The San Francisco call., 1895-05-19
He NEVER TOOK A DRINK
Governor Burnett Was a Very
Modest Man and a Total
Abstainer.
THE LEGISLATORS WERE NOT.
Senator Green Had Barrel OF
Redeye That Moistened Law
Making Throats,

When Peter Burnett was Governor of
California "Ihe Legislature of thousand
drinks" held forth in the Capitol at San
Jose. The members of that very thirsty
body moistened the legislatorial whistle
with many and oft repeated doses of
forty rod," but the first duly elected
Governor of the State. was not with them.
He was a total abstainer in an atmosphere
of conviviality. He tilted not the rosy
glass, and was conspicuous by his absence
halcyon days-and yet he was one of the
most popular men of the time.
The governmental wheels moved
smoothly on-the thirsty Legislature at
one end, the recently dead Governor at
the other. Laws were passed and signed
good laws, too, which still stand on the
statute books; the Governor kept on
abstaining and the saloons irrigated the
arid spots in their composition with the
hottest kind of liquor. The Governor was
quiet, modest, retiring sort of man, con-
spicuous almost as much for this as for
his teetotalism, which was regarded at the
time, so the old-timers say, as almost mar
yeIous.
Everybody had money in California in
'49 and the male population drank quite
freelv. from all accounts. Prominent men
OF all professions-lawyers, doctors, bank
ers, miners and merchants-met and trans
acted their business in saloons, and the re-
porters on the newspapers fitted contln-
ually from one to the other in the pital
city of San Jose in their search for news.
There were reporters even in those days
who had not the necessary copper-Hned
interiors to stand the alcoholic inpour, and
in desperation, it is told, they were COM
PEELED to join the Sons of Temperance and
follow the brilliant example OF Governor
Burnett.
Things were alcoholic enough in those
palmy days, but not SO thoroughly satur-
ated as some of the chronicles would lead
one to believe. The Legislature of thou
sand drinks was really not the bibulous
body its name implies. 1t was given more
by way of joke than anything else, but,
stick, and has been handed down to the sec
ond generation for what it is worth. A
representative named Green was really re-
sponsible for the title. He,did it all with
q barrel of what was said to be the finest
whisky then in San Jose. Whether he
moi come down, but it is certain that one
of the committee rooms into which the
barrel was last seen to have been rolled
after its arrival in San Jose had many
hourly visitors.
"Come on, fellers," was Green's familiar
invitation, 'and let us have thousand
drinksr'
The invitation was always the same and
the acceptances were similarly prompt.
Day after day the committee room was
| thronged and so constant was the drain on
the refreshment that it became suspected
| that the representative who was engineer
ing the barrel had replenished it more than
| OOt n
OF the story, dubbed the body "the Legis-
| lature of a thousand drinks" and there it
was and there the title has stuck ever
since.
That Legislature did good work and
| plenty of it, and the level, clear head of
| the total abstainer in the executive man
| sion looked after the rest. For the short
time he was in office, with so much in the
| machinery of the new government to put
| in place and regulate, Governor Burnett
displayed wonderful amount of energy
| and developed a grasp of affairs that was
| truly mastery. When he wrote his letter
of resignation it was with regret that the
| people of the State heard of his determina-
! ton to retire from the head of affairs.
! Some powerful motive they knew must
have moved him to the step he had taken
and they complained not at his action.
But very few people then or since knew
| of the motive that impelled Governor Bur-
nett to retire from Office before his term
had expired. The generally accepted rea-
son was that the work was too much for
the quiet executive, and that he stepped
down to save his health. That reason was
incorrect. Governor Burnett became a
private citizen for the purpose of saving
his fortune, which was tottering in the
panicky gales of the fail of 40. The sum-
mer had witnessed the squatter riots in
Sacramento and the big fire in San Fran
cisco; there had been visitation of chol
era, and banks and business houses tot
tered after the first collapse in real estate
values. Hundreds of quickly made for
tunes were vanishing, Governor Burnett's
among the rest. He resigned to save it
from the wreck, and, more fortunate than
many others, succeeded.
He had strong anti-Chinese and anti
slavery views, and it is certain that had he
seen fit to enter into National politics he
would have made a name as statesman
that would have ranked with those of the
illuStriouS men of the past half century