The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-05-06
INTHEM MODERN SALOON
ELABORATE APPLIANCES AND MYS-
TERIEs FOUND BEHIND THE BAR
Are Never Seen by the customer
A Store of Glass and Silver.
New York Sun.

loon that is not open yet, where I am 60
ing to see the proprietor on business. You
will find something there worth writing
about. 1t is only two or three blocks away
and it IS the newest of the new. No doubt
you are accustomed 20 seeing the fine down.
own saloons. when they are In operation.
from the front of the house. But here is a
chance to look at one from behind the
scenes, with no customers in the way. 1t
is only a Sample of the modern downtown
bar. but / think it will surprise you."
The saloon was gorgeous outside. as many
others are, with plate glass and ornamental
iron work. Skilled workmen were still busy
laying a mosaic floor of tiny colored stones
in the front part, and other men were put
ting up the electric light fixtures. The pro-
prietor was walking up and down. dangling
his watch chain, looking from the work.
men to the immense sideboard bar, and
from that to the two cozy hooks. each Of
which held a mahogany table and two soft
cushioned settees.
You are almost ready for business?" the
reporter asked him.
Tomorrow we open, thank goodness"
he replied. ~ think one more day of prep
aration would lay me out. You have no idea
of the labor involved in fitting one of these
places up unless you have been in the bus
mess"
have" the reporter suggested, nodding at
the leviathan piece of mahogany cabinet
from floor to ceiling and from end to end.
Il call that my country house." the pro-
prietor laughed, looking at it with great
would have bought me a snug little house
in the country. But that Is only an item.
after all. 1t is the little things that run
away with the money, little Things MAN.
of which are never seen by the customer,
but which are very necessary in the con-
duct of a first-rate modern bar. / will show
you some OF them If you care to see them"
He led the way. through a side room into
a small room without windows, but bril-
into a second room, into which some day
light stole.
THE WORKING ROOMS.
'These are our only working rooms" he
said. Space is valuable in this part Of
the world, you know. The first room is
the kitchen. which is made necessary by
the elaborate free-lunch system. The Sec
ond room We call the supply room, and un-
der them both we have a cellar. The
casks of liquor are stored in the cellar,
and 1 will show you first how we bring the
liquor up to this room, and how we handle
1t here" =
He opened a circular case about two feet
in diameter and displayed a coil of rubber
totiLl5 lSC Will llcu ldiQ Ills
hand upon a copper pump that was fast
ened to one of the lower shelves. =
TO draw liquor from the cellar" ne
inserted in the cask. and the other end,
coming up through the floor, is attached to
the pump. AS the liquor comes from the
pump it runs into one of these felt filter
ing bags, from which it slowly trickles into
a demijohn beneath. We have the nltering
bags in all sizes, from one quart up to
five and a half gallons, and they cost from
SO cents to 1896 each. They make it sure
before our customers. The liquor is then
taken from the first demiiohn, measured
and poured into another demijohn. 1t is
necessary to measure 1t for our own pro-
lection, and the measuring requires this
set OF six nicke,-plated copper tunnels and
these seven plated copper measures. They
comes high. The tunnels cost $3.50 the set
and the measures the same. Here, you
see, are glass tunnels also. and graduates,
and percolaters. A regular chemists shop,
isn't II? although We shall do no COM
Here the proprietor continued, "are
two very simple things. hardly more than
sticks, that we could not we'll do without.
The first. that looks somewhat like a yard
a vantage rod. With the gauging rod we
measure the capacity of a cask, and with
the wantag rod we measure it's contents.
If 1T were not for these little instruments
we never could tell whether we received
we have a little affair here for testing the
quality. We shall charge good prices, so
we shall sell good LIQUORS. and It would
were not for this little tester it would be
an easy matter for the wholesaler to sell
whisky; but this is a check upon him, and
instantly exposes any dishonesty. The first
is a high-grade hydrometer, for testing. al
cohol; the other is a lower scale, for wines
and whisky. They tell us Instantly the
strength of any distilled liquor;
You might think from these shelves
loaded with TASKS that we were going into
the bottle business. But it is necessary to
keep a good stock on hand of all kinds.
we cannot sell for less than 50 each; and
here are some plain glass ones that we
shall make no charge for. Every one of
the plain ones has our name and address
blown in the glass. The dealer will do
that without extra charge when we order
at least five gross at a time, but we must
pay him $3.50 extra for the die. All these
green boxes are filled with corks of vari-
Gus sizes, and this little machine is the
iIareet f lGrm ease el I re sSaIy not Horf ift press eown f Tnls
the shelf, because it contains one hundred
pounds Of the best tin foil for mounting
smaller boxes are filled with bottle cap
sules, TO ornament the top Of the bottle
after it is filed and corked. This machine.
sules on. The capsules themselves are
cheap, costing only about so cents a nun
dred; but we have our name or monogram
on most of them, and the dies for that
cost So each.
This he went on, laying his hand upon
q tail machine ike a pump with two arms,
'is the corking machine. We may not do
a great deal of bottling. but what we dc
must be done properly, and no bottle can
be properly corked by land if ii contains
any LIQUOR with a head to IL. A corkine
machine does the work as ii should be
done. All those boxes on the top shelf
contain self-sealing bottle wrappers, five
thousand of them.
DOUBLE SUPPLIES.
Now. here on the other side of the room
we keep duplicates of the bar supplies. Oh
yes. everything breakable duplicated
a dozen times over. Not only that, but we
have several styles of nearly every arti-
Gle. That is the custom in all the best sa.
looms, and 1 think 1t is a good one. Custo.
mers grow tired of seeing the same old
things day after day, and the modern the.
DRY is TO give them a change. For instance
in the first week we shall use a very thir
whisky glass with a plain band. A week
later we shall substitute a perfectly plair
glass, and in the third week a handsomel,
engraved glass. and so keep constantly
changing all the glass and chinaware. There
glasses, but we have some of every kinc
on hand, for ii would not do TO be with
out any sort of glass a customer NIGH
ask for. There are 1i2 different STYLES anC
sizes of glasses in this lot before you. ant
sometimes as many as three gross OF &
single kind. We cannot be constantly send
TO- .,,+ for Ofoccu-ora -.