Aug. 14, 1909 (Saturday)

SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO READ MORE THAN THE HEADLINE: Not to worry. This headline from today's paper must be taken in context. The subhead, which I have artfully omitted, reads, "Great War Game to Test Adequacy of Coast Defences Has Begun." War games begin today that are designed to show whether or not Massachusetts, and especially Boston, is "sufficiently protected against a foreign foe." The Globe devotes plenty of space to this, including cartoons. The one at right shows a woman telling her temporary soldier-husband, "Don't get killed any more times than necessary, will you dear."
Authorities are already certain that no hostile navy could "successfully run the gauntlet of the forts defending Boston harbor." Today's war games will demonstrate whether or not the city can survive an invasion from a foreign foe that lands on the southern coast and makes an attack from the rear. To the great comfort of all, this exercise will likely settle the additional question of whether or not there's a real threat in case Rhode Island rises up.

ALABAMA TRIES TO KEEP LIQUOR UNDER CONTROL -- EVEN WANTS TO CURTAIL THE USE OF THE WORD "SALOON": The Alabama house yesterday "made violent assault on the sale of intoxicants of all kinds," according to today's Globe. The members passed the Fuller Bill, which is considered "beyond question the most drastic ever offered in the south."
Among the provisions:
No liquors can be sold;
No advertisements for liquor may appear in any newspaper or on any billboard;
No train can leave a car on a track that contains liquor;
No place of business may be called a "saloon".
Nobody can use the word "saloon";
Any place where there is "frequent assembling may be raided on suspicion;
All corporations, when a charter is issued, must vow not to bring in liquors of any kind;
The article adds that "a hard but losing fight was made to exclude the newspapers from the bill."
Google Books has a copy of the Acts of the General Assembly of Alabama (1909, page 63 ff).
Here's what the text says about the advertising:
Any such advertisement containing the picture of a brewery or a distillery or bottles, jugs, keys, barrels or boxes, represented as containing whiskey, beer, or other prohibited liquors and beverages shall be within the inhibition of this section.

IN PAINFUL CIRCUMSTANCES, SOMETIMES LIQUOR IS WELCOME: Despite the ban in Alabama, some in the South see a positive use for alcohol. Consider this touching scene after a train wreck in Bristol, Va., on the evening of Aug. 12, 1909 -- and as reported in today's Globe, based on the reports of passengers who arrived in Atlanta yesterday. They talked about the bravery of engineer Samuel Bush of Knoxville, who died the day after the wreck from his injuries.
Passengers described how Bush tried to extricate himself from the wrecked engine -- scalded and "frightfully bruised." Some passengers began to hunt for whisky to stimulate him and broke into suitcases looking for some liquor. They offered some to him. He, in turn, asked them to look after any passengers who were injured. When told that none of the passengers were hurt, he said,
"That's good. but before I take this whisky I want you men to smell my breath and testify if need be that I had not been drinking when this happened."
Although suffering horrible agonies, the brave engineer would not touch the stimulant until four of the men had smelled his breath and promised to bear witness to his sobriety.