Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-13
THE CAPITAL BETTER
So Far as Drinking and Gambling is
Concerned Than it Used to Be.
THE TIGER HAS BEEN BANISHED,
But the Gin Mills in the Capitol Are Still
Handling Cold Tea.
PROHIBITION THAT DOES NOT PROHIBIT
,coRREsPoNpENcx OF THE DISPATCH.


WASHINGTON, D. c., September IL
remember time, and it is not very many
years ago, when 1 made my first visit to
Washington. It was not in that dim and
ancient dav, which the old soldiers love to
tell about when pigs and cows ran in the
streets, and heavily laden wagons stuck fast
in the bottomles mud OF "The Avenue" but
at the later time of which I speak. Congress
men and diplomats ran wild IN ''the open"
and cared not who saw them at their pranks
when in their cups. To get drunk was SIM
ply to be good fellow, and the general
drinking of the day was but crazy inter-
lude between momentary success, abound
ing ambition, and speedy ruin, in the case
of many a man of talent and energy, whose
habits previous to his advent in Washing
ton had not been more loose than the habits
of most tolerably good men.
Gambling was as open to the light of day
as drinking. 1 we'll remember the first time
I was being shown ''the sights" of the capi-
tai, going with nv Mentor to a magnificent
vaulted room, blazing with chandeliers, the
heat of liquors, and the most delicate of
viands free. At this or that of the many
tables where games were in progress sat
members OF the House or Senate whom I
had heard in serious and earnest debate dur
ing the day, taking the most exalted view
of everything. Diplomats of high rank
were pointed out to me, whose names had
rung far and wide in the press in connection
with international complication. High
officials of the department were there. Ex-
citement was intense, but well repressed.
The play was reckless. Thousands were won
and lost on the turn of card.
THE TIGER HAS DISAPPEARED.
Now there is not a faro Layout" in
Washington. To this tabooed game Vir-
ginia has opened her arms and five club
houses have sprung up at the Old Dominion
end of the long bridge. 1 have not seen
them, but I'm told the play is lively
and the attractions the best of their kind.
But Congressman and high officials are not
of the players. There are Congressmen's
sons, clerks of the departments young bust
ness men, men about town and professional
sports, but that element which was wont to
lend dignity to the game in the old days is
wholly lacking.
Gambling is confined to the private circle
in hotel room, or to chartered clubs,
which so far have found immunity from the
law, but which are growing so bold as to
challenge the attention of the authorities.
II club be chartered, if members pay an
initiation fee, if their names are recorded in
a book kept for that purpose, they may
gamble all they desire, so long as the club
room does not contain clay out" such as
a faro table, roulette, rouge ct noir, and so
forth; and so these clubs are thick as drink
ing places, almost, and draw poker and
stud poker, which are the great games, rage
from night till morning.
But even to the safe seclusion of these
protected places the Congressman does not
come. He is a transformed man. His
gambling must be done like his excessive
drinking, in the privacy Of his own room,
if he would not lose caste. The Congress-
man who now drinks to excess openly is
Stunned even by those who o!ten drink to
excess secretly, and almost the only one now
to be seen drinking regularly at the bars is
one whose district lies in the heart of a city,
and where his election depends on setting
1t up for the boys and in his being himself
one of the boys.
STATESMEN ARE HUMAN.
This suggests that Congressman outwardlv
are Just what their people are. They are no
more moral than OF old, but the moral stand
ard of the mass is vastly advanced. That
at no distant day drive both gambling and
liquor selling, as a business, out of ex-
istence, and public treasures will no more
be replenished from licensed lotteries and
bars.
Did Plumb, of Kansas, introduce his re-
solution prohibiting the sale of liquor at
the Senate restaurant because he personally
objected to 1t?
Oh, no, that was simply due to the growth
of prohibition sentiment in Kansas, as his
opposition to portions OF the tariff bill was
due to the growth of the Farmers Alliance.
In one way or another the Senators are all
Plumbs
1 do not believe there is a single total
abstainer in the Senate, though several
Senators claim to be.
Edmunds' fondness for good brandy is q
matter of history, and he has been often seen
on the floor of the Senate when his potations
were noticeable; but his fine brain had
always good control of his speech, and un-
like poor Riddleberger of Virginia, he
never made an exhibition of himself
Riddleberger was the most uncorscionable
drinker of the Senate since the days of
Matthew Carpenter, and his continuous
excuses ruined brilliant life.
DIDN'T TRY TO SNEAK A DRINK
The late and always to be lament ed
Beck, never drank behind the screen. He
walked into bar not thinking nor caring
who might see him, and if any of the old
colonels, or judges were around (and they
always were) he would invite them to Join
him. Blackburn is much like him in his
free and hearty methods of drinking, and
Carlisle is even more so. All of the |
Kentuckians are distinguished in this re-
spect, and no representative of the |
blue grass RECON was ever disloyal |
to the liquid product of his native soil; |
and in their manner of drinking they SIM |
ply import to Washington the Kentucky |
style. Indeed, all of the Southern people |
here appear to be doing something toward |
the consumption of home products, for, If |
there is one who does not drink and chew
and smoke tobacco, 1 have not seen him.
But, as have said, the visible drinking |
is fallen away wonderfully in response to
the spreading sentiment in favor of prohibi-
ton. Yet, in the face of all this, and from |
no necessity whatever, Speaker Reeds order
to stop the sale OF liquor in the House res
taurant is dead letter. and the Sem
ate refuses to adopt resolution pro-
The Senate restaurant. It is not
for the comfort or entertainment of tourists
or visitors that this is the case. With al
the decrease of drinking on the surface, it is
Congressmen alone whose influence per-
petuated the sale of liquor at the Capitol
and runs bar in both wings-the only par
lament building in the world where such
spectacle can be seen.
Can Tom Reed explain to his prohibition
constituents why he does not enforce his
order against the sale OF liquor at the House