Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-07-19
THE AMERICAN BAR INLoNDoN.
A Feature of the Fisheries Exhibition


London Telegraph.
The American bar at the Fisheries Fx-
hibition has become a very noteworthy
feature among the attractions of that
eminently popular show; and if the
drinks" themselves cannot in strictness
/ be described as exhibits" they certainly
enjoy an extensive amount of patronage
from the daily thousands who flock to see
the Exhibition. The catalogue of the
4 drinks, fancifully printed on a parti-col-
ored sheet initiative Of the Federal stars
I and stripes, is in itself curiosity; while
/ in analyZing the contents Of the bibuIous
schedule the student of manners NAV find
1 a good deal of matter for comparison and
! speculation. A list of 108 sEdrinksv is
/ given, among which are to be found seven
4 varieties of cocktails" ranging from
/ ''Chinese" TO the Bombay" although we
/ miss the Californian, or 'morning gIory,
/ There are four spirituous mixtures known
4 as ''skins," three "crustas," three prepa-
rations of rum, brandy and peach brandy
respectively, in which honey is mingled
/ and a number of ''drinks" with ssfancv''
/ names. such as ''fisherman's PRAYER"
''pralrie oyster" ''eye-opener," ''nerver."
! 'Ethunder," ''straights." 'FleaVe-it-to-me"
4 "settler, blossom caresser," FEswiZZle"
! ''Boston flip" and ''pick-me-up.v All
! these are ''short'' drInks-that is to saw,
/ drains.
/ In the list of ''long'' drinks which NAV
be imbibed with deliberation and through
the medium of a couple of straws may be
mentioned Spanish delight" ''gin sling
''stone fence" "soda cocktail. :" ''mother's
milk" "John Collins" "egg nogg" ''milk
punch" ''Sangaree," sEsherry cobbler.''
mint julep," 'Stonewall Jackson" and
at least dozen different punches" and
soups" The list is obviously very volu-
minous; yet its variety need not excite
anything like amaZement in the European
mind, since trustworthy authorities have
computed that there are altogether three
hundred and siXty-five American drinks
one for every day in the year. Even
| from the comparatively restricted Fish
cries list we miss such old and familiar
friends as Fiscal agent" s'mOustache
holster" ''Tip-and-Ti'-an abbreviatiOn
of an old election cry, ''Tippecanoe
and Tyler toO''-"brandy smash" ''pri-
vate smile,' and ''soda and dark bottom"
AS for ''tangle-leg' rum, SEwhite-eyev
whisky, and ''tiXed bayonets," they are
the generic names of different spirituous
liquors, and not of spirituOus compounds.
With the leading ''drinks" both Elong''
and ''short," the cornwall public in Eng
land have for many years been ac-
quainted, while other so-called American
beverages are in reality very old English
compounds. Egg nogg," for example,
| Queen Anne, and is cited by Swift, the
name of the drink being clearly an abbre-
Walton OF "noggin," little pot or mug
"Julep" mentioned in MiltOn's ssMasque
OF COmus," and is probably akin to
the Arabic '.julab," sweet potion; but
to the Americans undeniably belong
the credit of having added mint and
pounded ice to their julep. According to
Professor Scheele de We're in his work on
''The English of the New World, )" ''sherry
cobblers" were drunk in England long be-
| fore the nearly-forgotten beverage was
revived in the United States, 'sbut the
practice of sucking IN Ieisurely the de-
licious beverage by means of straws-
not unfrequently represented by slender
| glass tubes-is earnestly claimed as a
| genuine Americanism." If the sherry
cobbler was originally, as Professor
Scheele de We're seems to think, an Eng
lish beverage, it must have fallen very
completely into oblivion in this country,
where some forty years ago Charles
Dickens, in ''Martin Chuzzlewit," made
the virtues of cObbler ga PAmeri-
came Gann y known to English readers.
| When Martin complained to Mark
Tapley that he was ''knocked up-dead
beat" the latter returned, sFYou won't
| say that tomorrow morning, sir, nor even
tonight, sir, when you've made a trial of
this" and so saying, she produced very
large tumbler piled up to the brim with
| little blocks of clear, transparent ice
through which one or two thin slices of
| lemon and a golden liquid of delicious APP
pearance appealed from the still depths
below to the loving eye of the spectator"
1t is worth while taking careful note of
Mr.. Dickens distinct statement that the
''cobbler'' of his time was contained in ''a
very large glass;" because it has often
been contended that the orthodox
n 10
drink, and that it did not be-
come one until about 1868, when the
officers of the English Guards in gar
rlson in Canada came down and taught
the barkeepers of the st. Nicholas Hotels
how to mix their cobblers "'long" 1t had
never been, 1T is true, a ''short drink or
smaller" but was held as what was joe
uiarly known as lone of the larger kind
OF smallers": that is to say, tumbler.
For LONG" cobbler tall soda water glass
is required, and such ''long'' cobblers
seem to have come into fashion in Eng
land about half dozen years after the
appearance of Martin Chuzzlewit.'
Sherry cObblers sucked through straws
were noticed by the French artist Ga
warm when he visited us in 1S4S-49; and
the beverage is intimately associated with
the early days Of the now vanished
Cremorne, which had quite as
high reputation for its ''cObblers''
as the equally disestablished Vaux-
hall had for its arrack punch. Mint iu-
leps and gin sings have also been popu-
lar in England for at least thirty years,
but always as ''long drinks" In the
States they are not necessarily so. They
may be taken in tumblers; and, indeed.
as regards gin sling, ifthere be any found
alton for the supposition that the word
sling is derived from the German
%schllngen," to gulp or swallow hastily,
the transatlantic sling NAV have been
originally ''short'' drink, or dram. As
for the ''gin-mint," it is very old Eng
lish beverage indeed, and the various
''cups" and punches must be considered
less as native American drinks than as
lmportations from the land which in