Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1886 — The Waiter Gave Him Away. [ARTICLE]

The Waiter Gave Him Away.

A Washington correspondent writes: It is one of the fallacies of the capital that there are no intoxicating liquors sold at the House or Senate restaurant. The other day a dignified but thirsty member of Congress took a seat in the House saloon near a party of ladies, and calling a colored waiter whispered to him to fetch a slug of whisky. Straightening up, the darky bawled out at the top of his voice: “Cold tea for one.” Now, the expression “Cold tea for one” is as well understood at the Capitol bar-rooms as “Hey, Rube!” is in a circus. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Congressman, who didn’t want everybody in the District of Columbia to know that he was taking a nip of the forbidden juice, got most infernally mad at the servant who gave him away. Springing to his feet the member grabbed the waiter by the neck, and in his wrath exclaimed: “You black ! I’ll break y6ur black head if you ever howl for cold tea like that for me again!” Nobody but Uncle John Robinson could give you any idea of the way in which that irate Congressman cursed that “nigger,” as he called him.