1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

OldWaldorf Bar Days York telephone directory contains, and still not be able to get them all in. The crowd has been compared to a "Who's Who." Often, it contained a 'lot of "Who Wasn't." No list of references was required for admis– sion; no card; nothing, as a matter of fact, beyond a fairly decent appearance, or one that advertised ready money. If a detective who was supposed to keep his eye on the crowd happened to be off guard, others slipped in. Questionable characters and crooks, for ex– ample. But even a Waldorf sleuth would be slow to deny admission to Dr. John Grant Lyman, promoter of a notorious zinc swindle during the early part of the century, for Lyman "looked like a million dollars," talked that way, and bought that way. True, they had prevented him from registering during the hotel's early days, but for years he proved a good customer of the Bar, and no doubt there found many an ear ready to drink in his "blue sky" chants. Not infrequently, revolution-experts were of the com– pany present-men who were the heads or members of organizations that stood ready, at the drop of a hat, or upon receipt of a code cable, to start up trouble in any Latin-American country, provided the prke was forthcoming. Gun:-running was at one time a remuner– ative, if sometime hazardous vocation-some spelled it ''avocation''-in the Caribbean and along the West coast from Nicaragua down. One dealer in ammunition and guns owned, or leased, an island up the Hudson, which was reported to be well stocked with the latest [ 50] PROFESSIONAL REVOLUTIONISTS