1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

OldWaldorf Bar Days abouts, as was "Tim" Woodruff, some time Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York. Price McKinney, of Cleveland, a prominent figure in the steel world, in the Bar was better known as a racing man. With the head of a well-known chain-store system, he owned an important stable, and McKinney, though it was not current property at the time, was one of a small group that acquired control of the race track at Juarez, over the Mexican border from El Paso. While Colonel William F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill," clung to the old Hoffman House as long as his friend, Ed. Stokes, was its proprietor, he used to drop into the Waldorf Bar, and there one might discover him at a table surrounded by a lot of admirers. Cody, with his wide-brimmed hat, long mustache and goatee, and in the old days wearing a Prince Albert coat, presented a handsome figure and one which eyes seldom failed to follow. Men liked to invite Colonel Cody to "have one" with them, and it is not on record that he ever refused. In accepting such an invitation, he followed an invariable formula. "Sir," he would respond heartily, "you speak the language of my tribe." One day some twenty years ago, Colonel Cody was found sitting on a bench "that used" to stand opposite the bill clerk's window. He looked worn out. "Just come from Arizona," he said, "and, mind you, after that long journey, I can't get a· ·room. And here I've been coming to the Waldorf for years. They say the hotel's full, and I guess I had better go in and get break- [ 36]