The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1882-08-19
HOW EXPERT BARKEEPERS ARE
MADE.
CFrom the Chicago Herald.l

NA!A~AAs
CFrom the Chicago Herald.l
When a boy feels the divine atfiatu
and his young ambition inspires him t.
N ask admission in such a school as h,
@ may eventually graduate from will
the diploma of professor Of cocktails
70 brady smashes, Rob Roys, mint juleps
% sherry cobblers, Glasgow fiips, rum
coolers, milk punches, claret punches
Pousse cafes, hot toddies, and cafe roy
h ales, 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
5 bibulous way, and leaving them Sc
; that no taint of what has been may in.
: : terfere with the flavor of what is to be.
) A probationary period enables the bar
} keeper to gauge the merit of the hedge-
ling, and if he shows that he may ulti-
mately become credit to his
'broughten ups" as they say in New
England, he is taken in hand and put
is permitted to draw beer and ale, and
place before the customer who sstakes
} his straight the glass and decanter.
He fills bottles, and when nothing
else is doing he watches the man of ex-
perience make the drinks which call
for nicely in choice of quantity of the
various materials used, and q high
grade of taste in the selection Of the in
gradients.
He is educated, too, in the aesthetic
side of barkeeping, the artistic placing
of crystals, and other bar decoration,
the disposition of such works Of art
~rrao To hn hon Io,r n
imbibes lessons of politeness to custo-
! mers, for in the higher class bar cour-
tesy is the rule, and it isn't once year
a rude person calls for a dexterous
twisting toward the street. Everything
is supposed to be on. a higher plane, |
and even when people get over the
bay, that is to say, excessively stimu-
lated-or, as common folk call it, |
drunk--they are expected to do it in |
gentlemanly way, and to violate none
of the proprieties, as proprieties 60, in
the company they find themselves in.
The youth thus learning the secrets
of the art is also making acquaintances,
and these acquaintances take an inter-
his first cocktail or julep as an artist to
his first picture, or an actor to his first
leading part. Aud when the drink is
made, if it be satisfactory, the young |
man is as self-satisfied as if he had !
drawn a medal for a landscape, or re-
ceived applause for a successful inter- |
pretatiOn of some master minds cLefl
c'tcuvre.
A year behind the bar is supposed to
enable the youngster to emerge from
his cubhood. He then becomes second
barkeeper, and can afford to put on a
few airs-subdued airs. He has learn
I>.~ |
contempt for tsbeer singers"
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 con-
trovertible terms OF tschumps" or
and feels that he has a stand
ing which they have not got. At his
bar he waits on merchants and men in
the profession, and they take notice of
him. This eyes are wide open-and
they usually archie has begun also to
observe humanity's follies and weak {
nesses, and his first year has taught
him more than mixing drinks. He {
knows by this time thing or two of I
the social undercurrent. He has 6
branched out, got tips on races, bought {
some pools, looked forward to the day l
perhaps when he should go to wood t
and decorators and hand them t
over q thousand or two dollars to fit !
up a little piece of magnificence in the '
way of a barroom for himself-in short, c
ne is fast developing into 1irst-class t
oarkeeper. His clothes arc made by a I
fashionable tailor, and his linen is al I
ways spotloss. He knows just whom q
% salute with familiarity, whom to t
reat with Difference, whom to simply L
'tare at. The couple of years he spends 7
IS assistant barkeeper are his expert t
mental period. After the training he \
,as had, and granting that he is sober t
and gentlcmanly, he is always eligible |
% some position in u first-class bar, but t
MS rank as first-class barkeeper is a
yet to be made, ana this he must de- '
eide for himself by his ability in COM I
pounding. If he can achieve success c
n making such drinks as have been t
his fame is made, and he e
s always good for somewhere between a
SIS and $25 n week for nine hours l
lay, with a porter to do the scrubbing l.
and assistant to do the roughcr work l
'or him. U
u lnr a