1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

OldWaldorf Bar Days or whatnot, that glowed or gleamed from an expansive shirt front or a particularly noisy necktie. To return to Gates, whatever his associates may have been, he was not a hard drinker. When he played, if he drank it was in moderation. He had a habit of ap– pearing in the Men's Cafe, across from the Bar, about midnight and sitting down to a supper composed of milk and bread or milk and crackers. Whatever form of gambling might have been engaging his evening's attention-whether poker or bridge or baccarat or what not-he would seldom vary this menu. One night, among the crowd which was sitting in the Cafe, the sole topic of conversation was a report that that day Gates had cleaned up a "cool million" in the Stock Market. When he entered ~t his usual hour, a vociferous greeting met him. His friends, and those who like to be thought such, jumped up and milled about him to shake hands and offer congratulations. There were cries of "Come on, John, have just one drink with us!" "Say, John, I'll open a magnum, if you will drink with me!" "Hey, John, I come across some twenty– year-old Bourbon today! Come on, join us!"-and so on, ·and so on. Gates merely waved the crowd away and sat himself at a table. Calling for the head waiter, he gave his usual order for bread and milk. GIN RICKEY INVENTED Some have laid the invention of a beverage which among two generations has enjoyed wide popularity and considerable reptite to the \yaldorf Bar. This was the [38]