25 / 184
BAPTISMAL
25
courses. A famous picture of a naked girl in the waves,
sold under the name of "September Morn," was perpetu–
ated-at least it was so thought-by a Waldorf cocktail.
However, that cocktail was not a brand-new composition
-simply a Clover Club cocktail in which Gin gave place
to Bacardi Rum; the real Clover Club being composed of
the juice of half a Lemon, half a teaspoonful of Sugar,
half a pony of Raspberry Syrup, one-quarter pony of White
of Egg, and a jigger of Gin.
The Spanish-American War produced distinctive drink
nomenclature. The guns of Santiago awakened reverbera–
tion in the Waldorf Bar, and shook up what was termed a
··,Santiago Sour-not, however, strictly a cocktail; no more
was Hobson's Kiss, reminiscent of an episode that, alas!
served to discredit the hero of the
Merrimac.
Then there
was a Schley punch, a Shafter' cocktail, and another which
took its name from Admiral Dewey, victor at Manila Bay.
And when these are named, one has not really begun
on the list of appetizers available to those who resorted
at regular times to what was long the most famous exposi–
tor of the American School of Drinking. As I have said,
their nomenclature deserves to live in history, of which it
is a part. More, if only to clarify that portion of history
with data furnishing contributory evidence-if further proof
is impossible-their composition is important to the his–
torian, and some day will so prove to the antiquarian, who
will no doubt find material for study and zealous contem–
plation, if not amazement, in the fact that men once were
able, year after year, to get outside so many kinds of more
or less ardent spirit, and in such quantity, and still survive.
Well, they didn't all survive. They made patients for the
specialists at Carlsbad and other European cure resorts,