TIME MACHINE ... Early Days Of Anti-Liquor Sentiment On The Eastern Shore.

(Reader-friendly viewing of newspaper archives material)

　

March, 1888

A presiding Elder.. "Mr. Ayres made stinging references (to) the liquor traffic still going on at Berlin, Snow Hill, Pocomoke City, and Salisbury, all in his district."

(Excerpt from a Denton Journal article on the twentieth meeting of the "M.E. Conference" in Wilmington attended by 112 ministers who were clerical members of the conference.)

　

June, 1890

(The Daily News- Frederick, Md.)

A Model Church

The Crisfield Md. Leader says that a prohibition church will be erected in that town and $600 has already been subscribed. The minister will preach in favor of prohibition party from the pulpit, advocate the party on the stump, manage prohibition conventions and primary meetings, and admit none to church membership except those who truly repent of affiliating with the other parties in the past and promise to henceforth and forever vote the prohibition ticket.

　

July, 1893

A prohibition mass meeting was held in Pocomoke City, according to The Daily News in Frederick.　

　

September, 1900

(The Denton Journal)

(Excerpt)

Rehoboth, which is having the most prosperous season in its history, is to have three great days for the people of Maryland and Delaware. The first- Thursday, September 6- has been set apart as "anti-saloon and Prohibition Day," for the discussion of this question by the most capable speakers on the Peninsula.　

　

November, 1910

(Gettysburg Times- Gettysburg, Pa.)

Saloon Smasher Can Find No Good In Political Parties Delmar, Del., Nov. 7.- Carrie Nation drifted into Delmar and rented the opera house Sunday evening before but few persons knew she was here. Her lecture was attended by a large audience who heard how she smashed saloons, and her views on cigarettes. Mrs. Nation announced herself to be a suffragette. She denounced both the Democratic and Republican parties as crooks and grafters. Theodore Roosevelt was referred to as a man who mixed in with everything except cigarettes and whiskey. Mrs. Nation has been on the Eastern Shore for about a week in different towns, but has attacked (but) one place she considered a "hole." At Parksley she entered the local billiard and pool parlor with the cry "This is a hole," and started to smash things in general, but was taken bodily out before much damage had been done.

Footnote: (Source: PBS- The American Experience) Standing at nearly 6 feet tall and weighing 180 pounds, Carry Amelia Moore Nation, Carrie Nation, as she came to be known, cut an imposing figure. Wielding a hatchet, she was downright frightful. In 1900, the target of Nation's wrath was alcoholic drink. Nation, who described herself as "a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, barking at what he doesn't like," felt divinely ordained to forcefully promote temperance. A brief marriage to an alcoholic in the late 1800's fueled Nation's disdain for alcohol. Kiowa, Kansas was the setting of Nation's first outburst of destruction in the name of temperance in 1900. Between 1900 and 1910 she was arrested some 30 times after leading her followers in the destruction of one water hole after another with cries of "Smash, ladies, smash!" Prize-fighter John L. Sullivan was reported to have run and hid when Nation burst into his New York City saloon. Self-righteous and formidable, Nation mocked her opponents as "rum-soaked, whiskey-swilled, saturn-faced rummies." While Carrie Nation was certainly among their most colorful members, the members of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, founded in 1874, left more in their wake than strewn glass. Once the largest women's organization in the country, the WCTU concerned itself with issues ranging from health and hygiene, prison reform, and world peace.

Note to "Your Friend, Slim" who commented a few days ago on this week's preview posting... "This should be interesting! If there is anything near and dear to my heart it is liquor!" Slim- Give thanks you weren't around in Carrie Nation's time! Thanks, as always, for your comments. - tk for PPE　

　

March, 1912

(The Evening Post- Frederick, Md.)

President Price, of the Senate, brought from Salisbury a bottle of Jamaica ginger, which is kept for sale in the stores in Wicomico County. On the label of the bottle there is a guarantee that it contains 94 percent alcohol. Wicomico is a prohibition county and whiskey not being available many persons, Mr. Price says, have taken to drinking Jamaica ginger as a substitute. He introduced a bill prohibiting its sale in Wicomico County, as well as the sale of "Turlington's balsam." "picnic ginger," or any similar preparation except by druggists upon the prescription of a physician.　

　

　

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