56 / 252
OldWaldorf Bar Days
of St. Louis, the most imposing figure of them all, with
his great stature, large mustache and imperial, and
wide-brimmed hat, seldom missed a call during his
visits to New York; while a Wisconsin city would send
the Pabsts, who, to quote their slogan, brewed the "beer
that made Milwaukee famous."
John McGraw, manager of the New York Giants,
was a great spender in the Bar, and so was Garry Her–
mann, equally famous and equally popular with Mc–
Graw in the baseball world. Neither of them would
permit anybody else to buy drinks for the crowd so
long as he was present.
If
a barman gave a drink check
to anybody else when McGraw or Hermann was treat–
ing, he "got in Dutch."
The crowd at times would also be liberally decorated
with "cauliflower ears," for a new pugilistic champion
must always be brought there to be toasted and to be
admired. And having found the way, he would come
again. One has seen in the room, for example, Jim J ef–
fries,lankyBobFitzsimmons, andhuge-chestedTomShar–
key, who owned a saloon in Fourteenth Street. Even
John
L.
Sullivan, long the most famous fighter in the
prize ring, used to drift in, white-haired and white–
mustached, to amaze the curious, who found it almost
incredible that the fine-looking old m·an, who, from his
appearance, might have been a retired bank president,
was really a noted "pug." And "Jim" Corbett would
also be seen in the crowd, though Jim was not much of
a drinker. He, too, had his own saloon, andjust ·a block
or so away, but Jim _had many friends at the old Wal–
dorf. There he impressed all who came into contact ·
[56]