Drinking in Washington.
It is said that drinking is decreasing at Washington. I do not believe this to be so, writes a correspondent of the Cleveland Leader. Fewer people drink at the saloons, perhaps. But it has come to be that every public man has his cellars stocked with wines and brandies, and liquors are sold by the quantity instead of by the glass. All of the grocery stores at Washington keep large stocks of liquors, from Mumm’s extra dry champagne down to a very cheap article of whisky, and you will find wine stores in nearly every block. In no city of the United States, except, perhaps, New Orleans, is there so much wine drank in proportion to the population. Many families never sit down to a meal without having wine on the table, and at a Washington hotel where public men stop, it is the rule to take a bottle of wine with your dinner. Within the last two years punch has become very popular at Washington, and you will now find a big punch bowl at almost every fashionable gathering. It is quite an art to make a fine Washington punch, and it takes very little of the regular article to cause the knees to quiver and the head to swim. One recipe contains the ingredients, whisky, rum, claret, champagne, sugar, and lemons. A little water added to this, and you have a drink that will not put an old toper under the table until after half of his usual allowance. Still, this stuff is given to young men and maidens.
There is a good deal of difference in the United States as to drinking. Men from the North and East and from California drink wine, while those from the West and South take Whisky or beer. Kentuckians usually take whisky straight, and all Wisconsins are fond of their own Milwaukee lager. Senators Frye and Blair are said to be the only Senators who are tetotallers.
There was a Congressman named Jadwin in the Forty-seventh Congress who never sat down to a meal without having a teacup of hot water placed before him. He seasoned it with cream and sugar and drank it as other people do coffee. Congressman Hatch of Missouri is also a hot water drinker, and Breckinridge of Arkansas takes it with every meal. These hot water drinkers advocate the practice as a cure for dyspepsia and indigestion, and they say they become as fond of the drink as of ca, coffee or whisky.
This article from the Schoharie Union was printed on Thursday October 15, 1885. The Schoharie Union was printed from 1863 to around the turn of the 20th century by Henry E. Abell and Charles C. Kromer.
This article is about the consumption of alcohol in Washington, D.C. This was written during the second wave of temperance, and it is possible that it may have been written because of the temperance movement. It was during this second temperance movement that temperance groups constructed public drinking fountains. An increase in drinking alcohol had been attributed in part to the lack of clean drinking water, so the public drinking fountains were meant to provide clean water as an alternative to alcohol.