1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

Faculty and Proctors "lost provinces" and revanche. For the German waiters, it was an evening of triumph, just as it was for every German and German-American in New York. At this distance, one is not able to ascertain just whether the Frenchman called the brother of the Kaiser that day's equivalent of boche, or whether the German had assumed an offensive by vaunting the merits of the guest of the evening, or of his Imperial brother. Nor is it certain as to who struck the first blow. Even at the time, inves– tigation failed to establish that fact to the satisfaction of everybody concerfled. But before anybody else real– ized what was going .on, Frenchman and German were 1 at each other's. throats, and hammering away at each other's noses-br wherever untrained fists could find lodgment on a rival's anatomy. ' But the incident was like the touch of a match, and when the French combatant shouted, "A moil" and the German yelled, "Um Gottes Willen!" other Frenchmen and other German waiters piled in. Italy, represented also by a good sized portion of those present, tried to be neutral for a time. But not for long. Its subjects on the scene soon took a hand~r rather a fist or two– on one side or th~ ,other, their choice dictated, perhaps, not so much by considerations of nationality as by per– sonal friendship. In less time t_l;an it takes to tell, the whole room was in a furore, with everybody milling everybody else. The ma'itre d'hOtel, after one glance, summoned all the house detectives within call and these jumped in, separated the belligerents and restored peace. The Prince never knew how nearly his great banquet had been marred.