What is barrel maker?

Famous quotes containing the words barrel and/or maker:

    The watchers in their leopard suits
    Waited till it was time,
    And aimed between the belt and boot
    And let the barrel climb.
    Louis Simpson (b. 1923)

    When cafe life thrives, talk is a shared limberness of the mind that improves appetite for conversation: an adequate sentence maker is then made good, a good one excellent, an excellent one extraordinary.
    Vivian Gornick (b. 1935)