The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1890-11-01
MANY SORTS OF DRINKS.
THE LATE GEN. sELkNAP's KNoWL-
EDGE OF CHAMPAGNE.

Robert Graves, Discusses with the Grav-
ity Becoming SO Important q Subject.
the Relative Merits and Prices of Bev-
erages In Washington and New York.
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, Oct. 2O.-The late Gen.
W. w. Belknap was one of the best judges
of champagne in the capital. He was a
connoisseur in sparkling wines, and it is
said could unerringly distinguish all the
leading brands by a 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 a mod
est spread from the caterer, a case or two
of wine formed the most attractive feature
of the entertainment. Gen. Belknap was
not only a good judge of wine, but he was
a good judge of good fellows, and he would
have no n at his parties that was not
able to contribute his share to the even
ing's amusement, either as story teller or
song singer. In all Washington there was
no better story teller than Gen. Belknap
himself. Gen. Belknap had this good
quaity-he never permitted his misfor-
tunes to sour his temper. He died as he
had lived, n of the happiest, most genial,
most sunny of e I heard him say a
week or so before his deatht that what some
men call success in life was nothing but q
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 a great place for cham
payne drinking. At very few dinners is it
served at all, it being now held to be chad
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 a 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 ia straight whisky. That comes, l
suppose, from the southern influence in
drinking customs. LIDO 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 we'll known men about the
capital is largely social, and the men from
the south are leaders in this sort of socia!
pleasure.
As a rule the men from the south are
more likely to meet in public drinking
places for a chat and a 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 a table in a saloon there be one man
from the south, you may depend upon it
he is the life of the party. The s%outherner
is a better, brighter conversationalist 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
and a bottle of ginger ale, and charge you
for both, or forty-five cents in all.
New York, I have observed, is the place
to see champagne drinking. New Workers
drink champagne as Washingtonians drink
whisky. Spend a few days in the metropo-
lis frequenting the high toned resorts,
from the Astor 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 a country seat on
the Hudson and a yacht like Jay Gould's.
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 q 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 q little table and order
what you want. Crackers and cheese are
placed before you, Of which you may eat if
you wish, and by of this farce the
drinking saloon is converted into q res.
taurant. A big 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 q little port
hole and passing the stuff out to walters.
Cali ,Lo-roDo 10 not %ko no%{ono1 1rinL