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Many Schools in One
and the lamb are vases of flowers. The significance of
the ornamenta tion will be expl ained further on. There is
no time now.
The crowd surges in. Everyone struggles to get a foot–
hold on a brass rail that runs around the bottom of the
bar. Sometimes the gang is ten deep, all pressing toward
that common goal. On every face is written strong re–
solve. Each man pushes forward until some drinker who
has been monopolizing a coveted spot falls or otherwise
gives way; and then, with something like a shout, the
late-comer, if he is a good squirmer or ducker, wiggles
into the place thus vacated, stepping, perhaps, over a
prostrate body, to claim the drink 'he yelled for while
still a Sheridan's ride away.
"Ad
astra"
was the motto of the crowd.
If
it wasn't
Martel's Three Stars or Hennessy's Five, it was a cock–
tail or a highball. The fancier drinks came later in the
day.
It should be stressed tha t the scene described was
typical only of hours when the room was overcrowded,
as it frequently was toward six o'clock of an afternoon,
when men would come in who acted as if they had on:ly
one aim in
life,
and that was to get outside of a drink,
and with no delay. Frequently, as intimated, their chances
improved when some "tank" at the barside had filled to
overflowing and had to be either carried or led away.
But, be it also emphasized, that Bar was not regarded
as a place of "ill-repute." In its early days, particularly,
men of the highest reputation frequented it; some never
went from their offices downtown to their homes with–
out calling in for at least an appetizer-or something to
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