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Show THE STORY OF ALCOHOL How It Has Spread Through the World How It Has Been Conquered f V ' ' ' ' ' , .': .-. , . A I C??'s J J.1 " ! " i', ' ' i , ) . r . . i - .'.'' I So. ?0 THE VIXTAGEKS. (From the painting by Jules Breton.) France has long been, In every way, the leading wine producing country of the world. The people make more wine ant" consume more than the people of any other country. There have been I bad years when Iho total French pro-j pro-j duction has been surpassed by that of Italy, but these have been rare. In I quality of wine produced, France is ! also far in the van. Certain districts i In Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Spain j and other countries make wines that ; are highly prized and eagerly bought j at high prices, but the general superi-' superi-' ority of French wines is almost every-1 every-1 where acknowledged. The scenes in the wino producing J districts at the vintage season are at- tractive. The gay groups of laughing girls who pass along the rows of vines gathering the great bunches of grapes make an animated picture. I Quaint customs that originated cen-I cen-I turies ago have been jealously pre-j pre-j served processions, dances, observances observ-ances that can sometimes be traced back to the ancient rites of the vintage season in Greece and Rome. There is, however, a dark side to all this gayety and happiness. Some of the French wine-growing districts are very much affected by drunkenness. The peasants of certain sections have been degenerated by wine-drinking through generations. They are sullen, resentful, swift to quarrel. The joy and innocent merrymaking of the vintage season is often marred by deeds of violence. It is impossible to generalize upon drinking in France. One can go into certain sections and almost never see a drunken man or woman. And yet everyone seems to drink. A few miles away, ono may find a village where brawls and reeling reel-ing vintagers are the rule rather than the exception. So many more people In France are dependent upon wine making than peoples of other lands and the French have such a different attitude toward intoxicating liquors than Americans that prohibition does not seem prob able there In the near future. France might agree to close her distilleries and to forbid the importation of hard liquor, but it is doubtful if the people will be willing in tho near future to ut a ban upon wine. More than l.OO'.i.OOO.OOO gallons are made annually. This has not. of course, held true through the war but it was considerably over this figure when the war opened, so that it is probable thac tho billion-gallon mark will soon be reached again. In the United States, with its tremendously greater extent of territory and its much greater population, pop-ulation, the production of wine in normal nor-mal times is hardly more than a 20th of the French figures. Even little Portugal Por-tugal produces twice as much wine annually as does this country. In consumption tho figures are even more startling. In this country very little wine is used. The average consumption con-sumption per head is less than half a gallon in a year. In France the aver-ago aver-ago consumption is more than 30 gallons gal-lons per year to each individual. |