Tales From Gavagan's Bar
Read Tales From Gavagan's Bar Online
Authors: L. Sprague de Camp,Fletcher Pratt
Tags: #Fantasy Fiction; American, #Science Fiction, #Fiction, #Fantastic Fiction; American, #General
TALES
from
GAVAGAN'S BAR
(Expanded Edition)
TALES
from
GAVAGAN'S BAR
(Expanded Edition)
by L. Sprague de Camp
& Fletcher Pratt
illustrated by Inga Pratt
& Tim Kirk
Owlswick Press
1978
Philadelphia
Copyright © 1978 by L. Sprague de Camp.
Frontispiece © 1978 by Tim Kirk.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Published by the Owlswick Press, Box 8243, Philadelphia, PA 19101
International Standard Book Number 0-913896-12-8
Library of Congress Card Number 78-55068
"Elephas Frumenti" was first published in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
for Winter-Spring 1950; copyright © 1950 by Fantasy House, Inc. "The Ancestral Amethyst" was first published in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
for August 1952; copyright © 1952 by Fantasy House, Inc. "More Than Skin Deep" was first published in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
for April 1951; copyright © 1951 by Fantasy House, Inc. "Beasts of Bourbon" was first published in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
for October 1951; copyright © 1951 by Fantasy House, Inc. "The Gift of God" was first published in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
for Winter-Spring 1950; copyright © 1950 by Fantasy House, Inc. "The Better Mousetrap" was first published in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
for December 1950; copyright © 1950 by Fantasy House, Inc. "The Untimely Toper" was first published in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
for July 1953; copyright © 1953 by Fantasy House, Inc. "Where To, Please?" was first published in
Weird Tales
for September 1952; copyright © 1952 by Weird Tales, Inc. "Methought I Heard a Voice" was first published, as "When the Night Wind Howls," in
Weird Tales
for November 1951; copyright © 1951 by Weird Tales, Inc. "One Man's Meat" was first published in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
for September 1952; copyright © 1952 by Fantasy House, Inc. "Oh, Say! Can You See" was first published, as "Ward of the Argonaut," in
Fantastic Universe Science Fiction
for January 1959; copyright © 1958 by King-Size Publications, Inc. "The Rape of the Lock" was first published in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
for February 1952; copyright © 1951 by Fantasy House, Inc. "Bell, Book, and Candle" was first published in
Fantastic Universe Science Fiction
for October 1959; copyright © 1959 by Great American Publications, Inc. "The Black Ball" was first published in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
for October 1952; copyright © 1952 by Fantasy House, Inc. "The Green Thumb" was first published in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
for February 1953; copyright © 1953 by Fantasy House, Inc. "Caveat Emptor" was first published in
Weird Tales
for March 1953; copyright © 1953 by Weird Tales, Inc. "The Weissenbroch Spectacles" was first published in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
for November 1954; copyright © 1954 by Fantasy House, Inc. "Here, Putzi!," "The Eve of St. John," "No Forwarding Address," "The Love Nest," "The Stone of the Sages," "Corpus Delectable," "The Palimpsest of St. Augustine," "My Brother's Keeper," "A Dime Brings You Success," "All That Glitters," and "Gin Comes in Bottles" were first published in the volume
Tales from Gavagan's Bar,
copyright © 1953 by Twayne Publishers. "There'd Be Thousands in It" is published here for the first time.
Content
The Palimpsest
o
f St. Augustine
Book information
To John Drury Clark, Ph.D.,
a longtime friend of both authors.
EFACE
In compiling this record of certain of the somewhat dubious episodes centering around Gavagan's, we have enjoyed unusual advantages. In the first place, both of us can take shorthand. To be sure, neither of us has a degree of proficiency that would arouse envy in a court stenographer; and this makes necessary the warning that we cannot vouch for the absolute accuracy of all the quotations. But it is quite possible for either of your reporters—we reject the name of "author"—to sit at one of the back tables with a notebook concealed in his newspaper and surreptitiously set down the remarks of the various guests without any of them being aware that they are talking for posterity.
In the second place, we were fortunate enough to have met Gavagan (rhymes with "pagan") at a comparatively early date—before the unfortunate accident that cost him the use of his left foot and compelled him to abandon his profession as a field oil-geologist. He had some money to invest, and the amount was largely increased by his disability insurance. The operation of a beneficent Providence and the fact that Gavagan and Mr. Cohan were fellow parishioners of Father McConaghy led the injured scientist to put his funds into the bar that now bears his name—a business whose details he could handle by remote control, as it were, and without physical activity.
The place was rather run-down at the time, and the clientele was chiefly drawn from the lower orders of society. Gavagan,
whose taste is in the direction of the social and intellectual, indeed the refined, re-decorated the place in a manner designed to appeal to the carriage trade and solicited the patronage of the better elements in town. It is doubtful whether he would have succeeded but for the influence, talents, and wise acquaintanceship of Mr. Cohan.
This gentleman—Aloysius P. Cohan, to give him his full name and distinguish him from his brother Julius, an officer of the police force— brought with him to Gavagan's a quantity of patronage that immediately established the place in the position it has never lost. Decidedly portly these days, he was at one time a remarkably fine performer at the Irish game of hurling, and is said to have once beaten the champion of Scotland at tossing the caber. His prowess with a bung starter has relieved many difficult situations in Gavagan's. His early biography is somewhat obscure, but the name appears to have been Cohen (pronounced
co-hen)
at one time; he and his brother Julius changed the spelling, not for any reasons rooted in racism, but because they were constantly receiving appeals from both the Jewish and the Catholic charity organizations. Being men of heart, they found it difficult either to refuse the appeals or to support the drain on their resources.