sumed, though they make the finest red and white wines. All the
grog-shops are licensed by the Government and State--that is, made to
pay a tax; but in the country there is a political party, the
Prohibitionists, who would drive out all wine and liquor. These, working
with the conservative people, often succeed in preventing saloons from
opening in certain towns; but in large cities there are from one to two
saloons to the block in the districts where they are allowed.

Taking everything into consideration, I think the Americans a temperate
people. They organize in a thousand directions to fight drinking and
other vices, and millions of dollars are expended yearly in this
direction. A peculiar quality about the American humor is that they joke
about the most serious things. In fact, drink and drinking afford
thousands of stories, the point of which is often very obscure to an
alien. Here is one, told to illustrate the cleverness of a drinker. He
walked into a bar and ordered a "tin-roof cocktail." The barkeeper was
nonplussed, and asked what a tin-roof cocktail was. "Why, it's on the
house." I leave you to figure it out, but the barkeeper paid the bill.
The ingenuity of the Americans is shown in their mixed drinks. They have
cocktails, high-balls, ponies, straights, fizzes, and many other drinks.
Books are written on the subject. I have seen a book devoted entirely to
cocktails. Certain papers offer prizes for the invention of new drinks.
I have told you that, all in all, America is a temperate country,
especially when its composite character is considered; yet if the nation
has a curse, a great moral drawback, it is the habit of drinking at the
public bar.

CHAPTER IX

LIFE IN WASHINGTON

One of the best-known American authors has immortalized the Chinaman in
some of his verses. It was some time before I understood the smile which
went around when some one in my presence suggested a game of poker. I
need not repeat the poem, but the essence of it is that the "Heathen
Chinee is peculiar." Doubtless Mr. Harte is right, but the Chinaman and
his ways are not more peculiar to the American than American customs and
contradictions are to the Chinaman. If there is any race on the earth
that is peculiar, it is the "Heathen Yankee," the good-hearted,
ingenuous product of all the nations of the earth--black, red, white,
brown, all but "yellow." Imagine yourself going out to what they call a
"stag" dinner, and having a