, 1897-03-27
M'DOUGALL'S ~ELOQUENCE.
The Famed California Senator and His
Drunken Speech.

1t a on the occasion OF the intro
by Henry Wilson OF Massachu-
sets of the oft-presented bill prohibit
ing the sale o; liquor in the capitol. The
remarkable discourse was in part as fol-
lows:
MIR. President: | had occasion.
some years since. 10 discourse with a
reverend doctor OF divinity. While
was iiscoursing with him a lot OF rap
scalllio.s invited me to join them at the
bar. | declined, out OF respect to the
reverend gentleman in whose presence |
then was. AS o o as the occasion had
passed, | remarked to the reverend doc
tor: DO not understand that | decline
20 go and join those young men at the
bar because | have any objections to that
thing, Cor it is my habit to drink al
ways in front and moi behind the door,
He looked at ms with a certain degree
of interrogation. | then asked him,
Doctor, what was the first great miracle
worked by our great master?' He hesi-
lated. and | said to him, Was it not at
Cana. in Galilee, where he converted the
water into wine at n marriage feast?'
He nsSented. | asked him then, After
the ark had iloated on the tempestuous
seas for 40 days and 40 nights. and as
it descended upon the dry land what was
the first thing done by Father Noah?'
He said he did not know exactly. Well,
said |, did he not plant a vince Yes,
he remembered it then.
Il asked him. DO you remember any
great poet that ever illustrated the high
cr fields of humanity that did not digni-
ty the use of wine, from old Homer
down. He did mol. | asked, DO you
know any great philosopher that did
not use it for the eXalIalion of his intel
ligence? DO you think, doctor, that a
man who lived upon pork and beef and
cornbread could get up into the superior
regions, into the ethereal?'
No, he must
Take nectar on high Olympus,
And mighty mead in Nalhalla.
Il said to him again, Doctor, you are
a scholarly man, of course-a doctor OF
divinity, a graduate of Yale; do you re-
member Plato's Symposium Yes, he
remembered that. | referred him to the
occasion when Agatha, having won the
prize Of tragedy at the Olympic games at
Corinth, on coming back to Athens was
feasted by the nobility ard a%ristocracy
OF that city, for it was a proud triumph
Cor Athens to win the prize of tragedy.
They got together at the house Of Phae-
drus, and they said, Now, we have been
every night for these last six nights
drunk, let us be sober tonight, and we
will start n theme which they passed
around the table as the sun goes round
or as they drink their wine, or as men
the theme was love-not love in the vul-
gar sense-love Of all that is beautiful,
After they had gone through and after
Socrates had pronounced his judgment
about the true n the beautiful. in came
Alcibiades. with a drunken body OF
Athens boys, with garlands around their
heads. to crown Agatha and crown old
Socrates, and they said to those assem-
bled. This will not do, we have been
drinking and you have not And after
Alcibiades had made his talk in pursu.
ance OF the argument, in which he un-
dertook to dignity Socrates. as l remebei
it, they required latter the party had
agreed to drink, it being quite late in the
evening, and they had finished theiI
business in the way OF discussion) thai
Socrates should drink two measures tc
every other mans one, because he was
better able to stand ii. And so, one aft
err another they were laid down On the
lounges in the Athenian style, and all
except an old physician named Aristo-
demus, and Plato makes him he hard
est-headed fellow except Socrates. He
and Socrates stuck it out until the gray
" ''' nins' anu 'nen 0oc'a'es 'ook Ills