Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-03-20
BISMARCK AND HIS BEER.
Anecdotes of His Capacity for Drinking
and Smoking.

Owing to his recent resignation Ris-
march is the topic of the hour. The tol-
loving interesting anecdotes of him We're
published in the New York Sun:
In the course of dinner party at his
house in Naples recently Minister CTispl
gave his guests little sketch OF the first
evening of his last visit in FREDERICKSBURG.
AT the beginning OF our conversation, y
he said, bismarck had two immense mugs
of beer brought to us. He took one OF
them and showed the other over 10 Inc. !
remarked that | drank only water. He
looked at me III silence. curiously, and al
most suspiciOusly for minute, and then
proceeded with the subject under discus
sion. The more interested lie became II our
conversation the more frequently and CO.
piously he drank. After finishing bis own
mug he appropriated mine without word
and put down its contents IN three or four
tremendous draughts. Then he had a SER
want fetch ard fill two enormous pipes.
When he offered me one OF them / ex-
planned that | never smoked. WHAT he
cried, neither drink nor smoke! What
kind of a supernatural man are you, any
way p 1t was mercy to both OF rs, how
ever, that did not accept the pipe, tor
Bismarck smoked so necessarily that with
in fifteen minutes the room was dense. At
ter he had finished his own pipe he helped
ulll9tll W NlAD L4l0l l4ffsA ANAAoNA t"4ANA
smoked il out with astounding energy.
When rose at the end OF the evening from
the table at which we were sitting the
smoke was so thick that could hardly see
the ChancellOr's face"
The publication of Crispi's story by the
Germun dailies has caused the appearance
of q new crop of anecdotes concerning Dis
marcks proverbial ability to consume vast
quantities of liquor and tobacco. Blsmarc K
l. 4 4 rafr
when n corps student IN GOttlngen. Got
tingen fashion has always been his IA
vorite phrase in describing any particularly
artistic feat NJ tho puuch-DOwl or beer-keg.
In relating how he once dedicated new
drinking-cup for the cuirassleTs at Bran
denburg he said;
II was 10 drink out of il first and then
send il around. 1t held about a quart. |
held MY breath, drank out 10 the very last
drop and then set the cup down empty.
They were greatly surprised, for they did
not expect such feats from men Of letters.
But il was GOttingen fashion.
Il remember, too" said the Chancellor
at another time how at the LotZllngen
hunt with Frederick William ~. a puzzle
bottle was emptied by me at draught.
The bottle was made SO that the drinker
could not put 1t 10 his mouth and yet was
not allowed 10 spill "a single drop. 1t con-
tanned almost quart OF very dry cham
payne. | emptied it without spilling a
drop on my white walstcoat. Every one
stared when / said another The King
said No. you have had enough and so l
got no more"
While Bismarck was representing Prussia
at the Frankfort Diet his ability b. drink
great quantities of wine without losing bis
head contributed not little to his diplo-
matte successes. At the dinners Of the
German and Austrian Ambassadors wine
flowed like water, and every diplomat was
obliged to swallow an enormous quantity
of it for the sake Of his reputation as a
Teuton and representatives OF Ieutonlc
sovereign. They drank the k-headed
ones under the table," Bismarck subse-
quently wrote, asked them all kinds of
questions, and forced them TO make all
sorts of concessions which they We're not
authorized TO make. Then they made the
poor follows sign their names. The next
day, when the weak-headed ones got sober
again. they could not imagine how their
signatures had got on paper"
Curiously enough Bismarck IS rather
poor friend of the great German national
drink. " The prevailing use OF beer" he
once said. is deplorable. Beer-drinking
makes men stupid, lazy, and worthless. IL
is the cause Of all the democratic pot
house politics men talk over. Good corn
brandy would be better"
This saying of an old Prussian general is
ofton quoted by Bismarck among his
friends: Red wine for children, cham
payne for men, schnapps for generals"
Bismarck's capacity for tobacco is fully
Us wonderful, though not so celebrated as
ms capacity for wine, beer, and brandy.
Ever since his university days he has been
known as o "chain-smoker" (ketten-ranch-
err, that Is. smoker who connects his
breakfast and his dinner with an endless
chain Of cigars, each lighted from the
stump Of the last one. Happy man -
gambetta once said OF him, happy man +!