The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-11-06
Especial Correspondence


WAsHNGToN, Oct. 20-The late Gen
w. w. Belknap was one of the best judge
of champagne in the capital. He was d
connoisseur in sparkling wines, and it is
said could unerringly distinguish all the
leading brands by simple taste. Gen
Belknap was fond of giving champagne
luncheons at his Office rooms in the Evans
block, on New York avenue, just across
the street from the treasury. Inviting a
few congenial friends, and ordering mod
est d cad from the caterer, case or two
of wine formed the most attractive feature
| of the entertainment. Gen. Belknap was
| not only good judge of wine, but he was
good judge of good fellows, and he would
have no one at his parties that was not
able TO contribute his share TO the even.
| ing's amusement, either as story teller OF
song singer In all Washington there was
no better story teller than Gen. Belknap
himself Gen. Belknap had this good
quality-he never permitted his misfor-
tunes to sour his temper He died as he
had lived, one of the happiest, most genial,
most sunny of men. heard him say a
week or so before his death that what some
men call success in life was nothing but a
means of tickling their vanity and delud-
ing themselves into the thought that
happiness was to be had by being envied
by others. AS for himself, Gen. Belknap
preferred pleasure to renown.
Notwithstanding the reputation it has
Washington is not great place for cham
payne drinking At very few dinners is it
served at all, it being now held to be ''bad
form" In the public drinking places not
much champagne is to be seen. OF course
a little is drunk here and there, and at
Chamberlin's perhaps n good deal. But
the steady drinkers here have little use for
wine of any sort, nor for mixed drinks,
either. The most popular drink in Wash
ington is straight whisky. That comes, /
suppose, from the southern influence in
drinking customs. do not mean to say
that the men from the south do all the
drinking in public places, though they
certainly do their share. But drinking
among the well known men about the
capital is largely social, and the men from
the south are leaders in this sort of social
pleasure.
AS rule the men from the south are
more likely to meet in public drinking
places for chat and bout at story tell
ing, and they are, moreover, about the
brightest men to be found in such places
the best story tellers, the most ready wits,
the most genial, the "best company" If
in an average coterie of public men-con-
gressmen, politicians, office holders-seated
about table in a saloon there be one man
from the south, you may depend upon it
he is the life of the party. The southerner
is a BETTER brighter conyersatiOnalist than
his more phlegmatic Yankee cousin. Odds
are, too, that what he drinks the whole
party will drink, and nine men out of ten
from the south drink plain whisky The
tenth man doesn't drink at all. He is a
teetotaler from one of the prohibition or
local option regions of Dixie
Thus it happens that whisky is the fash
ionable drink in Washington, and there is
no place in the country where one can find
better whisky behind the public bars than
here. These whisky drinkers know good
stuff when they taste it, and they are not
the men to put up with poor stuff of any
sort in silence. Nor do fancy prices obtain
here. While in most of the fashionable
drinking places of New York, as, for in
stance, the Hoffman house, twenty cents is
charged per drink straight, and from that
up to fifty cents for mixed drinks, no one
in Washington thinks of asking or paying
more than the regulation fifteen cents, or
two for a quarter. Go to Shoemaker's, the
most popular drinking resort in Washing
ton, and call for whisky and ginger ale
Your check will read fifteen cents. Go to
any of the high toned places in New York,
and the barkeeper will set out the liquor
L, 80 l., IL.
for both, or forty-fve cents in all.
New York, | have observed, is the place
to see champagne drinking. New Workers
drink champagne as Wash;ngtonians drink
whisky. Spend a few days in the metropo-
lis frequenting the high toned resorts,
from the Aston house by daylight to the
cafes of the Hoffman, the St. James, the
Gilsey, and all up Broadway to the Plaza
and even to Harlem, and YOU will see
champagne everywhere. You will see CO.
teries of young men, old men, gay men
and sedate men sitting at table after table
slipping champagne. Where all the men,
all the money, come from are twin mys-
teries. Many of the guzzlers, it is easy to
see, are young bloods who do not know
anything at all about earning money, but
who do know a great deal too much about
spending it,
But many others are rated men Of bust
ness, and still Others strangers in the town
who think that in New York they must
do as New Workers do, though perhaps
they can't tell the difference by taste
between poor sweet domestic and an
extra dry imported. At any rate the pop
ping of corks goes on day and night, week
days and Sundays, particularly nights and
Sundays, and if one had all the money
that is spent in New York in a week for
champagne he could buy country seat on
the Hudson and a yacht like Jay GOulds
In Washington there is not much Sunday
drinking. Here and there is a hole-in-the-
wall which escapes the vigilance of the
police, or a restaurant in which they serve
beer in milk pitchers and whisky in tea
cups. But in New York all you have TO
do Is to sit down at a little table and order
what you want. Crackers and cheese are
placed before you, of which you may eat if
you wish, and 10y means of this farce the
drinking saloon is converted into a res
taurant. A biz screen is put around the
bar, and so there is no use TO stand up
there, but the barkeeper is at his post as
usual, taking orders through little port
hole and passing the stuff oat TO walters.
Still champage is not the national drink.
and whisky, think, IS Certainly here in
the national capital, where men of all
states and Of all sorts congregate on =
level, whisky is the drink. There are some
great champagne drinkers here Of course.
There are men like the late Gen Belknap,
who rarely dri TX anVrh hing else in he way