MIXED DRINKS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2394, 12 November 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

MIXED DRINKS.

A kink of monil i caching that was very much in vogue a i’eneration or more ago, seems now to have become less popular. At least the lesson is not now so frequently taught as it used to be. The whole matter may be summed up in the phrase “ learn a trade." It was claimed that every one, no matter what his position in life ndaht he, outfit to have a sheet anchor for emergencies which he could throw out when a storm came. In the good Sunday-school book of that period the practical advantages of this sort of thing were taught by many examples. L-'or instance, a young man wbo was very wealthy was in the habit of lounging around a blacksmith shop, as probably was the habit of the eccentric young men of wealth at that time, and the blacksmith asked him to learn the art of making horse-shoe nails, and said the ability to do ;0 would perhaps be of use to him some day. The in.tit laughed at such an absurd idea, but he buckled to, and soon coell m ike ave y gcol mil. Well, as a natural c, n e jue ;ee, tie lost all hi< wealth, as they always do. and saved himself from starvation by the despised method of making shoe nails. The wealthy young men of the present dav is very apt, unfortunately, to say

“rats” or maxe some such irreverent remark when to ie ■ of that kind are told, and perhaps tin < has had a blighting effect on the ane* d)les, for they are not now as current :b they wire. There miy, however, be another reason for it. I'lds is an age of specialists. The jack of till trades who is ma.-t“rof none has no chance in the competition. A man that can do any one thing and do that one thing well is the person who gets along in these times.

Still now and then an instance arises which shows that it is well to have the powor of doing something besides a person’s regular business. At the present moment there is a noted individual in New York who in his early days seems to have acquired the art of mixing drinks. He is known all over the world as “The Claimant.” The claiming bn-iness did not succeed as well as was expected. He didn’t know it was loaded, and the gun kicked badly. The constqnetice was that he spent some years in involuntary seclusion, and wlun he got out he had tj turn his attention to something at which money coni 1 be made.

Sir Roger Tichborne, as he calls himself, has obtained a position in a saloon on Chatham Square, in the “ prodigy of cities,” as the Loudon i’iims has it. The thirsty New Yorker can now have the privilege of getting his drinks mixed by a real live baronet, that is, if he takes Sir Roger’s own word about the title. This must he a sweet boon to the New Yorker, as Artenius Ward would say. At first sight it would seem that anybody who knew the ingredients could mix drinks, but that is not the ease. To be a successlul mixer a person requires a knowledge of sleight of hand. The American mixer of drinks has brought the art to a high state of perfection. He can lliug the mixture from one glass to another, forming a sort of rainbow arch of liquid that is the admiration of the per.-on who has to pay for the drink, and doubtless this performance adds much to the flavour of the fluid.

Sir Roger claims that he can “ see the ordinary bartender and “ go hind’ some better. He told a newspaper man the other day that he can not only do the rain-bow business, but that he can throw a cocktail up to the ceiling and catch it all in the glass again without spilling a drop. He does not do this with ordinary drinks, of course, but with what he calls the South American cocktail, which is an invention of his own. He says it is “a nectar lit for the gods,” and therefore it is doubtless good enough for the ordinary Chatham-stre»t bnmme.. .Sir Roger also makes a speciality of the following drinks : —Mixed whale, Scarcely seen, Hoist away, and Blue blazes.