Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-05-19
li.roErrD BY T. o'rIIrs. sIOck sh'hhA' GOLD HILL
SAN FsAso,co, May ls-l f.x.


The Senate debate, on tho resolution to
exclude liquors from the capitol, had some
humorous points. Senator MoDougall
made the following lively b~acchanalian
speech:
,bare are as many maids as men, and there
!. M end Of wrangling. I had occasion,
some Years since, to discourse with q rev.
orsrd doctor Of divinity from the State
wb;cb has the honor to be the birthplace,
7 tbink, Of the present President Of this
body (Connecticut.) While I was dis
oonysino with him a lot Of vile rapscallions
invited me to join them at the bar. I de.
cIined out Of respect to the reverend gen.
,leman in whose presence I then was. As
soon as the occasion had passed, I remark.
ed "a the reverend doctor: "Do not under
stand that I declined to 90 and join those
vonno men at the bar because I have any
objection TO that thing, for it is my habit
70 drink always in the front and not be.
hind the door," He looked at me with a
certain degree Of interrogation. I then
asked him "Doctor, what was the hrst
miracle worked by our great Master :"
He hesi,ated, and I said to him: " Was it
no, a. Cana in Galilee, where He convert
ed the water into wine at the marriage
feast !" I asked him then: "After the
Ark had foated in the tempestuous seas
for forty days and nights, and as it de-
scended upon the dry land, what was the
frst thing done by Father Noah" He
did not know that exactly. WELL" said
], ibid he not plant a vines" Yes, he
remembered it then.
asked him "Do you remember any
great poet that ever illustrated the higher
fields Of humanity that did not dignity the
use of wine, from old Homer down." He
did not. asked: "Do you know any
great philosopher that did not use it for
the exaltation Of his intelligence Do
you think, doctor, that q man who lived
upon pork and beef and corn bread could
get up into the superior re~gions-into the
etherealf No; he must take nectar on
high Olympus, and mighty mead in VAL
halla." I said to him again: doctor,
you are O scholarly man Of course-a
Doctor of Divinity-a graduate Of Yale
do you remember Plato's Symposium ?"
Yes; he remembered that. I referred
him to the occasion when Agatha,
having won the prize Of tragedy at
the Olympic games at Corinth, on coming
back to Athens wat frted by the nobility
and aris,ocracy Of that city-for it was
o proud triumph to Athens to win the
prize of tragedy. They got together at
the house Of Phedrus, and said "Now
we have been every night for these last
six nights drunk |; let US be sober tonight,
and we will start o theme which they
passed around the table as the sun goes
round-or as they drank their wine-or
as men tell a story. They started a theme,
and the theme was Love-not love In the
vulgar sense. but in its high sense-love
of all that is beautiful. After they had
gone through, and after Socrates had pro-
nounced his judgment about the true and
beautiful, in came Alcibiades with o
drunken body Of Athenian boys, with
gaYlands to crown Agatha and crown old
Socrates; and they said to those assem-
bled: This will not do we have been
drinking and you have not" and after
Alcibiades had made his talk in pursuance
Of the argument in which he undertook to
dignity Socrates, as I remember it, they
required, after the party had agreed to
drink (it being quite late in the evening
and they had finished their business in the
way of discussion), that Socrates should
drink two measures for every other mans
one because be was better able to stand
it. And so one after another they were
laid down on the lounges in the Athenian
style, all except an old person named
A~ristodemus land Plato makes him the
hardest headed fellow except Socrates).
He and Socrates stuck at it until the gray
of the morning, and then Socrates took
his bath and went down to the Groves
and talked academic knowledge. After
citing this incident I said to this divine /:
"Do you remember that Lord Bacon said
that a man should get drunk At least once
o month, and that Montague, the French
philosopher, Endorsed the proposition
Do not these Civilizations that buoy us up
above the common measure of the brute
wine and oil--elevate us-enable US to
seize great facts-inspirations which once
possessed are ours forever I; and those who
never get beyond the mere beastly means
of animal support never live in the high
planes Of life and cannot achieve them
I believe in women, wine, whisky and
war;" Let me add that the reverend
doctor said to me, "Well, General, you
are right; but I cannot afford to say 1t"
This was received with q roar Of laugh
ter, and after II had subsidized, Nj. Wilson
said seriously:
Mr.. President: I desire to pass the res
olution. We had here last year, | believe,
a shop for the sale Of whisky, and I under.
stand that there are two in the Capitol
now, but not at this end Of It. I think 1t
is bad enough to bring liquor here in any
form-whether it comes into the commit.
tee rooms, or whether it comes in the form
suggested some time ago by the Senator
from Oregon (Mr. Nesmith), when he
spoke Of some persons who had great ca
pacity to throw themselves on the outside
Of a quart of whisky. We all know that
in our day old Bourbon has about as much
inspiration as gin had in the days Of
Byron. I think, too, that. legislators
Of this country can discharge their
duties quite respectfully without wor-
shipping at that shrine especially in
the capitol of the country. If they de-
sire to do it I think they had better do it
away from the capitol and public grounds.
I hope that the commissioner who has
charge of this building will see TO is that
the capitol is no longer disgraeed by the
sale Of these articles; and If they are
brought here Gas I understand they have
been in times past) by officers OF the Sen.
ate, and others connected with the Senate
and House of Representatives, and kept
in the committee rooms and given away
land l understand that within the last
three years boys employed in the public
service here have been taxed to pay for
liquor that members Of Congress have
drunk I think It is time to put an end to
such things. I am content for one that
we should not have the mighty inspiration
Of old Bourbon, or gin, or wine, or any
Of these things that take mortals to the
skies. Let US be content to legislate as
plain, practical public men, and leave the
to others.
Several other Senator'S spoke on the
same side, among them Mr.. McDougall's
E.,- Nal;fovn;s Nv Conness