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WITTY, WISE AND OTHERWISE.
139
open -a more expensive and better stocked bar in the same location and starve
to death. That is probably lack of personality.
A dispenser of liquid refreshments should no.t only be a good mixer of
drinks but a good "mixer" with his patrons.
How many men have tried to imitate another's personality and
failed ~
What a man may do successfully depends on his own personality.
There are men who can tell off-colored stories and still be gentlemanly,
but a double entendre
in
the mouths of most persons makes you want to hunt
up a 'furkisb bath ancl wash off the defilement.
It
is a hard lesson for one to learn that be cannot do what others can,
but it is a most important one.
It
is personality that counts, but it must be
a man's own personality and not another's; ancl it's worth an ambitious bar–
tender's while to find out what be may and what be may not do.
Taking it all in all, the clerk who gathers the largest receipts is usually
the possessor
o~
the best personality and should be the best paid, providing,
of course, he is economical with stock; but bow f ew saloon attaches ever give
this important subject any consideration. When an individual cannot serve
a party and keep the bar top clry, he is
e~i;ravagant
and wasteful, for all that
moisture on the mahogany costs money. There is no excuse for ever over–
filling a glass with any liquid, for it not only wastes stock but it looks sloppy
ancl makes the beverage less inviting.
In making cocktails, punches or any other beverage the mixologist who
makes a little too much to fill the serving glass each time and then throws the
surplus away is a >ery expensive and useless adjunct to a well managed bar.
It
is more advisable to try and mix too little because after completing the
decoction it bas to be handed to the patron, and some of the contents will
surely spill while being moved i:fi the glass is too full.
Another invaluable hint before adding the word finis to my little dope
book, and that is, that whenever a party bas consumed a couple of rounds of
drinks, lighten up the next round and continne to make each succeeding round
of less material. This little trick not only saves stock but enables and en–
courages the consumer to buy oftener ancl stick around longer without becoming
incapacitated.
FINIS.