The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-12-20

TWO years later was wearing the shoulder
straps of a company commander. Some Of
his ambitious elders r.iiseda hue and cry
against mere boy being given commits
ion, but he had a loyal and powerful
friend in Gen. Sheridan, and the commits
sion was issued. Shortly afterward Sheri-
dan caught the young captain In the act Of
violating one of the minor rules OF mill
tary discipline By smoking on duty. 'If
we're promising young fellow like you,"
said Sheridan. Il wouldn't use tobacco"
Young Belknap then and there promised
he would never use tooacco again, and ne
has kept his promise to this day.
Roswell p Flower, the big and popular
congressman from New York city I, mokes
huge cigars of domestic manufacture
cigars which have wrappers on them big
enough for baby's jacket When Mr..
Flower sits down in the cloak room to
smoke he soon has a white cloud about
him that completely hides his jolly face.
His colleague, Amos Cummings, is also
great smoker, like most newspaper men
Amos has trick of smoking while in his
seat, blowing the smoke under his desk,
and laughing in his sleeve at the more or
less vlgilant sergeant-at-arms whose post
OF duty is not more than twenty feet away.
In his den" down on newspaper row-for
statesman as be is, Amos finds it impossi-
bic to keep away from 1.-THE boys"-he has
queer collection of old pipes and bags
and boxes of smoking tobacco from all the
countries under the sun where the manly
art Of smoking is practiced-
Judge Payson, of Illinois, uses neither
tobacco nor liquor. He says he can't afford
to indulge in such luxuries and stay in
congress at the same time Maj McKin-
ley smokes a good deal, and always has
cigars for the many friends who call at his
workshop in the Ebbitt house. Judge
Houck, of Tennessee, smokes two-for-five
cigars, which he has an unpleasant habit
of rolling in his mouth and chewing till
they are sights to see. BILLY" Mason, of
Chicago, smokes great deal, and he
doesn't care what sort of cigar it is
either. He appears to get as much enjoy
ment out Of a ''campaign"-the sort of
cigars that are given out by candidates for
ofice-as he does from a Reina Victoria
from the cabinet of his great friend, Vice
President Morton. Kerr, of Iowa, the in
veterate interrupter and absentee, neither
smokes nor drinks.
Nor does that active little man Mr..
Heard, of Missouri. Senator Hoar looks
upon a cigar as an abomination, and he is
also supposed to be teetotaler, but he
doesn't count little champagne or claret
at luncheon
Senator Spoonec is another teetotaler,
but he smokes like house on fire, and
mild, little cigars they are, inofTensive ex-
cept for their Wisconsin wrappers. Capt.
Boutelle, the bold mariner from Maine,
who knows what it is to sleep in the
fo'c's'le and also to walk the quarterback,
uses neither tobacco nor grog, which is odd
in sailor. His long headed colleague,
Governor Dingley, eschews all petty vices
Big Tom Reed smokes, likes a glass Of
wine at dinner, and is fond of all the good
things of life.
Private John Allen, the quaint and hu-
morous member from Mississippi, is the
only man in the present congress who has
had the nerve to appear in the cloak room
of the house with pipe in his mouth, and
it was a corncob pipe at that. So far as
have been able to see there is not one cigar
ette smoker in congress. Senator Ed
munds and old Capt. Bassett are now the
only snuff takers in the senate Uncle
Sam buys the snuff, it being one of the
traditions of the senate that an annual ap-
preparation must be made for this pur-
pose. ROBERT GRAVES.