The Wilmington morning star., 1947-05-28
AsPeglerSeesh
Rv B PEGLER

Copyright, by King Features oyhuicaIt, mel
Well sir a. first l thought that Fancy
swope was pulling a gag, because this tel
egram said: Bernard M. Baruch and Her
bert Bayard Swope invite you to cocktails to
meet the selected reporters attending the SEM
mar of journalism of the American Press
institute" whatever the be-hell that is, Co
lumbia School of Journalism, from five to
seven o'clock, at Sherry's, 300 Park Ave-
QUE and SO forth.
So I wired him back that in memory of
the dear dead days at Andy's seminary and
Perry's and the Key-Club under Brooklyn
bridge. where the dean was a tough mick
named Sport Hallahan who got himself ap-
pointed a prohibition agent so he could ride
his own loads in from Freeport and con-
fidentially, Pegler, my friend, that sentence
has got clear away from you so you better
x it out and start over.
All r!gh:, so I wired Herbert that in men,
DRY of those dear dead days in those stately
old senlinaries that throve when the news
paper business was supposed to be concen-
trated on Park row although it really wasn't
any more localized on Park row than the
theatre business is localized on Broadway to-
day. The Journal and the American were
over there on. I even forget the name of that
sort of little square,, and the Mall was on
City Hall place and the Tribune, that was
DclO10 tiC plCCNlhS - AZ, oihA
the Sun papers, morning and evening, were
on Nassau and, pardon me all over, Mr.. P,
but weren't you saying something about Pop
Swope and the seminarians?
So I wired Herbie about those old seminar
les where some of us used to do a little
draining and hanging around, although not
me, very much, because ! was drawing just
SIS a week from the U. P. and you know
how much cruising radius that gave a kid,
ouo,, !hpn p1+ ~ lot nf tho ornot cforS 0f
Park row did do some fellowshipping in those
dumps. Well, now, I mustn't call Andy's a
dump because it wasn't and Perry's was the
most stately bar you could imagine. Halla-
hams was a dump all right and it smelled
like national goat week in the old garden.
They kept the windows boarded up as a stall
for the tax people and the prohibition de-
partment to make look like abandoned
premises and usually half a dozen teentsy
red-hots splitting like tomcats on a gas plate
that burned up the oxygen.
1 guess I wi. tell you tomorrow what l
was going to say about those seminarians of
the American Press Institute and kind Of
finish up about Perry's and just some odds
and ends. I write triple space and usually
try not to run over four pages, very much.
because otherwise they slash your beautiful
prose and let it bleed to death and here it
is already below the fold of page three.
Well. Perry's was a small. round room just
Oft the entrance to the World building and
there was a sink, and the bottles were on
the drainboards and on shelves around bit
there was actually no bar at all You just
ordered from the fellow and paid the guy at
the damper and there was nothing to lean
your elbows on or lean against. So the GUS
toners stood up and after the second or
third hoist people would get tired and either
go on home or up to Andy's or some other
place where you could sit down. But not to
Sports dump because this was before pro-
hlblslon and Perry's was absolutely legitimate
and went out about the time that sport start
ed in down there under the bridge. Perry's
was the only place I ever heard of that
really did specialize in cocktails. whereas you
see the sign cocktails" or cocktail lounge
and all that everywhere these days but 1T
really just means saloon. Perry's made a
wonderful Martini for Is cents and when l
say a Martini was wonderful you know it
must have been good because there is the
meanest. no-dam-goodest mess of
rancor ever concocted and it causes more
fights and more people get their glasses
broken and arrested and divorced on account
OF Martins than for any other reason. They
can tell you all they like that he favored
old-fashioneds but l tell you old man Roose-
welt was a Martini man SO it is no wonder
ne had to slash the square-face behind the
CLOCK and In the umbrella stand to keep the
OLD girl from finding it. One slug Of square
face plus one slug OF that rancid ivy Juice
they call Yarmouth and a guy in his job
could make a revolution.
l don't think Perry's ever served an old
I don't think this mess ever was
heard Of until prohibition because in those
days If you wanted a fruit salad or a vege-
table dinner you went to a restaurant and
ordered 1t like a man. l don't think they
ever heard of an orange blossom in Perry's
put they did used to have a little cocktail
called a Bronx that had a smitch of orange
juice and not too bad, anyway, until you got
your growth and cut out the nonsense and
either drank whiskey or didn't drink.
You used to see some wonderful newspaper
men around those old seminaries. But do you
know who you didn't see? Herbie SWope and
Roy Howard. Roy had a little glassed off
coop IN 4 corner of the United Press office
on the third floor and when he and Archie
Parke, our cable reWrite man, would get in
a scrap about how to handle a story, hol-
lerlng in their high pitch, it sounded like
sea glills just after lunch time as the boats
on the European run come past Block Island.
Herbie and Roy weren't exclusive or short
in the reach when the tab fell but they were
%hustling with something more impor-
tant to dc. They passed a lot of people in
Perry's and Andy's.
Well, look where I am. They will probably
this one off just back of the ears.