The herald., 1897-08-03
RICKEYITES IN DESPAIR
THE SUPPLY OF LINES ExAS-
PERATINGLY SHORT
Fat Men in Crash Suits Search Broad
way Cafes-Two Dealers Have
Cornered the Lines

Heaven help us, we are lost" gasped
the fat man in the crash suit. Ninety
degrees in the shade and getting hotter,
and not lime in sight,
"What?" gasped the crowd
All is lost save HONOR sobbed the fat
man, and with the temperature at
ninety, there's no telling how long that
will last"
The crowd gazed at him speechless.
The bartender brushed a tear from his
eye as he turned the cut-glass lime
holder upside down and tied big bow
knot of black crepe about the neck of the
Plymouth gin bottle. The boss tried
to look cheerful, but it was sorry at
tempt, and by and by he gave it up and
said he guessed he'd close the place.
Might as WELL" said the fat man IL
the crash suit; might as WELL" and the
crowd nodded assent, and one by one
went out into the hot and getting hotter
world
1t was in a Broadway cafe. Daily for
ten days the proprietor and the bartend
er had treasured their dish of lines.
They had sold rickeys grudgingly and
had made the customers sandwich in
other drinks between them. They had
cut down the lime from a whole one to
half for rickey. Daily he boss had
haunted the fresh fruit market He
had bought and bought all he could, buy
the cruel produce dealers had limited
him to crate at a time, telling him
there were others entitled to lines as
we'll as he. He had watched the price
go from 80 cents crate to So, and now
had come the news that he couldn't gel
them even at that price.
Nobody who drinks gin rickeys will
wonder that he wept, nor will fail to
weep with him, for the lines are gone;
not all gone, but what there are are held
by one or two dealers, who will sell only
to regular customers, and to them in
limited quantities only. No more are in
sight. Somewhere on the big ocean there
are probably couple of steamships with
lines aboard, but nobody here knows
where they are nor when they will reach
here.
A few years ago lines were begging in
the markets around here. They could be
had for almost nothing, and even at
that price half that came went to waste
and spoiled on the dealers hands. Their
| of sudden came a change. Ex-Con-
gresham Joe Hickey was responsible;
at least he has been generally credited
with the honor, and the "Rickey'' il
named for him. The ex-congressln
h discovered that a little lime juice in
whisky or gin made palatable and
cooling drink. He learned that sugar
was bad thing for the human system
| in hot weather. All mixed drinks at
that time were made after the Only Will
liam system, which includes in every
mixed drink something sweet. The ex-
congressman made public his discovery.
The people knew good thing when they
heard about it, and the dealers in lines
rose up and called him great. The de-
spised lines became a treasured fruit
Lime growers, the world over had their
crops snapped up while they were still
on the trees. Untold joys came to the
stomachs of the fat men who wear crash
suits and who had formed the rickey
habit. 1t is not uncommon for them to
leave home and family nowadays for
rickeys. The rickey habit fixed itself
not only on fat inenin crash suits, but on
middle sized men, and men in all condi-
tions of life, but Broadway always, held
its place as the center of the rickey traf
| fic. The reason for that is that no re-
|
to palm off a drink under the honored
rickey loaded with lime. In other parts
of town this thing has been done. Ig-
norant bartenders have been known to
put a spoonful of sugar into a glass and
squeeze lime on top of it when rickey
was ordered Other ignorant bartenders
have been known to squeeze a lemon in
h er1o iv-e,t o1I of 1ir,a oth
have mixed the drink as they might a
cocktail, shaking it up in a shaker ard
pouring it out to get bead" on it. 9th
ers fill the glass in which the rickey is
to be made with finely broken ice and
pass it out with a spoon buried in its
depths. Again, and most objectionable
of all, bartenders have palmed off bot
tied lime juice as the genuine freshly
squeezed article.
Now, the Sun reporter who writes this
knows something about ricketts, He
has had them with the founder of the
drink himself, the Hon. Joe Hickey. To
learn there is no better place to go than
to the fountain head. The reporter has
been to the fountain head of the rickey,
and therefore he speaks by the card.
To make the only original, genuine rick
| oy, the one tHdL MAKES you IeGl ike
June day in the middle of August, take
a glass known in saloons as a rickey
glass. Have the bartender put in one
chunk of ice, not several but one. Then
have him take a lime, a real, genuine
lime of greenish hue, and cut 1t cross
wise in the middle in your presence.
Then have him squeeze half of it through
a strainer held over the glass and the
ice. This half when he has squeezed it
he must throw away. Have him squeeze
the other half the same way and drop
that half when it's squeezed into the
glass and in the ice. Ask him next, If
he don't know for the Plymouth gin
bottle. If you prefer Old Tom gin or
Holland gin you can demand either, but
the other is the original rickey gin. Pour
out dose to suit If you are particular
about the quantity measure it in a
whisky glass. Pour the gin into the
glass with the ice and lime juice. Next
call for the carbonic water bottle, press
| the stopper and watch the water fizz