Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 694 pages of information about Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made.

Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 694 pages of information about Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made.
cost.  This is known as the gaseous fermentation, and the effect of it is to render the wine more enlivening, more stinging to the taste, and more fruity.  “This last effect results from this, that the flavor of the fruit mostly passes off with the carbonic acid gas, which is largely generated in the first or vinous fermentation, and in a less degree in this second or gaseous fermentation.”  It is impossible to avoid the loss of the flavor in the first fermentation, but the strong bottles and securely-fastened corks preserve it in the second.  The liquid, which is muddy at first, becomes clear in about a year, a thick sediment having collected at the bottom of the bottle.  The bottles are then placed in racks, with their necks downward, and are shaken vigorously every day for about three weeks.  This forces the sediment to settle down in the neck against the cork.  When it is all in the neck, the wires are cut, and the cork blown out by the gas, carrying the sediment with it.  Fresh sugar, for sweetness, is now added, new corks are driven in and secured, and in a few weeks the wine is ready for the market.

Mr. Longworth continued his wine trade with great success for about twenty-five years, and though for some time his expenditures were largely in excess of his income from this source, he at length reaped a steady and increasing profit from it, which more than reimbursed him for his former losses.  He was very fond of the strawberry, and succeeded, by careful and expensive cultivation, in making several very important improvements in that delicious fruit.  His experiments in the sexual character of the strawberry are highly interesting, but must be passed by here.  He manifested no selfishness with respect to his fruits.  He was anxious that their cultivation should become general, and his discoveries and improvements were always at the service of any and every one who desired to make use of them.

He was thoroughly devoted to his adopted home, and anxious to secure its steady improvement.  When it was proposed to establish an observatory, the Mount Adams property, then owned by him, was regarded as the most fitting site for it.  He was asked to name the price for which he would sell the property.  To the astonishment of the parties in charge of the enterprise, he made a free gift of the land—­four acres in extent—­to the trustees.  A gentleman who had hoped to dispose of some of his own property for this purpose charged Mr. Longworth, through the press, with being influenced by a desire to improve his adjoining property by the erection of the observatory on Mount Adams.  Longworth promptly replied that if the writer of the article in question would donate four acres of his own property for an observatory, he (Longworth) would put up, at his own expense, a building on it equal to that which had been erected on Mount Adams, and transfer the latter place to the city as a permanent pleasure ground.  He quietly added that in this way his accuser might himself receive, for his adjacent property, all the benefits of such an improvement, and at the same time win for himself the lasting gratitude of the people of Cincinnati.  This settled the matter, and no more was heard from the other side.

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Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.