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THE BON VIVANT'S COMPANION
and Jerry was an English drink,and that Professor Thomas
merely chanced to be the first bartender of importance to
prepare it in America. This impression probably grew out
of the fact that after 1821, when Pierce Egan published his
famous novel, Life in London,or Days and Nights of Jerry
Hawthorne and His Elegant Friend Corinthian Tom, the
lower class of London public house became known as Tom
and Jerry. Egan's volume, incidentally, was one of Thack
eray's early favorites, and some critics believe that a sequel,
devoted largely to country sports and adventures, suggested
Dickens's Pickwick Papers. Concoctions of hot rum,but un-
spiced, had been favorite tipples in the English barrooms
for many years, and for that matter in America as well, but
I have been unable to find authority for the belief that any
beverage was specifically entitled Tom and Jerry until Pro
fessor Thomas introduced his mixture into St. Louis and
subsequently throughout the land. Moreover, the Professor
first called his invention the Copenhagen, perhaps wishing
to acknowledge his indebtedness, so far as concerned the
basic idea, to a rum-and-egg drink then in vogue in the
capital of Denmark. But the patriotic Missourians refused
to accept a foreign name for such a delectable drink, and
it soon became known simply as Jerry Thomas. It was not
called Tom and Jerry until Professor Thomas brought the
secret to the Atlantic Coast. The name, in this connection,
is obviously a contraction of Professor Thomas s Christian
and surnames.
With the invention of this prince of cold weather drinks
and the introduction of the Blue Blazer into the Missouri
metropolis. Professor Thomas concluded though mis
takenly— that he had civilized St. Louis and taken the
curse off the hard mid-western winter. So he surrendered his
post as Principal Bartender at the Planters'House,and amid
the mournful wailing of the citizenry embarked upon a flat-
bottomed stem-wheeler which, in time, landed him at New
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