Finding Drinking Joints

Although near-beer saloons were legal during Prohibition, real beer and liquor were something you had to either get from a bootlegger or at a speakeasy. The Baltimore Sun reported a federal agent's claim that "for every saloon closed...two speakeasies open." Speakeasies were harder to raid, as Eric Mills, writer of Chesapeake Rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties, explains because "you had to either be known or know someone to get in."

The so-called Noble Experiment that was Prohibition had many opponents and Maryland Senator, the Hon. W.M. Cabell Bruce, was one of them. Bruce explained in a speech delivered in Washington D.C. in 1924 that "the bootlegger has acquired almost the legitimate standing of the butcher at the green grocer." In a separate speech on the same topic, he explained that the legal consequences of a bootlegger getting caught was simply

"regarded by the bootlegger and other violators of the Volstead Act as more occupational hazards... They calculate their chances of incurring them as a marine insurer calculates the chances of a shipwreck in fixing the premium under a marine policy."

Bruce went on to say that if there was any well-to-do man who used to drink whiskey or wine before the Volstead Act and is not using it today, "he is not known to me."

Crime statistics agreed with what Bruce said. Whereas Prohibition was expected to decrease alcoholism in the country, it actually steadily increased according to police statistics compiled by the Baltimore Sun.

Amount of Arrests for Drunkenness in Baltimore
1920. . . . . . . . . . . 1,785
1921. . . . . . . . . . . 3,258
1922. . . . . . . . . . . 4,955
1923. . . . . . . . . . . 5,631

Crackdowns aside, drinking joints abounded in Baltimore. Eric Mills lists some places where people would go to get drinks:
John C.Murder's saloon at 4536 Harford Rd
Jerry Bee's saloon at 2000 West Lanvale St
the Iola Athletic and Pleasure Club at 109 Parkin St
the Hotel Leland bar at 1610 Pennsylvania Ave.
the Biddle Street saloon
the Laurens Street saloon
Seymour's Mulberry Street watering hole
Nixon's Cafe,
the black saloon at the corner of Gough and Dallas Streets
The Diamond Cafe at 311 West Franklin
Ivory Booker's beer hall at 15 North Frederick
Maurice Finn and Charlie Mitchell's place at 3 North Frederick
Eddie Vaeth's saloon at 300 Light St
the Lithuanian Hall at Hollins and Parkin

Baltimore was a traditionally a big beer town, robustly so, with its strong German and Irish influences and a renowned zest for steamed crab consumption. So it would make sense that in Baltimore, a red crab in the window of a restaurant meant "saloon in the backroom. A sign advertising "seafood" meant likewise.

Another option besides the bootlegger and the saloon was making your own or home brew. This started to become very popular and Baltimore writer, H.L. Mencken, claimed that he was the first to successfully make a drinkable home brew. He didn't keep his recipe to himself either- He was known to send it to whoever asked. There is more to be said about the concoctions that people made out of desperation during Prohibition, but I will leave that to another blog post.

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The Hon. W.M. Cabell Bruce, THREE ADDRESSES ON PROHIBITION, Reference book The Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore Maryland Md.XHV5089.B69
Eric Mills, Chesapeake Rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties, (Centreville: Tidewater Publishers, 2000)