However, people still wanted access to alcoholic beverages, opening the possibility of an illegal market for distributing and selling alcohol-without any sort of liquor license cost, it only came with the cost of potential legal troubles. In 1918, The 18th Amendment banned the sale of “intoxicating liquors.” The Volstead Act, better known as the National Prohibition Act, enforced the 18th Amendment’s ban on alcohol in 1919. It became a larger issue in the early 1900s when there was a need to save grain to fight in World War I. The Temperance Movement began in the 1800s and focused on limiting the amount of alcohol consumption-in some ways it focused on changing a standard drink measure to limit the amount. “Blind tiger” could also refer to an establishment that kept the secret bar owner's identity secret. This allowed them to get around the law without punishment. The time folks would spend at speakeasies were often standard happy hour times. In some ways, it was a way of serving up happy hour drinks in a subtle way. The operator of these establishments would charge customers to see an attraction, such as an animal, and then serve a “complimentary” beverage. The terms “blind pig,” “blind tiger,” and “gin joint” appeared as nicknames for speakeasies in the 19th century. Owner Kate Hester told her rowdy customers to speak easy to avoid unwanted attention from neighbors and the police.ĭuring the Prohibition era, “speakeasy” became a common name to describe an establishment to get an illegal drink. It referred to “speak easy” as the name for a saloon in the western Pennsylvania town of McKeesport that “sells without a license.” In the United States, the word first appeared in a newspaper article on March 21, 1889. A similar phrase “speak easy shop”, meaning a place that sold unlicensed liquor, appeared in a British naval memoir published in 1844. A “speak softly shop”, meaning a “smuggler’s house”, appeared in a British slang dictionary in 1823.
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