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THE BON VIVANT's COMPANION
merchant, the lawyer, or the Methodist deacon takes his
cocktail. Suppose it is not properly compounded? The whole
day's proceedings go crooked because the man himself feels
wrong from the effects of an unskillfully mixed drink."
After much research Professor Thomas concluded that the
lowly estate of the cocktail was in part due to the faulty
bitters employed in its composition. He therefore busied
himself in laboratory work, and in due time appeared with
Jerry Thomas's Own Bitters. This brilliant discovery was
made soon after Professor Thomas had opened the first of his
New York barrooms,and during the next few years cocktail
drinking increased until the beverage had become the favor
ite morning tipple of all men of convivial habit, and few
self-respecting New York business men would attempt to
begin a day's work without one. However, very few of the
myriad of present day cocktails were known. The first edi
tion of The Bon Vivant's Conipanion lists but ten different
varieties —the bottle, the brandy, the fancy brandy, the
whiskey, the champagne, the gin, the fancy gin, the Japa
nese, the soda and the Jersey. They were all very simple
mixtures, but potent, except the soda and the Jersey.
Professor Thomas's ballyhoo for the cocktail was carried
on with great vigor for almost a score of years, and the last
edition of his masterpiece contains formulae for no fewer
than twenty-four different mixtures, including such well
known concoctions as the Manhattan, the absinthe, and the
Martini, which was originally called the Martinez. He also
gives directions for preparing the Saratoga and Coffee cock
tails, and the Morning Glory, perhaps the most powerful
of all. They were very popular for many years. In his work
Professor Thomas also describes five very interesting drinks
called the Bishop, the Protestant Bishop, the Archbishop,
the Cardinal and the Pope, which are precisely similar ex
cept for the wines employed in their preparation. Instruc
tions for compounding these beverage? appeared in the first
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