DANVILLE — Going into the weekend before the Independence Day holiday, I wanted to find a parade image with prominent placement of a U.S. flag.
I found one in the Knox Time collection, though it isn’t from the Fourth of July.
This particular parade was staged to promote the prohibition of alcohol and it took place in Danville in 1910.
Temperance movements had advocated banning alcohol for a very long time.
The U.S. frontier was a notoriously alcohol-drenched place in the early years, as alcohol was a safer drink than possibly contaminated surface water.
After pioneers settled in and dug deep wells, this was less of an issue, but drinking continued to be a popular and sometimes dangerous pursuit.
Throughout the 1800s, temperance movements grew stronger and more vocal. I’d love to do a column some day about temperance protests held in Fredericktown in the 1800s, because there are some wonderful photographs of the protesters.
Alas, a stingy museum in Texas owns the prints now and won’t let me share them with you unless I fork over money and sign papers guaranteeing no one can copy or download said photos. Yeah, right!
So, those photos may never see the light of day here, though you can go search for them yourself and enjoy them without paying anyone anything.
At least we have this photo from Danville, courtesy of the Knox Time collection, which had it donated by Brian Durbin.
As the early twentieth century wore on, the prohibition movement gained steam, until just nine years after this parade, alcohol became officially prohibited in the United States.
As we now know, the decade or so of official Prohibition was one of the most disastrous experiments this country has ever undertaken. For, while there may be a large number of people who will pay lip service to pristine moral behavior, there is a far greater number of people who enjoy their vices.
Prohibition of booze led to an explosion of organized crime and corruption the likes of which had never before been seen.
These prohibitionists parading down Ross Street in Danville were preceded by a small marching band. They carry sign placards with such messages as “SHALL THE SALOON RULE?” and “Save the Drunks: Vote Dry.”
I wish more of the signs were legible. It appears that the parade was marching west down East Ross Street. I believe most of these building are gone now, replaced by the Danville Feed and Supply block.
While the prohibitionists meant well, it was an idealistic movement that refused to account for the practical need for people to blow off steam and misbehave.
While alcohol was and remains today a potentially dangerous source of trouble, it also has a long history of serving as both social lubrication and a social steam valve. It’s not going away any time soon.
Therefore, as you head into the upcoming holiday, have a safe and legal celebration if you so desire, and absolutely do not combine alcohol and fireworks, or I’ll likely be writing about your explosive demise in next week’s column.
