The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13
1E1Z ZoW WATERWAY PROJECT

part of 1t is that MT. Fairbanks mis-
 cry is caused by cocktail that never
 got inside of him. Of course some ir
 revelent persons may use this as an
 argument that all cocktails were bet
 reverent persons may use this as an
 about that. What concerns us most
 is the prohibition fight in Washington.
 There will be no election but Congress
 will be asked to pass a bill at the com ing session, it is said, to prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages in the District of Columbia. If the law passes the President will be
 placed in an embarrassing position. If
 he decides not to veto the measure he
 will have to quit serving wine to
 guests at the White House. that Is, he
 will have to do this to be consistent.
 He Icannot be forced to do 1t for no
 law is applicable to the President If he
 chooses to disregard it.
 All Presidents of the United States
 have set wine before their guests. Pres
 ident Hayes and his family were total
 abstainers, and, as a rule, there was
 nothing alcoholic on the White House
 table while they were there But he made one exception to his rule. Tiiat was while the Russian Grand Duke Alexis was the guest of the government. President Lincoln neither smoked, drank nor chewed But at all his formal ulIl1leTS tue cuSlOIHdTN dilOuul anu Ndii- cities of wine were set before the guests. Except when Hayes and Mckinley came into office there never was any question as to whether wine should be used at the formal dinners. Mckinley, although a member of the Methodist church. decided that the custom of serving wine and liquors to the guests was not to be dis regarded. Although he never made a public announcement or his position, he
 took the ground that Methodist discipline
 rules affected him merely as an indlvld- ua1, notNas President of the United States, who as such, would have to en- certain persons who would regard 1t as a slight, if not an affront. to depart from
 the rule of good society that drink shall be offered to guests.
 Jolly old Jimmy Buchanan, although always arrayed like d preacher, had
 wink which was an invitation to have T drink from his black bottle. Old-timers
 say he had a barrel of whisky which
 was made during the times of the Aulsk
 Rebellion. The guest. after being told about the age of the liquor. was in-
 vited to help himself, and Buchanan al- ways turned his back whenever he had as drinking companion a man he knew a5 lover of four or five fingers.
 Andrew Johnson 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 abso- lutely false, that when pleas fin behalf of Mrs. Surratt were made he was too drunk to hear the petitioners.
 Chester A. ArtSur is the only man ever in the White House who turned night into day and knew when things pertaining to dress and dining were well done or otherwise. Of the President within the memory of living men, he is the only one that knew good wine from that which passes as all right with the average man.