ducts of the Garonne would now enter into competition with the California vintage. The reply was that "Bordeaux could only produce a certain quantity of really choice wines, and that the demand had been for the last quarter of a century always in advance of the supply." How, then, account for the oceans of so-called French wines, with elegant labels and fabulous prices, which are dispensed throughout the United States? We were told that there was a place in France called Cette, where wines with all possible and impossible names were manufactured to order, and that this is the fraudulent fountain from whence the majority of bad French wines flow. American wines, good natural juice of the California vine, is sent to Cette in quantity, there to be doctored up and converted into French wine. In addition to wine, Bordeaux is the world's entrepôt for brandy,

ing which edifices in Northern France and Europe do not show. The exchange, the archiepiscopal palace, and the theater, are admirable representations of modern style. The theater in Bordeaux is a famous one, and most exacting as to its performers. It is said that the Bordelaise will not always accept those stars whose meteoric flights have dazzled Parisian audiences. It might be worth while to mention what an important place the theatrical performers and theatrical writers occupy in

France. If books in the United States are the media through which current ideas are inculcated, in France it is the theater. A Frenchman, as far as his theater goes, is a born critic. Discussions are carried on, judgments are given in regard to the play or the method of a leading actor, which are wonderfully correct and often subtle.

A street in Bordeaux called the Chapeau Rouge is the pride of the city, and is always thronged. Relationship between Bordeaux and the United States is very close, and a knowledge of our country, its politics, its resources seemed quite familiar

to the Bordelaise. This was the more pleasing as Frenchmen generally, even in the larger cities, were lamentably ignorant not only of American geography but of our history. Bordeaux gave us the idea of being one of the most prosperous cities we had visited; as the center of a vast agricultural interest, controlling a product of great value, it has done its best to take advantage of the situation, and kept its commercial supremacy. We enjoy the hospitalities of the city, which are proffered with infinite courtesy. We might have prolonged our stay in Bordeaux had not General Grant received a message from his majesty the King of Spain, who was at that time directing the maneuvers of his troops at Vittoria. The king's message, couched in most courteous terms, conveyed an invitation requesting the General to honor him with a visit, and such an honor could hardly be declined. We therefore start for Biarritz, where we intend to rest one night, and next day cross the frontier.

IARRITZ was very beautiful.

beautiful. There was something joyous in the sunshine which lit up the old Biscayan town and streamed out over the sea.

And the sea! how glorious it was after so much living among rivers and hedges, and to feel that the farthest waves washed the coasts of dear America! Biarritz is a small frontier town, where the French come in winter and the Spaniards in summer. It juts out into the sea, and has a peculiar rocky formation which breaks into ravines and caverns, and admits of quaint walks and drives. Biarritz might have lived on for a few centuries its drowsy existence, like hundreds of other towns which have a seacoast and sand over which bathers could paddle and splash, entirely unknown, had not the last Napoleon