CHURCH OF TWAIN: A lesson in the hypocrisy of vice

  Saint Mark continues his sabbatical this week, and we’re fortunate
to have the Rev. Robert Laxalt visit our congregation. The author of 17
books, Laxalt is among Nevada’s best known writers.

  In the true spirit of the craft, he got his start early by making
observations at his family’s small Carson City boarding hotel. It also
helped that he assisted his father with a little bootlegging.

  That’s right, the celebrated Laxalt family sold a little whiskey
during Prohibition. In “Travels with My Royal: A Memoir of the Writing
Life,” Laxalt recalls a childhood turning point when he discovered his
mom and dad made a little extra dough under the table with bootleg
whiskey.

  “I suppose that made us bootleggers, but hardly in the league of Al
Capone and Joe Kennedy, who operated in grand style with fleets of
trucks loaded with Scotch whiskey instead of poor man’s bourbon.

  “They had hundreds of cases of whiskey. We had one case of twelve
bottles at a time for the boarders in our  four-bedroom hotel and the
customers who came for dinner.

  “Being bootleggers put us in a lower social standing, though I never
could make the distinction between our serving whiskey and those who
bought it – including the occupants of the Governor’s Mansion and the
opulent homes of supreme court justices.”

  Thus, at an early age Laxalt learned a lesson in the hypocrisy of
vice. It was a lesson that served him well all his days as a writer.

  Times have changed, but the lesson is as valuable as ever.