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OldWaldorf Bar Days
abouts, as was "Tim" Woodruff, some time Lieutenant
Governor of the State of New York. Price McKinney,
of Cleveland, a prominent figure in the steel world, in
the Bar was better known as a racing man. With the
head of a well-known chain-store system, he owned an
important stable, and McKinney, though it was not
current property at the time, was one of a small group
that acquired control of the race track at Juarez, over
the Mexican border from El Paso.
While Colonel William F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill," clung
to the old Hoffman House as long as his friend, Ed.
Stokes, was its proprietor, he used to drop into the
Waldorf Bar, and there one might discover him at a
table surrounded by a lot of admirers.
Cody, with his wide-brimmed hat, long mustache and
goatee, and in the old days wearing a Prince Albert
coat, presented a handsome figure and one which eyes
seldom failed to follow.
Men liked to invite Colonel Cody to "have one" with
them, and it is not on record that he ever refused. In
accepting such an invitation, he followed an invariable
formula.
"Sir," he would respond heartily, "you speak the
language of my tribe."
One day some twenty years ago, Colonel Cody was
found sitting on a bench "that used" to stand opposite
the bill clerk's window. He looked worn out. "Just
come from Arizona," he said, "and, mind you, after
that long journey, I can't get a· ·room. And here I've
been coming to the Waldorf for years. They say the
hotel's full, and I guess I had better go in and get break-
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