The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-12-16

those days, says: THE. dinner was GER
,tainly fine, but it did, not surpass some
II have eaten in Carolina. There Were
many French dishes and exquisite
wines. Comment on the quality of
the wines was the chief topic after
the removal of the cloth. Candles
were introduced before the ladies left
the table, and the gentlemen continued
half an hour longer to enjoy a social
glass;
There was no lack of wines at the
tables of the first three presidents.
Jefferson disliked formality and enter
tained in a generous southern style,
while Adams gave stately and magnif-
cent dinners.
There can be no question that at the
present dav alcohol is held in less es-
TEEN than at any previous time in MS
tory. 1t cannot be said to have lost
popularity, but it has got into disre-
pute. No longer IS it the fashion for
gentlemen to drink to excess, and the
statesman who tioples loses caste
thereby. Complaint was actually made
during the first session of the present
congress because Il southern member
walked into the house one morning in
a condition of palpable inebrlation.
Other members started a movement to
discipline him. Shade of Daniel Web
ster! What are we coming to?
Was it not he immortal Webster who
habitually fortified himself during
speeches with gin and water? And are
not those alcohol-inspired fragments of
patriotism regarded today as the finest
possible stuff for American school boys
to commit to memory? Gin, of course,
has the advantage of looking exactly
like water to the naked eye, and the
great Daniel kept it by him in pitch
en- with a tumbler for periodical doses.
1t is related that one day fellow sem
ator took big swallow from the glass
quite unsuspectingly, just as he rose
To make some remarks, and the con-
sequence was choking fit which threw
the whole chamber, particularly Mr..
Webster, into convulsions of laugh
ter.
Those We're easy-going days in the
senate, before the civil war. 1t was
not until April, 1866, that Henry Wilson,
afterwards vice president. offered his
famous resolution which prohibited the
sale of liquor in the capitol and its
grounds. Since that time more or less
hypocrisy has governed in such mat
ters, and whisky served in the senate
chamber has masqueraded commonly
as cold tea" Bottles of good stuff
are kept in the committee rooms. Don
something choice, in a cupboard, and
any drinks that may be wanted are sent
quietly To the cloak room from the res
taurant below. Perhaps it is owning
To the existence of such convenienceS
that within recent. years presiding
officer of the upper house was so given
to tipplinG that on repeated occasions
the senate chose to save him from eX-
posure by going precipitately into Sc
cret session.
APoLLINARIS LEMONADE.
During the hot weather there is al
ways an unlimited supply of apOllinaris
lemonade served i'm the cloak room of
the senate. 1t is paid for by the gov
ernment, out of the so-called "conting-
cnt fund" of the upper house. Thus
one finds in the list of expenses of that
body such items as twenty cases of
apollinaris, quarts" six hundred
pounds of granulated sugar" and
eighteen boxes of lemons" This sup
ply, mind you, for a single month. Ev-
erybody likes apollinaris lemonade. but
most senators prefer it with a stick"
in ii. Occasional charges for syrup"
running up into the hundreds of dol
lars for al single session, seem rather
suggestive. one is almost at loss to
know what to make of them.
The famous debate in the last con-
gress on the silver question carried the
senate Though two, consecutive all
night sessions. 1t was test not of
argument. bat of endurance AS soon
as the roll had been called the grave
and reverend legislators would retire
to the cloak rpom and partake of juleps
and other mixed drinks, which dozen
walters Were constantly engaged in
bringing from the restaurant below.
rI.. Ns-.As, ytc1, Il ,,tlN hot
and the continual inhibition of cooling
fluids was patriotic necessity.
There are very few total abstainers
in the senate, Hill is one. He is q re-
frigerator, and has not particle of the
convivial spirit. Perkins. of Califor-
MIA never drinks anything; but he al
ways has bottle on tap for his friends
in his rooms at the Riggs house. He
says that he does not imbibe simply
because he has never acquired the hab-
it. His colleague. Senator White, takes
a dash of brandy in his tea. Black
burn prefers his whisky straight, as be-
comes a Kentuckian of the old school.
on the whole, the upper house is a
sober body. compared with what it was
before the war.
In the house of representatives 1t is
the same way The fashion of drink
ing while making a speech has gone
out. and members rely no longer upon
alcohol for inspiring their flights Of
eloquence. If member wants a drink
he goes down stairs and takes it in the
restaurant. On the historic occasion
when Cobb, of Alabama. asked the
speaker ''where he was at" having lost
the thread of his discourse, he was re-
freshing himself from gold-lined mug
which held rather more than half q
pint of whisky. But gin has been a
more popular legislative tipple, when
consumed on such occasions, owing to
its likeness to a more innocent bever-
age.
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