[Dark Saint Alaick]

"His daughter," continues Robert, "either by accident or from excitement at the sight of her future husband, mixed whiskey, vermouth, bitters and ice together. Everybody liked this delicious concoction so much that it was christened 'cocktail* right on the spot." Robert goes on to tell how the cavalry officer told his fellow officers about it and soon the whole American army took it up.
That the cocktail was known over a century ago in the United States, and that it was used at that time as a vote getter, is shown in the following quotation which Robert takes from The Balance, an American magazine, under date of May 13, 1806: "Cocktail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters -- it is vulgarly called bittered sling and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion."
The American general who promised old King Axolotl that his daughter's name would be honored henceforth by the American army, seems to have made good his promise, for the American army and the cocktail appear to have been inseparable ever since. Everyone knows that it was the officers of the A. E. F. in France who first introduced the cocktail into Parisian cafe life. The "cocktail hour" is now a feature of daily routine among the bons vivants of the French capital.