They claim to be the first inventors of those recondite beverages, cocktail, stonefence, and sherry cobbler.

Irving’s phrasing is mock-scholarly: by calling mixed drinks “recondite beverages,” he humorously elevates barroom concoctions into the realm of learned invention. The line also plays on national and local pride—people “claim to be the first inventors” of fashionable drinks—suggesting how quickly Americans turned everyday consumption into a matter of origin stories and bragging rights. Naming specific drinks (cocktail, stonefence, sherry cobbler) anchors the joke in contemporary drinking culture and hints at the period’s fascination with novelty, refinement, and social display. The tone is lightly satirical rather than condemnatory, treating the claims as a quaint form of cultural self-importance.