g men o' the town belonged to it, and they used to meet
in the doctor's office and argue about everything that was done in the
town or the State. One question they had up was whether the Whigs or
the Democrats had the best party, and they argued till pretty near one
o'clock in the mornin', and the meetin' come mighty near breakin' up
in a fight. Well, when the coffee-house got its license they had a
debate about that, and Dr. Brigham, he was in favor of the license, he
got up to make a speech, and, says he, 'What would this State be
without whiskey?' And Judge Grace, he was against it,--he jumped up
and shook his fist at the doctor and says he, 'A heap more peaceable
place than it is with it.' And that made the doctor mad, but he went
on like he hadn't heard it. Says he, 'You jest shut your eyes and say
the word "Kentucky," and what'll you see? Why, you'll see a glass o'
toddy or a mint julep, and a pretty woman smilin' over 'em,'--and
Judge Grace he hollers out, 'No, you won't! No, you won't! You may see
the toddy and the julep and the woman, but the woman won't be smilin';
she'll be cryin' her eyes out over the stuff that makes a brute of her
husband and her son.' This made the doctor madder still, but he kept
right on, and says he, 'Think of the poetry that's been written about
wine and whiskey--

"'"Fill up, fill up
The brimmin' cup"--

and all the rest o' the songs about drinkin'! And no wonder,' says he,
'for where'll you find a prettier sight than a clear glass tumbler
with a sprig o' mint and a silver spoon in it and two or three lumps
o' sugar dissolvin' in the julep?' And the Judge says, 'All right! All
right! Keep your toddy and your julep in a glass tumbler and look at
'em and write poetry about 'em, and I won't say a word against 'em.
But,' says he, 'when they get inside of a man, where's your poetry
then?' Says he, 'It'll take some mighty plain prose to fit that
situation,' says he.

"Well, they had it up and down and back and forth, and finally their
friends had to hold 'em to keep 'em from comin' to blows. But as I was
sayin', that coffee house was the beginnin' of Sam Amos's troubles and
Milly's. The coffee house was a sociable sort of a place, and Sam was
a sociable sort of a man, and it was natural for him to go there and
see his friends and talk with 'em, and the first thing we knew he was
drinkin' with 'em; not much, but enough to unsettle his brain and make
him talk wild and act foolish