KinSource - Tale of the Week - A Big Sunday Drunk

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The Public Weal, August 1, 1906, p. 1

A Big Sunday Drunk

St. Paul City Council Turns Beautiful Harriet Island Over to Booze Dispensers, Contrary to Law and Decency.

A representative of The Public Weal attended the Saengerfest picnic on Harriet Island, St. Paul, on Sunday, the 25th ult. We desired to see and give our readers a picture of beer-drinking Germany in America, when it is at liberty to follow its own sweet will. We desired to ascertain and to tell our readers how much truth there is in the talk about the "moderation" of Germans with regard to beer-drinking, especially when surrounded by their families. We learned.

By vote of the city council the Island was turned over to the Saengerbund and they with thousands, (some say ten thousand) of the German population of St. Paul were present. For the first time, so far as we know, the sale of liquor was allowed at this spacious and attractive resort. Three of the big breweries ran four immense stands. Attached to one of these and within a foot or two of another appeared the framed rules of the Board of Health for the regulation of the Island. The first rule of the seven forbids any intoxicants upon the ground. These rules are signed by the board of health, the commissioner of health, the chief of police and the corporation attorney. They made the law-making and the law-executing authorities of the city the butt of ridicule throughout the day. Not only were these regulations utterly disregarded, but the state law and city ordinance prohibiting the sale of intoxicants on Sunday were trampled well-nigh out of sight. This is nothing new, however, in St. Paul for saloons along the route of the parade were crowded and in the Empire theatre, on the way to the Island, 300 to 500 men were gathered, drinking and taking in the program in progress upon the stage.

The picnic was a big drunk. Men and women alike stood up to the bars and simply swilled down the stuff. Both sexes would protest to their companions that they could hold no more -- but drank on. Young men, who knew they were passing the danger point, would declare their intention to go home, when intelligent-looking, and finely-dressed lady companions would fairly drag them to the bar for "one more". Policemen on duty drank, contrary to "the regulations", and one, at least, was drunk. During the five hours we were present, we doubt if there were five minutes in which there were not from fifty to one hundred and fifty persons drinking at or near each of the four great stands.

Beside this, a brewery supplied each singing society with barrel after barrel of beer at that point upon the ground at which it was located. There was a good deal of music by various societies, but we have heard better, especially as the day drew on. In fact, in only two instances did we hear anything that particularly appealed to our musical sense and in neither of these was there any beer in sight, although we do not claim that the members of these societies had not drank during the day.

We do not think it would be an exaggeration to say that hundreds were drunk. As evening drew on the evil increased until, during the last two or three hours, the park was simply filled with one great increasing roar from the aggregation of drunken song, laughter and shouting.

We unable to express out disgust at this whole abominable business. Although Dr. Ohage, St. Paul's commissioner of health, has labored faithfully and bravely to keep the Island and its approaches free from the liqour [traffic], the city is given over to the license system and the big Sunday booze-spill was only a specimen of its larger fruitage. The business men and clean citizens of St. Paul, who contributed liberally to the entertainment at the Saengerfest, with the idea that they were welcoming a great body of cultivated German singers, must feel badly sold. But did not Solomon say, "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise?" The whole liquor business is not only a robber, but a fraud as well.