The tavern in Kaskaskia was a common meeting-place. Other guest houses,
scattered through the town, fed and lodged the humble in an humble way;
but none of them dared to take the name "tavern," or even to imitate its
glories. In pleasant weather, its gallery was filled with men
bargaining, or hiring the labor of other men. It was the gathering and
distributing point of news, the headquarters of the Assembly when that
body was in session,--a little hotel de ville, in fact, where municipal
business was transacted.
The wainscoted dining-room, which had a ceiling traversed by oak beams,
had been the scene of many a stately banquet. In front of this was the
bar-room, thirty by forty feet in dimensions, with a great stone
fireplace built at one end. There was a high carved mantel over this,
displaying the solid silver candlesticks of the house, and the silver
snuffers on their tray embossed with dragons. The bar was at the end of
the room opposite the fireplace, and behind it shone the grandest of
negro men in white linen, and behind him, tier on tier, an array of
flasks and flat bottles nearly reaching the low ceiling.
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