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

THE BON VIVANT's COMPANION

drank no more for three days, for the effect of a Blue Blazer, prepared in an artistic manner, is by no means' ephemeral. This noble drink soon became the most popular winter beverage on the Pacific Coast, but the strain of constantly preparing it so wearied Professor Thomas that within a few months he concluded to retire from the practice of his art for a short period of recuperation. He therefore resigned his position as First Assistant to the Principal Bartender of the El Dorado,and betook himself to the Yuba River gold fields, near Donaville, where he staked out a claim and busied himself with the prosaic occupation of digging gold. But after a week he could no longer stand supinely by and witness the monstrous indignities which the unskilled bartenders of Donaville perpetrated nightly upon helpless liquors, and he returned to his life work, tending bar in the saloon owned by Claycraft & Cheever. During the daylight hours,however,he continued to work his mine, and by the following spring had amassed a fortune of some $16,000 in gold dust. And having by that time educated the Donaville bartenders in good mixing habits, he cast about for other cultural benefits that he might confer upon the booted and bewhiskered miners. After a careful survey of the field. Professor Thomas de cided that the principal need of the gold fields was refined amusement.It is true that the mining camps fairly swarmed with drinking places, and dance halls staffed by hussies in short skirts, but Professor Thomas judged that such enter tainment as they provided was neither refined nor educa tional; he was especially pained by the drinking habits of the hussies and their admirers, who generally took their liquor straight and thereafter abandoned themselves to dis graceful antics. To remedy this situation, he organized a minstrel band, with which he toured the gold country throughout the summer. Ned Beach and Tom King were the end men, while the troupe also included Billy Wallace, XXX