In a famous old tavern not far from the Philipse Manor House, the site of what is now Yonkers on the Hudson and the very centre of the most popular sport of the times, was blended the first delightful cocktail. If the descendants of William Van Eyck, its jolly host, may be believed, no better place could be found along the length of the river, for William’s stories were as good as the liquor that washed them down, and his liquors as honest and true and as sparkling withal as his daughter, Mistress Peggy who gave them forth with such demure grace as made their serving doubly welcome to the thirsty gallants who thronged the bar and taproom.
Now Master Van Eyck loved but three things well — his daughter, his cellar, and old Lightening, his great fighting bird, the acknowledged champion from New York to Albany. Indeed ’twere hard to tell which loved he the most, though his daughter was truly the idol of his heart.
MISTRESS PEGGY’S lovers were many, and many were the strong potions quaffed, even when the driest throats were long since drowned in good liquor, because of her bewitching beauty, which gave added flavour and bouquet to the concoctions for which the bar was famous. But so well did she justify her father’s confidence and her own good name that, though the gay bucks from town quarrelled and even fought for her favour, the most fortunate could not boast of the lightest thing to her discredit. On especial occasions she was wont to make for her father, and certain good friends of hers and old Lightening’s, a most delicious beverage, the composition of which was secret, but which was so popular that it lacked naught but appropriate naming to give it more than local fame.
Young Master Appleton, mate of the clipper-ship Ranger, had long been Mistress Peggy’s ardent lover, and had even gone so far as to obtain mine host’s reluctant consent that, when he could boast of a command, his daughter should be his an she would. Now Peggy, when she admitted to her coquettish self that she had a heart, knew that eventually she would be forced, in order to still its clamourings, to surrender it unconditionally into the keeping of a certain bold sailor; but womanlike put off capitulating as long as she might. The time came, however, when the knowledge of his promotion gave Master Appleton the courage he had lacked to force the citadel which her coquetry had heretofore so jealously guarded; and, when of a sudden Peggy’s heart refused longer to be maligned by her mouth, and spake eloquently from out of bright eyes grown almost serious, — before she could summon her mind to the fray — she was conquered, and, close embraced, was calling him dear whom, but the day before, she had flouted with reckless audacity.
EXCEPT when in training for a main, Van Eyck’s champion game-cock held his court in an apartment builded for him and adapted to his Majesty’s special wants. None found favour in his master’s eyes, nor forsooth in the eyes of Mistress Peggy, who failed in admiring and respectful homage to old Lightening. Worshipful attendance upon this pampered hero of many bloody victories, together with honest admiration for the daughter of his host, was looked upon as the surest way of gaining Master Van Eyck’s personal approval and the first step in advancing from favoured customer to friend.
It was here that Peggy surrendered to her lover. And here it was that after a proper and reasonable time spent in the sweet dalliance due to such occasions, she mixed for him this most delightful of all drinks in order that he might face with proper spirit her bluff old father’s temporary ire at the loss of his daughter. Just as the right proportions of bitters, root wine, and mellowest of old whiskey had been put to cook in a glass half-full of bits of purest ice, an interruption occurred, and the clarion voice of the brave old warrior bird was heard as if in celebration of the momentous event which had happened under his very ayes. As he plumed and shook himself after his effort, one of his royal tail feathers .bated gently down towards his mistress.
“LIGHTENING names the drink!” she cried, as she seized the feather and with it deftly stirred the glass’s contents. And, again, with a sweeping curtsey, holding the glass aloft:
DRINK this Cocktail, sir, to your success with my father, and as a pledge to our future happiness ! “
‘THUS was the drink named. And, in after
days, when Master Appleton kept the tavern, its sign was the sign of the Cock’s
Tail, which ever proved an emblem of good fortune to him and his good wife,
their children and their children’s children.
From the Book The Cocktail Book. A Sideboard Manual for Gentlemen by L. C. Page & Company, USA, 1925.
