Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-08-03

| WASHINGTON, Aug. 1.-Of course,
the attempt of Congressman Culbertson,
OF Kentucky, to let out his brains while
recovering from a summer spree is the
text for innumerable discourses by the
good old ladies and gentlemen who can
remember Lafayette's last visit as though
it had occurred but yesterday, upon the
rapidity with which our public men are
running down hill. They're degenerate
lot, who guzzle, and gamble, and steal,
and lie, and finally drink themselves to
death. 1 beg to differ. Our public men
were never less open to the loose charges
of this sort which have always been in
the air than they are now. The moral
condition of our public men was
never better than it is now;
no, not in the days of the founders of the
republic. 1t was matter. of general re-
mark of the National Conventions of 1880,
which, as usual, drew together thousands
Of public men from all over the country,
and under unfavorable conditions as to
food and sleep, exposed them amid the hot
eXcitements of such supreme struggle to
the temptations of the barroom, that so
many temperate men had never been seen
before on any such occasion. In the four
years since the barroOms of Chicago
have become twice as attractive as they
were then. They are now the finest in
America. One of them, on one of the
principal streets, is a model of quiet,
tasteful, costly elegance. They are al
most all as handsome as money can make
them. The conditions of the con-
test over the great nominations
were as hard as ever; yet the increase in
temperance among the public men so
gathered together from every State and
territory in the Union was so marked as
to be frequently the chief topic of CONVEX
sation. There was, of course, a great
deal of drinking; but the barroOms were
filled by the lower classes of politicians,
and by their hangers-on. The great ma
jority of the delegates and alternates
drank very little-many of them not at
all. The minority drank with compare
tive moderation. During the whole week
saw but one member of the convention
under the influence of liquor, and he was
able to think and talk with almost his
usual fluency. l remember that l was
sitting at dinner in the Leland
dining room when l saw him weaving
to and fro on the threshold. He was an
enthusiastic friend of Cleveland who had
materially helped to nominate him that
morning. AS he stood there swaying for
ward and backward, he said quite audi
bly,, Sits all right. We've nothing to do
but pass in our chips for redemption"
L could not help smiling, although felt
sad enough, for l knew that the gray
headed old man had not been drunk be-
fore for years. But, as / say, his case
was the exception that proved the rule of
sobriety. l have observed the same pro-
gress IN the direction of temperance here.
1T IS MORE MARKED EVERY YEAR
among the Representatives OF the whole
country. 1t is the manifest OutgrOwth Of
a general improvement in the habits Of
the whole people. The Congressional
stream cannot be expected to be higher
than the popular source from which it
comes. II never has been. Before the war,
when everybody drank and when it was
not particularly disgraceful to drink to eX-
cess, our public men, like our private men,
drank habitually and were habituallY
drunk. Now when the temperance move
ment has gotten good grip on us all we
see a great change for the better when
ever public men get together. The great
majority of the men in the two Houses
of the present Congress, either do not
drink at all or drink with great mOdera-
ton. When they drink they conflne them
selves generally to wine or beer. In the
minority there are few nOtoriOusly hard
drinkers whom now and then you see
drunk, very infrequently. l myself saw
in all of last winter just one drunken
Senator and one drunken Representa-
tive. The rest of the minority don't
drink half as hard as the majority of
Congressman did twenty, yes ten, years
ago. The change in public sentiment
which makes it degrading to drink and
disgraceful to be drunk, has its effect on
even the dullest minds. Besides men see
the manifold advantages of sobriety.
Don't misunderstood me. The millennium
have not arrived. The Congressional
Temperance Society is not much bigger
than it was in 1874. Most of the moderate
drinkers in Congress, many of the men
who drink very little, or not at all, espe-
ciaily those whose great temperance prin-
ciple is to substitute beer for whisky,
rather smile at the old-fashiOned Con-
gressional Temperance Society. They
don't care to identify themselves with
a crusading organization. Perhaps
some of them are afraid to do so. But
nevertheless there are prop0rtionally more
temperate men in Congress to-day than
there were hard drinkers Rhen that so
ciety was organized at the beginning of
the century, and that's saying a great
deal, and every year the feeling against
drinking grows stronger. 1t is gradually
passing under the ban of social disap-
proval. 1t is done cOVertly. 1t is apollo
gized for. 1t is publicly condemned by
the men who drink. There can be no
doubt that our public men have better
morals, if not better manners, than at any
previous periodin our history.
ALMOST EVERY WASHINGTON CoRRR-
SPONDENT
has either novel or a drama of his own
written in the drawer Ofsh desk. Those
whose drawers are not thus encumbered
have their novels and their dramas in
their heads. You see there is a great deal
in the lite of a Washington correspondent
to tempt him to write novels and dramas.
All the ordinary incentives-the love of
fame, the love of money and the desire to
benefit the world operate more strongly
in the Washington correspondent than in
the everyday outsider, even If the latter
be of a literary turn of mind. Then the
Washington correspondent has such
means to observe and such things to OBJ
serve as do not come to most men. To say
nothing of the ever present desire to elabo-
rate into picturesque romance the every
day news which he must present to the pub
lie accurately and cOncisely, he is always
tormented bp a longing to tell the rest of
the world, in an honorable way, the thou
sand and one stories, usually the best of
the year. which are cOntided to him under
the sacred seal of secrecy as to the real
names and dates and places, without
which they are practically useless to
daily newspaper. AS general rule the
washington correspondent Is DrIgnJ,
well-bred, well-educated man, who knows
that he could write good novel or drama
if all the conditions were favorable. Yes,
they are all sure of it. and the rejection of
their novels or dramas wouldn't cure
them. Seriously, do not know any class
of literary workers who are better
''fXed'' for novel and drama writing than
the Washington correspondents if they
only had little more command of their
time. The great trouble is that even in
these duh dog days they are always on
duty-minute men who may be sum-
mOned to prodigiOus eXertions at the
moment most unexpected. No day could
have been duller, from the newspaper
point of view, nor at the same time
sweeter and brighter, from my own point
of view, than the day before Garfield was
shot. So the entire corps must stand at
sattention" day and night. Nevertheless
in the hours between the alaFums many
of the correspondents have managed
to write stories, and comedies, and
farces, some of which have seen the
light. Henry r. Elliot, clever Yale
man. now in Europe for the
hundredth time, has Just published
/ 'The Bassett Claim" a ''WasbingtOn
/ noveP' which gives you some idea Of
! Washington. This will be followed in
/ October by somewhat more ambitious
novel by Henry l.. Nelson, q clever VII
liams College man, which will show you
something of life in Boston and in Wash
| iuo+ou He has not uamed If vaf Nelson