculptured flowers and ornaments.
Round the corner from my dwelling-place, the
Lion (}' Or, there Is another hotel, the Maison
Rouge, upon whose front are inscribed these words :
'¦'¦Lan 1429, au sacre de Charles VIL, dans cette

ROMAN ARCE. 187
hotellerie, nommSe alors I'Ane Raye, le pere et la
mere de Jeanne d!Arc ont StS loges, et dSfraySs par
le conseil de ville; " " In the year 1429, at the con
secration of Charles VIL, in this hosteliy, named
then the Striped Ass, the father and mother of
Joan of Arc were lodged, and their expenses paid
by the city council."
Rheims is of so ancient a date that its origin has
been forgotten. A pious canon, however, has
traced it back to Noah, and a learned monk to the
fabulous Remus. It was unquestionably a flourish
ing capital when Gaul was first invaded by the
Romans. Caesar, in his " Commentaries," speaks
of it as Burocortorum Remorum. In the course of
time it was briefly called, as was the usage in re
gard to the capitals, by the name of the people,
Remi, and hence the modern name Rheims. When
once conquered by the Roman legions, it remained
faithful to the eagles of Csesar, and became one of
his raost powerful allies.
Traces are still left of the Roman domination, in
a beautiful triumphal arch and other remains of
ancient art. The arch was raised, according to
most authorities, in honor of Julius Caesar. Some,
however, contend that it was erected in the year
277, by the inhabitants of Rheims, in gratitude to
the Emperor Probus for his permission to replant
the vine after the defeat of the German invaders;
and others insist that it was built as a monument of
the victories of Julian,

188 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
In grandeur of proportion and richness of sculpt
ure, the arch at Rheiras is hardly surpassed by any
surviving work of Roman art. It is coraposed of
three large arched openings, supported by Corin
thian columns. The vaulted roofs and sides are
richly adorned with sculptured ornaments, medal
lions, and bass-reliefs. The Seasons, the traditional
Romulus and Remus and their nursing wolf, and
the mythological love of Jupiter and Leda, are
among the chief subjects. One of the arches has
been lately restored, and with apparent fidelity to
the original design, which is rauch defaced by
time, A fine mosaic of Roman origin was discovered
while digging the foundation of the new railway
station, as also an altar, with sculptures repre
senting an ancient sacrifice. The discovery of
many other specimens of classic art would un
doubtedly reward the perseverance of the anti
quary ; but little can be expected in this behalf
frora the raodern Rheims, which Is so devoted to
present interests as to care but little for the past or
future. • The Hotel de Ville, the city hall of Rheims, built
in the early part of the seventeenth century, is a
fair specimen of the florid Italian architecture in
vogue at that period. Its front is richly decorated
with sculptures of the emblems of war and victory,
and is supported by sixty-eight columns of the
three orders of Greek architecture, — the Doric,

LIBRARY -RARE BOOKS. 189
Ionic, and Corinthian. Above the central pavil
ion there is a bass-relief representing Louis XIII.
on horseback. In his honor is this flattering in
scription in Latin : " To Louis, the just, the pious,
the victorious, the clement, the beloved of the
French, the terror of his enemies, the delight of
the world, the senate and people of Rheims have
raised this imperishable trophy,"^ The original
bass-relief, which was in wood, was destroyed by
the Revolutionists of 1790, in their rage against
royalty and its effigy of whatever kind. It was
replaced in 1818 by the present work in stone.
In one wing of the Hotel de Ville there Is a
public library, containing 30,000 volumes and 1000
rare manuscripts. When the abbeys and religious
communities of the town were abolished In 1791,
those books of their precious collections which
escaped the destructive hands of the revolution
ary iconoclasts were gathered together and taken
charge of by the city authorities. In the library
there are some choice specimens of early printing
and illumination. Among the books there is a
Homer of 1488, a Dionyslus of Halicarnassus of
1548, an ^'¦Anneus Elorus " of 1470, and other rari
ties. Among the manuscripts there Is a copy of the
Evangelists in the Sclavonic language, the Deri
vations and Etymologies written by Saint Isidor ; the
1 Ludovico Justo, Pio, Victori, dementi, Qui Galeorum
Amor, Hostium Terror, Orbis Delicise, JSternum Trophseum,
S. P. Q. R. PP.

190 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
" Pontifi,cal d'Hincmar " ; " Les Heures " of Queen
Emma, the wife of Louis d' Outremer ; and the
"Gfraduel de I'Abbaye de Saint Nicaise," said to be
of Incalculable value.
The librarian — a dustv little man, who seemed
to me a prodigy of learning, as he may well be, for
he has the reading of the thirty thousand books and
one thousand manuscripts all to himself — spoke
with the utraost conterapt of his fellow-citizens of
Rheims, " They never put a foot In the place,"
he said, " and I am hardly asked for a book once
in a twelvemonth. Ah ! ces hetes-ld ne pensent qu'
au vin mousseux et merinos;" "Ah, those stupid
fellows think only of champagne and merino."
B]/ the side of the library there is a small gallery
of paintings, among which there is a genuine land
scape of Berghera; a characteristic picture. The
Father's Curse, by Greuze ; and the Blind Restored
to Sight, by Poussin. There is also a showy can
vas, of iraraense size, upon which a raodern French
artist has erablazoned his conception of the Baptism
of Clovis. It is covered with nude figures, male
and female, the originals of which it is easy to see
were the abandoned debauchees of the Parisian
green-rooms and masked balls. The painting was
ordered by the clergy for one of the churches, but
being found too indecent for so sacred a place, was
transferred to the museura of the Hotel de Ville,
where it does not fail to find a host of unscrupulous
adrairers.

A BRAZEN LIE. 191
In the Place Royale — a broad square flanked by
handsome structures, among which is conspicuous
a great shop upon whose front is inscribed In tall
letters of gold : Pain-d' Spicier d l' Empereur, " Gin
gerbread-maker to the Erapu'ror " — there is a
bronze monument to Louis XV. It is the work
of the sculptor Pigalle, and was erected at the ex
pense of the city in 1765. The main figure was
intended to represent Louis XV. ; but in the heroic
lineaments of the face worthy of a Brutus, I saw
no indication of resemblance to the royal debauchee.
Two chaste feminine statues, representing Agricult
ure and Comraerce, recline on either side of the
king, but I never heard before of his ever having
been seen in such respectable female corapany. In
the inscription a servile municipality has termed the
worthless sovereign wise, virtuous, and magnani
mous. Though Art should be sacred to all, I am dis
posed to pardon the Republicans of France for the
rude hands they laid upon this brazen lie, and to
regret that while they were at their work of de
struction they had not been more thorough and
crushed it forever to the earth. The statue of the
king was indeed so mauled that -nothing was left of
it but an indistinct mass of metal, which required
all the art of another sculptor, and the inexhaustible
servility of the city, to restore to shape, and thus
reiterate the untruth and record anew their own
shame.

CHAPTER XVIIL
A Cheerful Resort — Cemetery at Eheiras — Death and Cham
pagne — The Balls of the Embarcadere — Police Morality —
The Theatre — Respectability — An Official on Exhibition —
Carnival at Rheims — Masked Balls — Fairs and Holidays —
Easter Fair — Public Promenades — Their Frequenters — An
Inland Town — Canal — Walks and Illusions — Forest of Ar
dennes — Shakespeare and Sportsmen.
A FRENCH traveller says that the gayest place
in New York to which his friends could take
him was a cemetery. I found the cemetery at
Rheims by no means the least cheerful resort of that
dull town. The grounds are prettily disposed with
winding walks and shrubbery, and each burial spot,
from the stately tomb of the rich to the humblest
grave of the poor, has its bed of bright flowers.
The cold reserve of the Puritan heart may feel
no sympathy with the free exhibition to public gaze
by the French in their cemeteries of their most ten
der sentiments. The words of endearment so boldly
and so profusely recorded ; the tears sculptured in
stone, and kept freshly gilded; the meraorials of
the dead ; the trinkets of vanity ; the decorations
of beauty and the playthings of childhood exposed
to the view of every visitor, seem to us a profanity

FRENCH SENTIMENT IN GRIEF. 193
of grief. We keep such meraorials to weep over in
secret. The American mother, hiding within her
bosom, from which her child has been torn by cruel
death, its lock of hair, and guarding in her inmost
drawer each memorial of her lost one, — the stock
ing that covered the little dimpled and once rosy
foot, and the whistle and bells that used to brighteri
the tender eyes now closed forever, — watches every
opportunity to catch a secret glance at them, and
to indulge alone in her luxury of woe.
The French, who are among the most devoted
of lovers and tenderest of parents, know little of
that wearing sorrow for the untimely loss of a be- 1
loved one, that blights so often and even destroys
with us the life of the bereaved. In France they do
not believe in the possibility of a broken heart.
The communicativeness of French sentiment in
grief, at any rate. Is wiser, and, it may be said, raore
in consonance with the design of our creation, —
for we were certainly made to live for the living
and not die for the dead, — than the studied secresy
of our deepest emotions so universal with us. By
sharing their sorrows with the world, the French
are led to regard death, in its general sense, as the
common destiny of humanity, and thus it is con
sidered more rationally and lamented less griev
ously. We, on the other hand, viewing the dread
affliction more individually, are apt to forget that
it is a general law, and, mourning as if we are
especially stricken, will not be comforted.
13,

194 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
On entering the cemetery at Rheims for the first
time, I was struck with surprise, almost shocked
even, to behold those cheerful names, Heidsieck,
Clicquot, Roederer, and Mumm, staring me from
the tombs of stone. Here was indeed a skeleton
for every man's feast. That those jolly and fa
miliar words, associated with the gay festivals of
the whole world, — christenings and weddings,
feasts and merry-makings, — should now appear to
me crowned with death's-heads and bloody-bones,
and, pointing a memento mori, seemed like a mock
ery of all good fellowship. I shall never hereafter
lift a foaming glass of champagne to my lips without
thinking of the burial place at Rheims, and of the
Pallida mors cequo pulsat pede, &c., of Horace,
It was certainly quite in conformity with the
laws of Nature that the bones of a Mumm or a Clic
quot should be laid in the course of time in the
handsome tombs their wealth has provided for them,
but I had never regarded these jolly names as
associated with any more serious fatality than an
empty bottle.
On All Saints' day, Toussaint, the festival of the
dead, the fite des morts, the whole town, a!nd esper
cially the cemetery of Rheims, was a scene of lively,
and I may say cheerful, excitement. Along the
street leading to the latter were arranged on both
sides stalls and tables, gayly festooned with crowns,
crosses, and memento moris, and attended by female
hucksters. These were giggling, and bantering each

CEMETERY AT RHEIMS. 195
other in the intervals of the brisk business they
were carrying on with the throng of mourners, —
men, women, and children, — all in suits of black,
who were pressing forward to the cemetery, to be
stow upon the dead their annual tribute of flowers
and funereal gewgaws.
Early in the morning the curS of the Cathedral,
my jovial friend, in full canonicals, leading a long
procession of singing boys and the whole church
choir of musicians^ blowing a full blast with sack-
but, harp, and trumpet as they marched through
the streets, had gone to bless the cemetery, as is
done each year,
, This cerenaony, over, the cemetery filled with a
throng of mourners bearing each their tributes to
the dead, — a flower^ an earthenware cherub, a
plaster cast of the infant Samuel, a wreath of im
mortelles, a cross, an urn, or a beaded star. Pious
women could be seen kneeling down on the barie
ground and uttering their prayers, unmindful of
the crowd ; men and women, boys and girls, were
busy grubbing up the weeds and grass which had
grown upon the graves, planting them with flowers
and shrubs, and putting them in order ; and one
nervous-looking, epileptic girl, in deep black, was
lying by the side of a newly-made gravelly mound,
and giving way to horrible agonies and hysterical
shrieks. In the cemetery the Protestants and Jews are
carefully excluded from the ground which has been

196 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
consecrated by the Church. There is an imper
ceptible line which divides the sacred from the he
retical portions. That old Mother Church has con
descended to admit outside barbarians even within
the same walls that inclose her sacred dust is an
advance in liberality, since, a few years ago only,
she refused a resting-place to the bones of any Prot
estant, Jew, or other infidel anywhere near those
of her own chosen people. Protestants, Jews, and
other infidels have reason to be grateful, as prob
ably incapable of appreciating the benefit of clergy
(Roman Catholic) they are contented.
Several of the families — as, for example, those
of Roederer and Mumm — being composed both of
Protestant and Catholic members, have built their
tombs in such a way that one half is upon holy
and the other on heretical ground. Their several
remains are separated by so slight a space, that they
may serve as food for the same worms, which, it is
natural to suppose, are no respecters of creeds and
persons. I was grieved to see that the tombs of the Jews
had been much defaced by Christian hands. All
over them were scrawled these words : Jesus Christ
le vrai fils de Dieu ; " Jesus Christ the true Son of
God." There are other resorts which it pleaseth the
people of Rheims to call places of amuseraent.
There are the Sunday and Thursday balls at the
Embarcadere, a pretty little garden on the edge of

POLICE MORALITY. 197
the railway track. Here the provincials, male and
female, of Rheims are allowed, under the control
of a squad of soldiers from the garrison and a posse
of gens d'armes, to indulge in the delights of the
cancan, and, inspired by the mixed influences of
cheap beer, love, and music, to whirl in the inti
macies of the waltz and polka, adapted by variations
to the free-and-easy character of the place. The
frequenters are mostly the young clerks of the va
rious trading establishments and the girls of the
factories and shops, between whom there is an
unmistakable closeness of relation, though not
sanctioned by the bonds of matrimony. There is
a perpetual and most unreasonable disposition on
the part of the immoderate youth of both sexes to
transcend even the large license of indecency al
lowed. Cest defendu. Mademoiselle; Vous allez
trop loin, Monsieur ; " It is not permitted, Miss ; "
" You are going too far, Sir ; " are being constant
ly bawled out by those rigid guardians of French
virtue with cocked hat and sword, the gens
d'armes ; and not a night passes but some young
fellow or damsel has his or her collar rumpled by
the rude official grasp. The code of morals of the
French police must be a curious study in casuistry.
Where so much is permitted, it would be interest
ing to know upon what principle of ethics any thing
is forbidden. The theatre of Rheims is a miserable little struct
ure, where the audience is so uncomfortably seated

198 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
and stifled by bad air, that it requires all the pas
sion of a Frenchman for the spectacle to sit through
the shortest and liveliest vaudeville. The munic
ipality of the town are now building a new thea
tre and a circus, both of which promise to be
creditable specimens of architecture. During the
winter there is a constant succession of farces and
comic operas, and an occasional attempt at the re
production of the comedy in vogue at Paris. I sat
through a very fair rendering of Sardou's La far
mille Benoiton, in spite of the discomforts of the
wretched little playhouse, and I have seen fre
quently the announcement of pieces which had re
ceived the applause of the fastidious audience of the
classic Theatre Fr'angais.
The decent people of Rheims turn up their noses
at the little theatre, but this is more on account of
those who frequent it, than because the acting is
not deemed worthy of their patronage. Respecta
bility would inevitably lose its prestige if it showed
itself openly in the playhouse of Rheims, This,
however, does not prevent the staid citizen from
going, but he hides himself in a curtained loge, and
is not always in the best female company, I caught
a glance, one night, of the procureur impSrial, a
count or marquis in his own right, of great magis
terial importance by the authority of the Emperor
Louis Napoleon, and bearing socially the dignity of
a husband and the father of a large family, in a
close tete-d-tete with a notorious kept mistress.

CARNIVAL AT RHEIMS. 199
At the little theatre of Rheims a first-class ticket
gives the entrSe not only to tlie boxes or orchestra,
but to the green-room, where, between the acts,
there is always a throng of old and young men,
staring at the well-stuffed stockings of the figit-
rantes, or exchanging equivoques with them as they
are undergoing a course of paint, or being draped
with gauze.
During the carnival the theatrical performances
cease, and the stage of the little building being
boarded over, there are masked balls given almost
every night. These are imitations in miniature of
those in Paris. The vice, however, is as gross,
though those who indulge in it are fewer. They
make up for sparsity of numbers by an abounding
license. I have never beheld a coarser scene of
debauch than was openly exhibited at Rheims, night
after night, during the carnival, at the theatre, in
the cafes, and in the streets, where both sexes,
whether disguised or not, put no check upon their
tongues, gestures, or conduct. A rabid thirst for
champagne, hot punch, and other strong drinks pre
vailed, and every one seemed eager to reach intoxi
cation, as the summum bonum. Success crowned
their efforts, and universal drunkenness was the
result. Rheims has its frequent fairs and holidays. The
fete of the Emperor Saint Napoleon is celebrated
with an unwonted profusion of triumphal arches
and fireworks. There are, I don't know how many

200 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
other saint days, but they seemed to me to divide
tjie year with the weekly Sundays. La Foire de
Pdques, the Easter Fair, lasts three weeks. Travel
in several of the largest streets is intermitted during
the whole time. Wooden arcades, with broad ave
nues for pedestrians and booths for shop-keepers
of all sorts, extend through their whole length.
Circuses and shows of every kind are built up.
Crowds of people throng into the town from all the
neighboring country, and day and night, during the
whole time, Rheims is lively with buying and sell
ing, eating gingerbread and fried potatoes, laughing
at the clown of the circus, pulling at the whiskers
of the bearded woman, popping down clay pipes
and plaster figures, crowding about Monsieur Le
Fort to see him balance on the tip of his rubicund
nose an iron crowbar, pushing for a chance for
a big roll of barley-sugar like a marshal's baton
at the whirling wheel of fortune, and shrieking un
der the forceps of the great Baron Munchausen,
R. O. G. U. E., first dentist to the Emperor and
Empress of all the Rus,sias, &c., &c., &c.
The public promenades are tastefully laid out.
That along the new boulevard, however, has yet
but a scant growth of shade, and the walks are
still new and uncomfortably gravelly. That called
the Promenade de Cours has some tall and wide-
spreading oaks and elms, and as it leads to the
canal, along which was my favorite walk, I became
familiar with its broad avenues and long vistas of

AN INLAND TOWN. 201
over-arching foliage. It was but little frequented
except in sumraer evenings and on holidays, but it
was seldom without a cheerful group of hearty
nurses with greedy babies tugging at them, and
the same half-dozen chattering old men. I never
missed two well - brushed veterans, retired shop
keepers or upper servants on a pension, who, astride
the stone bench, were perpetually playing at a
game of draughts. Their checker-board was made
by marks on the seat, and their raen were pebbles
picked up from the walk. Frenchmen never fail
to find means of indulging their passion for games.
The canal, however, was my favorite resort. It
is hardly conceivable how much one who has passed
most of his life in a sea-port feels the change on
removing to an inland town. Instead of the ever-
shifting scenes of the former, he has the unvaried
monotony of the latter. Cut off from relations
with the outer world, he is bound down to the re
stricted interests of the isolated locality. These
soon become wearisome from uniformity, and con
temptible from familiarity, especially to a stranger
who has not the stimulus of selfish interest to sus
tain his powers of endurance. With his mind
forced to turn its contemplations upon the little
spot, he becomes morbidly conscious of its mate
riality. He sees it in all its earthiness. The town
appears contracted to its first dimensions of an
infinitesimal bit of the wide universe ; its loftiest
structures are dwarfed to their proportionate little-

202 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
ness ; and its inhabitants, with their paltry airas in
life clearly discernible, reduced to pygmies.
It is astonishing how much raore expansive are
the sympathies and views of the people of a sea
port than those of an inland town. Breadth and
universality are the characteristics of the former;
narrowness and selfishness, the prominent qualities
of the latter.
The canal at Rheims is that which joins the
Marne to the Aisne, and, uniting Paris with Bel
gium, extends through a wide space of land. It
always seemed to me to open a means of escape for
my imagination, when I could, break through the
close walls of the little town, and I have passed
raany an hour within the shade of the poplars which
border the canal, under the illusion that I was
breathing the freer air of the outside world.
In the wide basin there was always a fleet of
large canal boats, of immense size, measuring five or
six hundred tons. These I regarded with infinite
respect, as in other times I have looked upon great
ships coming into port frora the far-off Indies.
Arriving as many of them did from distant places,
they seemed to me, from my limited point of view,
as messengers from the remote ends of the world,
I have watched their loading and unloading time
and again. There was always, moreover, a stir of
activity and a wholesome smell of tar about the ba
sin, which, as a faint rerainder of the busier scenes
and more odorous , atmosphere of my own native
city, was especially welcome.

TEE CANAL. 203
The sailors, though but fresh-water ones, seeraed
to be possessed of that rude frankness and robust
heartiness which invite and invigorate sympathy.
Their families always accompany them, and live
perpetually on board the vessels. The children are
often born in the hold, and know little of the land
but, what they learn in passing between the banks
of the canal. There was a candor and a freedom
of communication about them all, men, women,
and children, which contrasted favorably with the
shyness and doggedness of the common people of
Rheims, who, like all the provincials of France, fly
a stranger, especially of the Anglo-Saxon race, as
they would a churchyard ghoul.
The walk along the canal, leading out into the
country, often brought me to cheerful scenes of
field labor, and to little hamlets of stone, nestling
in groves of trees, I was never at a loss to find a
cabaret, where, if there was nothing else to tempt
me, I was sure to find a bit of wholesome bread
and a bottle of generous wine, at the cost of a few
sous only.
Though there were not raany people to be seen, I
seldom passed without meeting an idle soldier, — for
soldiers are scattered all over France, — or overtak
ing some patient fisherman angling for minnows in
the sluggish water of the canal. Canal-boats, with
their great hulks dragged slowly along by straining
horses, passed up and down ; and sometimes a gay
wherry, with a crew of the RSgattes, the boat-club

204 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
of Rheims, and a load of unblushing beauties, their
mistresses, glided swiftly by.
In the neighboring country of Rheims, during
the shooting season, there is an abundance of game,
— partridges, quail, and hares, — and a plentiful
supply of sportsmen, many of whom talk more of
their prowess with powder and shot than give evi
dence of it. There are still veritable wild boars
and wolves in that same forest of Arden, where
the Duke in " As You Like It " consoled himself
for exile in finding
" tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing."
The forest is but a short distance from Rheims,
some of whose rich men keep packs of boar-hounds,
and, mounted on horses, scour that ancient wood,
sacred to the Druids and celebrated by poesy and
romance, in pursuit of its "native burghers," I
met an acquaintance in the streets of Rheims, who
said that on the day before he had bagged two wild
boars and a wolf, and spontaneously offered to me
the skin of the latter; but it never, as the merchants
say, came to hand.

CHAPTER XIX,
An Old Proverb — Ingenious Interpretation — The Boeotia of
France — Intellectual Character of the People — One News
paper — One Public Lecture — Reading and Writing — Igno
rance of the Better Classes — Schools — Priestly Pedagogues
— Clipped-winged Youth — Rarity of Books — Conversation
— The Club — Imperial Academy — Deep Drinkers aud
Gross Feeders — Tripe and Slugs — Inhumanity — Hat Po
liteness — Insult.
QJJATRE-VING-T-DIX neuf moutons et un
"^ Champenois font cent bites, is an old and gen
erally accepted saying in France, The word bite
having the double signification of " beast " and
" fool," makes it difficult in translating the French
phrase to retain its full point, " Ninety-nine sheep
and one inhabitant of Charapagne make a hundred
brutes," is the nearest approach in English ; but
the word "brute " should be taken only in its early
and less gross signification of a creature without
reason. Napoleon, when in 1813 he stood at bay in
Champagne against the invading forces of all Eu
rope, asked an inhabitant of the country whence
originated this by no means complimentary proverb,
" Sire," answered .the, man, who proved to be far

206 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
from lete, — a creature without reason, — "in an
cient times a tax was laid upon every flock of a
hundred sheep which entered the town, and accord
ingly the peasants never brought in more than
ninety-nine at a time. The powerful feudal lord of
the manor, who was the author of the tribute, vexed
that it failed to bring him in the amount he had
expected, took his post at the gatei and determined
to collect the revenue himself. Here he awaited
the passage of the shepherds with their flocks. As
each one came up with his ninety-nine animals, his
lordship pointed him out to his men-at-arms, say
ing : 'Make himi pay! quatre-vingi-dix neuf mour
tons et un Champenois font cent betes.' "
As the saying had been circulating for centuries,
and its interpretation was only evoked at the late
date of 1818, it is not unreasonable to infer that
the latter sprung solely from the ready wit of an
exceptional Champenois^ and that the former should
retain its obvious senses as applied to the people of
Champagne generally.
French history and romance both give their sanc
tion to the truth of the old proverb. The Queen
of Navarre in her " Contes," and Louis XI, in his
'¦'¦ Nouvelles," speak of the Champenois as sots et lour-
diers, — fools and heavy fellows. In the archives
of Troyes, a town of Champagne, there is a letter
frora Charles V,, in which he informs the mayor
of the death of his fool, and orders him to send
another to take his place, suivant la coutume, — ^ac-

INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER. 207
cording to custom. The philosophic, Diderot, tooi
in the faraous Encyclopaedia, the raost enlightened
expression of opinion of the time, calls the province
of Champagne the Bceotia, of France. ,
The inhabitants of Champagne, and especially
those of Rheims, its chief, city, are certainly not an
intellectual people. With a population of nearly a
hundred and fifty thousand, there, is in the, whole
arrondissement but one newspaper, published at
Rheims, and that a wretched affair, which any
American printer's devil would be ashamed of edit
ing, I hardly ever saw in it a line of original
matter, expressive either of the sentiments of its
conductor or of the opinion of the public, for whose
interests it is supposed to have been established^
Its first page always contained an undigested sum
mary of the political news of the Parisian journals,
two days after those journals had been received at
every cafS in the town ; its second page was filled
with the tardy official reports of public sales, of
bankruptcies, and of the criminal records of the
courts, the interest of which had been already ex
hausted by a full week's conversation ; its third and
fourth pages were covered with advertisements,
which, no doubt, were interesting to servants out
of place and to masters in search of them, but by
no means amusing or instructive to the general
reader. I was nearly two years at Rheims, and during
that time there was but one public lecture, " Pub-:

208 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
lie," however, is a misnomer, for the Mayor of the
city, the great Monsieur Werl^, having the whole
affair in his own hands, kept it exclusively for him
self and his friends. A literary person of high
culture, no doubt, for he came direct from the great
centre of civilization, was invited from Paris to
deliver his lecture at the expense of the municipal
ity. He came and proclaimed views on the safe
subject of Madame de Sevigne, and was listened
to by all the Slite of the town, who, having been
thought worthy of sitting together within the same
walls, were honored with tickets. '
A great many of the common people can neither
read nor write, and those who can, do both very
imperfectly, I hardly ever received a bill, even
frora the better class of tradesmen, which was not
full of errors of orthography, and an almost illegible
scrawl. There is not a street in Rheims where
there are not staring signs, with words so familiar
that their sense can be easily understood, though
so misspelt that the French Academy would never
acknowledge thera as its own.
Those who have just pretensions to education are
withal strangely ignorant of sorae branches of learn
ing, — for example, of geography. On one occa
sion a wine-merchant, knowing well that I was an
officer of the United States, handed me an invoice
for Canada to legalize, and when I returned it he
was greatly surprised at learning that Canada was
a British province. On another occasion, a no less

PRIESTLY PEDAGOGUES. 209
imposing personage asked me to perform a consular
act relative to Brazil. The whole world, with the
exception of France, seemed a terra incognita to
these people, and there was hardly one in a hun
dred of them who could tell whether I came from
America by land or water.
There is an imperial lyceum, formerly the uni
versity, and a considerable number of public and
private schools, but these are mostly under the con
trol of the Church, which takes care to keep the
rising intelligence so hooded and shackled that it
may not see or move beyond its sacred precincts.
Les freres ChrStiem, an order of black friars, whose
sole duty in life it is to mould flexible youth in the
traditionary forms of ecclesiastical discipline, have
the management of most of the institutions for the
education of the rich as well as the poor. There
never was a more devoted set of pedagogues. A
child once in their grasp becomes as incapable of lib
erty of action as a fly in molasses. Nothing can be
better calculated than the system of education they
pursue, — to destroy all individuality of character
and freedom of thought. The discipline is as rigidi,
and the formalities are as unvarying, as those of a
monastery. The pupil has constantly the eye of hia
sombre master upon him. At his studies, at his
meals, during his play-hours, in going and I'etum-
ing from home, the black friar is ever at his side,
watching, listening, and directing. The minds of
the pupils are contracted, not onfy by a narrow
14

210 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
intellectual education fit only for a monk, but their
natural tastes and caprices are crushed out, and
even the motions of their bodies subdued by an
unvarying uniformity of dress and movement.
I have often pitied these poor boys, on seeing
them on their daily walks and at their daily pas
times ; they were always marched out in regular
order, and seemed to me, with their uniform dresses
of dark blue, and the long black robes of their
monkish teachers who flanked them, a funereal pro
cession of mourners and mutes going to the burial
of youth, " dead ere its prime."
The games, even of the elder boys, were always
of the most child-like character. They never played
at base or cricket, or any thing requiring force and
perseverance. Their most vigorous exercise was
tossing from hand to hand a light ball of caout
chouc, such as is used by children in our drawing-
rooms. The black friar was always there too, as
close to the lads as their shadows. Boys will be
boys everywhere, even occasionally in France, and
I was not surprised to find them often disputing
and quarreling ; but instead of settling their diffi
culties among themselves by hearty invective or a
stout appeal to fisticuffs, they referred all questions
at once to their priestly guardian, who, to do him
justice, appeared never to fail in adjusting matters.
With a few insinuating words he soothed the angry
disputants, and the difficulty generally ended with
the appeased parties blubbering in each other's

RARITY OF BOOKS. 211
arms. Tale^bearing, which with us is considered
so odious, seemed to be encouraged by the black
friars, whom I have seen pat again and again the
youngsters on the head with evident approval, as
they delivered themselves of their burdens of com
plaint against their fellows. This system may make
what mothers delight to call " nice boys," but it
can never lay the foundation of a vigorous man
hood. I never was in a place calling itself civilized,
where books of all kinds appeared so scarce as at
Rheims. With the exception of an occasional
ragged and well-thumbed copy of the younger Du-
mas's licentioas^i^Jhmie aux Camelias," or that cal
endar of the French galleys, the " Resurrection de
Bocamhole" I seldom saw any evidence of an inter
est in the current literature of the day. Among
the wealthiest people, surrounded by all the modern
luxuries inciting to sensual gratification, there was
rarely any indication of intellectual enjoyment. In
the best appointed houses there were apparently no
libraries, and I never by chance caught a person
turning over the leaves of the last new book, or
found it lying within reach on centre-table or Sta
ger e. The town gossip, the bankruptcy of this
merchant, or the infidelity of that woman,- formed
the staple of conversation, and literature or books
never. Domestic politics were carefully eschewed,
and there was no disposition, as far as I could see,
to question the wisdom of Louis Napoleon, and his

212 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
right to do as he pleased. During his reign the
material prosperity of Rheims has so increased, that
there did not seem to be a man who was inclined,
even if he dared, to doubt the benefits of imperial
absolutism. Of foreign politics the public talked
more freely, but their sentiments were seldom of a
liberal character. The North, during our struggle,
had but one sympathizer that I could discover, and
in the German war the feeling was almost entirely
with Austria and against Prussia. There is little
interest, however, felt in political questions of any
kind, for the people generally do not read or think
enough to talk of them. Rheims, though stolidly
content with imperial rule, is prepared, no doubt,
like all provincial France, blindly to follow the
wake of Paris, whether it should lead to the en
thronement of a Bourbon, an Orleans, or the estab
lishment of a republic.
The librarian of the public library mourned over
his solitude, and denounced a town so absorbed in
its material interests and sensual enjoyments as
never to take a book from his shelves. I found at
the club, called a Sahn de Lecture, a reading-room,
upon the lucus a non lucendo principle no doubt,
always a, large gathering of men, with leisure
enough, for they spent most of the best hours of
the day there, but never doing any thing but smok
ing, drinking beer, shuffling cards, and playing at
billiards. There were all the reviews and maga
zines of Paris, but I was always sure of finding

IMPERIAL ACADEMY. 213
them disengaged, and as fresh and uncut as when
they first came from the press. There was but a
single bookstore of any account in the place, and
in it there Was no stock of the new publications of
the day, although a patient purchaser, by waiting
several weeks, might possibly obtain what he want
ed from the capital.
No doubt there were books enough and reading-
men among the clerical portion of the inhabitants,
but, like the monks of the Middle Ages, they kept
all the learning and literature to themselves. There
is, it is true, an Imperial Academy at Rheims, wliere
I found, on being present at one of its meetings, in
addition to the presiding officers, an audience com
posed of two priests, an old woman, and myself*
Its principal business seemed to be the reading of
the rejected poems sent in competition for the an
nual prize, given by the Academy for the best copy
of verses on some local subject, — the visit of the
Emperor Napoleon, the Influence of Champagne,
&c. The Academy publishes an annual report of
its proceedings, and on looking over a long range
of volumes, I found them made up of treatises on
the best modes of corking wine, with an occasional
archseological paper by some patient ecclesiastic, on
the headless statue of Saint Nicaise, or the muti
lated remains of the great Saint Remi of the Ca
thedral. The common people, brutalized by ignorance, are
rude in manners and given to sensual indulgence.

214 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
They are deep drinkers and gross feeders, Rheims
is filled with low cabarets or wine-shops, and though
drunkenness is generally supposed to be uncommon
in France, it is by no means rare in Champagne.
In every street, almost, Asperges d toute heures may
be seen posted up on the doors of the low cafSs and
restaurants. The word asperge has the local sig
nification of tripe, which is a favorite article of
food with the voracious inhabitant of Rheims ;
" Patinas ccenabat omasi vilis."
The common slug or snail, the slimy wanderer
of our gardens, is another choice article of the
dainty diet of the people. The ugly monster is
sealed down within its shell by a thick paste com- ,
posed of butter, hot spices, and flour, and being
thus prevented from wriggling out, is thrown into
a pot of boiling water. In a few moments it is
withdrawn, served up, and eaten with great gusto
by its devourer, who, provided with a little two-
pronged fork made for the purpose, draws out the
snail deliberately from the convolutions of its shell,
and holding it up, stretched out in all its ugly pro
portions, throws back his head and drops it into his
gaping mouth.
Infirmity, whether of nature or disease, finds but
little pity or sympathy from these coarse people, I
have seen a poor hunchback or cripple jeered at
time and again by the laborers on the streets, and
forced to beat a quick retreat from the presence
of his cruel persecutors. There are brutal fellows

HAT POLITENESS. 215
enough with us, but I do not believe that there are
any grown up men who would venture thus to out
rage the public sense of humanity.
A great deal is said of the politeness of the
French, and it is true that there are no people in
the world who take off their hats so often, and
abound so much in complimentary phrases. These
formalities are much more frequent in the provinces
than in the capital. An American, who passed
some months at Rheims, said that it puzzled him to
conceive how the people, as all their time seemed
occupied with taking off and putting on their hats,
contrived to do any thing else. To me the excessive
uncovering, the bowing and scraping, and the per
petual offers of service, became very oppressive ; for
I soon discovered that they were generally cheap
substitutes for real civility, and that they were to
be taken as a receipt in full of the thing they pre
tended to signify. Deduct the hat and the wordy
compliments, and the Frenchman of Rheims, at
any rate, is by no means a model of politeness. •
The surliest John Bull is more of a Chesterfield
at heart, and less capable of offense against good
breeding, I had not been a week at Rheims when I was
grossly insulted, at the highest official table of the
place, by a person to whom I had been especially
introduced as the first wine-merchant of the whole
country. On speaking of an act of our govern
ment he styled it an " infamy," and seemed to have

216 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
introduced the subject for the purpose of so desig
nating it, for I had studiously avoided all allusion
to political questions. What seemed to me to give
a more gross aspect to the conduct of this person
was the fact that I was present as the especial guest
of the dinner, given in my honor.

CHAPTER XX.
The Delectable City — Plenty of Churches — Tenacity of Be
lief — Abounding Priests — Their Character — The Cardinal-
Archbishop — Skulking Priests — Exclusion from Society —
The Man of the World Cure — The Priestly Cur^- The Tidy
Girls of Rheims — Rentrereuses — Beauty and Corruption —
Famous Beauties — Licentiousness — Mariage de Convenance
— Fast Married Women — No Society.
/^N first entering Rheims, I thought that I had
^^ at last reached the delectable city of piety and
virtue. The tall spires rising on every side, the
constant ringing of church bells, and the black-
robed priests seen at each turn, with bended heads
conning their missals, as they crept humbly on in
the shades of the narrow streets, were an indication
that the place was amply provided, at least with all
the paraphernalia of religion. The general quiet
and order of the town, formal and tranquil even to
dullness ; the well-fed and neatly dressed citizens ;
the laborers in their decent blouses, the shop-women
smiling contentedly over their polished counters,
and the tidy factory girls, with a great roll of cloth
under each arm, toiling along like industrious ants
with loads bigger than themselves, seemed unmis
takable evidences of virtuous industry and its re
wards.

218 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
I had not been long, however, in Rheims, before
I discovered that its virtue was but a semblance,
and that it merited its reputation of being the most
corrupt city in France. It does not want, it is
true, for religion, and is in the full enjoyment of
the benefit of clergy. Though but twenty only
are left of the forty-eight ecclesiastical establish
ments Rheims possessed before the Revolution of
1790 laid its rude hand upon the Church, there are
still enough, including the Cathedral, to hold the
whole population of sixty thousand, and they are
well frequented, particularly by women and chil
dren. I had no reason to doubt the sincerity of faith
of the people of Rheiras. On the contrary, I had
every proof of their tenacity of belief, and never
met a man, woman, or child, who did not devoutly
toss pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, kneel each year
at the holy shrine of Saint Remi, take the benefit
of the sacred touch, and swear to the truth of the
miracle of the white pigeon with its phial of oil of
celestial manufacture.
There is a very numerous body of ecclesiastics at
Rheiras, erabracing every grade from the Cardinal
Archbishop to the chorister boy. Each order of the
Church is represented. There are Jesuits, Black
Friars and Gray, Carmelites and Saint Franciscans,
Sisters of Charity, Sisters of the Sacred Heart, Sis
ters of the Holy Child Jesus, and a great seminary
filled with three or four hundred acolytes or stu
dents, undergoing the theological process of prep
aration for the tonsure and cassock.

THE CARDINAL-ARCEBISEOP. 219
The general moral character of the clergy of
Rheims I never heard questioned. The Cardinal-
ATchblshop Gousset, whose red cap,^ alas! now
hangs by the side of that of his predecessor ^ from
the rafters of the Cathedral, was a man of the
most disinterested benevolence. He gave much
the larger portion of his handsome revenue to the
poor, by whom he was greatly beloved. He de
prived himself, in consequence, of all the luxuries
which are generally conceded to a personage of his
rank, and of many of the comforts of life which
are essential to the support of the infirmities of age.
He sold the carriage and horses of the archiepis
copal establishment, and though with the command
of a whole palace, he Hved among his books in a
little corner of it, and barely nurtured himself with
a meagre lenten fare throughout the whole year.
I have seen the aged Cardinal often at the Cathe
dral, and have admired the venerable aspect of the
tall, thin old man, tottering under the heavy scarlet
robes of office. As he presented his jeweled finger
to be kissed by the adoring crowd, he seemed to
single out the little children, and favor them with
an especial kindness of smile. No one at Rheims
spoke an ill word of the venerable ecclesiastic.
^ It is the custom to hang from the height of the arched roof
of the Cathedral, above the vault beneath the sanctuary reserved
for the burial of the Archbishops, the hat of a dead Cardinal :
it is allowed to remain there until the cord which holds it gives
¦way ; whoever first picks up the hat is entitled to a gratuity.
2 The Cardinal de Latil.

220 THE CEAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
Victor Hugo, however, has exposed, in that de
grading historical pillory. Napoleon le Petit, which
he has set up to the eternal shame of tyranny, the
benevolent Archbishop Gousset, charged as an ac
complice of the great criminal, the present Em
peror, in the cruel assassination of French liberty.
At Rheims the clergy seem a class of men apart,
and entirely distinct, from the rest of the com
munity. They go skulking about the streets like
so many lepers or outcasts from Society. I hardly
ever saw one of the numerous priests in company
with a layman. At the many dinners and other
social gatherings, where I have been a guest, I
never met an ecclesiastic. When, moreover, I
expressed a desire to make the acquaintance of the
clergy, my wish was met almost with derision,
and always with an expression of surprise, as if I
were seeking something that the usage of good
society forbade.
This exclusion of the clergy must act unfavora
bly, not only upon them, but on the laity. It
makes of the former a class of mere Bonzes, or con
ductors of public ceremonials, with the sole duty of
lighting the candles, uncovering the idols, doing the
posturing, and enacting the other performances re
quired by a traditional superstition. The moral and
intellectual influence which, with the learning and
virtue they may possess, they might exercise upon
the people, is entirely lost. Their example as decent
livers, and the refining effect of their conversation

THE MAN OF THE WORLD CURk. 221
as men of cultivated minds, are much wanted by
the grossly sensual and unintellectual people of
Rheims. By the merest accident I made the acquaintance
of two of the most prominent priests of Rheims,
one the curS^ of the Cathedral, and the other the
curS of Saint Thomas. I found them both, in ac
cordance with their general reputation, men of the
utmost affability of manners and integrity of char-.
acter. The cure of the Cathedral having passed his
early life in the army, had acquired, by a freer
intercourse with his fellows, a flexibility of mind
that all the pressure of ecclesiastical formality and
discipline had not succeeded in stiffening. I ac
cordingly found him always, ready for the discus^
sion of worldly topics, arid disposed to take, within
church limits, a liberal view of social and political
questions. He is a stalwart man, over six feet in
height, of goodly rotundity of person, and rubicund
face, jointly expressive of jollity and benevolence.
He is a man of great activity and business capacity.
Though he resigned, while I was at Rheims, his
position as eurS, he retained the office of treasurer
of the Cathedral, whose immense property, one of
the largest of any ecclesiastical establishment in
the world, he has administered for a score of years
with consummate ability.
1 Curiis not the equivalent of curate in English, but of vicar;
and vicaii-v in French is the same as curate in English.

222 THE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
He has obtained wealth from the thrift of a long
career, for he is now about seventy years of age.
The house in which he lives, just under the eaves
of the Cathedral, belongs to hira, and has one of
the snuggest interiors in all Rheims. I dined fre
quently with him, aiid never dined better. His
wine-cellar is one of the best of the whole province
of Champagne, and he is no niggard of its generous
stores when he has a guest at his table capable of
appreciating his bottles of the choicest vintage. On
my flrst morning visit he pressed upon me a glass
of maraschino, saying that I would flnd it good,
as he had it in his cellar since some thirty years
before, when the Cardinal had made him a present
of it, I was, on tasting it, grateful to hira for his
urgency in overcoming my reluctance, and took a
second glass without even being asked.
In addition to his other acquirements, which are
various and profound, he is an excellent player at
billiards, and has set up a table in his own house
for the amuseraent of hiraself and clerical friends.
The curS of Saint Thomas I found more of the
priest in his appearance, manners, and range of
thought. He is a little shriveled up man, with
an ascetic length and dryness of face, though with
a smile of exceeding benevolence, I saw him for
the first time on a Sunday, just on his return from
preaching a sermon, as he told me, on the Devil,
whom, I have no doubt, he painted in all his awful
materiality of horns, hoofs, barbed tail, and breath

THE PRIESTLY CURE. 223
of fire. He was full of chat, and plunged at once
into the subject of the American war, which he
deplored greatly, and said that if the Pope had
been still the sovereign of the world, as he ought
to and would again be, the difficulty between the
North and South would have been settled without a
blow, and simply by a word from the holy mouth
of the successor of Saint Peter,
Freemasonry the curS thought the great evil of
the present day, and he denounced it vigorously as
destructive of all good morals, " History, particu
larly English," he said, " was a lie. Not one of
the British historians, with the exception of the
priest Lingard, ever told the truth," The good
eurS of Saint Thomas, although his head may still
be enveloped in the darkness of the Middle Ages,
has his heart in the right place. He is a devoted
friend of the poor people of the crowded and dirty
suburb over which his ministration extends, and is
revered and beloved by the great and humble alike.
I was surprised to learn, as I soon did, that those
tidy girls whom I had noticed toiling along the
streets with their great burdens, and had compared,
at first sight, to so many industrious ants, were no
better, but in fact a great deal worse, than they
should be. From the police authorities, whose
sharp eyes are constantly on them, I learned that
the young working females, almost without excep
tion, added to what they received for labor the
wages of sin. They all work with more or less

224 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
industry, for they can only thus retain a quasi
respectability, and keep themselves from being reg
istered by the police as professional outcasts, upon
whom they look down with supreme contempt.,
These girls are generally what is called Bentrer-
euses, and their business consists in filling up with
the needle the defects left in all the stuffs woven
by machinery. They go in crowds to the various
factories, where the rolls of cloth are given out, and
bearing them off do their work at home. These
girls thus loaded down, going and coming, are a
noticeable feature of the street-life of Rheims.
They are all coquettishly dressed, and most of
them more expensively than the twenty or thirty
sous they gain a day as Rentrereuses could possibly
account for. The Mabille and Cioserie of Paris are
said to be largely recruited from these girls of
Rheims, who have the reputation of beauty. They
certainly have a large share of personal charms.
Champagne, in fact, has been long noted both for
its lovely and facile women. Marion Delorme — the
famous courtesan who brought to her knees Louis
XIII. and his crafty counselor, Richelieu;,, had De
Grammont and Saint Evreraont for lovers, and the
unfortunate Cinq Mars and an English lord for
husbands — was born in Champagne. Victor Hugo
makes that graceful creature of his imagination,
Esmeralda, first to see the light at Rheims,, where
her mother, born under the shadow of the great
Cathedral, was the victim of a heartless seducer.

LICENTIOUSNESS. 225
Though such a relation is not so openly acknowl
edged at Rheims as in Paris, it is universally al
lowed that every man, whether single or married,
has his mistress. Most of the young clerks, who
are generally from a distance, are never in any
other female society, for they are not admitted
within the secluded precincts of the homes of the
thriving citizens. The unmarried girls, except of
the lower classes, are jealously guarded, and are
not permitted to have the least communication with
the youth of the opposite sex. I never saw the
daughter of respectability, so-called, in the streets
unaccompanied by her parents, governess, or aged
female servant. This indicated, it seemed to me, a
great fear on the part of anxious relatives of danger
from within, or from without, or from both. The
corruption of the male youth is notorious ; but
whether the virtue of the young girls is too un
sound to resist the co'htamination of its slightest
contact, is more than I can say, but I know that
there is not a mother in Rheims willing to take
the risk.
The most degrading and demoralizing feature of
the system of life pursued by the young working-
girls, is the fact that it is in most instances with the
connivance of their parents, who share the pro
ceeds of the double career of infamy and industry
of their daughters. A moral cancer, with its roots
thrust deep down into the constitution of society,
and deriving nutriment from the very sources of
15

226 TEE CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY.
life, would seem impossible of eradication. The
more thriving classes even escape it only by the
subterfuge of a change of name. Their system
of mariages de convenance is little else than a le
galized version of the same thing, and results, if
common rumor can be believed, in consequences
equally destructive of all social obligations. There
is hardly a -woman, even in the highest ranks of
society, if prominent from the Sdat of personal at
tractions, at whom scandal does not point its busy
finger. This may not be proof of guilt, for Rheims,
like all provincial towns, is so rife with gossip that
even purity and innocence are no doubt often ma
ligned. There is an audacity, too, of display on the part
of some of the wives of the rich men of Rheims,
showing itself by extravagance of dress, frequent
publicity, open coquetry, the aping of the habits
and unreserved manners of the grisette or eocotte
(as she is now termed), in smoking cigarettes,
wearing apparel of exaggerated cut and color, and
indulging in freedom of conversation and attitude,
which so likens them in appearance to the demi
monde that they are unjustly, perhaps, considered
as belonging to it.
The illegitimate relation which prevails between
the men of the better and the young women of the
lower classes, is marked by great cruelty on the part
of the former. No . sooner is there an indication of
the natural fruit of such a connection, than the

NO SOCIETY. 227
poor girl is deserted and left solely to maintain her
offspring, the whole responsibility of whose support
is thrown by the French law upon the abandoned
mother. Rheims is thus full of children of unrec
ognized paternity. The victims of men's heartless
pleasures are often treated with great brutality, and
one constantly hears of scenes of personal violence.
There is little at Rheims of what may be justly
called society. The rich people, it is true, give
occasionally set dinners and balls, to show off their
fine upholstery and ostentatiously exhibit their evi
dences of wealth and fashion, but few families open
their doors to the admission of friends and acquaint
ances on terms of intimacy. The young men are
especially debarred from all freedom of social in
tercourse, and are thus forced back upon the profli
gate associations in which they so freely indulge.

APPENDIX.

The following is a translation of a bit of French
doggerel I picked up at Rheims. It gives the spirit,
and does not pretend to be an improvement upon
the form of the original : —
C«genb of 0oint Ucmg.
Of good saints there ne'er was a better than he,
I mean that good bishop, the great Saint Remy ;
He would smell out a witch
Like a terrier bitch ;
He made a great ado to get up a stew
Of a heretic or unbelieving Jew.
They made him a saint, and would have made him Pope,
For what in these days he 'd have hung by a rope ;
But murder and arson
Were right for a parson
When Mother Church was in her fullest renown.
Knocking heretics down by tap on the crown ;
That 's the way might had of defending the right
In those dark ages when they put out the light.
He was greatly beloved by all, great and small,
There was n't a church to refuse him a call.
But at Rheims he would stay
Where he had his own way ;
They called him to Paris, wanted him at Rome,
But, strange to say, he preferred to stay at home.

230 APPENDIX.
The ladies liked their fashionable preacher,
He was a " nice man " and " such a good creature."
There was n't one who sat under him, I ween.
Who admired him like her majesty the queen ;
She went to clmrch in state,
And never went too late ;
At mass high and low she was on bended knee,
And such a good Christian you never did see ;
But her husband the king was an old scapegrace,
And inside the church never showed his face ;
For men who like to sin
Hardly ever go in.
But her majesty greatly loved her Clovis,
And strove to save hira, for such woman's love is.
So one day, with a kiss and pat on the cheek,
She led her old man like a Iamb, mild and meek ;
He got to the church and began to refuse.
For he liked not to go where he did not choose.
Men like to have their way
Whether to go or stay.
He got to the door.
And would not stir more ;
He made every excuse and told a big fib.
But the queen gave no heed to her darling rib ;
And at last, by dint of pulling and tugging,
Flatt'ring and cajoling, kissing and hugging.
She into the church got the king fairly in,
And it was thus he got convinced of his sin.
Now Saint Remy, to cleanse him of all this sin,
Soused him in holy water up to his chin ;
Thus all the old Druid,
Washed in holy fluid.
Was turned to a good Christian both pure and clean,
Thanks to Saint Remy and to Clotilde the queen.
Clovis, it 's true, had been king many a year,
But he had not the divine right, it 's quite clear ;
For he had not been rubbed with the holy grease,
Without which no king could ever reign in peace.

APPENDIX. 231
So that his migesty might be anointed,
Saint Remy had a certain day appointed.
A great preparation
For the consecration
Was made in Rheims, and tbe people aU in Gaul
Came from far and near at the holy saint's call.
The streets were all tapestry, the walls all flags.
The palace all banners, the houses all rags ;
Then, to be sure, there was a great procession.
King, queen, holy priest, all in due'succession ;
A great number of boys,
And a very loud noise
Of sackbut, harp, and music of every sound.
So that little else could be heard all around.
The show mazed the king, and so dazzled his eyes.
He asked if he were looking on Paradise ;
" Not Paradise, sire, but the only true route.
If you want to be sure not to be kept out."
This, Saint Remy, it 's clear.
Whispered in royal ear.
At the great church, king, queen, and priest all arrived ;
And the king was ready after he 'd been shrived.
All was in state, but for oil they had to wait,
For the clerk had the fate to arrive too late.
Saint Remy, looking glum, began to sputter.
When down came a white dove all in a flutter. ,
(Some wicked people, who have no religion.
Declare it was nothing but a tame pigeon.)
Around its neck it had a holy ampulla.
Full of oil of sweet smell and purest color.
There had never been a miracle so great 1
The clerk was too late and the saint could not wait.
The dove came direct from heaven in post-haste,
For there was not a single moment to waste ;
If it had been delayed.
Had miracle been made ?
No ! for the clerk, though too late, was good and true,
And at last came pushing through, all in a stew.