1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

Old Waldorf Bar Days It was about half an hour before midnight. A bellboy, whose eyes, for once, missed less than those of the pro– prietor of the hotel, found his gaze stopped by a glitter coming from a point immediately between the great left foot of the former Vice-President and the very much smaller right foot of the hotel man. He went over to them, stooped and picked up a diamond ring of con– siderable value. Knowing that Mr. Boldt never wore diamonds, he asked the Vice-President if the trinket belonged to him. MORALS ABOVE DIAMONDS Senator Fairbanks looked at the ring, then at the boy, and then quizzically at Boldt. "My morals," he said slowly, "have always been above such a thing as diamonds." Boldt laughed. Always ready to make a good impres– sion upon distinguished visitors, he then and there gave the bellboy a liberal reward. The ownership of the ring was traced to the late Governor Frank Brown, of Mary– land, who was stopping in the hotel, and from him the boy collected another and more substantial reward. Governor Brown was long a good customer of the Bar. * * * * In that room a good roster of the most prominent statesmen and politicians of twenty-five to thirty years ago might have been checked off; and some who still rate as politicians and statesmen. of wide renown, if they did not sit at the feet Of their tutors when in that room, took counsel of them in the Men's Cafe, across the cor– ridor. But in recollection, one cannot stop to assign faces to a particular period. There is too nearly a sea of them. [ 28]