In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, the children go to the courthouse to watch the court proceedings, as Atticus is defending Tom Robinson.
In Chapter 16, before they enter the building, they look over the spectacle of people that have spilled out on the grounds at the courthouse. Rather than a trial that will decide Tom Robinson's fate (a life or death situation), the townspeople gather as if it were a "gala occasion:"
The courthouse square was covered with picnic parties sitting on newspapers, washing down biscuit and syrup with warm milk from fruit jars. Some people were gnawing on cold chicken and cold fried pork chops. [...] In a far corner of the square, the Negroes sat quietly in the sun, dining on sardines, crackers, and the more vivid flavors of Nehi Cola.
When Dill takes note of Dolphus Raymond, he turns to Jem:
"Jem," said Dill, "he's drinkin' out of a sack."
Mr. Dolphus Raymond seemed to be so doing: two yellow drugstore straws ran from his mouth to the depths of a brown paper bag.
Jem explains that Mr. Raymond has disguised whiskey in a Co-Cola bottle, hidden in the bag so as not to "upset the ladies." Obviously, Jem has seen this before. When Dill asks why Raymond is sitting with the "colored folks," Jem responds:
Always does. He likes 'em better'n he likes us, I reckon. Lives by himself way down near the county line. He's got a colored woman and all sorts of mixed chillun...he owns one side of the riverbank down there, and he's from a real old family...
Jem explains that Dolphus was supposed to marry, but his fiance killed herself after the rehearsal dinner. Jem imagines that it may have been because Dolphus had a relationship with a black woman on the side. "He's been sorta drunk ever since." But, Jem points out, he's an excellent father.
People start to move and enter the courthouse, as the trial is about to begin. The children sit up in the balcony, reserved for the blacks. (They aren't anxious that Atticus see them and send them home.) However, when the lawyer for the prosecution goes after Tom, it makes Dill cry and Scout takes him outside. At the beginning of Chapter 20, Dolphus Raymond offers to help:
Come on round here, son, I got something that'll settle your stomach.
Scout has assumed by what she has heard that Mr. Raymond is "an evil man" and she concerned about being too friendly with him for how Atticus, and definitely Aunt Alexandra, will react. Dolphus gives Dill the bag so he can take a drink and laughs. Scout is sure he is corrupting Dill with liquor, but Dill smiles:
Dill released the straws and grinned. "Scout, it's nothing but Coca-Cola."
Raymond asks the kids not to "tell" that there is nothing in the sack but cola. Scout asks him why he pretends and Dolphus explains:
Some folks don't—like the way I live. Now I could say the hell with 'em, I don't care if they don't like it. I do say I don't care if they don't like it, right enough—but I don't say the hell with 'em...I try to give 'em a reason...It helps folks if they can latch onto a reason...folks can say Dolphus Raymond's in the clutches of whiskey—that's why he won't change his ways. He can't help himself.
Scout points out that he makes himself seem "badder" than he really is. Dolphus explains that it makes it easier on other people. He says he isn't really a drinker, but if folks can't blame the liquor, they will never be able to understand why he lives the way he does—simply because that is how he wants to live.
The reader can infer that people have to blame Raymond's behavior on the alcohol, for no person in his right mind (as they see it) would choose to live as he does. This is Harper Lee's statement with regard to racism in the South at the time. Whites and blacks were expected to stay separated. This is why Jem states in Chapter 16 that bi-racial children live a sad life in Maycomb because the whites don't want them because they are part black, and the blacks don't want them because they are part white.
Dolphus Raymond chooses to live the life he enjoys and lets people believe his drunkenness is the reason for what he does. In truth he is, as the saying goes, as sober as a judge.
It is through this interaction that Scout is able to "climb into [someone else's] skin and walk around in it." Dolphus Raymond is not the man people believe him to be. She likes him. And she learns, too, that appearances can be deceiving.
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