The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1905-12-29

W&"~~"S~V$ ~
The art Of getting drunk like a
gentleman mas been lost, like the art
OF letter writing" said Il Kentucky
Colonel Of the old school.
He vas of the type that knows
what the inside of a club looks like
and is ds we'll known at Bar HarbOr
and in the Union League in New York
rs he is III the Union Club at Licking.
ton. in the Blue Grass State, Or il the
PGndCnnis IL Louisville. He has the
structure Of good liver and not at
all the Kentucky Colonel that the car
tooniSts have presented to the public
Tor the last twenty-five years.
THE approach of New Year brings
It all back TO me- lie said. land the
way its coming was celebrated in Ken
lucky twenty-five or thirty years ago
was something that would make the
modern man look up with surprise.
New Year always meant open
house III the Blue Grass region, and
the gentleman of that day was just
as certain that he'd get drunk as he
was that he held a place in society
and that he was received in the best
homes.
Social requirements would look
queer to the club and society man Of
this day, Everybody in Kentucky
kept open house on New Years Day,
and every nan in town who expected
to be received at all during the year
made it his particular business to call
on his friends during the afternoon
or evening and drink to the health OF
the family in cup Of egg nog, punch
or hot whisky toddy, which his fair
hostess pours for him out of a great
bowl usually placed in an alCoye Of the
big hall. The houses were all deco
rated with holly and mstletoe and
wreaths and strings of cedar were
hung about over arched doorways aud
mantelpieces.
There was but one legitimate ex.
cuSe for not calling on New Years
day, and that was that your condition
was such that you were not present
able. You We're expected to calf at
every house, and the plan of most Of
those who were accustomed to the in.
sidiOuS customs of the Kentucky New
Year celebration Of thirty years ago
was to get reliable negro hackman
they have no white hack drivers in
the Bluegrass, and in that day there
were no cabs-to follow you about
from house TO house and, when you
could not navigate, to put You on
board, take you to the hotel and put
you to bed.
''Old Nose, Lexington driver, had
put the same patron away for nearly
fifteen years at the close of the New
Years celebration, and others had
regulations that made the colonies bid
for them just as they would for a
crack yearling at an Eastern sale.
''If you were wise you did not ride
from house to house if the weather
was such that walking was good Only
rain or slush could put you in the
hack. The fresh air was supposed to
counteract the egg nog and punch
which you knew you had too carry.
''By the time you had made fifteen
or twenty calls the mixture began to
get in its work. Your careful driver
let you go as long as you could navi-
gate and then took you on board.
Everybody was drunk, but liquor
seemed to make the men more courtly
and nobody seemed to want to talk
loud or quarrel. Somehow the New
Year spirit smiled upon the thing, the
ladies knew that their guests who
came late in the afternoon would feel
some Of the effects of their earlier
calls elsewhere, and your faithful
hackman was the only judge of your
condition for continuing to so into 20.
lite society.
THAT was New Years in Kentucky
twenty-five years ago.
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N.yist, so, No.. NIa,., Va.