The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-02-22
Washington the Man.

George Washington was a good, but
not a straight-laced man. A prominent
! writer has said that cards, horse rae
/ ing and the theatre were numbered
| among the amusements to which
/ Washington was inclined next to his
favorite sport of foX-hunting. His ex-
IRENE fondness for hunting is
shown by his dairy for January and
! February, 1858, where ii is recorded
that he followed the hounds sixteen
days. AT 90 he wrote that he was still
fond of the chase. which he occasional
| ly INDUCED in till near his death. We
are told that in the use of spirituous
! liquors, from boyhood up Washington
followed what was practically the
universal custom" To quote again:
His faVorite beverages were Madeira
wine, porter. small beer and cider One
of the first purchases after his mar
riaSe was pipe of the best Madeira"
In his younger days he extended at his
/ first election the usual post-election
hospitality, which, in those days, con-
sisted in the minimum amount of food
and with the maximum amount of spir-
its. We find him paying an account
for such an entertainment for some 400
voters, where the account was shil-
! lings for food and 81 for liquors. The
capacity of the average drinker may.
perhaps, be placed at three quarts at
a sitting. as derived from this account
which covered one hogshead of punch,
one barrel of punch, forty gallons of
punch, nine bowls of punch. forty-five
gallons of wine and forty-seYen gallons
of beer. Washington, who was not
present. expressed his surprise at their
moderation, and wrote his agent that
he feared he had not been liberal
enough, and expressed the hope that
he had not neglected those who had
voted in the opposition.
His reflective mind and acute obser-
walton soon noted the ravages made by
drink, and doubtless confirmed that
personal moderation which never per-
United him to run into excess of any
kind. In the provincial army, when
general charges of drunkenness were
made against the Virginia troops, there
was no word against Washington per-
sonally. He had, moreover. thus early
deplored it as a serious vice. forbade it
by stringent orders, and applied a
hundred lashes to every man found
drunk. Still later he wrote that gin
shops served to ruin the proprietor and
those who made the most frequent APP
plication to them" and in advising his
nephew. he adds: Refrain from drink.
which is a source of all evil and the
ruin of halk the workmen of this coun-
try"
chance and betting were universal
practices in Virginia, and from Wash
ington's earliest accounts it is known
that from the age of 16 he INDUCED
moderately therein. That most insidi-
Gus form Of gambling, the lottery, was
an especial favorite, being resorted to
for the purpose of raising funds for
charity, church use. or pubic improve
ments. Active and jealous as Wash
milton was in promoting plans for the
public benefit, or in extending helping
hand to others, it is not surprising to
find that the tickets of the Mountain
Road lottery in 1859 We're signed by
him, and that he spent $50 therein. In
December, 1863, we find him engaged
for successive evenings in drawing
Colonel Moore's lottery Now and
then someone who in that day was
called ''straight-laced," ruffled the pub
lie complacency by Directing. on moral
grounds, to lotteries. But Washington
evidently failed to justly estimate their
demoraliZing influence. countenanced,
as they were, by charity and church.
In the lottery authorized by congress,
for the benefit of the incipient Wash
ington City Washington invested, and
thought it a proper present to send Il
ticket to a favorite child. Lincoln Lear
with the hope that he might profit
largely thereby. 1t illustrates the eigh-
teenth century standpoint to find
Washington interfering in a letter OF
public business during the war a re-
quest to his friend to examine if any
of the enclosed tickets came up prizes
He evidently did not associate lottery
tickets with gambling any more than
the modern stock broker associates his
puts" and calls of today with the
same vice. To his nephew. Bushrod
we find him writing: Avoid gambling,
a vice productive of every possible
ILL.,"