1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

OldWaldorf Bar Days ment bar Burton from the Bar and from the hotel, or at least refuse him service. It required all the diplomatic skill of one of the assistant managers of the hotel, who was a personal friend, to appease the wrath of the indig– nant owner of the ruined straw lid. "Dan" Reid, organizer of the Tin Plate Trust and market operator, had the reputation, among the bar– tenders at least, of drinking more than anybody else, and getting noisier. When he started talking, it used to be said he could be heard all over the ground floor. But, according to memories of habitues of those days, the patron of the Bar who was apt to give the most trouble and oftenest was the late James G. Blaine, Jr., son of a famous Secretary of State and Republican candidate for the Presidency against Grover Cleveland. Sober, or with only a few drinks in him, Jim, tall and handsome, and an inheritor of the great nose his distinguished fa– ther made famous, was delightful company. But there was a point beyond which he could not go in the matter of drink, and retain his pleasurable traits. He would say things that would ruffle somebody's feelings, and at times become very nasty. Another equally known patron of the Bar was "Char– lie" Flyn.!!, a mining man, tall and handsome, and usu– ally even-tempered. Flynn was one of the best-dressed men to be seen there, and had many friends. He was regarded as an addition to any company. But he had a good deal of personal dignity and Irish blood in him would get suddenly warm over any thing he might regard as an affront to his dignity. So it happened one day when he found himself in the [94]

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