The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-03-18
DRINKING AT TIE CAPITOL
Customs Among congressman Past
md Present.

of Mr.. Morse's bill prohibiting the sale
of liquor at the capitol, the Washing
ton Post printed an interesting article
on past and present drinking among
congressman, from which we take the
following paragraph:
No one whose acquaintance at the
capitol extends over a decade doubts
that drinking customs among the ma
tional legislators are rapidly passing
into a memory. The legislation in the
house has emphasized this. Both tenn
perance advocates and those who tip
pie sometimes admit it.
The bill which the house has just
passed, prohibiting liquor selling at the
capitol, is the most sweeping measure
of this character that body has ever as
scented to. There have been ''spasms,"
as one of the old employees puts it, when
selling of intoXicantS was forbidden in
the house restaurant. Speaker Randall
Cnce forbade it. The control of the
house restaurant was then in the speak
er's hands. Speaker Kerr is said to have
been more strict than others who pre-
sided over the house. But these re-
strictions lasted only for time. Mem
bcrs were accustomed to get their tip
pie at the house restaurant, and the
proprietor, after all, would find way
to get it to them. Now the argument
is that members do not drink, except
rarely, while at the capitol, and, if at
all, not at the house restaurant. A
southern member, who represents a
district in which there are a score of
great distilleries, and who is by no
means a total abStainer, says he has
never drank a drop in the house res
taurant.
Under the present regulations the
rules about getting drinks are much
more strict on the senate side. Capitol
employees generally are refused liquor
at the senate restaurant. Those who are
shut out there go over to the house
side, and are furnished all they want.
Anybody, in fact, who drops in there
can have his drinks. This is said to
have provoked many members of the
house to vote for the adjustment of the
house saloon. The lease of the house
restaurant was drawn by believer in
prohibition, and expressly forbids the
sale of liquors, but, like many similar
clauses in restaurant leases at the cap
itol, has never been enforced.
The present bill provides for prohi-
bition on both sides of the capitol and
places the enforcement of the law with
in the jurisdiction of the district courts.
The only other bill of this kind that is
recalled as having passed the house pro-
hibited the sale only on the house side.
That was when the venerable Hiram
Price, now a resident of this city, was
a member from Iowa. He presided over
the recent anti-saloon convention in this
city.
In former days when the sale of
iquorwasf orbiddenin the house thirsty
members procured their drinks at the
hotel across the way. There are CAPT
tol employees who remember that roll
calls We're proceeded with slowly so
that pages could have time to go to the
hotel and warn absent members to come
over. In those days the bar privilege at
the hotel was valuable one. Some have
said that would be the result if liquor
should be banished from the capitol
how. The time was when the commit
tee-room on alcoholic traffic stored
quantities of good stuff" and members
congregated there for sociability's sake
more than to promote the cause of tenn
perance. This order of things changed
about the time that the Fifty first con-
GresS came in
The committee in that congress advo-
Gated most radical legislation. Mr..
Joseph d. Taylor, of Ohio, was the
chairman. The committee recommend
ed the abolition of the liquor traffic in
the District of Columbia and chose Il
commission to investigate the traffic
generally. This commission was the
only recommendation of the committee
which the house eventually sanctioned.
1t heard a. number of divines and tenn
pernnce advocates. Among them was
Amanda Smith, a colored missionary
from Africa, who told about the effects
of drink in the Congo valley. One of
the souvenirs she brought from Africa
with her was a red bandana handker-
Chief on which were pictured bottle
and tumblers for convivial barbarians.
The older capitol employees can tell a
legion of stories about the former
scenes of conviviality and hilarity that
reigned during sessions, even on the
floor of both house and senate. Drinks
were kept in nearly all the committee
rooms. There was a coterie of senator's
who had private cupboard in one lob
by of the senate. A doorkeeper, now
dead, purchased the stock and pos
sessed the key that locked the precious
liquid up. The average assessment was
five dollars Il senator; there were about
ten senators in the combination. The
keykeeper is understood to have made
a good thing out of his stewardship.
Seeing Snakes.
1t is no wonder that delirium tremens
patients ''see snakes" as 05 per cent. of
them are said to do. A hospital doctor
has shown that there is very good rea-