People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1892-08-12

House? And his answer is: ''Must
mention any names?" and being in
formed by the chairman that, "we are
not mentioning Names" after some hest
tation he SAID, 81 have" Being pressed
to say how many, he says, four -
Several voices: Name theml name
them! Let US know who they are
Good bye, Jimmie 81
Mr.. Watson No, the names are
not 9lven;'' and then he said further on
In his testimony: II think that the
reason the gentleman made such a
speech, was that he had drunk too
much liquor"
Now, wanted to prove that the
House of Representatives had kept a
bar room for it's own accommodation /;
that they were seen laboring to keep up
that bar, but the chairman ruled that
out that must stand to the naked,
absolute fact as to whether a man got
on the floor of the House drunk. Well,
l think that if had the proof present
ed that there was bar-room, and they
patronized that bar, it would not take as
much evidence to prove that the whs-
key had the usual effect upon con-
gresham the same as upon any other
man. Laughter.
4NOW, 10 DIteIIy SuIuU16EIL6 lily pLOOL
Mr.. Butler, Democratic Congress-
man, testified that he had seen four
members drunk on the floor Of the
House. Two who were addressing the
Speaker and two who were not. One
of the gentlemen alluded to as address
ing the House was Mr.. Cobb, of Ala
bama. Mr.. Butler said this member
called for whisky two or three times
during his speech; that he considered
him intoxicated and that his condition
was source of general remark.
Hon. G. w Shell, of South Carolina,
had seen one member drunk on the floor,
Hon B. FL Glover had seen one so had
seen two. Hon. John Davis had seen
two-both addressing the House on dit.
ferent occasions when they were drunk
Hon. F. E. White had seen one case.
Hon. K. Halvorson had seen two mem
bers addressing the House on different
occasions when they were intoxicated.
He had seen one other member drunk on
the floor of the House and one other ly-
ing dead drunk on a sofa in the cloak
room. Miss Bessie Dryer, a Southern
lady of the highest character, was in the
gallery at the time, and swore positively
that the gentleman from Alabama was
drunk that his conduct was a source of
hilarity in the press gallery, and that the
gentleman reeled and held on to the
desk and called out, ''Mr. Speaker, where
am [ atY Great Laughter. Hon.
John Otis swore to two cases of drunk
enness and especially to the case of the
gentleman from Alabama. Hon. O. NJ
KEN bad seen two cases of drunkenness
on the floor of the HOuse-One of them
addressing the House.
Now, what does this show?
| 1t shows that a man made a speech
on the floor of the House who was
drunk. First, [ charge a case Of drum
! kenness during the debate on the river
and harbOr bill; another time when
the pension bill was up, and another
time when a drunken man was tryin g
| to have a dialogue with another fellow
who was drunk and his own question
| kicked him over to the floor. If that
| is not the truth, [ am the BLACKLIST
tOngued liar that ever spoke.
They tried to drag a member from
Alabama out, but the other five men
! they made no denial about. Now LET
me tell you about their being drunk
! on the floor of the House. We proved
J that two men were drunk on the floor
! of the House during the discussion OF
| the silver bill, and that on two other
occasions there was drunkenness. We
| made cases as to four men in all who
were drunk on the floor of the House
! besides the five men already spoken OF
and the one man who, when he was
addressing the speaker, asked "where
he was at" Mr.. Cobb admitted that
he was drinking whisky, and his col
league, Mr.. Oates, admits that it was
whisky he was drinking. Several
members said they asked him to stop
| speaking, but he would not stop. Like
| a man when he was drunk, he spoke as
! long as he wanted to. Every man OF
our witnesses sWOre that he was
drunk. A lady sWOre that she was in
the press gallery and he was drunk
and [ say [ would hate to be in his
case before a jury on trial for crime
for they would have hard time re-
leasing him.
| They put up a lot of witnesses to
prove they did not see him drunk
| You all know about witnesses. If a
man was to stand here and pick my
pocket and if my friend - out there
and several others saw him do it and
all the rest of this large crowd said no
one picked my pocket, would that evil
dence destroy the evidence of the two
or three who did see it? They put up
men who had got part of the beef and
they made verdict accordingly.
When / offered to prove to the COM
mittee that there was a barroom,
would that have not aided in proving
that there was drunkenness, for it is
strange to say that whisky will get the
advantage of Congressman as we'll as
other men? Well, now, won't take
up your time further, except in saying
that the report going the round of the
press stating that [ said at the end of
the investigation that had made the
charge of drunkenness only for politi-
cal effect, is not true. You who know
me know [ did not say it, and l will
stand up and deny it anywhere and
facing anybody.
"a voice-"Tom, you look pretty
tired, won't you have drink? don't
mean water. [ have got some." Cries
of "Shut up! shut up!'O
| Mr. WatcOu-Mv friend Won had hot