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Show IDENTIFIED BY HIS DRINKS. How Bartenders Tell a Irian's NationalityHow Na-tionalityHow New Yorkers Betray Themselves. "Brandy smash, sir? Yes, sir," and an uptown bartender immediately began to shovel ice into a giass, and soon crushed the mint prior to completing the beverage. "From the South, sir, I reckon," said the bartender, as the writer set down the empty glass. "Whydoyouask?" said the reporter. Yankee fashion. "Well, you see, we can generally fix the nationality of the visitor -by his drinks. Most Americans that drink, go in for gin or whisky cocktails in the morning. morn-ing. A Frenchman takes claret and ice, or if he is hard on it, some cognac or absinthe. ab-sinthe. A Dutchman or Prussian wants beer. Chinamen don't do much bar-drinking, bar-drinking, but lately the steward of this j hotel tells me they have been strengthening strengthen-ing their tea with brandy. They must drink a good deal of tea, to judge by the brandy I have been sending them . Englishmen Eng-lishmen run heavily on ale and brandy, but seldom come to tho bar, especially in the morning. "We haven't had any Japs here yet, but the bartender of a hotel where a party of them are stopping, tells me that they are getting verv fond of lager. In this country every State has its own particular style of drink. Whisky is at the top. A New Yorker wants rye all the time, a Pennsylvanian calls- for Mononga-hela, Mononga-hela, the Kentuckians stick up for Bour bon, and it is nearly certain death to offer a drinker from Florida or Georgia anything any-thing but corn whisky. Jerseymen take apple-jack in preference to anything else, while Delawareans must have peach brandy and honey. Missourians, as a rule, are great whisky drinkers; they want their whisky straight and strong and plenty of it. North Carolina, Alabama, Ala-bama, Louisiana, Tennessee and other Southern States send us great fancy drinkers. The best barkeepers in the world come from the South. Since the California wines have come out, the Pacific Pa-cific people have called heavily for Catawba, Ca-tawba, but half of them can't tell the difference dif-ference between a still Catawba and an ordinary Sauterne." "Suppose you don't have the particular parti-cular brand of whisky a gentleman calls for?" "Well, that's easily settled. There are very few bars that don't keep both rye and Bourbon, and, between you and me, there are not many drinkers who can tell the difference. Most bars keep two or I more bottles of whisky all drawn from the same barrel ; and if a barkeeper understands un-derstands his business he can make a man think he is drinking rye when he is actually drinking Bourbon.". Bad rye whisky, with a dash of common bitters in it, can be made to pass as corn whisky." "Are fancy drinks in much demand now?' "Fairly so. Sometimes a bartender has to be sharp to keep up with his orders. or-ders. The other day a Southerner came in and ordered junk of me. What the deuce junk was I did not know, so I had to trust to my wits. I found out after a little that junk was a compound of applejack apple-jack and cider, or another name for stone-fence. stone-fence. Another time a gentleman wanted an Albany punch. I asked him whether he preferred brandy or Santa Croix rum, and when he answered I knew what an Albany punch was, for nearly all punches are built on the same prescription." prescrip-tion." . r ...... "What are the principal fancv drinks called for?" T "Well, New Yorkers take naturally to milk punches and whisky and gin sours. Southerners are heary on sherry cobblers, mint juleps, - brandy smashes, brandy juleps and Bourbon sours. Philadel-phians, Philadel-phians, when they don't take ale or beer, or take their whisky straight, call for cocktails, whisky smashes, lloman punch Fish House punch. Fisli. House punch is one of the nicest drinks known. It is made of whisky, Jamaica rum and several sev-eral cordials, together with lemons and oranges. But the same drinks go by different names in different parts of the country. New York Mail and Express. Ex-press. , |