A Pause That Failed To Refresh

The expression “It’s a long time between drinks,” coined during a meeting between the governors of North Carolina and South Carolina, became so widely known it was quoted by both Rudyard Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson.

During Reconstruction, Gen. Dan Sickles refused to allow an adjournment that would have delayed the states’ formal acceptance of new voter registration laws. James Orr then remarked to Jonathan Worth, “The governor of South Carolina feels constrained to say to the governor of North Carolina that in these military cabinet counsels there is a mighty long time between drinks.”