The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1897-01-07
CLAY CHALLENGED cHoATE.
KentuoEIan Danced n Breakdown AN,
Choatc Cut Pigeon Wing.

Kentuol<lan DcnOed Breakdown and
Choatc Cut a Pigeon Wing.
In the long ago antcbellum days,
when southern aristocracy made its
summer headquarters at the noted
Virginia Springs, where the planters
camo up from the Carolinas, Ken
lucky, Georgia and MississiI1i in
their carriages, with great baggage
trains and retinue of servants, and
when they came the 1st of Juno and
staid until frost fell, those were gay
old times Mt the mountain resorts,
when life was worth the pain Of liv-
ing
Beginning with the first register
in 1905 and coming on down to 1860,
one finds succession OF historical
names. There are tho Sumters, the
Pickenses aud the Hamptons of the
Carolinas; the Clays and Marshalls
and Crittendens of Kentucky; Cor
win and Ewing and Trimble of Ohio;
tho Choates and Webstcra and
Pierces of New England; Dickinson,
Marcy and Dallas Of the middle
states; Cass and Douglas and Benton
from the then far west; the Floyds,
Cabells, Prcstons and a galaxy of
bright names from Virginia; the
CAROLS from Maryland, and a host
of others whose names have render
ed American history illustrious.
Here these old notables came in their
shadbellied coats and sideboard col.
lars, and proper, digniied time
they had of it as they mingled their
sulphur water and mint julops to.
gether and talked politics. 1t was
away back in 1887, when there must
have been something in the wind of
importance to the Whig party. On
musty old page of the hotel regis
ter of that year, in that f1ne, almost
feminine handwriting that is IA
miliar to all, we find this inscrip-
ton, "H. Clay, Kentucky" while
among the next days arrivals are
Rufus Choate, Massachusetts; Thorn
as Corwin, Ohio; William @, Rives,
Virginia, and Millard Fillmore, New
York.
Those were the days when the
making of a julep was an art as well
as domestic accomplishment. The
night before Mr.. Clay's departure
from the Springs he gave banquet
in his cottage to his friends. For
tunately there is still living eye
witness to that entertainment, and,
if his description can be relied upon,
it was gala event that transoends
all modern blow outs. Old Uncle
Jimmie Patterson, the venerable
gatekeeper, who has been an attache
Of the White Sulphur from time i'm
memorial, was the floor servant on
the row in which the Clay cottage
was located and helped to serve the
banquet. He says that the deport-
mont of the host and tho guests was
eminently proper until about the
hour Of midnight, but from that
time of the night uI.til the morning
dawned there was high old time
on the premises. When the cloth
had beon removed and the Powhatan
pipes were brought in-the deeener-
ate practice of cigar and cigarette
was not in vogue in those halcyon
days-some one called for music,
and messenger was sent for ne
gro fiddler, who soon appeared with
his old fashioned instrument. The
old fiddler started in with Money
Musk" and then played Sugar In
the Gourd," but when he touched up
mississippi Sawyer" MIR. Clay step
ped into the middle of the floor and
gave them a Kentucky breakdown.
This was a fair challenge for Mr..
Choate, who followed with New
England pigeon wing. When the
old negro struck the chord of "Old
Virginia Never Tire" the courtly
Rivcs, afterward minister to France
felt that the reputation of the Old
Dominion was at stake and, shedding
his coat, executed the double shuttle
with n skill that would make a min
strel man enyiCUs. And thus the
fun grew fast and furious until the
gray dawn peepod over the noun
tain tops. Courler-Jour
nal.