Morning journal and courier., 1882-08-14
How Expert Barkeepers are Made.
The Trazning the Ambitious Young Aspi- rant hns to go Through.
 

The Training the Ambitious Young Aspi-
 rant hna to go Through.
 From the Chicago Herald.l
 When boy feels the divine aff1atus and his young ambition inspires him to ask ad- mission in such school as he may eventual ly graduate from with the diploma of profes- sor of cocktails and brandy smashes, Rob Roys, mint juleps, sherry cobblers, Glasgow fiips, rum coolers, milk punches claret pun ches, Pousse cafes, hot toddies and cafe royales, he finds, as the sage of old said, that there is no royal road to learning, and that in liquor, as in literature, he must begin at the bottom. He begins by washing glasses, freeing them from the aroma of all that is beautiful in a bibulous way and leaving them 80 that no taint of what has been may inter fere with the flavor of what is to be- pro- bationary period enables the barkeeper to gauge the merit of the fedgeling, and if he shows that he may ultimately become cred it to his 'broughten ups," as they say in New England, he is taken in hand and put through course of object study. He is per mitted to draw beer and ale, and place before the customer who s'takes his straight the glass and decanter. He fills bottles, and when nothing else is doing he watches the man of experience make the drinks which call for nicety in choice of quantity of the various materials used, and high grade of taste in the selection of the ingredients.
 He is educated, too, in the sesthetic side of barkeeping the artistic placing of crystals, and other bar decoration, the disposition of such works of art as may lend grace to the back bar and imbibes lessons of politeness to customers, for in the higher class bar courts- sy is the rule, and it isn't once year & rude person calls for dexterous twisting toward the street. Everything is supposed to be on 8 higher plane, and even when people get over the bay, that is to say, excessively stim- ulated-or as common folk call it, drunk they are expected to do it in gentlemanly l1. as proprieties go, in the company they find themselves m.
 The youth thus learning the secrets of the art is also making acquaintances, and these acquaintances take an interest in him. so that he looks forward to his first cocktail or iulep as an artist to his first picture, or an actor to his first leading part And when the drink is made, if it be satisfactory, the young man is as self satisfied as if he had drawn 8 medal for a landscape, or received applause for 8 successful interpretation of some master minds chef GgaDTe.
 A year behind the bar is supposed to |. able the youngster to emerge from his cub hood. He then becomes second bark eeper, and can afford to put on few alrs-su bdued airs. He has learned by this time to have 8 pretty thorough contempt for "beer sling ers" and to look askance at the fellows who hand out inferior liquors in fifth rate houses He has been taught to think of them in the ineuphonious and controvertible terms of ''chumps" or "chaws," and feels that he has 8 standing which they have not got At his bar he waits on merchants and men in the profession, and they take notice of him. If his eyes are wide open-and they usually are he has begun also to observe humanity's s follies and weaknesses, and his first year has taught him more than mixing drinks. He knows by this time thing or two of the so- cial undercurrent. He has branched out, got tips on races, bought some pools, looked for ward to the day perhaps when he should go to wood carvers and decorators and hand them over thousand or two dollars to fit up 8 little piece of magnifcience in the way of a barroom for himself-in short, he is develop ing into first-class barkeeper. His clothes are made by fashionable tailor, and his linen is always spotless. He knows just whom to salute with familiarity, whom to treat with deference whom simply to stare at. The couple of years he spends as assistant barkeeper are his experimental period After the training he has had and granting that he is sober and gentlemanly he is always eligible to some position in a first class bar, but his rank first class bar keeper is yet to be made, and this he must decide for himself by his ability in com pounding. If he can achieve success in mak- ing such drinks as have been enumerated his fame is made, and he is always good for $18 and $25 week for nine hours 8 day, with porter to do the scrubbing and an assistant to do the rouRher work for him.