Glossary
'
BAR GLASSES-In seeking to obtain accurate definitions
for the various containers in which were set forth the com–
positions of professors in that Academy of Fine Art with
which we are dealing, one has discovered almost as many
disagreements among its surviving experts as are said to
exist among doctors. The memories of men who were among
our best mixers-in the days when "good•mixer" had an–
other besides its present application-exhibit almost start–
ling variations. Even when one stood a barman long retired
to private life, before an imposing array of glassware at
Lewis& Conger's, he looked at them long and then shook his
head.
"What they drink from these days is not what used to
be," he said, sadly. So what follows as "definitions" is at
best only an approach to a consensus of recollection. As a
matter of fact, in first-class bars the shapes and sizes of
glasses varied. The old Waldorf barmen exhibited a
preference for thick glasses, the thin ones, except where cer–
tain drinks seemed to demand them, being kept for display.
They were costly, and very easy to break.
Among the glasses mentioned as proper for the service
of the fancy potations before listed, the name "star" ap–
pears frequently. According to surviving authorities on bar–
containers of the period, among them the Dean of a once–
famous chapter of the American School of Drinking, famed
as "The Hole in the Wall," whose secret location in the rear
of Charles & Company's fruit store was known only to the
[ 241]