made St. Louis hospitality proverbial and become one of our most
distinctive genre institutions, is to strain credulity too far. Are
the Colonel's powers of self restraint altogether transcendent? Have
we found the living superman at last?

When the Colonel says that he consumed just a part of one he
doubtless meant that he did not swallow the Mint itself, munch the
ice and devour the very cup.





INTRODUCTION


I have known the author of "The Ideal Bartender" for many years, and it
is a genuine privilege to be permitted to testify to his qualifications
for such a work.

To his many friends in St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Chicago and
elsewhere, my word will be superfluous, but to those who do not know
him, and who are to be the gainers by following his advices, it may
prove at the very beginning a stimulus to know something of his record
of achievement.

For the past quarter of a century he has refreshed and delighted the
members and their friends of the Pendennis Club of Louisville and the
St. Louis Country Club of St. Louis. In all that time I doubt if he has
erred in even one of his concoctions. Thus if there is "many a slip