COCKTAILS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2505, 26 March 1902, Page 65

COCKTAILS.

If all your beauties, one by one I pledge, dear, I am thinking, Before the tale were well begun, I had been dead of drinking. Of Oliver Hereford's lines we are reminded by a "Sideboard Manual for Gentlemen," published by Macqueen. in which the history and composition of the cocktail is In this little book we are reminded that '"ihsie are several ways of mixing a cccktail. Some prefei to shake it thoroughly ; by doing this it is made very cold." The best way to make a cocktail in a mixing glass is to stir it with a fork rather than with a spoon. By this method the ice is melted faster, cooling the liquor faster, and diluting it a little more. It is quite customary, in serving a dry cocktail, to put an olive, perfectly stoned, in the glass. With a sweeter one a maraschino cheiry or a small preserved orange is genelally given."' The true story of the cocktail is told tl'us:Nuw it has Jonj, been known among all those who love good liquor and a pretty face, and more particularly among the soldiers (truly most discerning and v thirsty brutes), that nowhere, in ,all the valley can be had such refreshment Jor man -and beast as at the sign of the Bunch of Grapes, in, Kingston ; and that no more genia'! host ever beamed forth heartier comfort to theweary passengers who halted there than Squire Allen ; and that no prettier maid, whether to draw a bumper or toss a kiss, stood behind the bar than the squire's chief failing, Daisy. Nor is it less known that, though the squire was ever a stout fellow lumself, and as quick with a buffet as any man, and as ready with a smile, he had yet another failing beside Daisy, in that he was inordinately fond of the wholesome sport of cock-fighting, and that whoso injured or even spoke an ill word of one of his biids stood in sore danger of his hide. So when, after an unwonted peiiod of ill-humour and testiness, and much fidgeting of his big «elf about the neighbourhood, the squire at last trrld dismally of the loss of his finest bird, the townsfolk knew that it would go hard with the rascal who had stole.i him, and that he who was so lucky as to find and restore the bird would be welcome at the Bunch of Grapes always, no matte 1 how many marks stood under, his mil, on the soapstone chimney-piece by the b.ir. So for many days things wenb on : not even Daisy being able to cheer the henrt of her father, though her own was none too light. And then, one day, came a young lieutenant lidmc? ga-ly into town with the self-same gieat bird under his arm. Hf leaped from his horse, and was s-eized by the squire, so overjoyed at the return of his pet that he forgot in a, moment all hN i'l-humour, and called for the best in the house to refresh the young man. Now , whether it was from excitement, reivr/usness, or accident, oi whether, perchance, Mistres, Daisy had before discovered the secret, and held it close for a gieit event, certain it is that she mixed sundry drops of bitteis and wine of roots with ;i dram of good Kentucky whisky, the whole poured over some generous hits of ice (no', a little luxury in it.-elf). and they

drank of the beverage "to the cock's hail" — for Jupiter had not lost a single leather. And then the gallant lieutenant 'swore bravely that, in memory of the event, tthe delectable mixture he had drunk shoif d tbe known through all the aimy as a cock's itail. That he has been as good as his "word you may all beai witness, for who 'of you have not drunk the stuff — too much, Iperhapr — and each better than the last? — ik. James's Gazette.