OP: The Old-Time Saloon

$75 · Offered by Kitchen Arts & Letters · No longer available

Nach has a weakness for chatty old books like this: affectionate profiles of a bygone—maybe a person, maybe a place on a map, maybe an oddball object like a peculiarly shaped boulder that has a story attached to it or some ancient custom that is deeply respected, although no one has any idea why. In this case, though, we’re talking about an institution that dates to the caupona of the Romans or—who knows?—maybe back to the caves. These are the watering holes—the spots, what we now call the “third places,” where a soul can go and get recharged with a drop or two to drink and, depending on the moment, either an abundance of good chat or a spell of solitude in the midst of a noisy crowd. They call these places by many names—pubs, of course, in the UK—but here in the US they used to be called saloons. Written by Indiana-born journalist and humorist George Ade (1866-1944), this appreciation of those social establishments that were the special target of the Volstead Act and the 18th Amendment claims to maintain an open mind about temperance and to take no sides between “the extreme Drys or the extreme Wets” or even that “in-between population…the Slightly Moist.” Ade just wants to tell his tale—and a great one it is—in fifteen lively chapters. Wish we could name them all, but might mention here to whet (wet?) your palate: Discussing Wickedness, The Free Lunch, The Bar-Keep, The Regulars, Sentiment and Traditions. We’re talking about 1931 here—ninety years ago—and there’s not a crea

• Binding: Hardcover

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