Old Taverns of New York

by W. Harrison Bayles

“HARD DRINKING PREVAILED”

Hard Drinking Prevailed

Some features of tavern life and some of the taverns of New York were not to be commended. The eighteenth century was a period when hard drinking pervaded not only the American colonies but England as well. Even preachers of the Gospel drank to excess. They were known to indulge at church meetings so as to lose control of both speech and gait. Unable to withstand the alluring temptations, they drank to excess without forfeiting the respect of their people. The Reverend Jacob G. Green, of Morris County, New Jersey, although so pious that he would not allow any member of his family to converse on any but religious subjects on a Sunday, did not hesitate to engage in the business of manufacturing distilled liquor. At funerals, as well as at weddings, wine and rum were consumed in excessive quantities, and it is a fact that persons were known to stagger in the funeral procession and at the brink of the grave. At the funeral of a colonial governor it is said that the minister’s nose glowed like a coal of fire, and the aged bearers staggered as they bore the coffin. The Reverend Samuel Melyen, pastor of the First Church of Elizabethtown, was obliged to give up his church on account of intemperance; but this did not seem to the people to be a warning example, for when his successor, Jonathan Dickinson, a young man of twenty-one, was installed, we are told that “great quantities of toddy was consumed.” When Philip Livingston died in 1749, funerals were held both at his Hudson River mansion and at his residence in Broad Street, New York. At each of these places a pipe of spiced rum was consumed, and to the eight bearers were given gloves, mourning rings, scarfs, handkerchiefs and monkey spoons. When intemperance was looked upon with such indulgence it is hardly to be expected that the young and gay men of the period would exercise much restraint; and many a convivial party at the tavern ended in a drinking bout, and sometimes in a riot of drunkenness and debauchery. A man in the condition which we of the present day would think quite drunk, and a proper subject for the care of his friends or relatives, was at that time considered to have taken only a proper modicum of drink. No man was looked upon as drunk until he was entirely down and out. The prevailing formula was:

“Not drunk is he who from the floor
Can rise again and still drink more,
But drunk is he who prostrate lies,
Without the power to drink or rise.”

GOOD OLD MADEIRA

In New England rum was so extensively made that the price became as low as twenty-five cents per gallon. It was popularly called “Kill-devil.” In New Jersey large quantities of apple-jack were turned out, which, when new, was quite fiery, and this was called “Jersey lightning.” Servants were not expected to be entirely free from the drinking habit, which, within certain bounds, was looked upon by their employers as pardonable. Announcement was made in the New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury of December 4, 1769, that

“An Hostler

That gets drunk no more than 12 times in a year and will bring with him a good Recommendation, is wanted. Such person will meet with encouragement by applying to H. Gaine.”