Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1920-07-28


drinkers from the world Behind the
bar, on my side of it, the side where
were the bottles with their Varicol-
ored contents, that was the mystery.
What was really in thoseh bottles
Why the colors? Why did men like
cocktails fixes, rickeys, juleps, high
balls, punches, toddys,. cordials, vine,
whisky, beer?
r Frankly, / liked the bottles behind
a bar-not all of them, for / shall tell
you, too, how men were cheated. /
I liked to choose. from large numb II
of bottles, certain bottles which my
experience told me to take / enjoyed
pouring from these bottles just the
exact quantity of liquors to produce
drink satisfactory to my patrons. /
consider the mixing of drinks an art.
| know the taste certain mixture
will produce, also the effect For
twenty years | watched the effect of
alcohol upon men.
L have seen the occasional drink
err" the moderate drinker," the
/ have watched the faces of these men
as they lined up along the bar in front
of me. / have heard much of their
conversation, | have been witness
to things they have done. Some Gus
toners, upon reaching a certain stage
in their drinking, insist upon the bar
tender having one" A bartender
cannot accept and properly attend to
his business. The mixing of drinks
requires an accurate eye, a very
steady hand. OF course, everybody
knows that after man has had few
drinks, he becomes slightly inaccur-
ate. Also, if bartender refused to
drink with a customer, the man be-
came offended and went to some other
bar.
l have heard lot about what booze
does to men. Get one thing straight.
There is one reason, and only one,
] why men drank. | have seen them
demand of me a certain brand of
whisky and show pettishness when we
were out of it. I have seen them call
for particular make of gin. l have
seen wine drinkers-who, in America
are rare-hold up glass to the light
and go into delights about its color
and odor. / have heard men specu-
late upon the shadings of color and
"creaminess" of beer. | have heard
the virtues of '.juleps' argued against
those of "rickeys." But don't fool
yourself that man drank whisky or
gin because certain brand offered
some mysterious piquancy of flavor.
Don't fool yourself that men drank
wine because of the color or the boz
quet; that men drank beer for it's
color or GREATNESS; that men drank
"julepS" for the mint, or "rickeys'
/ for the limejuice. Men drank for the
alcohol in the drink and for no other
reason. Believe me, I know. The
sole reason for the existence Of these
| various drinks was to induce the body
| to accept them. Were a man to mix
alcohol with water. and drink it. the
palate, the stomach would rebel. So
1t became profession for the makers
of booze and for us bartenders to dis
gulse alcohol with odors and favors
so that men could more readily ac-
cept it. Also, different drinks pro-
vided men with different quantities of
alcohol, as they wanted 1t was for
the alcohol alone, what it did to them.
that men drank
About inducing the stomach to ac-
cept drink. Rare indeed is the man
whose first drink was strong in alco-
hol The average person taking whis-
ky for the first time gagged. His
body resented it. More easy was it
to down, the first time, beer or wine
or cocktail, with the alcohol taste
carefully camouf1aged by fruit.
have seen these first drinkers" Most
OF them began on beer and then came
day when they wanted more alco-
hol and they went to Whisky, to dis
titled spirits, gin or rum, with their
higher percentages of alcohol But
they began on beer. Their body would
not stand for them beginning on whis-
ky. Nature had to be leased i'm First
1t accepted a drink with about five
per cent alcohol; then it wanted thirty
per cent.
| OF course, you know what alcohol
is. | made it my business to find ont
about everything in. the booze game.
Alcohol is a liquid without color.
SHARP and repellent to the taste, and
quite suave of odor. Before telling
I.you what it did to men-as. [ have
watched it from behind the BARI
Ishall tell you what we did to alcohol
ESQ it would please men. After we COL
Iiored and perfumed alcohol it remind
Led me sometimes of a woman of the
might, adorned to attract.
/ / shall begin with a dynamite
drink" You know brandy, cognac ?
| They made it by distilling wine.
When distilled, it was colorless and
had about fifty per cent alcohol. Then
Eit was put in a cask from the wood
| of which it took an amber or brown
color. In the cask it lost some of the
alcohol, and when it came to us at
the bar in bottles it had about forty
per cent alcohol I have served
brandy, however, that was as high as
fifty-two per cent alcohol. Whisky
was not quite as strong: almost.
though. Distilled from barley. rye.
maize, or other grains, it ran from
thirty-five per cent to as high as fortv-
six per cent in some of the imported
"Scotches." Rum, you know. was
made of distilled molasses and the bv-
products of cane-sugar factories. Not
as strong as whisky, it was stronger
than gin, which latter had about
thirty per cent alcohol Gin was dis
titled from. unmalted grain and flavor
ed with juniper berries. Those were
the common drinks and the base in
grediets for mixed drinks.
Wine, made from the fermented