CHAPTER X.

A RAMBLE AMONG FRUITS AND WINES.
Other Exhibits in the Horticultural Building— Side by Side with the Celebrated and World-Renowned Vintages of Europe Are Shown the Products of American Vineyards — Unique Features of Some of the Foreign Displays — Missouri, Ohio, New York, and California Are Well Represented — Fruits from Nearly Every State in the Union— Enormous Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums, Cherries and Prunes from Idaho, Colorado, Oregon and Washington — Unsurpassed Displays of Thirty Kinds of Fruits by California's Great Citrus Fruit Exhibit by the State — Towers and Pagodas of Oranges and Lemons from Southern California Attract Great Attention — Many Fine Displays of Preserved, Dried, Canned and Crystalized Fruits and Raisins from Southern California — Big Display of Seeds by Peter Henderson, of New York — Great Array of Garden Implements, Tents, Green- houses, Lawn Mowers, Fences, Statuary, Etc.
NE or the most interesting and instructive special feat- ures of the Exposition is the exhibit of wines of the World in the south pavilion of the Horticultural Build- ing, known as the division of Viticulture, in charge of H. M. La Rue. The exhibits, especially those of for- eign countries, are shown on a lavish and magnificent scale, which might have been expected when it is known !•';' that a good many millions of dollars are annually spent
by Americans for foreign wines of all kinds and that the producers can afford to spend a mint of money on advertising when it is known that they sometimes receive a good many more hundred per cent for their wines in America than they do for the same pro- ductions in their own lands.
The Californian claims, with a great deal of force and argument, that the conditions of his soil, climate, and methods resemble those of the foreign countries that produce the most distinguished wines. The manufacturers of wines in Mis. souri and Ohio presume to say that their wines are not only as choice as those of California, but that, while they may not at all resemble those of either France or California, they contain all the elements and virtues of a perfect beverage. New \ork and New Jersey are not behind in proclaiming the excellencies of their native wines.
There is nothing, probably, concerning which there is such a diversity and distribution of taste and opinion as there is regarding wines. There are those who cla im that nothing genuine comes from abroad unless it be certain brands of claret and ' few champagnes and whites. There are those, too, who maintain that no wine:: made in America or Australia are fit for a gentleman's table.
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Four-fifths of the space on the ground floor of the south pavilion is allotted to foreign countries. Germany succeeded in getting 4,000 square feet. Among its wines are the famous Schloss Johannisberger, Stemberger, Grafenberg, and Riides- heimer, and others from the eastern bank of the Rhine. The display is made un- der the auspices of German Consuls and is a collective one; but there has been a considerable sum spent upon it, as the importation of its superior wines is on the increase. There is also a splendid lot of Mosselles, including the Brauneberger and other excellent ones with long names. The German exhibiters also have a big wine cellar in operation near by which shows all the processes of manufacture and storage.
Austria has a small space in which that country shows its Tokays, its Meo- grads, its Muscadines, and eight varieties of Ansbruch, which is regarded by many as the most delectable wine of Austria.
France, as usual at all expositions, has a most magnificent exhibit, in which no money has been spared to make it attractive. In the red wine section there are exhibited more than sixty varieties of superior clarets and a large number of Bur- gundies and Sauternes. The French exhibit occupies about 2,500 square feet, and the cabinet work, which contains the varities aforesaid, is pretty and costly.
Italy has about 1,000 feet, in which it exhibits its best dry reds and some, of its sweets. There are exhibits from Arcetri, near Florence, and a number from Piedmont, and notably the Barolo, Barbera, Nebbiolo, and Braccheto. Central Italy shows some of its famous wines, which, however, are not often seen in this country, such as Montefiascone, which possesses a delicious aroma, and the Albano, which is also a crack wine among the Italian aristrocracy. There are also red wines from the foothills of Vesuvius, and both white and red wines from the Island of Capri.
Spain has been given a large space, fully as much as that alloted to Germany. The wines shown by Spain are mostly sherries from the district near Cadiz and from the Provinces of La Mancha, known as Val de Penas, which, in the opinion of many, is as fine a wine as is found in the world. There are also wines from the Provinces of Granada, known, generally, as Malagas, Muscatel, and Malvoisies. In addition there are red wines from this same district, known in Spain as Tinto de Rota and Sacra. The well-known Amontillado is arrayed handsomely behind locked glass doors.
Portugal asserts its presence by a display of ports from the Alto Douro dis- trict and wines from the Island of Madeira. Of the former there are four white ports and six blacks, the latter being the Souzao Aragonez and Pegudo. Of the white ports there are the Ferral Branco, Malvazia, Malmsey, Dedo de Dama, and Miiscatelle de Jesus.
Switzerland also makes a small display, and also Russia and some olher Ft • ropean countries which are not recognized generally as wine-making- sections.
New South Wales occupies space at the eastern end of the pavilion antA makes a very creditable display. The champagnes of France are shown at differ- ent places in the vitkultural section, but the most of them are in the second story
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near the wines of Portugal and Italy. American wines are represented by the truest brands from New York, Ohio, Missouri, California and other noted wine- producing states.
The formal opening ot the German wine exhibit took place in the south pa- vilion and wine cellar adjoining on the 2ist day of June, Imperial Commissioner Wer- muth presiding. The exhibit in the pavilion ranks with that of France and Spain, while its feature of a wine cellar, which stands in the southern portion of the south- ern court, is an instructive part of the whole. Its interior is the reproduction of a German wine cellar with Gothic columns, and the samples of the liquid from the Fatherland are arranged on tables and stands in groups according to the different vintages and the districts in which they are produced. Entering the main door of the pavilion, in a half circle on the east side, a number of panoramic paintings of the districts represented in the exhibit attracts the attention of the visitor. These panoramas are the Rhine, as seen from the Niederwald; Trarbach on the Main; Neustadt on the Haardt, and Trier on the Moselle. These are the works of Artists Herwarth and Joseph Rumelspacher, of Berlin. Then there are panoramas of the Necker Valley, views from Esslingen to Constadt, Rappoltsweiler (Alsace) , and Mullheim in Baden, painted by Freudemann and Richter-Lefensdorf, both of Berlin. These panoramas are works of art reproduced from nature. They were completed in Germany and mounted here. The arrangements for perspective, etc., are very clever. The paintings are hung in niches outside the building proper with full exposure to daylight, while the semi-circle inside of the pavilion is kept in twilight. The grooves in front of each panorama are decorated in plastic man- ner with vines growing on poles. These are, of course, artificial decorations, the grapes being of glass. The walls to the west of the building are decorated with two maps of the wine-producing districts of Germany.
Visitors to the Horticultural Building may look upon the deadly Mexican aguardiente. There are many other kinds of Mexican wines and cognacs in the display, too, as well as licor de naranja, which is orange juice, and a good display of fruit pastes and jellies. There are agaves, cocoanuts, grape fruits, mosses and ferns also in the display. Some dried bananas are shown, just to prove that bananas can be dried. The Mexicans take much pride in the purity of their wines. Commissioner J. Miguel Carabay is in charge of the exhibit.
The fruit exhibit which occupies the northwestern and southwestern curtains of the Horticultural Building is in charge of Charles Wright. Nearly all of the States and Territories and Canada and Australia are represented. Florida and Southern California, notably the latter, make splendid displays of oranges and lemons and other citrus fruits. The Southern Californian counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles kept up their orange and lemon exhibits until September. The latter county had a tower of the golden fruit which contained nearly 14,000 oranges. It also had a monster Liberty Bell made of oranges and other designs. It also had at one time 1,200 plates and 600 jars of citrus and other semi-tropical productions — 32 toothsome kinds in all.
Twenty-one states exhibited apples and other fruits and berries in their sea-
HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.
son. Sixteen states displayed canned, dried, preserved or crystalized fruits. Can- ada and New South Wales surprised all visitors by their splendid arrays of fruits. Then there were superior exhibits of flower and vegetable seeds, notably by Peter Henderson & Co., of New York, and Pitcher & Manda, of Short Hills, N. J. These were to be seen in the north pavilion, where there were also numerous exhibits of lawn mowers, sprinklers, fruit pickers, insect and other pest destroyers, fertilizers, garden fences, statuary, &c. Upon the lawns west of the Horticultural Building were various models of green-houses, and many kinds of lawn mowers and sprink- . lers at work. On the east of the building and in the Southern Court, were a large number of aquatics. In the gallery of the southern pavilion were a number of raisin exhibits from Southern California.
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