Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1898-01-08
CLAY CHALLENGED CHOATE.
KentUc!Iian Danced Breakdown and
CEoate Cut u Pigeon Wing.

Choate Cut n Pigeon Wing.
In the long ago antcbellum days, |
when southern aristocracy made its
summer headquarters at the noted
Virginia Springs, where the planters
came up from the Carolinas, Ken
lucky, Georgia and Mississippi in
their carriages, with great baggage
trains and retinue of servants, and
when they came the LIST of June and
staid until frost fell, those were gay
old times at 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 the Sumters, the
Pickenses and the Hamptons of the
Carolinas; the Clays and Marshalls
and Crittendens of Kentucky; Cor
win and Ewing and Trimble of Ohio;
tho Choates ANA Websters 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, Prestons and 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, dignified time
they had of it as they mingled their
sulphur water and mint juleps to.
gether and talked politics. 1t was
away back in 1887, when there must
have been something in the wind of
importance to the Wing party. On
u musty old page of the hotel regis.
ter of that year, in that fine, almost
feminine handwriting that is ia
miliur to all, we find this inscrip-
ton, III. Clay, Kentucky while
among the next days arrivals are
Rufus Choate, Massachusetts; Thorn
as Corwin, Ohio; William c. Rives,
Virginia, and Willard Fillmore, New
York.
Those were the days when the
making of a julep was an art as well
as Il domestic accomplishment. The
night before Mr.. Clay's departure
from the Springs he gave q 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 transcends
all modern blow outs. Old Uncle
Jimmie Patterson, the venerable
gatekeeper, who has been an attache
Of TIE 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-
ment of the host and the guests was
yminently proper until about the
hour of midnight, but from that
time of the night until the morning
dawned there was a high old time
on the premises. When the cloth
had been removed and the Powhatan
pipes were brought in-the degener
ate practice of cigar and cigarette
was not in vogue in those halcyOn
days-son one called for music,
and IL 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 Gourtl,' but when he touched up
mississippi Sawyer" MI Clay step.
ped into the middle of the floor and
gave them Il Kentucky breakdown.
This was a fair challenge for Mr..
Choatc, who followed with il 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 stakeund, shetldil !,
his coat, executed the double shufho
with skill that would make min
strel man enviOus. And thus the
fun grew fast and furious unit: the
gray dawn pccped over the lnoun
tain tops. -Louisville Courier-Jour
nal