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Bar Patterns
live fish disported themselves, brought every day in the
year from a preserve in upper New York State. Every
morning, four or five dozen sparkling trout were dumped
alive into the pool, and for luncheon or dinner patrons
could select their meal as it swam.
If
they wished, they
could even catch it in a net, provided for this purpose.
More than once it proved necessary to convince some
insistent individual who 11ad lugged a jag in from the
barroom, that trying to land a trout with the hook of
his cane, or by spearing it with 'the other end, was
not at all
de rigeur
thereabouts_. At
le~st
once, a man who
had clamored to get into the pmol and play that he, too,
was a fish, had to be persuaded that "fish" in his case was a
simile for his powers of imbition, not for his aquatic
·accomplishments. Some needed no more of a warning
than to be told it was water the fish were swimming in.
Certain of the characters who affected the Bar. had
habits, or performed rites which used to interest the
bartenders and the early-morning drinkers. One of such
was the son-in-law of a former governor of New York.
Before he went to breakfast in the Men's
Caf~,
he would
stop in the Bar and demand a pony of brafidy. This
order he would repeat until six empty glasses stood on
the counter in front of him. Then he would put the lot
of them into his derby, carefully adjust the latter upon
his head, and start dancing, the clink of the glasses
making a curious melody. His dance over, he would re–
place the glasses on the counter, solemnly pay his check,
and then go in for his morning meal.
Many an old habitue or employee recalls the pros–
perous-looking patron of that part of the hotel, whom
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