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CONSTITUTIVE AND DERIVATIVE
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a cocktail, look for bouquets or aromas, to a French gour–
met among the most potent charms of wines and brandies.
Lots of Americans these days seem to like cocktails made
of two or more kinds of liqueurs. Such mixtures would
tend to shock the sophisticated foreigner, who has been
taught that anything of the nature of a liqueur should fol–
low rather than precede a meal. Most American women
who acquired the cocktail habit while John Barleycorn was
doing time, judging from what one has seen in foreign
parts, prefer cocktails that are sweet, even if they are
strong. Indeed, during that now happily ended chapter
of American history, cocktail parties, which grew into
great vogue; .were seldom intended to quicken the appetite
for dinner. They became occasions when intensive drink–
ing was done and a provident host or hostess, aware that
hunger was bound to ensue, prided himself or herself upon
furnishing an abundant supply of
hors d'ceuvres,
or, as
these came themselves to be known, "appetizers;" the re–
sult often being that persons who attended cocktail parties
preceding dinners· so gorged themselves with these "deli–
cate" but nevertheless substantial offerings, that by the
time they reached the dinner table they seldom had any
appetite left.
Moderation is• the secret of enjoyment of anything, if
one wishes to retain the faculty for enjoyment. That rule
most certainly applies to cocktails and the whole category
of drink of any kind. And, according to very respectable
doctors, just• as many digestive troubles originate from
over-eating as from too much drinking.