1925 Drinks Long & Short by Nina Toye and A H Adair

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Drinks—Long and Short

In fact, as it were, the mysticism of St. Therese, the pity of Dostoievsky, the laughter of the sun,the speed of a non-stop express, the jungle of Douanier Rousseau —in a small, thin glass, frosted and warming. "Les invites s'attardent longtemps. Eiendus dans des rocking-chairs Us s'abandonnent a ce cliniat amollissani. Sur tin signe deson maitre le vieux Jupiter sort d'un petit meuble laque Une bouteille de Xeres Un seau a glace Des citrons ... Personne tie parlait plus . .. II n'y avail plus un souffle dans I'air On entendait dans le lointain le rire enorme de la grenouille-tatireau qui abonde dans ces parages." It is a poem of Blaise Cendrars. It might be an etching of Dufresne. Drinks,long and short. Drinks as the expression of modern life,of post-war civilisation. A romantic symbol, both remote and precise. The collaboration of the scientist and the poet—that is, the barman. It began centuries ago, probably about 1885. There is a play of Donnay(he had just left the Chat Noir and the august Academic Franfaise had not yetlooked upon him as a possible member) in which an act. begins by a dialogue about American drinks. I cannot re member exactly, but it runs charmingly, something like this;— "Void venir Vete, c'est le moment de boire des alcools glacis(we said des alcools in those heroic days). Savez vousfaire des cocktailsf J'ai un ami,garfonfort riche et qui aime boire." . .. There was,at the same time, or slightly before, that delightful genius Alphonse Allais, also his immortal