1929 The Bon Vivant's Companion or How to Mix Drinks by Jerry Thomas

THE BON VIVANT's COMPANION

with the secret locked in his breast. But the undoing of the robbers had not exhausted Professor Thomas's powers of invention, as the customers of the El Dorado learned a few days later, when there came into the saloon a bewhiskered giant laden with gold dust and with three layers of pistols strapped about his middle. He had been many months in the mines and was fit to be tied; he yearned for adventure, and loudly proclaimed that whiskey was a beverage for nursing infants, and boasted that the only way a distillery could down him would be to fall upon him. "Bar-keep!"he roared."Fix me up some hell-fire that'll shake me right down to my gizzard!" Professor Thomassurveyed him calmly and shrewdly esti mated his capacity, which was obviously abnormal. He realized that here, at last, was a man worthy of his steel. "Come back in an hour," he said."I shall have some thing for you then." The bewhiskered giant, who was also booted,stamped out of the saloon, and Professor Thomas retired to the back room. His reputation, he realized, was at stake; if he did not produce something which would take the roar out of the Colossus, all would be lost, even honor.So he grappled with the problem,and within an hour emerged,his brow wrinkled by furrows from the violence of his effort but with a mag nificent idea sizzling and crackling in his brain. A deep silence fell upon the crowded barroom as the Professor, looking neither to the right nor to the left, moved slowly into position behind the bar, and with great care took from their places in a special rack two silver mugs, with handles. These were the show utensils of the El Dorado, for they had been imported from New York at great expense, and the mere fact that they were being handled was sufficient to indicate that something of importance impended. Care fully setting the mugs upon the bar. Professor Thomas twirled his great mustache and turned to his audience, xxviii