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OldWaldorf Bar Days
MR. MORGAN'S DAILY M A NHATTAN
To name the important figures that were to be seen at
various times in that Barroom during its first fifteen or
twenty years would be like settingdown most of the names
from various editions of Who's Who in America-ex–
cepting, of course, always preachers-and including a
good-sized list taken from the British Who's Who and
the Almanach de Gotha. Later, the place lost many of
the head-liners that during its early years helped win it
distinction. And from the first, one should stress that
not every visitor to the Bar "crooked his elbow." The
room was one of the real sights of New York.
Perhaps, its most famous patron during its first decade
was the late J. Pierpont Morgan, the grea t financier.
Morgan had started patronizing the old Cafe-the sit–
down Bar that was the predecessor of the Bar that be–
came famous. For some years after the new place with
the brass rail was opened, he continued to call almost
daily. But he seldom lingered. H is habit was to come in
after the close of the Market down town and have
Johnnie Solon, whose role will command later exposition,
compose a Manhattan cocktail for him.
Two of the early frequenters of the Waldorf Bar, when
it was in its chrysalitic, or "sit-down" stage, wereWilliam
R.
Travers, a well-known New York fin ancier, and his
close friend "Larry" (Lawrence) Jerome, a stock-broker
in the days of the Jay; Gould influence in Wall Street.
Larry Jerome was famous in his generation as a wit. His
son, William Travers Jerome, named after his bosom
fri end, through his big fight against Tammany H all and
his prosecution of the Thaw case, was to make the Dis-
[ 24).