OF OLD NEW YORK

faction. As he stood with both hands flat on the bar
swaying his big body back and forth and pouring out a
stream of abuse, Billy Edwards stepped over and in a
twinkling brought both fists down hard on the man's
hands—you could almost hear the bones crack! That
was the surprise. Then, before the brute could realize
it, he grabbed him and literally ran him out of the side
door—I remember distinctly he pushed the man so hard
and so swiftly that he had to run to keep up the pace he
had made. That was "bouncing" as a fine art—the only
time in all those years I ever saw Billy Edwards in action.
But to go back to my first story. It goes almost with¬
out saying that that bar was stocked with the very finest
wines, liquors and spirits of all kinds that the world had
produced or could produce. We had a Rhine wine that
we listed at $18.00 a quart (five quarts to the gallon)
and which was frequently called for at one of the small
tables by a little party of wine-judges. I remember a
banquet one winter by a big German Society of New
York when one hundred and fifty guests sat down with a
bottle of this liquid gold at each plate—and that was only
one item! Of course, the house was very jealous of its
fame in the matter of American whiskey, and the brands
though few were always the very best. Mr. Stokes was
particularly happy one winter in the late seventies when
he succeeded in securing at private sale, from the famous
Stewart cellar in Philadelphia, a large lot of American
rye that had been in bottle since 1826. Brandy was a
great drink of the old days and the call for it did not die
out till well along in the 90's. Our ordinary bar brandy,
served in a little stone jug labeled S. O. P. (superior old
pale), was fifty cents a drink, but for customers who
could afford the king of them all, we had an old Hen-

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