1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

Hall of Fame However, coming down through the ages, as it were– that is to say, from 1897 to the early days of the war– Iet us follow Time's spotlight as it focused here or there. The Congressmen who used to find the way to it when they came over to New York were almost too numerous to mention. Here are just a few senators-some seen rarely, some often in the crowd, and most of them dating years back. For example: Edward 0. Wolcott, of Colo– rado, known to be a good patron of Canfield's exclusive gambling establishment in Forty-fourth Street; the aris– tocratic George Peabody Wetmore, of Rhode Island; the astute John Coit Spooner, of Wisconsin~ one of the ablest of conservative republican leaders, and recognized as one of the spokesmen for both the McKinley and Roosevelt administrations; Joseph Roswell Hawley, ofConnecticut, Ciyil War veteran, editor and member, in turn, of the House of Representatives and of the Senate almost con– tinuously for more than thirty-five years. Senator Haw– ley should be canonized by authors as one of the original advocates of International Copyright. Senator Matthew Stanley Quay, who, as republican boss of Pennsylvania, ruled politics in that State with an iron hand, in contrast with the method ·of Senator "Tom" Platt, the "Easy Boss" of New York State, dropped in at rare intervals, in the early days. His long-time lieu– tenant and the inheritor of his power, Senator Boise A. Penrose, was a far better patron of the Bar. He was a frequent visitor to the Waldorf. Often he preferred to drink in isolation. He was what was called in those days a "Ione drinker," needing no other company than a bottle and a glass and his own thoughts. This same exclusive- [ 29]