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OldWaldorf Bar Days
or whatnot, that glowed or gleamed from an expansive
shirt front or a particularly noisy necktie.
To return to Gates, whatever his associates may have
been, he was not a hard drinker. When he played, if
he drank it was in moderation. He had a habit of ap–
pearing in the Men's Cafe, across from the Bar, about
midnight and sitting down to a supper composed of
milk and bread or milk and crackers. Whatever form
of gambling might have been engaging his evening's
attention-whether poker or bridge or baccarat or what
not-he would seldom vary this menu.
One night, among the crowd which was sitting in the
Cafe, the sole topic of conversation was a report that
that day Gates had cleaned up a "cool million" in the
Stock Market. When he entered
~t
his usual hour, a
vociferous greeting met him. His friends, and those who
like to be thought such, jumped up and milled about
him to shake hands and offer congratulations. There
were cries of "Come on, John, have just one drink with
us!" "Say, John, I'll open a magnum, if you will drink
with me!" "Hey, John, I come across some twenty–
year-old Bourbon today! Come on, join us!"-and so
on, ·and so on.
Gates merely waved the crowd away and sat himself
at a table. Calling for the head waiter, he gave his usual
order for bread and milk.
GIN RICKEY INVENTED
Some have laid the invention of a beverage which
among two generations has enjoyed wide popularity and
considerable reptite to the \yaldorf Bar. This was the
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