Life — September 22, 1887 — page 2: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

= co) “While there's Life there's Hope.” VOL. X. SEPTEMBER 22, 1887. 28 West Twenty-THIRD Street, New York. No. 247. Published every Thursday, $5.00 a year in advance, postage free. Single copies, 10 cents. Back numbers can be had by applying to this office. Vol. I., $1.50 per number; Vol. II., 25 cents per number ; Vols, III,, 1V., V., VI., VII., VIII, and IX, at regular rates. Rejected contributions will be destroyed unless accompanied by a stamped and directed envelope. T" E opponents of the Administration take strong ground against Mr. Bayard's scheme for referring the Fisheries question to Commissioners. They allege, first, that it satisfies the English ; and second, that Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, one of the British Commissioners, wears a single eye-glass, ard can only be expected to take a one-sided view of the situ- ation, Would they have preferred that Mr. Bayard should have persuaded the President to use the power vested in him by Congress to cuff the ears of the British lion and twist his tail? . Oh, no: probably not. They would have pointed out what a hasty temper the secretary had, and how rash he was to involve us in a fight when we were bare of fighting ships and coast defenses. And, moreover, they would have pointed to Mr. Blaine, and to his conspicuous ability to get on with the Prince of Wales, as indicating his pacific nature, and how differently he would have acted if he had had Mr. Bayard’s job. Let us not conceive that the American fisheries are all going to Davy Jones's locker merely because the 7rzbune and Sun and the other disaffecteds carp. . . ° ~ INCE the first of September wine has been wine. A law is in operation which forbids all hurtful adulterations, and directs that such innocent dilution as is permitted shall be advertised on the label of each bottle. The practice of squirting carbonic acid gas into New Jersey cider and ornamenting the product with a French label is also dis- couraged. The grapes must grow in the sun and the cham- pagne must be the natural product of fermentation, nicely topped off with a dash of sugar and a dab of poetry. LiFcis glad to know all this, and full of curiosity to see what a wine card is going to bring forth now that all things are pure and identical. The enormous discrepancy between the amount of champagne produced in France for exportatira, and the amount of the same consumed in this country alone, has long been known to everybody, but few people Lave worried about it. Champagne is a wine that most people buy less for their own gratification than to honor their friends. If it had the right stamp on the cork, the proper sparkle and a respectable label, and was pleasant to take and produced a grateful exhilaration, consumers haven't cared much whether the gas grew init in French cellars or was forced in by steam at Hoboken. If the new law results in causing all American wines to be called and sold by American names, and in banishing bogus French wines from the market, it will perform a miracle, second only to one recorded in the whole history of wine. E are waiting for a story from Col. Eugene Field about the wealthy pork-packer in Chicago who is in the market with liberal offers for the copyright of Shake- speare’s plays, prior to a corner in Shakespearean literature and a general lift in prices, Some one ought to be benefited by the enormous amount of advertising that Shakespeare is getting. We distinctly remember the excitement over the disputed authorship of “The Breadwinners,” Democracy" and “The Buntling Ball.” All were fostered to the last degree by interested publishers, but all combined never made half the stir that Donnelly has been able to raise over Shakespeare. If any great golden truth has been evolved from all the uproar of assertion and denial that has been raised over Shakespeare's tomb, it seems to be that Donnelly is fit to be included with Henry George and Col. Mark Twain as one of the three smartest business writers of the age. . * . HAKESPEARE has a companion in trial. The latest attempt to prove that History isn’t so finds its victim in Maximilian, the ill-fated Mexican emperor. He is accused of having made a cowardly effort to buy his life from his captors. The news comes from Mexico, which is a sufficient voucher for its improbability. HE reported success of Count Mitkiewitz in getting im- portant concessions from China might have been an encouragement to Micawber himself. The Count has a long and interesting record of variegated worthlessness spread over his dozen or more years of American citizenship. His present success is said to be due to the happy accident of his being the connecting link between Philadelphians and Chi- nese. Wonder is freely expressed in New York that two races so congenial should not have found each other out long ago. “Where is there such another market as Pekin for grass-seed gleaned in Philadelphia's street?" That is what Wall Street wants to know. comicbooks.com