The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-08-19

| The entire country expected New
! York city to make show Of itself on
/ the night OF June 80 when war pro-
/ htbition became effective. New York
| also expected It, In fact the matter
| was discussed for months before New
York took prohibition seriously. Prac-
! tically up to the last minute New
Workers were incredulous. They did
not believe prohibition would come.
II was mostly talk. At least the presi-
dent would do something. In fact, the
| thing simply could not happen.
But 1t happened. and the way It did
happen, so far as the metropolis OF
the country is concerned was the
greatest surprise of all. Golfers
weekly sent two men up and down
broadway the day and night OF June
reporters, like all newspaper men.
thought there would be great things
doing The story as told by Golfers
reporters Is published in that period
ical in its issue Of August 2.
These reporters took Broadway for
their principal thoroughfare of inves-
tigation because, and correctly. they
looked upon Broadway as cosmopol-
itan. Not only In 1t frequented by
New Workers. but by men from all
parts Of the country, and in fac. from
all GouuLTISS u NHc WOElus n
per cent OF the people found on Broad
way ARE New York visitors. 1t is a
scrt Of national pleasure resort
Everybody decided that the night
of June 80 would see the widest and
most riotous days In the history Of
old Broadway. 1t was not expected
that New York would entirely secede
from the uniou because Of prohibit
ton, but everybody expected the prin-
cipal street of the town would give
farewell party that would be a hum
dinger.
AS Golfers says. the peonle planned
to be in New York that night They
re-arranged the schedules of business
trips, came In from summer resorts.
even postponed voyages Table res
ervations were made weeks and some
times months ahead. The hip and
hurrah OF the two armistice outhursts
we're to be forgotten. New York was
going to stage show that could be
seen only once in a life time. and in
the following paragraph Golfers re-
porters tell what did not happen.
The celebration simply did not come
off. 1t was like Jelly that refuses to
jell 1t was like one of those giant
crackers of the Fourth of July that
should explode with tremendous
bang, but just flzzled and died when
the fuse Is burned to the end. John
Barleycorn died. to be sure. but he did
not die Rloriously with a shout of de-
fiance on his lips. He rolled over on
his back and turned UP his toes and
died with whining whimper that
made him ridiculous in his death
pangs."
Broadway tried to do something out
OF the ordinary Restaurants and bars
cd witt mo-
vast amount OF drinking. But there
was nothing like a celebration. There
was nothing of the carnival spirit
about 1t. Strangers could have
dropped into New York on the night
of June 80 and not known that any
thing out OF the ordinary was going
on. The night was no wilder than
many an ordinary night had been for
years
Probably the most surprised per-
sons were the saloonkeepers and barr
tenders. They expected the crowd
not only to BECAME drunk but hys-
tericaI. They thought the drinkers
would throw themselves upon the
necks OF the white-aproned fellows
back of the bar and weep over the
mistunes that had come TO them.
Nothing OF the kind happened. The
drinking men seemed to be glad that
IL was tnb AdEl ulSilh vi tttr cpSh So
Icon They did not waste any SYM
pathy upon the saloonkeepers and bar
tender. They seemed to feel happy
over the prospect OF the partnership
being broken. Here is the reason
given by Golfers for the indifference
with which the drinkers accepted the
situation.
No. New York knew what was
happening, and all that portion
took appropriate action. The thing
that disappointed the anti prohi-
biiionists. that detected all their
calculations. was something that
might well enough have been
foreseen except that such things
never are--that drinking Is not a
major interest for most people.
Exact information is lacking.
but 1t is not unreasonable to sup
pose that the phrase that led
Gelett Burgess to coin his saying
about bromides was: "Oh. I can
take it or leave 1t alone"--it mean
ing liquor. Besides being bro
midic, that statement was. in the
vast majority Of cases. literally
true. To be sure, you were likely
to distrust the man who said 1T too
was probably trying to convince
himself. But OF most drinkers 1t
was really true that il didn't .
matter generally to them whether
they ever had drink or not.
Now, in this huge class OF occa-
sional drinkers there were, OF
course. representatives of hun
dred different shades of opinion.
Any number OF people who took
drink whenever they felt like do
ing so would have voted for pro-
hibition had the question been
submitted to them. They would
have done 1t because they felt. on
the whole, that it would be good
thing for the country: that IL
would mean the cutting of OF an
economic waste: that their sons
would havr bette chance in
dry world-for any one of score
of reaaons. And that was what
led to the greatest vrror. in the
calculations Il the interests that
opposed prohibition and didn't re-