1935 Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book

160 OLD WALDORF-ASTORIA BAR BOOK Bar. And those miners wanted the most expensive drinks. Champagne was their first thought. More than once a flood of reminiscence, developed through continuous imbibition, and the cropping up of some subject that had been, or was possibly still disputable among the men from the Still-Open Spaces, threatened trouble. At least once a swift train of events beginning with a slighting reference to the virtue, valor and dis– cretion of "Bat" Masterson succeeded in starting a panic in the Bar, because of the sudden materialization of the subject of the reference, backed by his reputation for say– ing the last word, and with a "gun." "Bat" Masterson, a United States Marshal, long famous in the Northwest, and a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, was in New York at the time, but not in the hotel, when the thing started that, after he did come in, was effective in holding up trade and leaving the bartenders on duty keep– ing company only with the bull and the bear and the lamb on top the refrigerator table. At a table in the middle of the room sat six big men, some of them in wide-brimmed hats. Most of them were mining men, and they were from Butte, Montana. Of the group was Colonel "Dick" Plunkett, said to be a United States Marshal. They were talking about gold strikes, mining conditions and individual exploits, law and order, jumping claims, and other things mining men usually discussed at such gatherings. Not a little egocentric hero-worship was voiced, but the talk was mostly of what other fellows had done; of "bad 'ffien" and shootings. And Masterson's name was mentioned as having saved the expense of a lot of hangings by using his six-shooter.