The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-10-12
EVERY PRESIDENT HAS SET
WINE BEFORE HIS GUESTS
Presidents Hayes and Lincoln were Total Abstainers
Although Methodist Church Member NC
Kinley Decided Old Time Custom Should
not be Dlsregarded.
not be Dlsregarded.


dents of the United States have set
lwine before their guests. President
Hayes and his family were total alb
,stainers and as rule there was
nothing alcoholic on the White House
table while they were there. But he
made one exception to his rule. That
was while the Russian Grand Duke
Alexis was the guest of the govern
lment.
President Hayes was not the only
total abstainer who has lived in the
White House. President Lincoln
neither smoked, drank nor chewed.
But at all his formal dinners the
customary amount and varieties of
wine were set before the guests.
President Harrison and Mckinley
were exceedingly abstemious men.
Garfield was not long enough in the
White House to establish any sort
of reputation as an entertainer.
Except when Hayes and Mckinley
came into office there never was any
Iquestion as to whether wine should
be used at the formal dinners. Nc
Kinley. although a member of the
Methodist church, decided that the
custom of serving wines and liquors
to the guest was not to be disregard
led. Although he never made a pub
lie announcement of his position. he
took the ground that Methodist dis
Icipline russ affected him merely as
AN individual not as president of the
UNITED States. who, as such, would
have to entertain persons who would
regard 1t as a slight If not an af-
front, to depart from the rule of
good society that drink should be
loffered to guests. Mckinley held that
1.-THE offense against hospitality would
be in not permitting the guest to de-
cide whether he should or should not
drink.
As the question of Indulgence or
abstinence was not discussed IN the
South until long after TIE civil war;
the question of liquor in the White
House had no place among topics for
discussion until after the end of the
South's control of the federal gov
ernment. In the good old days every
president had supply of liquor at
his elbow wherewith to pledge the
health of a guest, and in many cases,
even the casual caller
Jolly old Jimmy Buchanan, al
: through always arrayed like preach
er had a wink which was an invita-
tion to hive drink from his black
bottle. Old-timers say he had bar
rel of whisky which was made dur
ing the times of the Whisky rebellion.
The guest, after being told about
the age of the liquor, was invited to
, help himself. and Buchanan always
turned his back whenever he had as
a drinking companion man he
, knew as a lover of four or five fling
ers.
Andrew Johnston also had his black
bottle, and there is no question that
at times. he drank freely. There is
nothing that shows that Johnson got
as drunk as his enemies said he did.
Men who worked around the White
House while he was in office say the
report is absolutely false that when
lpleas in behalf of Mrs. Surratt were
made he was too drunk to hear the
petitioners. T1IN1i
Chester A. Arthur is the only man
ever in the White House who turned
might into day and knew when things
!, pertaining to dress and dining were
well cone or otherwise, or the pres
, idents within the memory of living
men, he Is the only one that knew
good wine from tina; which passes all
right with the average man. In his
> time the art of eating and drinking
received much attention at the
lWhite House and the regular staff ol
cooks there frequently found itsell
lset aside for chef from Chamber
: Inns or some other restaurant where
: good cooking was the rule not tht
, exception.
y He indeed was an outsider who
u went to the White House with
y matter of business and did not re
Il ceiye an invitation to drink, Tha
: Twas the least President Arthur woult
do for man whom he liked or TN
u man whose good opinion the presiden
{ Though II necessary to cultivate
Il Arthur was the polished man of th'
y world.
Andrew Jackson, according TO Mrs
lThrockmorton, whose son was IN TN
" regular army during the civil wa
IS and as such fought against his fathe
: in the confederate army in the battl
}, of the Wilderness, invariably drank "A
u table and always proposed toast t
W women.
y Mrs. Throckmorton spent the las
Is winter of the Jackson administrator
" as a guest at the White House, Tn
IS old woman, who died only fey
years ago. devoted the greater part Q
her conversation in repelling sland
ers. as she called them uttere
against the friend OF her girlhoo
!. !days. az.