THE GIRL BEHIND THE BAR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XV, Issue 3436, 14 November 1894, Page 4

THE GIRL BEHIND THE BAR.

Ihe Drink Slt« Strrsi to Yeung- IK en About Town.

Pall Mall Gazzete J Drinking between meals is almost 1 entirely a matter of fashion, as also are the drinks themselves. There is, for example, a prejudice against a man ordering a drink at a bar when he is alone. Even when he is at his club he will look about for a friend with whom to drink sooner than quench his thirst by himself. But, as a general rule, thirst has little or nothing to do with it, To offer a friend a drink has come to be the vulgar method of expressing cordiality, and is looked upon as an act of hospitality which it is>he recipient's duty to return after the shortest possible interval. " Let's have a drink," is said on erery possible occasion, and | ■with the least possible excuse, wherever two or three are gathered together. ( And this fashion would seem to hare; increased enormously during the last ten or fifteen years. Fot m the seventies, bars, excepting the frowsy, lead-covered counters of public houses and of railway stations, were few and far between; whereis nowadays we have every where establishments whose proprietors seek to excel their rivals m the gorgeousness of their marbles and carvings, turkey carpets, and other costly appointments. To-day the gin-and-bitters palace is worthy of its title. The drinks themselves are equally a matter of fashion. The glass of bitter which was once m universal demand is no longer considered a dignified drink for which to ask at one of these glorified taverns. If your desire is for beer you must call for Bass, however much you would prefer the unbottled variety. Scotch whisky is, of course, the fashionable drink at the present time, both m and out the bars. Doctors order it you for your dinner table, and custom demands that you should order it for yourself when you drink at a bar. The next thing is the question of soda or plain water. The latter is probably the wholesomer, for the fluid which the ordinary barmaid calls soda or seltzer, according to the shape of its bottle, inspires a thirst, which is neither pleasant nor necessary. Brandy, save as a liqueur, hag gono right out of fashion. The hero m the sporting ncel no longer can mix himself a mahogany-coloured drink. Yet brandy, if only you can depend upon getting it, is a far better corrective of yesterday's bad whisky than is more whisky. The fashion for Scotch whisky is by no means confined to England. Over m New York, wbere the bar-tender can mix you some two hundred drinks off-hand, the almost universal demand nowadays is for Scotch whisky straight, and m America there is no attempt to make several hundred per cent, profit out of the soda water. In Australia, Scotch whisky, imported or native, is also the subject of well nigh every shout. In India, where a peg used tomean brandy and water, it now means Scotch whisky and soda, and the ingenious natives, as m the case of the natural mineral waters over here, call the fizzing stuff m the soda-water bottles ■yelati pani, or foreign water, although it is made at every station and sold at clubs and elsewhere at the rate of about a penny a bottle. The peg, however, is a very different drink to the whisky and soda as drunk m England. A very little whisky (which is generally good) is carefully measured at the bottom of a big tumbler, to which the contents of a whole soda water bottle is added, and the Indian soda-water bottle i.s half as big again as the English. You encounter them as soon as you set foot on a P. and O. i The English bar does not present much variety m the matter of Jong drinks for summer use. Happily, the stone-bottled ginger beer is now to be found everywhere, having survived the attacks of the gassy stuff which for several yearn endeavoured to supplant it. This, with a large lump of ice, is a good enough drink by itself, and may be made agreeably alcoholic with the help of gin. A still more useful addition, to our thinking, is a teaspoonfui of Angostura bitters. A common notion prevails on both gides of our English bars that Angostura is poisonous, and should only be used m desperately small quantities. As a matter of fact it is a capital tonic and febrifuge, and a useful pick me up m hot weather. In its native town, which is a port of Spain, capital of the tropical island af Trinidad, are to bo found the best drinks m the whole world, made with the juice of fresh cocoanuts, pineapples, and other strange ingiedifnts, and m most cases Angostura qualifies the whole mixture. Of the appetizers gin-and-bitters seems now more popular than sherry, .and peach bitters more popular than orange or Angostura, with the frequenters of bars W jry few of these know of the excellence of vermouth, and especially of the two vermouths blended. A superior young lady, who presides over a superior London bar, assured a customer a, few days ago that there is no such thing as French vermouth, which she pronounced as written. It is also, perhaps, rather curious that one ne\er hears absinthe asked for m a London bar, although the familiar bottle is near'y always a portion of ths scheme of decoration.