Brookhart v. The Century

So sedate is New York's Century Association that its officers once prohibited bridge games in its austere clubhouse (43rd Street just west of Fifth Avenue) lest the muffled excitement of such play disturb the tranquillity of other members. Organized by William Cullen Bryant in 1847 to promote "the advancement of art and literature," the Century selects members on the basis of cultural superiority. Its atmosphere of wealthy exclusiveness is matched only by its reputation for eminent respectability. Famed among its members are Herbert Clark Hoover, John Pierpont Morgan, George Woodward Wickersham, William Howard Taft, John William Davis, Henry Lewis Stimson. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Thomas William Lamont, Dwight Whitney Morrow, Owen D. Young, Elihu Root, Nicholas Murray Butler, Bishop William Thomas Manning.

Last week behind the Century Association's well-guarded doors there was more uncomfortable excitement, more nervous uneasiness, than any game of bridge ever produced. What disturbed the Association's calm was the fact that Iowa's Senator Smith Wildman Brookhart, social tattler, no Century member, had risen in the Senate to declare:

"I desire ... to add a little information upon the Prohibition subject. It relates to the Century Club [an erroneous name for the Century Association] of New York. One of the great difficulties in enforcing the Prohibition law is due to the attitude of high society and the Century Club is one of the highest social organizations in the country. The letter from which I read says:

With all the chaotic conditions now surrounding the enforcement of the Volstead Act, why not inquire something about the special privilege accorded this association, where real gin cocktails are served at the monthly club dinners, usually attended by 100 to 150 members, and then consider the wonderful Fish House rum punch-- that appeared at the last New Year's Eve celebration?

"This is important information, if true. I want to call it to the attention of Mr. George Woodward Wickersham, chairman of the President's Law Enforcement Commission and I hope' he will be ready to advise us how to stop these violations of the liquor law at the Century Club."

The Brookhart letter was typewritten on Century Association stationery and signed only with the initials A. I. K. Senator Brookhart refused to name his correspondent.

New York's Senator Copeland asked him if "he was there and saw liquor consumed," adding that he (Copeland) could not get into the Century Association "with a pickax."

Centurians were mostly shocked into silence at the Brookhart charge. They either denied liquor drinking at their club or refused, when interviewed, to say anything, on the ground that their club enjoyed the same private sanctity as their home. Not a few observers, however, were ready to believe that tattletale Senator Brookhart had been the butt of a simple hoax.

Wet Democratic Senator David Ignatius Walsh of Massachusetts read to the Senate the following doggerel "which came to me through the mail from Iowa":

I come from way out in Iowa,

The home of corn and many an art,

Where bootleggin's so bad

It makes all of us sad

That everyone knows it but BROOKHART.

* The Bartender's Guide ("1887) carries this Philadelphia recipe for Fish House rum punch: 1/3 pt. lemon juice; 3/4 lb. white sugar dissolved in sufficient water: 1/2 pt. cognac; 1/4 pt. peach brandy; 1/4 pt. Jamaica rum; 2 1/2 pt. cold water.

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