A Treatise on the Ethics of Wine Drinking. By Frona Eunice Wait. Pp. 215. Illustrated. San Francisco: The Bancroft Company.

50 cents. "The state of California exports to the Atlantic coast as much wine as is imported into the whole country from France, and consumes herself of native production three-fourths as much as is imported into the entire United States from all countries. * * * There is ample proof of the purity and high quality of our native wines, but our home dealers not only sell them on their own merits, but substitute them for all kinds of foreign wine. * * * So-called California wine found in the eastern market is as a general thing manufactured in a three-story brick vineyard in some back street, not far from where it is offered for sale, and in the majority of cases contains everything but grape juice, while the genuine article takes the hint and puts on a French label." This is reason enough to write of the "ethics of wine drinking," or, rather, wine making. But Mrs. Wait grasps the subject broadly. She is evidently a connoisseur in wines. She compares European and American conditions and methods, and she discusses Californian wine-making practices in detail. It is a timely book to wine users, for it points out differences between the good and the spurious, and in educates the consumer. The burden of the book lies on the ethical side.

The authoress believes in wine drinking, and she says so boldly, giving commanding reasons for her belief. She even introduces a chapter upon " Wine as a Temperance Agent." (We wonder who will write upon gunpowder as a fire extinguisher!) She maintains, with reason, that intemperance comes primarily from habit rather than from appetite. She lays intemperance upon the unattractive-ness of the hearthstone. It is a social evil. She lays it upon the American cuisine, of which there is none "so wretchedly bad as that distinctively American." The American laborer's "board is cheerless, and he seeks relaxation where it can be found." She believes that wine at home is better than wine at a saloon, the same as we now endeavor to amuse our boys at home rather than let them seek entertainment where they must.

A Book on Wines.

The book treats of "The Art of Wine-making," "How our Native Wines are Managed," "Early History of the Industry," "How to Drink Wine," " Enterprising and Prominent Wine Men," and the leading wine centers of California. The authoress writes entertainingly and in a convincing manner. She certainly knows her subject.