Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1913-06-26
Jefferson Virginia Thursday June 26 1913
Henry watterson On Drinking.

A friend of the Register has sent US the
following editorial from the Louisville
Courier Journal, expressing the views of
its famous editor, Henry Watterson, on
the subject of drinking wine at table:
Mr.. and Mrs. Bryan owed the public
no explanation touching the internal al
fairs of their domestic fabric. Whether
they had or had not wine at dinner, was
nobody's business but their own. II had
been wise, perhaps, TO say nothing TO the
diplomatists actually present. Be sure
the most of them would have been al
most as chary of drinking wine-had il
been offered-as the unfermented grape
juice, which was. Mr.. Bryce, TO whom
the dinner was Immediately given, is
quite as much OF a teetotaler as Mr.. Bryan.
In what is called polite society, ex-
plantations are deemed superfluous whilst
apologies are outlawed. They are in
point of fact never heard-being consid-
cred mark of unassured position if not
of inferiority. Yet in Mr. and Mrs. Bry-
ans statement - in its truthfulness,
genuinenesS, simple-mindedness, there
is something both touching and inspiring.
II will bear repetition. Here it is:
"We did not intend to magnify, by
mentioning it, the importance OF the
non-use OF wine at the dinner given TO
Ambassador Bryce Monday night, but as
the papers have made some inaccurate
references to the matter the facts might as
well be known.
"This was the first dinner which we
have given TO members of the diplomatic
corps, and therefore the first time when
we came into conflict WITH the social
custom OF serving wine at dinner. The
seven other Ambassadors then in the
city and their ladies were invited to meet
Ambassador and Mrs. Bryce, and as all
the gentlemen guests present were from
foreign countries thought il proper TO
explain to them the reason for our failure
to conform to what seems TO have teen
customary in this matter.
believing that the issue should be
met frankly IN the beginning, told them,
when we sat down to the table, that Mrs.
Bryan and | had been teetotalers from
our youth, as were Our parents before us,
and had never served liquor at our table ;
that when the President was kind enough |
to tender me the portfolio of State ! asked |
him whether our failure to serve wine |
would be any embarrassment TO the ad-
and that he generously left !
the matter to our discretion. ! suggested |
that thought il unfair TO assume that |
those coming to us from abroad would
Judge us harshly or be unwilling TO toler-
ate the maintenance OF traditional GUS
tom, and expressed the hope that our
would be made so apparent TO
them and our hospitality so cordial that
they would overlook this weakness in us,
if they regarded it as a weakness. My
remarks were applauded by the company,
and we never spent more enjoyable
evening.
THAT is all there is to the matter, and
we can consider the incident closed and
the custom established so far as we are
concerned"
No thoughtful, worldly wise man, or
woman, can read this without respect
tinged with feeling. II is easy to under
stand how this couple got on in life and
have been prosperous and happy. Lon
don and Paris, Vienna and Rome and
Berlin may still set the fashions; but,
when we reflect "what fashions" we
may also take long look ahead and fore
cast the ignoble end of many OF them.
Some fashions, long in vogue, have al
ready come to grief and gone out.
Wine at table is one Of these. Within
the familiar knowledge and ready memory
Of men still living wine was not only
seen plenteously at table, but statesmen,
scholars, diplomatsts, social and politi-
cal leaders, might occasionally be seen
toward the wee sma' hours visibly af-
iected by what they had drunk. Today
such a spectacle is unknown. If a gen.
Ileman should show himself thus in any
Of the great houses he would never be
invited there again.
Thirty years ago at these houses one
sat down 10 table fairly barricaded, be-
sieged, bombarded by wine glasses. Now
when he sits down he sees none. The
butler comes with tiny glass and he
may have it filled with sherry, and little
later with change of course, another
glass trifle larger but still small, and he J
may have this filled with red or white /