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Story
April 29, 1887
The Jasper Weekly Courier
Jasper, Dubois County, Indiana
What is this article about?
Ex-Congressman from Indiana, on a four-month drinking binge, staggers drunkenly in Washington, D.C., illustrating alcohol's ruinous impact on his once-bright political future; missed re-nomination due to intoxication.
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Full Text
A BLIGHTED LIFE.
An Ex-Congressman Who Furnishes to the Denizens of the Capital an Example of the Blighting Effects of Rum Drinking--A Four Months' Continuous "Toot."
WASHINGTON, April 18. -- Washington may truly be said to be the pitfall of many brilliant men. Friday evening, when the avenue was filled with the youth of Washington, in all their glory and spring dresses, and everything seemed bright and beautiful, a small, but rotund man, with a round, smoothly-shaven face, that, at a distance, looked like Bob Ingersoll's, stood in the middle of the roadway right opposite Willard's, so dazed by liquor that he seemed unconscious of where he was.
One of the mashers who decorate this vicinity, kindly went to his aid and assisted him to a neighboring bar-room. When the two forms had disappeared behind the swinging doors of the saloon, a Western Congressman said, as he gazed abstractedly toward the doorway: "That man ought to have been one of the greatest men in this country, but for his cursed appetite for rum," and then walked on.
The drunken man was Representative from Indiana in the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth congresses and would have been in the Fiftieth, but he was too drunk to attend the Congressional convention, so another man received the nomination and was elected. He has been on one continuous "toot" since the last of January. He has some money now, but it will soon be squandered away, and he will then join Washington's hotel brigade of former somethings.
An Ex-Congressman Who Furnishes to the Denizens of the Capital an Example of the Blighting Effects of Rum Drinking--A Four Months' Continuous "Toot."
WASHINGTON, April 18. -- Washington may truly be said to be the pitfall of many brilliant men. Friday evening, when the avenue was filled with the youth of Washington, in all their glory and spring dresses, and everything seemed bright and beautiful, a small, but rotund man, with a round, smoothly-shaven face, that, at a distance, looked like Bob Ingersoll's, stood in the middle of the roadway right opposite Willard's, so dazed by liquor that he seemed unconscious of where he was.
One of the mashers who decorate this vicinity, kindly went to his aid and assisted him to a neighboring bar-room. When the two forms had disappeared behind the swinging doors of the saloon, a Western Congressman said, as he gazed abstractedly toward the doorway: "That man ought to have been one of the greatest men in this country, but for his cursed appetite for rum," and then walked on.
The drunken man was Representative from Indiana in the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth congresses and would have been in the Fiftieth, but he was too drunk to attend the Congressional convention, so another man received the nomination and was elected. He has been on one continuous "toot" since the last of January. He has some money now, but it will soon be squandered away, and he will then join Washington's hotel brigade of former somethings.
What sub-type of article is it?
Biography
Tragedy
What themes does it cover?
Fortune Reversal
Misfortune
Moral Virtue
What keywords are associated?
Alcoholism
Congressman
Downfall
Rum Drinking
Political Failure
What entities or persons were involved?
Representative From Indiana
Where did it happen?
Washington
Story Details
Key Persons
Representative From Indiana
Location
Washington
Event Date
April 18
Story Details
An ex-Congressman from Indiana, dazed by liquor on a continuous four-month toot since January, stands drunkenly in Washington avenue opposite Willard's, exemplifying the blighting effects of rum on a once-promising career; he missed nomination for the Fiftieth Congress due to drunkenness.