The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-06-13
[For the Bulletin.l
LEGEND OF THE GREAT "FEDERAL
DRINK"


known as the great "Federal Drink" 1t was
first whisper, that circulated wierd-like about
certain back doors, then first conspicuous under
the prohibitory act known as. the Main Liquor
Law But its accredited origin was the gurgle of
the domestic jug, with which Boston supplied it's
hearth-side at that early period OF It's since
memorable and persistent struggle with temper
ance. An incident Of that era found me at the
fremont House, from New York, q stranger
among Puritans.
The Governor OF South Carolina had responded
to call from Massachusetts to take aride on the
Boston and Providence Railroad, then just COM
p,eted. His suite attended lin at the fremont,
and mul itude of strangers thronged the hotel.
Although such prodigious travel as one mile q
minute at that incipient stage of railroad history
seems now incr edible yet on that morning the
sixty miles OF distance had been accomplished in
exactly sixty minutes. The Hub had, in con-
sequence, taken respite from literary cares, and
was motherlrg the railroad chicken with her
habitual cluck and anxious spread of matronly
feathers.
The dinner Of the coca sion was bo:sterous
ovation, and the old hall kept its echoes of un-
wonted sounds for IT'S permanent guests many
quietly upon the street for air, or exercise, or
talk, as you would vent an overcharged piston;
and, following, chose q turn round Boston to
see It. The fremont was plain-spoken New
aud is situated in location dubious to strangers.
There were no striking seems encountered, nor
incidents OF moment.
Two hours of q solitary walk dropped me into
the dusk, and admonished me to return; for as
night approached. crowds not completely clean
Of our modern trough" seemed to have got on my
route. Interviewing one, I inquired for my
bearings and distance from the hotel and, care
fully, as to my way back, each inquiry seeming to
cause prodigious enlargement Of eye. and 3
laugh, abated the interview. "Stranger," said
he, ssyou are all right; you made your longitude,
and only have not discovered that, as to latitude,
Boston is all equator. This building, right here,
crowd"
It was strange as fiction; had walked straight
forward to the point Of my departure. But
pass to my subject. The crowd at that instant
was invoked to keep still by it's nolsiest member,
who cries out, "Now men Of Massachusetts, as
Federal drink" Hearing the sound of coffee,
without pistols, Southerners seemed lifted slight.
ly by the ears as they passed into the spaces Of
the great saloon. But crowd of the proverbial
"solid men" patterned themselves after the
bends OF the counter to mahogany music with
ringing 81 81 accompaniment.
There were toasts, and new interchangss Of
fatulences usual on such occasions. For it was
known to but few there that the Federal drink !"
was not q convivial manifestation, that it invited
cesses. As the glasses, one by one, were restored
empty to the mahogany, the knowing ones were
seen to file off in . decimating process, and a
"mice was detected, through nasal acuteness,
which rapidly spread. The dispensator. who had
had the drinks, sought useful knowledge IN the
inquiry as to who had the dust" and with con-
sternation he heard vociferated, "Federal drinks,
old mixist. Every man pays for his own"
1t was my first Federal drink, and my sympa-
thies were decidedly with the proprietors Of that
New England coffee stand"
Presto-1875. I write to-day from the scene
of my second Federal drink-the st. Charles
Hotel-at the same era-thirty-seven years ago.
The great drink made the tour Of the whole
country with unexampled celebrity. 1t Stopped
nowhere. For obvious reasons, it waited On no
festivities, compounded no inebrieties, feloniee
or disorders it was not consecrated to festal
uses, nor prescribed in the cause OF Temperance,
nor subverted by the social evil, and it ran its
rapid course interrupted by corporations.
Two years before it's advent the new st.
Charles had thrown open its grand rotunda its
gorgeous bazars and billiard saloons drew all
strangers to it as center. The "Veranda ali, y
opposite, waslerecting as 6rst-class hotel: 1t
had been projected by good old Richard O..
Pritchard, in the interest of young pyotege whom
he had found associated in the management of
the New York Aston, Mr.. Joseph r. Curtis, known
as handsome Joe." The great epidemic of 1887
cleared its walls of workmen, and they stood bare
q season. The contemplated lessee, in conse-
quence, pursued his benefactor with the sings
and arrows Of the law, seeking to make him an
swerable for gene rosity that would have con-
strained the gratitude OF MOdoc Indian.
The claim for damages received the light
Of the prevailing jurisprudence, and under the
forcible solution Of Jury Of that period, was
dissolved into air. But it bad stung MORALLY
the good old benefactor Of the migrate, and he
committed the felony Of suicide. But the
"Verandah' took its name and place among the
conspicuous edifces of the time while joe
had recourse to San Francisco, fourished from
center to circumference, and subsidized not long
AFTER in forest cottage on the Hudson.
There surely are yet among us some who can
recall the old "city"-the Home House of the
STALLS. Madame Shall was one OF the notable
women Of her fundamentally concrete and de-
monstrative. She was the mother Of "boys."
among our merchants, whom some Of US gray
boards, whose brain fancies are loosening, almost
yet expect to see about the old places. There
was. besides these hotels, the ARCADE" Of Tom
Banks, now the st. James; there were the St.
Louis, Cont, Orleans.
The city Of our early Crescent was well fash
toned for house. keeping. There was room. Sa-
looms we're " institutes" The Arcade bar-saloon
Of that period embraced nearly an acre. In all
but its parks the city of thirty-seven years ago
found expression. Now these give promise Of
widening all the boundaries, giving air, and ex-
ercise, aud oaks-when the good time comes.
HARrE BAYLOR,
st. Charles Hotel New Orleans, June II, 1875