Jim Bradshaw
Demon rum was much on the minds of the people of at least part of south Louisiana a century ago, if newspapers reports are any indication.
Three separate stories dealing with temperance or prohibition were on the cover of the February 19, 1909, edition of the Welsh Rice Belt Journal, one of them a stern warning from the local judge and the others separate reports from organizations warning against the evils of drink.
One of those was a story about a speech to “a goodly number of people” in Welsh by Miss Gabriella T. Stickney, a national lecturer on tour for the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. A part of her message was an illustration “by means of different colored ribbons” of the amounts spent nationally for various things. To our shame, she pointed out, the nation spent only $5.5 million each year for missions and $14 million to pay ministers, compared to $625 million for tobacco and $1.4 billion for booze.
The report does not say how many people constitute “a goodly number,” but it probably wasn’t that many. According to the newspaper, the WCTU meeting “would have been better attended had it been better advertised.”
At the same time, a bigger crowd of representatives from Lake Charles, Kinder, Manchester, Iowa, Welsh, Roanoke, Jennings, and other places met for the annual meeting of the south Louisiana chapter of the Christian Endeavor Union.
At this meeting, “The program … was thoroughly carried out,” so that “much good will result.” Presumably that good included the adoption of a resolution in which members of the union “reiterate their deep interest in prohibition work,” and pledged “not to relinquish their vigilance to keep what has been accomplished … [and to] to go forward until the liquor traffic is driven from the state of Louisiana.”
That was a sentiment apparently favored, at least in his professional capacity, by Winston Overton, judge of the state’s 15th judicial district, who the newspaper declared, was in “dead earnest” about enforcing laws against soliciting orders for liquor in the parish.
The newspaper editor said he took “great pleasure in giving the Judge’s own words, which we feel sure will meet the hearty approval of every law abiding citizen.” Reading between the lines, the judge seems to have been talking about a mail order liquor trade that allowed locals to order alcohol from salesmen representing sellers from someplace else.
“If there are any violators of this law, they should be given clearly to understand in the very beginning, that the law must be respected … so long as it remains in effect and the entire machinery of the law will be brought to bear in bringing … them to justice,” Judge Overton wrote. He especially put the parish on notice that it was illegal for “anyone to solicit, seek, or receive orders … for the sale of intoxicating liquors … notwithstanding the liquor to be sold is stored at some point out of the state.”
Despite the editor’s front-page expression of pleasure in presenting the judge’s remarks, his newspaper carried on its inside pages advertisements for some mail order lubricants, including Munyon’s Cold Remedy, unspecified alcohol content; Castoria, “the perfect remedy for lack of sleep,” 3 percent alcohol; and Botanic Blood Balm, which doesn’t specify exactly how it “gives the skin the rich red hue of perfect health.”
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, Cajuns and Other Characters, is now available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.