The Washington critic., 1886-08-04
WASHINGTON CRITIC
WASHINGTON. AUGUST 4, 1886.
TOPICS OF THE DAY.

hunSuS Clly ImCS, InaJ lnc eVeDlS Ol
the session about expiring have OPP
Grated to kill off large array of Re.
publican aspirants for the Presiden.
tial nomination of 1888, and. as a con.
sequence, Jim Blaine of Maine chuckles
and rubs his hands gleefully to see the
ground swept before him of many
threatening distractions. Senator Beck
of Kentucky was the executioner who
beheaded Senators Edmunds and Evarts
by his bill forbidding Senators and
Representatives from acting as attor
neys for corporations. 1t must be adj
mitted the latter gentlemen tolled their
own bells and preached their own
Presidential funeral sermons when they
antagonized the Beck bill. Mr.. Evarts
had fair show of coming to the front,
and was perhaps the most dangerous
competitor of Jim Blaine in all the ar
ray, because of his connections and
combinations In New York. the great
pivotal State of the electoral college.
Mr.. Evarts' eminent reputation as q
lawyer, his previous incumben.
cies of high official station
and influence with moneyed men,
taken into connection with an un.
impeachable personal record, operated
as nightmare upon the ambitious
dreams of the putative Plumed Knight.
Now Blaine can sleep in peace so far
as Evarts Is concerned. Mr.. Evarts
made the greatest mistake of his life
when he Grated against the Beck bill.
lie should have kept silent as the
grave, looked cminently wise, and
taken good care to be absent either at
his Vermont farm or in the restaurant,
when the bill was before the Judiciary
Committee and the Senate. Had he
only lodged the issue, jim Blaine and
his cohorts would never have dared ar.
raign him for the omission, simply be.
cause those who live in glass houses
are not the ones to throw stones with
impunity. Mr.. Evarts tumbled head
long into the Beck abyss, and there is
no Gileadean balm or st. Jacobs oil in
the political apothecary shop pow
erful enough to heal his bruises.
He is mashed beyond recognition.
The battered condition of Senator l.
munds Presidential hopes is not wo III
discussion. He deliberately set him.
self upon the pillar of sanctifcation and
boldly proclaimed his right to gobble
fees from railroad or any other corpora
tions as he might compromise with his
Senatorial conscience. John Sherman
has gotten his Presidential eye con.
sderably blackened in various forays
at the present session. His attitude on
the silver question and other finance
issues has materially weakened him in
the West, and his espousal of the Ohio
wall of anguish concerning the case OF
Senator Payne has aroused the resent
ment Of Senator Logan's friends,
Meantime, however, General Logan has
gotten his Presidential boom between
the upper and neither millstones Of
various complications, and he, too, Is
mangled considerably. About the only
Republican Senator prominently named
as possible Presidential candidate
who has not barked his shins agains
some object of contact is Mr.. Allison
of Iowa. But Just how he will be ablt
to slip Off the Blaine collar and recon
cile the Prohibition proclivities of low
to the non. sumptuary vote Is difficult tt
conjecture.
~.
Says L. d. Mussey in a recent Wash
ington letter to the Cincinnati Com
mercial. Gazette: An extract from som
Washington correspondence has beer
going round containing some prett.
wild statements about the drunkenness
prevailing among Senators and Con
gressmen. One might believe fron
some of these statements that Congress
was a body of inebriates. Nothin
could be more untrue or unjust. !
great majority of Senators and Men
bers do not drink at ALL and very fey
of them, comparatively, drink to eA
cess. There are half dozen or s
Congressman who indulge more freel
than they ought to in intoXicatin
liquors, and are occasionally seen unde
the influence Of drink. Twice DARN
this session Member has been seen o
the floor of the House worse for liquor
and several times Senator has misbt
haved himself somewhat through hay
ing partaken too freely. The drinkin
men are well known and are very few
number. 1t would be hard to gather 81
men, politicians and public character
together in one body that would col
tain fewer persons addicted to the il
temperate use of liquors than the Elou,
of Representatives. There is q larg
number of the Members who enjoy
social drink, and there are many lit
cliques who meet over few bottles {
wine, or two or three rounds of juleT
and cigars to tell stories and to tai
shop of an evening after session
over, and there are many committC
rooms in which n private bottle is kel
for the benefit of the committee wi
pledge one another at the breaking Il
of the meeting. Patronage of the pul
Tic bars by Senators or Members
very rare, and they are seldom see
about such places. Outside of, sa.
ifly Members they are never sec
there. The leading men on Il
Republican side do not drink
all. Reod Mckinley, Butterwortl
lliscock, Long, Burrows an
others are teetotallers, Holman, RAJ
dali, Morrison and Carlisle take u lit
social nip now and then, but rare
more than that, and are always on han
for b siness. There is less public drin
ing aud drunkenness in WNshingt
than in any other city of its size In ii
country. In the United States it Is sa
there are seven hundred thousand C l
firmed drunkards, and of course Was
ington has her share Of them; bu 4
things considered, its tempe an
record is a God one.
Nv
Says special to the COurier-JOu
nat; The President and his wife fl
quently indulge in letter writing. TT
President, it can be said, is passio
ately fond Of writing, as his vetoes
private pension bills will attest, TIL,
say at the White House that he W
labor all day over II piece of wrItil