If you were a member of the Anti-Saloon League in Baltimore or maybe you were just pro-Prohibition, chances are you were at The Lyric on January 25, 1919 (when Prohibition was just about a week old.) In Chesapeake Rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties, Eric Mills describes the event as “packed to the rafters.” The Opera house’s main floor was filled with a “huge, boisterous crowd” that almost filled the boxes and gallery seats as well as additional seating set up right on stage.

The Drys had about as much fun as you can imagine with only the rush of victory to intoxicate them. The Monument Street Methodist Episcopal Church bible class, which was hundreds of people, sang “a stirring rendition of ‘Good-bye Forever, Saloon!” The Superintendent of the Anti- Saloon League, Dr. George W. Crabbe ridiculed the members of the Maryland State Legislature who had opposed Prohibition and with that he was met with shouts of “No! No!” and “Put ‘em out!” from the audience. But the main attraction was none other than America’s “chief booze cop,” or rather the United States Prohibition Commissioner, John F. Kramer. He invoked the “church spirit” by encouraging the audience to “wade in the fight” to help enforce the new law of the land.


While the Drys were convinced that those who drank were immoral and uncontrolled, the Wets were convinced that their counterparts were lunatics and religious fanatics. It’s hard to pick which side was crazier because according to Dr. Harry Goldsmith, the whole city's population was going insane. He said in the New York Times, “the insane population in this city had almost doubled since 1910. The increase amounted to 90 per cent, while the general population grew only to 36 per cent.” Goldsmith also emphasized that Prohibition was one of the chief causes of increased mental disorders. One out of every nine mental cases he handled could be traced to Prohibition.

(example of a liquor prescription from Sparrows Point)

If you were lucky, however, you could get a prescription for liquor. This loophole obviously had some problems. According to Mills, by the end of March 1920, “the entire Maryland-D.C. supply of seventy thousand whiskey prescription blanks had been exhausted.” And the ills, not surprisingly, always seemed to manifest themselves around the weekends and the holidays. Within about a year, beer was for the first time permitted for prescription by physicians from a ruling by the Department of Justice. This decision came after some “pressing” by several Baltimore breweries to Prohibition Commissioner Richard S. Dodson. They requested their right to manufacture beer with “a kick” to be supplied for physicians prescriptions and Dodson sent those requests to Washington only days before it was approved.

If you weren't fortunate enough to get a prescription for liquor or beer or if you could, but it was too expensive, then perhaps you could consider making your own homebrew or moonshine. There was a booming business for bootleggers, but you could do it on your own. The only problem was ignorance, miscalculation or downright stupidity could prove fatal in moonshining. A Delmarva man was brought up on drunken-and-disorderly charges in September 1920 because he had gone wild on his own homemade blend of various fruits, fruit skins, brown sugar--- and gasoline.


(click for a clearer look at this comic about homebrew from Nov. 20, 1919)

In the article “Weird Concoctions Used in South to Satisfy Liquor Cravings,” the author got the scoop at the Belvedere Hotel where he met some travelers from the South who had been under prohibition laws longer. He learned of a druggist’s shoe polish supply being completely diminished after some soldiers got their hands on it. Apparently they were getting drunk off the stuff.

This was related to a lumber salesman who was at a drug-store fountain where he watched a man purchase a soda, drink half of it, then go to the prescription clerk and ask for cologne. He purchased it and then dumped it into his cup and drank it.

There were plenty more of these stories, but they are merely child’s play. There was an art to homebrew and many took it very seriously. As I’ve mentioned before, H.L. Mencken was a connoisseur of alcoholic beverages and loved having the reputation as such. He once boasted that he was “the first man south of the Mason-Dixon line to brew a drinkable home brew.” Mencken started a movement of homebrewmasters who learned their trade through letters. Mencken would share his method to ten pupils and the idea was to get those ten pupils to take on ten pupils of their on and so on and so on.

Mencken was also known to have an extensive cellar in his house. This was a trend during Prohibition because there was a run on the liquor stores before the law went into effect. Everyone wanted to stock up and so long as they had it before Prohibition, they could not be penalized for having it in their home. There were consequences, however. The New York Times reported that in Baltimore, rents rose in response to the demand for liquor storage facilities.

Prohibition is to blame in Baltimore for 100 or more per cent increase in the rental price of cellars. Some time ago, when the great drought began to loom over the land, men of means began to lay to stocks of liquors and, having accumulated them, many chose the storage warehouses in which to place their supplies. They thought they had found a safe place for their stocks for years to come, but the Collector of Internal Revenue has dispelled their illusion.

Here we saw that just as people thought they were safe to enjoy a wine from their cellar, the IRS came wanting their share.

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Eric Mills, Chesapeake Rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties(Centreville: Tidewater Publishers, 2000) 22, 33, 46, 41.

Bud Johns, The Ombibulous Mr. Mencken (San Francisco: Synergistic Press, 1968) 11.

“SEES INSANITY INCREASING” New York Times (1857-Current file);Jul 13 1925; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851-2006) pg. 8.

“BEER FOR MEDICINE GETS AID OF PALMER” New York Times (1857-Current file);Mar 9, 1921; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851-2006) pg. 14.

“WEIRD CONCOCTIONS USED IN SOUTH TO SATISFY LIQUOR CRAVING” The Sun (1837-1985); Aug 17, 1919; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Baltimore Sun (1837-1985) pg. 13.

“BALTIMORE’S CELLAR BOOM” New York Times (1857-Current file);Dec 8, 1919; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851-2006) pg. 4.

Photos:
“Other 10—No Title” The Sun (1837-1985); Jan 26, 1919; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Baltimore Sun (1837-1985) pg.10.

“American Medicinal Spirits Company” Bottle Books, http://www.bottlebooks.com/american%20medicinal%20spirits%20company/american_medicinal_spirits_compa.htm (accessed December 3, 2009).

“Comic 1 – No Title” The Sun (1837-1985); Nov 20 1919; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Baltimore Sun (1837-1985) pg.12.

Bud Johns, The Ombibulous Mr. Mencken (San Francisco: Synergistic Press, 1968) 51.