The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-12-30

vent the consumption of liquor by MEM
bers and to guard against the occasional
spectacle of a representative drunk Oh
the floor of the house.
OF course it would not have that
effect, because a thirsty mem Der would
have no difficulty in getting all he
wants to drink in the committee rooms.
The only way to insure members of
congress against strong drink is to make
total abstinence a part of the oath they
take at the beginning of a new term.
The Mantle of Charity.
The cases of drunkenness are very
few. Occasionally a sensation monger
makes little cheap capital for himself
by exposing the weaknesses of congress-
men. But, as a rule, the mantle of
charity is thrown over the weakness of
the few men who forget their self re-
spect, and the correspondents at Wash
ingron treat them with the dignity
which is due to their Office rather than
to themselves
More than one man has said to me:
SIS it true that Blank is dissipated=
gets drunk and all that2 1 never see
anything in the papers about it. Yes,
it is true unfortunately. Blank has an
uncomfortable appetite for liquor at
times. But the Washington newspaper
man, if he be high minded and self re-
specting-and I am happy to say he
usually is-regards Blank only as a
public character and judges him by his
official acts rather than by his personal
weaknesses.
As I have said, these instances of
weakness are very few. They are al
most inconsiderable when we compare
this congress with those of so or IS
years ago. Go back even 20 or 20 years,
and you could find conditions that
would make the F'ifty-fourth congress
seem like a Sunday school.
There are many men ia the senate
now who can remember night sessions
when certain senators were so drunk
that they had to be led from the floor.
It is only eight years since a senator
was dragged from the chamber by the
gergeant-at-arn and his assistant be-
cause he was boisterous and unruly.
Less than ten years ago a senator said
publicly of one of his colleagues, IF
the senator from --- were in a police
court, he would be sent to the rock pile
for being drunk and disorderly.
Drink has been responsible for a good
many scandals in public life of recent
years, and these scandals can be traced
to the fact that public sentiment on the
question of temperance has undergone a
great change. A public man who got
drunk in public was merely eccentric
so years ago. The public man who
drinks is an object for the finger of
soorn today. Fifty years ago liquor not
only was sold freely at the capitol, but
was bought for the use of senators with
the public funds. Now, if a senator
wants liquor, he must buy it. and if the
senate should pass the house resolution
he will have to keep a supply in his
committee room.
Drink In Committee Rooms.
Some Of the senate committee rooms
have always been well supplied with
liquor When the late Senator Beck was
chairman of the Democratic caucus, he
kept a supply of good liquor on hand in
the conference room, and he had a clerk
who was a very able mixer of drinks.
Beck was a ScOtchman, with a native
taste for whisky, which a long life in
Kentucky had cultivated. He drank
whisky as the Frenchman drinks brandy
or the American ice water. When he
made a long speech, he sometimes had
a tumblerful of Scotch whisky on the
desk before him. One day he sent a
page for his customary glass Of whisky,
and the boy returned with a glass of
good, red Bourbon. The senator was
visibIy embarrassed for a moment but
he recovered his self possession and sip
ped the whisky as he went on with his
speech.
Daniel Webster used TO keep pitcher
of gin on his desk when he was speak
ing Gin, like Scotch whisky, is color
less, and many people thought Mr..
Webster drink was water. The day
when Mr.. Webster was making his
famous speech on the compromise ques-
ton Senator Walker reached over for