M. Henry Bernstein, the greatest living French dramatist, has abandoned the early manner on which his fame was founded. The passions and weakness of men and_ women of our own time no longer seem to interest him. He aims at becoming a classic, a delineator of the human sou] as it was before civilization gave it a new dress. The theme of his new play—the first he has produced for 11 years—just brought out at the Gymnase, is the story of Judith and Holofernes. lhe Apocrypha relates at Judith, the widow of Masses, Was a Jewess Of great beauty, virtue, courage and piety. She went out to the camp of Holofernes, an Assyrian commander who was besieging Bethula, the city in which she lived, charmed him with her beauty and cut off his head with his own sword while he slept, a deed which emboldened the Jews to tall upon the leaderless Assyrians, Who were routed with great slaughter. Che Judith of the apocryha was "a woman of goodly countenance, very beautiful to behold, but though many desired her none knew her all the days of her life after that Manasses her husband was dead." M. Bernstein gives us a Judith of complex character, perhaps best described as a mixture of patriot and '"amoureuse." Holoternes fascinates her as a man and she yields to him, but that does not prevent her from accom-pushing her patriotic duty of killing him, nor from contemplating his head after it has been stuck on gibbet and holding forth at great teugth on her own' complicated state of mind, "Judith" 1s very jong and might be called wearisome at lines to those who are not interested in high art, but no one can tail to recognize the lofty intention behind 1t. It is ditmeult to realize that "Judith" comes from the pen which, 20 years ago, was turning out dramas of the day. Some writers, after they have made their game, relapse into pot-boilers, but M. Bernstein has chosen the opposite course, A SLUMP IN CHAMPAGNE, This will be a dead year for champagne—not because of any lack of wine but because of the lack of markets. It has obtained its uni-nary wine. It has obtained its uni. que reputation because it lends itself better than any other wine to it; but most of that market has been cut off by hostile legislation and taxation, There is prohibition in the United States, restriction in other parts of America, depreciated currency in Central Europe, ruin in Russia and almost_ prohibitive taxation elsewhere. Even in France itself, champagne is classed as a luxury and made to pay taxation on a high scale. The handicap is too great for the producers, and accordingly they have decided to sell their wine, until further notice, in its natural state. This policy has even been applied to some of last year's crop. Four or five months ago, still champagne was being sold retail in Paris for Fr. 4.60 a bottle.
The champagne growers' action will help to show the danger of overburdening luxuries by taxation, and, it will also illustrate how the interests of one branch of an industry react upon the others. When Parliament voted the luxwy tax of 10 per cent. on sparkling champagnes, the representatives of the Hérault and other southern districts, which produce only ordinary wines, did not interfere. They thought the question -did not affect them, and they were perhaps rather pleased than otherwise. They did not foresee that foreign countries would follow the example set them by the French Parliament and put further taxes on champagne, thereby closing many of the outlets compelling the producers to fall back on the home market. Ube result is that still champagne becomes a competitor, of other French wines in France, and the grower of moderate quality wines, who imagined that the burden had been shifted on to the shoulders of his neighbour, finds an additional weight on his own.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.