1899 The Mixicologist by C F Lawlor

THE MIXICOLOGIST.

159

CUPS AND THEIR CUSTOMS.

Let your utensils be clean, and your ingredients of first-rate quality, and, unless you have someone very trustworthy and reliable, take the matter in hand your self; for nothing is so annoying to the host, or so un palatable to the guests, as a badly compounded cup. In order that the magnitude of this important business may be fully understood and properly estimated, we will transfer some of the excellent aphoristic remarks of the illustrious Billy Dawson (though we have not the least idea who he was), whose illustrisity consisted in being the only man who could brew punch. This is his testimony: "The man who sees, does, or thinks of anything while he is making Punch, may as well look for the Northwest Passage on Mutton Hill. A man can never make good Punch unless he is satisfied, nay, positive, that no man breathing can make better. I can and do make good Punch, because I do nothing else; and this is my way of doing it. I retire to a solitary corner, with my ingredients ready sorted; they are as follows, and I mix them in the order they are here written: Sugar, twelve tolerable lumps; hot water,one pint; lemons, two, the juice and peel; old Jamaica rum, two gills; brandy, one gill; porter or stout, half a gill; arrack, a slight dash. I allow myself five minutes to make a bowl on the foregoing proportions, carefully stirring the mixture as I furnish the ingredients until it actually foams; and then. Kangaroos! how beautiful it is!!" If, however, for convenience, you place the matter in the hands of your domestic, I would advise