From Bar to Castle
On New Year's Day 1895, the proprietor of a Manhattan saloon at Third Avenue and 130th Street greased his hair, breathed on his diamond stickpin and departed to pay his New Year calls, leaving the bar in charge of a 17-year-old Russian boy who was working nights in order to study art by daylight. It was a rough night, and to the Harlem barflies the boy looked easy. Shouting, swearing they demanded free drinks. The young bartender set up one on the house. That only made things worse. The...
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