Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1901-12-24

- - IEE1FTIl great secrecy.
SESEE.6.-, II \ Scrupulous sobri7
ghfa" dllE i " ETY. on the part of
the legislators and government officials
is required by modern public opinion in
Washington. There is thought to be not
a single excessive drinker among all of
the members of both of the present
houses and among all of the higher gov
eminent officials Men still in middle
life can remember when there were ac-
tual drunkards among men in high place
in Washington. Less than fifteen years
ago a member of the lower house was 10
be seen riding about the main streets in
a carriage with his legs dangling out OF
the windows from which he had playfully
kicked the glass, and bawling at the top
of his lungs Less than ten years have
passed since Washington witnessed the
spectacle of a United States Senator ris-
ing to address the Senate while in con-
dition of such drunkenness that he had to
hold on to his desk. His Inundated
wife and daughter witnessed the scene
from one of the galleries. cultivated
man by nature and training, this Senator
talked on this occasion like any long
shoreman tipsy with mixed ale; and when
he was on the point of falling down
where he stood, he was virtually carried
out of the chamber. He never address
ed the Senate again, but died the death
of q drunkard not long afterward.
No More Carousals.
Less than quarter of century ago
the sight of a pair of legislators or gov
eminent officials Keeling arm-in-arm
through the streets of Washington evok-
ed only indulgent smiles on the part of
those who witnessed it. Such pair
exhibiting themselves now would stand
nationally disgraced. Carousals no long
er take place in the capitol. The last
of these happened on the House side
about ten years ago. Huge bowls of
steaming punch ornamented the tables of
most of the committee rooms. The negro
committee room attendants kept replen-
ishing the bowls all night, Congressman
swayed through the corridors with flush
ed faces, their voices pitched high. Even
those members who were abstemious by
habit caught the infection and drank far
more than was good for them. Along to-
ward 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning the
fun in the committee rooms became fast
and furious. A party of singing black
boys were impressed from the street and
hired to sing in one of the committee
rooms for the delectation of the hilari-
Gus members. From singing they got to
engaging in buck and wing dancing, to
the music of harmonious, banjos and
guitars, and a number of the legislators
actually patted for them. The sounds of
the hot time reached the House chamber,
and most of the members flocked out TO
join in the carnival. When the first gray
streaks of dawn began to make the gas
Illuminated glass roof look wanly yellow
members by the dozen were snoring in
their seats, and others were stretched
out in unconventional attitudes, asleep on
the sofas around the sides and back of
the chamber.
Time was, and not so very long ago,
when the ''cold tea joke was one of the
pet waggish phrases among many of the
Washington legislators. The lawmaker
while making a speech, would pause,
pick up from his desk a small pitcher
filled with whisky and water, and, with
a smile, would remark, II crave the in
diligence of the Speaker and of the gen
tlemen of the House, while l address my
self TO this cold tea," whereupon every
body would be expected to laugh while
the waggish statesman took few gulps
of the whisky and water from the pitch
er. 1t is safe to say that no Senator or
Representative would do that nowadays
for any amount Of money.
Liquor is still, or was during the last
session, served in tea cups in the Senate
restaurant, ''just to take the sin away"
as one of the Senators put it, and the
members of the lower house who take
their little nips at>stated intervals see to
it that they are well screened from the
general view while thus refreshing them
selves. Not so many years ago about
every committee room in both wings of
the capitol contained well-flled liquor
cabinets, but most of these have been
routed out.
Personal encounters, once quite com
mon between lawmakers, no longer oe-
cur. Less than % years ago two cabinet
members INDUCED in a rough-and-tumb
fight over a game of cards. Big poker
games once were common under the big
dome. The games went on in the com
mittee rooms in both of the wings of the
capitol, and no pretense of keeping them
secret was made. Participants in these
games would be hastily summoned TO
their respective legislative chambers to
vote, and having answered to their
names, would hustle back to the cards
with all speed. Notorious lobbyists would
be permitted, or actually invited. to sit
into" these games, and stories are still
told of how these lobbyists would COM
PLEASANTLY lose thousands and tens Of
thousands of dollars TO men whose good
viii they relied upon in immediate or
future contingencies. There are also
stories of card parties and drinking bouts
given by some of these lobbyists at their
headquarters to the legislators, the ia
yors" distributed among the guests being
bills of large denominations furtively
tucked into overcoat pockets while the
garments hung in the hall.
The legislators of to-day would no more
think Of playing cards in the committee
reeDls than they would think of throw
ing rocks at the statue of Washington
They wouldn't even play old maid or
grab or casino behind closed doors in
the committee rooms lest the fact of
their manipulating the pasteboards
should leak out and they should be sus-
pected of engaging in a game of chance
AoE AoAe3- vi course, lHoSe OF the leg
iSlators who enjoy their little or their
big little game of draw permit them
selves the indulgence at their quarters.
with boon colleagues as tablemates, when
night has fallen and the business of the
day is over; but the most inveterate
among the congressional lovers of the
game of American draw poker would as
soon play bean-bag or tag or pnss-in-the-
corner in the rotunda of the capitol as 10
rifle deck on the table of a COMPRESSION
al committee room.
A Muskogee, l. T., dispatch says Dad
Curtis. a noted gambler of early days in
Texas. was shot and killed by Frank